Cooking Time: 2 hours, plus 1 day infusing
Organic mini pumpkin and ricotta tarts with spiced honey
Serves: 40 canapés
Ingredients:
Roast pumpkin
2 organic pumpkins, or 1 large butternut squash
salt
Spiced honey
250ml of lemon juice
300ml of orange juice
500ml of xeres vinegar
500g of organic honey
2 organic garlic cloves, halved
1 piece of organic fresh ginger, about 5g, sliced
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
12g of salt
12g of mixed spice
7g of cloves
5 slices of orange peel
7g of juniper berries
7g of fennel seeds
3g of cumin seeds
3g of coriander seeds
3g of black peppercorns
1g of smoked paprika
1 pinch of cayenne pepper
Tart bases
250g of puff pastry
1 egg, beaten, to glaze
To assemble
250g of organic ricotta
1 bunch of organic fresh thyme, leaves picked
30g of Parmesan, shaved
Equipment
Blender
3cm diameter cutter
1) Begin with the spiced honey. Cook down the lemon juice, orange juice and vinegar in separate pans until all reduced by half
2) Combine in one large pan and add the honey and spices. Place over a medium heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes then set aside to cool and infuse for 1 day
3) Strain the infused honey through a fine sieve to remove the flavourings and store in sterilised jars until needed
4) Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4
5) Cut the pumpkin in half (or into quarters if very large), scoop out the seeds and place on a large baking tray. Drizzle over 1-2 tbsp of the spiced honey and season with salt. Roast for 45-60 minutes until tender
6) Once cool enough to handle scoop out the soft flesh and add to a pan with 25g of the spiced honey and a pinch more salt. Cook together for 5-10 minutes then transfer to a blender and blitz to form a smooth purée. Set aside to cool
7) Meanwhile roll out the puff pastry to 0.5cm thick and stamp out 3cm rounds with a pastry cutter. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes
8) Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 5
9) Brush the pastry with the beaten egg glaze then cover with a piece of baking paper. Place an empty tray over the paper to keep the pastry flat while it cooks. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes until golden then allow to cool
10) To serve, spread 1 tsp of the spiced pumpkin puree over each circle of pastry then dot with pieces of ricotta. Sprinkle over the thyme leaves and Parmesan shavings to garnish
Recipe Tom Aikens Created as part of #OrganicUnboxed for The Organic Trade Board's 'Organic.Naturally Different' campaign
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