Ottolenghi strikes again

This recipe looked good in the Guardian a few weeks ago so I decided to start early with the prep. Lynne and Gavin are coming to eat with us.

There are many components to this dish - Roast Mushrooms, cranberries and butter bean mash. The mushrooms, onions, Ras el Hanout and grated garlic and roasted then pecans added for the last 10 minutes. Sour dough croutons had to be made with olive oil, garlic and salt. Dried cranberries had to be marinated in parsley, lemon rind and juice. For the butter bean mash I had to heat olive oil then add spring onions, more lemon zest, sliced garlic and coriander seeds to heat before blending that with 2 tins of butter beans. When it’s all hot I mix the cranberries with the mushrooms, put on top of the mash and then add the croutons.

It looks a bit beige so I’ve made a cucumber salad with mashed ginger, sesame seeds and coriander. Plus a tomato, green pepper, spring onion and walnut salad with pomegranate molasses and sumac dressing.

The starter is fried pears with Roquefort and pudding a rasp cheesecake. It was a lot of work but I like to experiment and do nice food for Lynne as she makes an effort when we go to her.

I did manage a bit of a walk as it had been a hard frost last night and a sunny day today.