Celeriac and Almond crumble

This intriguing savoury crumble could be adapted to a range of different flavours, and is a flavoursome recipe in its own right, but could do with “something more” in the main tomato layer.

We left the crumble chunky to add texture. No, it isn't mince!

This consists of two distinct layers – the tomato based celeriac layer, and of course the crumble.  The tomato sauce itself is made from pasata and like all good home made sauces, really adds an intensity to the flavour lacking in shop bought tomato sauces.  Saying that, the main ingredients were simply leeks and celeriac, which are not too thrilling and lack the “meaty” texture needed for stews (and this layer is really a stew).  Any old veg and sauce would do the job just fine; just cook it up like you would a spaghetti bolognaise.

The topping is far more interesting.    It consists of wholemeal flour, rolled outs and ground almonds in equal quantity (50g) with half as much butter again (so 75g).  This is flavoured by fresh thyme (we used lemon thyme) but I imagine many herbs would come out well.  The crumble is baked for 30 minutes at 190 degrees.

We had our celeriac “aldente” – just a little crunchy in places – which adds texture and preserves taste but was a little disconcerting.  I’d prefer root veg properly boiled and to get my texture from something else, perhaps sausage or nuts.  Still, we’ll definitely be trying the crumble idea again because it adds a unique texture and flavour to otherwise simple stew dishes.

Who made it: Anna and Dan jointly.

Recipe: “the complete vegetarian cookbook” by Sarah Brown, page 271.

Broccoli and Stilton roulade

This weekend we treated ourselves to a three course meal.  Starting with:

Broccoli and Stilton Roulade

What do you get when you combine broccoli and stilton soup, scrambled eggs and meringue?

So, this is our first ever roulade.  Described by the recipe book as “an impressive light lunch, supper dish or starter for a special meal, a roulade is not that difficult to make”.  This is true – relative to rocket science, brain surgery, or fudge making (the three pinnacles of human endeavour).  Compared to a soup, its still quite tricky.  Still, it really was worth it – until you’ve tasted roulade, you’ve never tasted anything quite like it.

There are two parts to this: a broccoli base with a Stilton sauce which are rolled to produce the rolls shown.  The sauce is really quite simple: its just a thick cheese sauce.  The roulade itself is just egg and broccoli – easy, right?  However, to get the unique fluffy melting taste, you have to separate the eggs and whisk the egg whites until they go stiff.  The yolks go in with the steamed broccoli, then the whites folded in.  Then you bake it until it goes yummy and brown, paste it with sauce and roll it up.

Taste wise, it is extremely similar to a broccoli and stilton soup – not too surprisingly!  But the texture is what makes it interesting.  Soft and melting, fluffy and bubbly, roulade is great fun to eat!  Of course, there are a million and one recipes for it, including sweet roulade, and I’m now quite inclined to work my way through them.

Who made it: A joint effort between Anna and Dan.

Recipe: “The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook” by Sarah Brown, page 183. Note: the instructions are not very good.  Start with steaming the broccoli, though boiling is also OK – don’t leave it till step 3.  Don’t faff around chopping the broccoli – a light blending does the same job with much less work!