Welcome to the first recipe of my new serie called ‘Garden Bites’. Every quarter, I visit the Lindenhoff garden to find inspiration for a new, affordable, and seasonal bite. The goal of this series is to provide you with a culinary foundation and inspire you to look at the ingredients available in your own local area.
For this early autumn edition, I am making a butternut squash millefeuille and a crispy cracker, paired with a smooth quince purée and finished with sweet and sour fennel flowers.
The core of Garden Bites is adaptability. The ingredients in these recipes are designed to be easily replaced depending on your season and climate. If you cannot find butternut squash, you can easily substitute it with a regular pumpkin or celeriac. A quince can be replaced with a sour apple, and nasturtium can be swapped out for spinach. It is all about understanding the technique and applying it to what you have on hand.
Butternut squash & nasturtium millefeuille
Ingredients
- 1 butternut squash
- nasturtium leaves
- 1 knot butter
Instructions
- Take a butternut squash and cut the neck off. Keep the bottom in your fridge for later. Then clean the neck by peeling away the skin.
- Slice it in thin slices on a mandolin. They need to be around 2 millimetres thin, do be very careful when using a mandolin, it’s very sharp!
- Place the slices in stacks on your cutting board and cut those to the desired size. The trimmings you can keep aside as well.
- Now do the same with the nasturtium leaves. Just remove the stem and cut it slightly bigger than the squash. For every slice of squash you need a nasturtium leaf. While cutting the leaves you can also begin stacking them. Begin with a slice of butternut squash following a portioned leaf and so on. You can make the stack as high as you like, but mine had around 45 layers.
- Now place some cooking twine on your cutting board and place the stack in the centre. Press the stack down and tie all the layers together as tight as possible. If needed trim the knots.
- Then add a knot of butter to a preheated pan and start pan frying the stack all around. Also add some salt all around. Pan fry the stack on a medium heat to prevent the butter from burning.Â
- When it has a nice colour all around place it on a tray and check if the millefeuille is cooked all the way through. I do this with a thin cuisson needle. It needs to slide through, otherwise continue cooking it in the oven at 150 °C (302 °F).
- After 15 minutes my millefeuille was cooked. Now place it on a tray and gently press it down with a pallet knife. Then cut the cooking twine and remove it. Let it cool down in your fridge for at least 1 hour. You need it to be set all the way to prevent the layers from separating.
- Once it has set trim the edges with a sharp knife and portion the millefeuille to the desired thickness. Again be very gentle! You don’t want to damage your hard work. Place them on a tray and keep them covered in your fridge for later.Â
Butternut squash crackers
Ingredients
The butternut squash cream
- 1 butternut squash bottom and trimmings
- 1 shallot
- 2 cloves garlic
- 200 g vegetable broth
The dough
- 160 g flour
- 100 g butternut squash cream we made before
- 20 g olive oil
- 15 g egg yolk
- 2 g salt
Instructions
- Take the bottom of the butternut squash and cut the outside off. Then cut the bottom in half and scrape out the seeds with a spoon. When it is clean portion it in thick slices and then in cubes.
- Now drizzle some oil in a hot frying pan and pan fry the butternut and the trimmings from before on a medium high heat. Add some salt for seasoning.
- Meanwhile cut the shallot in half, clean it and slice it in thin slices. Also slice the cloves of garlic. When some colour starts to form on the butternut add the shallot and garlic and continue pan frying for a couple more minutes.
- Then deglaze the pan with the vegetable broth and reduce it till the butternut is cooked all the way and completely soft.
- Then transfer it into a blender and blend it till smooth.
- Place the flour on your worktop and make a well in the middle. Fill the well with 100 grams of the butternut cream, the olive oil, the egg yolk and the salt.
- Bring all the ingredients together and knead it into a firm dough. If needed add some more flour, but the ratio should be good. Then cover it and let it rest for at least an hour in your fridge.
- After that dust your worktop with flour and roll the dough into a thin sheet. It needs to be around 2to 3 millimetres thin.Â
- Now normally you would portion it to the desired size, but for this one I baked the sheet as big as possible. This so I can portion it later on, so it matches the size of the millefeuille. Place the dough between two perforated sheets and place it on a metal tray.
- Bake the dough at 150 °C (302 °F) for about 30 minutes. If the dough starts to rise you can always place another tray on top.
- Once it has the desired colour take it out of the oven and portion it to the same size as the millefeuille. I do this with a serrated knife. Make long cuts to prevent it from breaking. Then keep them dry and covered for later.Â
Pickled fennel flowers
Ingredients
- 130 g water
- 130 g white wine
- 130 g white wine vinegar
- 130 g sugar
- 4 g salt
- 3 bay leaves
- Fennel flowers
Instructions
- Mix the water with the white wine, the white wine vinegar, the sugar, the salt and the bay leaves. Bring it to a boil.
- Then let it cool down till the temperature is around 45 °C (113 °F).
- Meanwhile cut the fennel flowers of the stem and pack them in a preserving jar.
- Once the sweet and sour has the desired temperature cover the flowers and close up the jar. Let it marinade for at least a day in your fridge.Â
Quince puree
Ingredients
- 700 g cleaned quince
- 200 g white wine
- 4 g salt
Instructions
- Begin by peeling the quince. Quince is very hard, so do use a very sharp peeler.
- Now cut the quince of the core and cut it in more manageable cubes. In total I had 700 grams of cubes.
- Transfer them into a pan and also add the white wine and the salt. Cover the pan with a lid and slowly let it simmer on a medium low heat. The quince needs to be cooked all the way.
- Then blend it till smooth. Once smooth pour it into a bowl, cover it and let it set in your fridge. It needs to be cold so the natural pectin’s can set.
- When it has set transfer it into a blender and blend it till smooth. You should be able to see a big difference in the texture and shine.
- Then transfer it into a piping bottle and keep it in your fridge for later.
How to finish the bite
Instructions
- Place a cracker on a plate and pipe the quince puree on top. Then gently put the butternut squash and nasturtium millefeuille on there.
- Pipe a couple small dots of the quince on the millefeuille and decorate it with pickled fennel flowers and some marigold flower petals.Â
The pairing
As a pairing I choose this 2022 Ménage à Trois from Weingut Eymann in the Pfalz. It’s a blend of Chardonnay, Weissburgunder and Grauburgunder, spontaneously fermented in wooden barrels and bottled unfiltered. Eymann has been farming biodynamically since 2006, focusing on wines that reflect the character of their vineyards. The wine is full and rounded, with ripe fruit, subtle spice and a fresh acidity that keeps it from feeling too heavy.
I chose it to balance the richness of the butternut squash millefeuille and crispy cracker, while its freshness works nicely with the quince purée and sweet and sour fennel flowers. The dish is quite rich on its own, so I wanted a wine with enough body to stand alongside it, but with enough acidity to keep each bite feeling fresh.
