The Hedonist

Winter Recipes


Roast Pumpkin with Sweet Soy Sauce

Here’s an oriental take on a classic Roast Pumpkin dish from one of our favourite chefs, Ross Shonhan, ex-head chef at Zuma and Nobu and soon to open his own Japanese restaurant in London

Ingredients:

300g pumpkin, peeled and cut into thumb sized pieces

4g Malden sea salt

20g olive oil

4g sichimi pepper (Japanese seven spice)

5g caster sugar

For sweet soy sauce:
100ml soy

400ml mirin

To dress:

1 bunch watercress

5g black sesame

Method:

  1. Toss all the ingredients in a bowl and then lay in a baking tray.  Roast in the oven at 200 degrees centigrade for 25 minutes.
  2. For the sweet soy sauce, combine ingredients and cook on a low heat until reduced by half.
  3. To finish the dish, arrange the pumpkin on the plates and sprinkle with watercress. 
  4. Spoon the dressing (at room temperature) over the pumpkin and garnish with black sesame seeds.

Spanish tortilla with Spanish olives and chorizo

 

Omar Allibhoy is the enfant terrible of the exploding UK tapas scene. His Tapas Revolution restaurants in Westfield and Bluewater are gaining critical plaudits and his championing of Spanish ingredients is key to the authenticity of the end product.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

You will need:

  • 3 large potatoes for frying
  • 1 Spanish onion
  • Spanish olive oil for deep frying
  • 8 large free range eggs
  • 225g of hot chorizo sausage
  • 1 handful of pitted Spanish olives (green olives)
  • Salt to season

 

Directions:

Peel, wash and thinly slice the potatoes and cut in half into the shape of half moons.

 

Repeat this with the Spanish onion.

Pour olive oil in a deep frying pan over a high heat – use enough oil to just cover the onion and potatoes.

Once the oil is hot, drop in a slice of onion and this should start frying immediately. Cook the onion for around 10 minutes until golden and then add the sliced potatoes. Stir occasionally for at least 15 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and cooked through.

Drain the oil from the potato and onion and mix in the egg and place in a separate dish. Let it rest for 10 minutes while you cook the chorizo and olives.

Chop the chorizo into chunks and halve the pitted olives.

In the same frying pan you have used to cook the potatoes use a medium heat to cook the chorizo for 1 minute, followed by the olives for just 15 seconds before adding this to the potato, onion and egg mix.

Season and stir slowly.

To make the tortilla place a non-stick pan over a medium heat and drizzle in a drop of olive oil.

 

Pour the tortilla mix into the pan and lower the heat. After 4 minutes use a large plate to cover the pan, hold it tightly and flip the tortilla onto the plate. Slide the ‘non-cooked side’ of the tortilla back into the pan to cook.

 

Note: if it is the first time you have flipped a tortilla, you might want to practice with the plate and an empty pan first.

Note: Depending on the size and depth of the pan cooking time may vary.

 

Tip:

I recommend eating the tortilla when still a little runny in the middle. Each tortilla is different, after trying them different ways you’ll find the one you love the most – but this one is my favourite for sure.

For further details on Spanish produce go to  www.olivesfromspain.co.uk and http://www.facebook.com/TasteofSpain