Chef Academy Showcase 2023 Cookbook

Autumn garden recipe Method: 1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/356°F/Gas mark 4. Then, cut your butternut squash in half long ways and open it up. Score the skin with the knife and coat with the agave plant syrup, then add salt and pepper before placing on a tray with parchment paper. Place into the oven for 40 minutes. 2 While the squash is cooking, wash the quinoa then add it into a pot with the water (300ml) and bring to a simmer, placing a lid on top. Cook for 13-15 minutes before removing from the heat and leaving the lid on to cook for another 10-12 minutes, until the grain looks like it’s popping out of its shell. Then, fluff it with a fork before allowing it to cool. 3 While both the squash and quinoa are cooking, peel, top and tail the carrots. Slice in half long ways and then slice along each carrot about 1cm thick. Place into a pot of water (200ml) and orange juice (200ml) and bring to a boil for 8-10 minutes, until the carrots are soft, but not mushy – you still want some crunch. 4 Deep fry some kale for around 10-15 seconds, until crisp – be careful not to burn it and turn it dark. Place the kale on a J-cloth to drain the oil, before adding a pinch of salt and all the cumin, to flavour. 5 Place some oil into a pan and sauté the enoki until golden brown, seasoning with salt and pepper. Pull the enoki apart so it curls up more, this will look a lot better for a garnish. Then, place onto a J-cloth to absorb any excess oil. 6 By this point your carrots, quinoa, squash and kale should be ready. Scoop out the squash in the middle; leave a little bit of squash on the sides, about 5mm thick. Place the butternut squash into a food processor and blitz it until smooth. Once blitzed, add to a pan with 150ml cream. Add a pinch of salt, pepper and 2 pinches of ground cinnamon. Stir on a medium heat until all the ingredients combine. 7 To serve, mix all the ingredients together apart from your purée and enoki – the kale, quinoa, carrots, cranberries, coriander – but be careful not to crush the kale. Stuff the butternut squash, then drizzle your purée over the top, before adding the enoki. Lastly, toast off the seeds and sprinkle over the dish. Extra Information To make this dish vegan, you can remove the cream in the purée and use vegan alternative cream. It can be served hot or cold but I prefer the fresh dish cold. This dish is best fresh, so give it a shelf life of no longer than 3 days. Ingredients: - 1 butternut squash, large - Agave plant syrup - 1 tsp salt - 1 tsp pepper - 150g quinoa, smoked - 500ml water - 3 carrots, medium sized - 200ml orange juice - 3 or 4 stems kale, medium - 15g cranberries, dried - 1 tsp cumin - 5-10g butter - 2 tbsp coriander, fresh Best HIT Chef Academy moment Learning how to organise a workstation to work faster and better within the kitchen. 2 Serves: