Autumn on the menu!

STARTER

Asian squash soup with prawns

Wine tip: Torrontés from Argentina

MAIN COURSE

Wild duck with gnocchi and chanterelles

Wine tip: Morellino di Scansano from Tuscany

DESSERT

Pecan-caramel tart with banana beignets and clotted cream

Wine tip: Cream Sherry (usually a mixture of Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez) from Spain

Squash soup

Peel the butternut squash. Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds. Cut the squash into slices of 1 centimetre thick.

Cut a lid out of the small pumpkins and remove the seeds. Peel and mince the garlic. Peel the prawns, remove the intestines, but leave on the tail. Mix with the garlic and sprinkle with pepper and salt. Remove the seeds from the chili pepper and cut into thin rings. Peel the ginger root and cut into thin slices. Clean the spring onion and cut into rings. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use, separately from each other, covered or wrapped in plastic.

Wild duck

For the gnocchi, peel and wash the potatoes. Bring them to a boil in a saucepan with lightly salted water and cook for 15-20 minutes until done. Drain the potatoes and let them steam dry. Rub through a round sieve and weigh out 250 grams of crumbled potato. Knead the flour, the salt, the olive oil, egg and Parmesan cheese through the potato, creating a compact dough.

Bring to a boil a saucepan with lightly salted water and a splash of olive oil. Lightly flour the work surface and roll the dough with your hands into a roll with a diameter of 1 centimetre. Cut the roll into pieces of 1 centimetre wide and cook the gnocchi for 1 minute until done. Drain, rinse with cold water and allow to drain. Sprinkle with olive oil to prevent the gnocchi from sticking to each other.

Bring to a boil a saucepan with water and add a generous amount of salt, (it must be approximately as salty as seawater). In the meantime, cut the green cabbage into strips of 1 centimetre wide and blanch them in the salted water. Drain, rinse with cold water and allow to drain.

Wipe any sand from the chanterelles and wash them, if necessary. Peel and mince the shallot. Heat a splash of olive oil in a saucepan, fry the shallot and sauté the chanterelles with them for a few minutes. Add the chicken stock. Mix some potato starch with a splash of water and use it to thicken the chanterelle sauce. Add a small splash of olive oil while continuing to stir and season to taste with balsamic vinegar, pepper and salt. Allow to cool, place a lid on the saucepan and store in the refrigerator. Put the gnocchi and the cabbage each in a separate closed container and also store in the refrigerator.

Pecan-caramel tart

To make the caramel, place the (unopened) tin of condensed milk in a saucepan with water. Bring to a boil on the stove and allow to simmer for four hours. Add more water, if necessary. The tin must remain under water, otherwise there is a risk that it may crack open. Drain, and cool the tin in cold water. You can perform this step in advance.

Heat the Big Green Egg, with the convEGGtor, to 180°C. Fill the Round Drip Pan with a layer of water, place on the convEGGtor and using the Cast Iron Grid Lifter, place the Cast Iron Grid in the EGG.

In the meantime, knead together the ingredients for the pâte sablée until a cohesive dough is formed. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until approximately 3 mm thick and cut out four circles with a diameter of about 8 centimetres.

Butter four of the aluminium tins and sprinkle with flour. Line the tins with the disks of dough, press them in gently and cut off any excess dough. Place a second aluminium tin on top, fill with the baking beans or dried beans and place them on the grid. Close the EGG lid and bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

In the meantime, for the frangipane, stir together the almond paste, the butter and the egg until thoroughly combined. Put the mixture in a pastry bag. For the clotted cream, cut open the vanilla bean length-wise, scrape out the seeds and fold into the clotted cream. Put the cream in a pastry bag and store in the refrigerator. For the beignets, mix together the pilsner beer, the flour and egg yolk in a bowl. Beat the egg white until stiff in a second bowl and fold into the other ingredients. Store the pastry bag with clotted cream and the (covered) batter in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Take the aluminium tins out of the EGG and remove the top tins. Squeeze a uniform layer of frangipane onto the bottom of the crust. Open the tin of caramel, stir with a small whisk and spoon the caramel into a pastry bag. Squeeze a layer over the frangipane and press the pecan nuts on top. Store in a container in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Heat the oil in a deep fryer to 130°C. In the meantime, peel the plantain and using a peeler, cut four nice thin length-wise slices. Deep fry for a few minutes until golden brown. Allow to drain on paper towels, sprinkle with powdered sugar and store in a container until ready to serve.

Squash soup

Take the Cast Iron Grid out of the EGG using the Cast Iron Grid Lifter. Remove the Round Drip Pan and the convEGGtor and put back the Cast Iron Grid (or heat the EGG with the Cast Iron Grid again if there is a longer time between the preparation and the cooking). Heat to 200°C.

Grill the squash slices for a few minutes on both sides on the Cast Iron Grid. Take them off the grid, place them in the Cast Iron Dutch Oven and place this on the grid. Pour the ginger syrup over the squash and wait about 1 minute until the syrup begins to caramelise. Add the chili pepper, ginger root, crème fraîche, coconut milk and poultry stock. Close the EGG lid (it is not necessary to put the lid on the Cast Iron Dutch Oven) and close the EGG air vent somewhat so that the temperature drops to 140°C. Let the soup simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove the Cast Iron Dutch Oven from the EGG and heat up the EGG again to 200°C. Purée the soup with the hand-held blender and season to taste with pepper and salt. Grill the hollowed pumpkins for 1 minute on the cut surface to give them a beautiful grill mark. Grill the prawns approximately 1 minute on both sides and then skewer them (you can also put the prawns on the skewer first, but then you run the risk that the skewers may burn).

Spoon the soup into the hollowed pumpkins and garnish with a prawn skewer and the spring onion. Place the Half Moon Cast Iron Plancha Griddle (with the smooth side facing up) on the grid, turn down the temperature to 180°C and serve the soup.

Wild duck

Sprinkle the ducks with pepper and salt and cook them on the Half Moon Cast Iron Plancha Griddle in about 6 minutes until golden brown all around and a core temperature of 60°C has been reached. Close the Egg lid while cooking and check the core temperature using the Instant Read Digital Thermometer. In the meantime, heat two frying pans, each with 25 grams of butter, on the stove. In the one pan, sauté the gnocchi until golden brown and crisp, and in the second pan, cook the blanched green cabbage. (You can also do this on the Cast Iron Griddle Half Moon when the duck has reached the desired core temperature.  Allow the duck to then rest under aluminium foil, wipe clean the Cast Iron Griddle Half Moon and sauté the gnocchi and cook the cabbage). Heat up the chanterelle sauce.

Cut the duck fillets from the bone and cut into nice slices. Divide the cabbage, duck fillet and gnocchi over the plates and spoon the chanterelle sauce all around. Serve and prepare the EGG for making the dessert, i.e. lift the Cast Iron Grid using the Cast Iron Grid Lifter. Put in the convEGGtor, place the Round Drip Pan, which has been filled with a layer of water, on top and then put the grid back in. Bring to a temperature of 170°C.

Pecan-caramel tart

Place the aluminium tins with the tarts on the grid. Close the lid and bake the tarts for about 40 minutes. Fifteen minutes before the end of the baking time for the tarts, heat the oil in the deep fryer to 180°C. Right before the tarts are done, peel the banana for the beignets and cut into slices of 1 centimetre thick. Stir the beer batter and dip the banana slices in it. Deep fry for about 2 minutes until golden brown. Allow to drain on paper towels and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Take the tarts out of the EGG, allow them to cool slightly and then carefully remove the tarts from the tins. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and place one tart on each plate. Add two beignets and a crispy fried slice of banana chip and squeeze two dollops of clotted cream alongside. Finally, garnish with the Atsina Cress or mint.