May 2006

Roasted Vegetable Gateau With Beetroot Puree

This dish can be used as a starter or now the weather is hopefully getting better, a nice light summery lunch with salad. First of all we roasted some vegetables. We used peppers, courgette, red onion and aubergine. We also made some pancakes. These can now be bought if the idea of making them seems like too much hassle. The other main ingredient is cream cheese.

To make the gateau we carefully spread a pancake with the cream cheese and then covered with a layer of roasted red pepper. Then we did another pancake and covered with a layer of courgette. We carried on changing the vegetable each time until the stack was about eight pancakes high. The final layer was spread with cream cheese and the sprinkled with a good handful of very finely chopped chives. This all needs to be put into a fridge and allowed to well chill before we tried to cut it. As a tip, when we make these here, we cut the bottom from a large round plastic tub and make the gateau's inside. This means the sides will be nice and straight and should stop the gateau from falling over or being crooked.

The garnish we have served with this gateau is beetroot puree. We bought some precooked beetroot and then steamed it until it was very soft. We then pushed it through a potato ricer. If you do not have one of these it can be put through the food processor until a smooth paste. This is a lot easier when the beetroot is still hot but then needs to be cooled before you use it. The other garnish we used was balsamic vinegar syrup. This is made by boiling balsamic vinegar until it has reduced to about one third of the starting volume. This is also available in most good super markets now.

The gateau was cut into about eight portions, placed on the plate with the two garnish sauces in lines and that is it. It is a good dish if you or your guests are vegetarians. I hope that you enjoy it.

Paul Vincent, Head Chef.