For the bruschetta, heat a griddle pan until almost smoking then in batches char your slices of bread on both sides until you get those great, dark stripes. You can also grill or toast the bread if you don’t have a griddle pan.
Once the bread is charred or toasted, cut your garlic cloves in half and rub over each of the charred breads.
Prepare all remaining ingredients. Combine with the red peppers then arrange the bruschettas on your platters.
Just before serving spoon the mixture generously onto the breads and finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil or the juice retained from the red peppers.
Filo pastry tarts (Issy Croker )
Issy Croker
Filo pastry tarts with whipped goat’s cheese, fresh pea, broad bean, crumbled pistachio and fried curry leaves
Feeds: 6-8
Preparation time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 8-10 minutes
Ingredients
pack of filo pastry (around 220g) – for larger style cups cut into 5cm squares and for smaller cups, 3cm squares
150ml of olive oil
Filling
200g goat’s cheese
200ml crème fraîche
½ - 1 clove of garlic – finely grated
generous sprinkle of sea salt flakes
several turns of freshly ground black pepper
zest of half a lemo
Garnish
150g broad beans – peeled
150g fresh peas in their pods or frozen variety and cooked
100g pistachios – crumbled or roughly chopped
several generous glugs of olive oil
several sprigs of curry leaves (around 20-30 leaves)
lemon zest
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.
Begin by making the filo pastry cups. Decide whether you want to make the larger variety or smaller. For the larger I use Yorkshire pudding trays and for the smaller you can get the large canapés trays that make 40 of the small cups at a time.
Cut the filo pastry into squares then brush the pastry with a thin layer of oil and layer up 4 sheets of filo pastry per cup. Press into the mould and once they’re all done place in the oven for 4-6 minutes or until golden.
Remove and allow to cool.
Fry up the curry leaves by heating the oil over a medium to high heat, so it’s hot enough that the leaves immediately fizz once added and turn crisp.
Once the leaves darken, remove and place on kitchen towel to drain any oil. Retain the vibrantly flavoured oil tin the pan to drizzle over the canapés once finished.Blitz together filling ingredients and adjust seasoning to taste.
Keep chilled until ready to serve.
Spoon in either a tsp or a tbsp of filling depending on which size cup you make.
Then scatter over both broad beans and fresh peas, garnish with a crispy curry leaf and a drizzle of the curry oil. Add a little lemon zest, extra freshly ground black pepper and serve.
Confit duck (Issy Croker )
Issy Croker
Confit duck, pickled baby beets, orange and radicchio
Feeds: 6-8
Preparation time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
2 confit duck legs – meat shredded from bone
2 oranges – pith removed, cut into segments
3 pickled whole baby beets – cut into small segments
zest & juice of 1 orange
3 raddichio
2 pale pink radicchio – the smaller variety, any large leaves can be halved
drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
generous sprinkle of sea salt flakes
several turns of freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius.
Allow the confit duck legs to come to room temperature if refrigerated. Shred the meat into bite sized pieces before placing on a tray and heat until a little crisp for around 10 minutes.
If the salad leaves need a little revitalising, cut the ends and place the leaves in a large bowl of iced water. Before serving, gently pat them dry.
Sit the radicchio leaves one of top of the other (whichever is the smallest should sit on top).
Next place the duck, orange and pickled beetroot on there also, you can leave as is or use a skewer or toothpick to help keep these together.
Finish by adding a squeeze of orange juice, a scattering of orange zest and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and seasoning. Serve while warm.
