Vegetarian feast

(This is such a delayed post, but I wanted to write it anyway! Also apologies for lack of photographic evidence on this one...)

My company has started up a new office in Singapore, which is our first venture outside Europe, and a huge excitement and opportunity for us. Not least because we have hired a bunch of new people, some of whom were in Edinburgh for a while a few weeks ago. We wanted to give them a taste of life in Scotland, and apart from visiting Loch Ness, trying the local drinking traditions and listening to bagpipes all day, I thought it would be nice to have them over for a dinner. Now, I'm not claiming any Scottish or even British cooking traditions here, but I am pretty happy with the menu for the night, which was a vegetarian experiment for me - three dishes I'd never made before:

Cauliflower and Gorgonzola Soup with Pickled Pear Relish (from Good Food Magazine, Oct)

Serves 4

Soup:

1 cauliflower
Butter
2 onions, finely chopped
5 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
1 l vegetable stock
150 g Gorgonzola cheese
100 ml creme fraiche

Relish:

2 tbs dried cranberries

1 tbs dried currants
2 ripe pears
1 sweet eating apple
Unsalted butter
75 ml cider vinegar
2 tbs sugar
3 sprigs lemon thyme
1 cinnamon stick


Trim the cauliflower, discard the leaves. Break into small florets. Sweat onions gently in melted butter over low heat for about 5 minutes, until softened. Add the cauliflower and stir gently for a few minutes. Add thyme, bay leaves and season with salt and pepper, then add stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes covered with a lid. Crumble in the cheese, and stir to melt. Whisk in creme fraiche, remove the bay leaves and any thyme stocks. Mix with a blender or food processor  until smooth.

Make the relish while the soup boils. Cover cranberries and currants with boiled water and leave for about 10 minutes. Core and chop the pears and apple into small cubes. Keep the skin on for texture. Melt the butter and add the fruit. Cook and stir for about 5 minutes until it begins to soften. Add all the remaining ingredients. Cook over medium low heat for a further 10 to 15 minutes. Season to taste. Remove the cinnamoon stick and thyme stems.

Serve soup in shallow bowls with a generous garnish of pear relish in the middle. Sprinkle with thyme leaves, and grind some fresh pepper on top.

Roasted Squash Risotto with Wensleydale (from Good Food Magazine again, this time online)

Serves 4

A big squash, peeled, deseeded and cubed

Pumpkin seeds

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

25 g butter

300 g risotto rice

150 ml white wine

1.2 l vegetable stock

100 g Wensleydale cheese, crumbled

Chives, chopped

Toss squash in oil in a roasting tin, and roast for 15-20 minutes on 180C, until golden and soft. Add the pumpkin seeds and a sprinkle of salt in a corner for the last 5 minutes. Remove half the squash and puree, while keeping the remaining squash and seeds warm in a very low oven.

While the squash roasts, soften the onion in butter in a stock pot or wide casserole. Stir in the rice for 1-2 mins. Add wine and cook while stirring until the wine has evaporated. Add hot stock a ladleful at a time, stirring until each addition is absorbed. Once all the stock has been added and the rice is tender and creamy, stir in the pureed squash until warm, then season. Serve in shallow bowls, scatter over the roasted squash, crumbled cheese, roasted pumpkin seeds and chopped chives.

For dessert, we had Frozen Mississippi Mud Pie, which was so delicious I'll have to make it again - with photos this time... So, later!