Say cheese!

STARTER

Spinach soup finished under brioche with Brie de Meaux and truffle

MAIN COURSE

Veal sweetbread with home-made sausages, lentils and Jerusalem artichokes

Wine tip: Pommard from Burgundy

DESSERT

Cheesecake with stewed Gieser Wildeman pears and pear syrup

Veal sweetbread (one day in advance)

Start with the preparations for the veal sweetbread. Submerge the latter in a bowl of water, add milk and put in the fridge.

Spinach soup (on the day)

Wash and pluck the spinach leaves, then leave to drip dry. Peel the onions and garlic, cut the onions into rings and mince the garlic. Coarsely chop the thyme and rosemary.

To make the dough. Put the flour in a bowl and create an indentation in the middle. Heat the milk to 39°C and dissolve the yeast and sugar in it. Pour the milk into the dent and slowly mix through the flour using your fingers. Subsequently knead the eggs, butter and finally the salt through the dough. Knead until a nice, supple ball has developed, roll the latter out on a flour-dusted work surface into a 1cm thick sheet, wrap this in Clingfilm and place in the fridge.

In the meantime, heat the Big Green Egg, with the Cast Iron Grid, to 190°C. Place the Cast Iron Dutch Oven on the grid. Heat the olive oil in it and sauté the onion rings and two thirds of the minced garlic. Add the spinach and combine thoroughly using the Grill Tong. Pour on the stock and bring to the boil.

Remove the Cast Iron Dutch Oven from the EGG® and spoon the contents into a blender. Add the butter and cream, and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into a bowl, cool, then cool down completely in the fridge. Lift the Cast Iron Grid using the Cast Iron Grid Lifter, place the convEGGtor and replace the Cast Iron Grid to prepare for the cheesecake. Reduce the temperature to 180°C. Wash the Cast Iron Dutch Oven.

Veal sweetbread

The next day, soak the lentils and the sheep’s gut separately in cold water for approximately 60 minutes. Coarsely grind the chicken thigh fillets using a food processor then cube the fatback and the chorizo. Peel the shallots. Quarter 4 of them and mince the other two. Sauté the minced shallots in a dash of vegetable oil. Add a pinch of Madras curry powder and smoked paprika powder, stir, then deglaze with cognac. Spoon into a bowl and allow to cool in the fridge.

Once cooled, mix with the chicken thigh fillet, the fatback, half the chorizo and the pistachio nuts and season with salt and pepper. Use a piping bag with a large nozzle or funnel to fill the sheep casing with the sausage mix. Don’t pack too tightly or you won’t be able to shape the sausage. Knot the ends and twist the filled casing in various places a couple of times to create multiple sausages.

Thoroughly warm the sausages in water (approx. 70°C) for around 10 minutes. Rinse with cold water and store covered in the fridge.

Peel the Jerusalem artichokes and the parsnip, and chop into chunks. Cut pleasing, large pieces from the cabbage leaves. Trim the sweetbread and dab dry

Cheesecake

For the base, mix the flour, the baking powder, the soft white sugar, butter and egg in a mixing bowl and knead into a cohesive dough. Roll out on a flour-dusted work surface, approximately 3 mm thick. Grease two miniature spring form cake tins with butter and cut two circles from the dough using the cake tin as a mould. Line the spring form cake tins with the dough, place them on the EGG’s grid and close the lid. Bake the bases until golden brown in approximately 20 minutes.

In the meantime, make the filling using the food processor to create a smooth cream cheese, sugar, egg, egg yolk, cream and vanilla seed mixture. Put the latter in a piping bag and store in the fridge until needed. Peel the stewing pears and cut into quarters. Remove the core and halve the quarters.

Remove the spring form cake tins from the EGG and allow to cool. Put the Cast Iron Dutch Oven on the grid. Pour in the red wine and add the sugar. Cut the vanilla pod open lengthways and add along with the cinnamon, star aniseed, cardamom pods, cloves, pepper corns and orange zest. Bring to the boil, add the pears and put the lid on the Cast Iron Dutch Oven. Close the EGG’s lid, raise the temperature to 120°C and allow the pears to stew for 60 minutes.

Remove the Cast Iron Dutch Oven from the EGG. Remove the pears from the Cast Iron Dutch Oven using a slotted spoon and sieve the cooking liquid into a pan. Pour half into a second pan. Whisk some potato starch and water together then bind the cooking liquid in the first pan, heat for 1 minute at most, then add the pears. Allow the latter and the second pan of cooking liquid to cool down.

Fill the miniature spring form cake tins two thirds of the way up with the cream cheese mixture. Adjust the Big Green Egg to 130°C, put the tins on the grid and close the lid. Bake the cheesecake until cooked in approximately 40 minutes. Remove the spring form cake tins from the grid, allow to cool, then cool completely in the fridge.

Spinach soup

Use the Cast Iron Grid Lifter to lift the Cast Iron Grid, remove thePlate Setter and put back the Cast Iron Grid. Place the Baking Stone on the grid and raise the temperature in the EGG to 190°C. Fill the soup bowls two-thirds of the way up with cold soup. Remove the sheet of brioche dough from the fridge and roll out on a dusted work surface until approximately 4 mm thick. Cut out four circles slightly larger than the diameter of the soup bowls.

Beat the egg yolk, stir in the flour and brush the outer rim of the circles of dough with this mixture. Smooth a circle of dough onto every soup bowl, pressing down firmly. Brush the dough with the egg yolk mix and sprinkle on the chopped thyme, rosemary, the remaining garlic, the sesame seeds and the sea salt.

Place the bowls on the Flat Baking Stone, close the lid and heat for approx. 15 minutes until the dough lids are an enticing golden brown colour. In the meantime, place a slice of Brie de Meaux on every spoon, grating on truffle if so desired. Serve these with the soup and recommend that your guests use a serrated knife to cut an opening in the dough lids and then lower their spoon into the soup.

Veal sweetbread

Remove the Flat Baking Stone from the Cast Iron Grid and put in the Half Moon Cast Iron Plancha Griddle, smooth side up. Take the EGG’s temperature back up to 190°C.

In the meantime, sieve the lentils and bring them to the boil in clean water. Immediately pour off the water once the lentils have reached the boil. Heat a dash of oil in a frying pan, sauté the quartered shallots and add the remaining chorizo cubes. Stir the lentils through this and add the chicken stock to the pan. Then add the chopped Jerusalem artichoke and parsnip and allow to slowly tenderise by cooking close to the boil for approximately 15 minutes.

Whilst the latter cooks, grease the Cast Iron Griddle Half Moonwith some oil. Season the sweetbread with pepper and salt, and roast in the Cast Iron Griddle Half Moon until golden brown on all sides (approx. 15 minutes). Close the EGG’s lid every time you have opened it. Add and roast the sausages for the final 5 minutes of preparation time. In the meantime, blanch the cabbage leaves in lightly salted water in a second pan and drain.

Share the lentils, Jerusalem artichoke, parsnip and cabbage between the plates and place the sweetbread and sausages on top. Garnish with Crazy Pea if so desired.

Cheesecake

Remove the spring form cake tins, spoon the stewed pears on top of the cheesecake and garnish with Atsina Cress or mint if you wish, then slice. Pour the black currant gin into the pan with the cooking liquid you reserved earlier and heat the mixture, but do not allow it to boil. Pour this into glasses and serve this warming drink with the cheesecake.