Vegetable Mash And Moulds
Softened, cooked vegetables are popular accompaniments to meat, poultry and fish, offering contrast in colour and texture. They can be pressed into a smooth or coarse purée or taken one stage further by being shaped in timbale moulds and baked.
MAKING PUREES AND MASH
A food processor or blender can be used for puréeing leafy vegetables. For cooked root vegetables, such as carrots, you can use a machine, but sieving after mashing gives a finer texture. For the smoothest, fluffiest mashed potatoes, use a drum sieve, which has a very fine mesh, or a Mouli, which sieves the potatoes at the same time as puréeing them. Never purée potatoes in a food processor or blender - they may turn gluey.
DRUM SIEVE
Hold sieve secure over a bowl and firmly press cooked vegetables through the mesh with a plastic scraper.
MOULI
Place cooked potatoes in Mouli set over a bowl; turn the crank to force potatoes through into bowl.
MASH
For the best mashed potatoes you need to select the right type of floury potato. Once mash is made, choose from the following - all variations on a similar theme - to create a smooth, creamy mash. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper before serving.
• Hot milk and a generous amount of unsalted butter; cream can also be added.
• Crème fraîche and olive oil.
• Olive oil and crushed garlic.
• Hot creamy milk or cream and roasted garlic flesh.
• Cream or creamy milk, unsalted butter and grated Gruyère cheese.
MAKING TIMBALES
Puréed vegetables make attractive single servings when cooked in small moulds and turned out upside-down. Spinach is used here, but you can use carrots, broccoli or peas, all of which should be boiled before puréeing (you will need 170 g cooked purée). If you like, you can line the moulds with blanched spinach leaves.
1. Cook 300 g spinach. Purée in a blender with 3 eggs, 250 ml double cream, nutmeg and seasoning. Pour into four buttered 150-ml timbale moulds.
2. Put the timbale moulds in a bain marie and bake at 190°C for 20-25 minutes or until firm. Insert a skewer in the centre of a timbale - it should come out clean.
3. Remove the moulds from the bain marie and run a knife around the insides to loosen the timbales. Invert on to serving plates and gently lift off the moulds.
COOKING SPINACH
Wash spinach thoroughly, remove and discard the tough stalks and tear the leaves. Although spinach can be cooked in lots of boiling water, to retain its vitamins, minerals and colour, it is far better to steam it. Other good methods are to cook it in only the water that clings to the leaves after washing, or to sauté it in olive oil - both methods will take just 2 minutes.
