Beetroot soup and mushroom and goat's cheese gourgere

In the summer I entered a competition and gave my favourite vegan recipe: ie. Vegan Smoked Salmon and during my holiday I received an email that I had won an organic vegetable box from Cofco.I was delighted and grateful for this prize, but as I was away on holiday and my allotment was giving us so much produce, I asked if I could postpone the delivery until the Autumn.

Well, I felt that a bit of variety in our meals was preferable so I called them and they delivered a gorgeous box of organic fruit and vegetables.

With the beetroot we will be making Beetroot and orange soup


The mushrooms will go into the mushroom gougère

                  

and we will do the japanese Milk jelly with the kiwi's that were in the box, making good use of this lovely box and sharing the joy.

Japanese Milk Jelly

Ingredients 

400ml water

200ml milk

50g sugar

20g honey

4g agar

Fruit like satsumas, oranges, pineapples, kiwi

Method 

1. Bring water to a boil in a small pan, then turn down the heat to simmer. Add in the agar and stir well until it has dissolved.
2. Add milk, sugar and honey then stir every few seconds. Continue until the agar and sugar dissolved completely.
3. Pour it into 1 large or 2 small shallow dishes with fruits and let them cool down before placing them in the fridge to chill. (it will take 30-40 minutes to firm up).

GOATS’ CHEESE & WALNUT GOUGÈRES:

1. A very simple mixture of goats’ cheese, crushed walnuts, finely chopped pears and seasoning gets spooned into the split (and cooled) pastry choux: the juicy crunch of the pear works well with the flavour of the cheese. Blue cheese also works excellently here.

MUSHROOM GOUGÈRES:

Ingredients

Rapeseed oil

½ red onion finely chopped

300g mushrooms, roughly chopped

1 garlic cloves, chopped

½ teaspoon thyme leaves

1 tablespoon dry sherry

100g crème fraîche

1 tablespoon lemon juice

½ tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley

Method

1. In a large frying pan  heat the oil and fry the onion until soft but not coloured. 
2. Add the mushrooms, garlic and thyme. Cook over a high heat, stirring often, until the mushrooms are reduced in volume by about half, are buttery and soft and their liquid has evaporated.
3. Add the sherry and crème fraîche and simmer until the sauce has reduced. Stir in the lemon juice and parsley and season with salt and plenty of black pepper.
4. Cut each choux bun fully in half, fill with the warm mushroom mixture and serve.