Chef Amy's Masterclass Cheese Board Elements
Recipe by: Chef Amy Crowe
Pear and Sultana Chutney
Ingredients
10ml Canola oil
15ml Mustard seeds
3ml Ground Ginger
1 Onion finely chopped
660g Diced pears
170g Sultanas
5 ml Salt
200g Light brown sugar
125ml White wine vinegar
125ml Sherry vinegar
Method
- Fry the mustard seeds and ginger in a pot on a low heat until the mustard seeds start popping.
- Add the onions to the pot and fry until the onions are soft.
- Add the pears and cook for a few minutes until the pears are warm.
- Add the sultanas and cook until the sultanas are a bit soft.
- Add the sugar and salt. Once the sugar has melted, add the vinegar.
- Keep on cooking the chutney until all the liquid has reduced and the pears are soft.
Romesco
Ingredients
300g Roasted red pepper (4 or 5 peppers depending on size)
1 clove Garlic
180g Cashews
150g Grated parmesan
127g Olive oil
27g Sherry vinegar
6g Smoked paprika
15g Basil leaves
7g Salt
Method
- Roast the cashews in the oven until golden and then allow to cool.
- For the roasted red peppers, place the raw peppers in the oven at 180°c for about 30 minutes or until the skin is slightly blackened and the peppers are soft.
- Remember to keep on turning your peppers over every few minutes so they cook evenly.
- Once the peppers are cooked, place them in a bowl and cover with cling wrap and allow them to steam until they are cool.
- Once cool, remove the peppers from the bowl, peel off the skin and remove the seeds. Weigh out the 300g of pepper that is needed.
- Place all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.
- Place in the fridge to firm up before serving.
Mini Cornbreads
Ingredients
500g Cake flour
6 tsp Baking powder
1 bottle Apple cider
10ml Salt
410g tin Creamed sweetcorn
Gruyere or cheddar cheese
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C
- Spray or grease your mini loaf tins
- Mix your flour, baking powder and salt together
- Add your Creamed sweetcorn
- Add your Apple cider and mix until combined
- Spoon the mix to fill your tins about three quarters full. The mix makes about 18 mini loaves.
- Top each loaf tin with Grated cheese
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until nice and golden
- Remove from tins immediately and cool on a wire rack
Cumin and Sesame Crackers
Ingredients
1 cup Cake flour
1/3 cup (80ml) Nutty wheat flour
1 tbsp White sesame seeds
1 tbsp Black sesame seeds
2 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp Salt
¼ cup Olive oil
1 tsp Sesame oil
½ cup water
Extra olive oil and Maldon salt for on top
Method
- Preheat oven to 170°C
- Mix all ingredients together in a bowl until nicely combined.
- Grease 2 square trays about 25cm in diameter.
- Divide into 2 balls
- Sprinkle your surface with flour and roll out each ball of dough really thin with a rolling pin into about a 25cm square to fill your tray.
- If your dough doesn’t quite fill your tray once you transfer it you can gently stretch the dough out a bit more with your hands.
- Brush the top of your crackers with a little olive oil and sprinkle a little Maldon salt on top
- Bake for about 16-20 minutes until the crackers is nice and golden on top
- Allow to cool
- Break crackers up into nice sized pieces
Vanilla Cheesecake
Ingredients
220g digestive biscuits
100g melted butter
700g cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla essence
120g castor sugar
3 eggs
Method
- Preheat oven to 160°C
- Line a round springform cake tin with greaseproof paper and spray with spray and cook.
- Blend the biscuits to a fine crumb and mix with the melted butter and press into the base of the tin.
- Place the base in the fridge to set for 30 minutes
- Cream the cream cheese, vanilla and sugar until smooth in a stand up mixer
- Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each one
- Wrap the base of your tin with tin foil and place it in a water bath. The water should reach about halfway up the tin.
- Pour your filling on top of your base and run a palette knife around the inside edge
- Bake for 35-45 minutes. You want the cheesecake to be just set and ever so slightly wobbly in the middle when you touch it.
- Allow to cool at room temperature in the tin
- Set in the fridge
Caramel Glaze
Ingredients
500g castor sugar
500g cream
Gelatine leaves
Method
- Place the sugar and a little water into a pot
- Cook on a medium heat until the sugar turns a nice dark caramel colour
- Once it’s a caramel, take it off the heat and slowly whisk in the cream
- Measure your caramel mix
- Soak 1 leaf of gelatine per 100ml of caramel mix in cold water.
- Once the gelatine leaves have softened stir them into the caramel
- Allow the glaze to cool
- Once the glaze has cooled and thickened pour over your cold, set cheesecake
- Put the glazed cheesecake back into the fridge to set
Silver Spots
Ingredients
Silver food colouring powder
Brandy or whisky
Method
- Mix a little brandy or whisky into the food colouring powder to make a slightly runny paste
- Using a small paint brush dip it into the colour and flick it onto the caramel glaze
Vanilla Meringues
Ingredients
150g egg whites
300g castor sugar
5ml Vanilla paste
Method
- Preheat oven to 100°C
- Whisk the egg whites in a stand up mixer until soft peak stage
- Slowly add in the castor one spoon at a time making sure you whisky well in between each addition
- Once all the sugar has been added make sure you whisk until all the sugar has been dissolved.
- Add the vanilla
- Place into a piping bag with a small straight nozzle
- Pipe dots onto a greaseproof lined tray and bake in the oven for about 2 hours or until the meringues are completely dry in the inside
Crystalised Pecan Nuts
Ingredients
250g pecan nuts
155g castor sugar
67g water
Method
- Place all 3 ingredients and a pot and cook on a medium temperature making sure to stir all the time
- Once the sugar has reduced by about a half turn it down to a low temperature
- Continue stirring the nuts all the time until a white sugar layer covers the nuts
- Place the nuts onto a silpat mat making sure no nuts are sticking together
- Place the nuts in the oven at 160°C for 5-6 minutes until the sugar has hardened on the outside
Vanilla Dulcey Cremeux
Ingredients
450g valrhona dulcey chocolate
500g custard
For the custard:
250g milk
250g cream
1 Tbsp vanilla paste
1 vanilla pod split down the middle
100g egg yolks
50g sugar
Method
- Melt the choc in a bowl over a pot of simmering water
- Heat the milk, cream, vanilla paste and vanilla pod until boiling
- Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl
- Slowly pour the hot cream mix onto the egg yolks whisking it together
- Pour the mix back into the pot and Whisk on a medium to low heat until it thickens to an anglaise consistency (just before it looks like it’s going to boil)
- Take out the vanilla pod
- Pour 500g of the custard onto the melted chocolate
- Stir until it combines
- Place into a glass or metal container and blend with a hand blender until it is smooth and shiny
- Place in the fridge to set. It does take quite a while to set (at least 12 hours) recommend to make it the day before you need to use it!
