Demuths Christmas Roast
Dietary: Gluten-free, Vegan
Serves 8-10
Roast
Ingredients:
2 (200g) carrots, peeled & grated
1 medium (200g) parsnips, peeled & grated
1 medium courgette (100g), topped/tailed & grated
1 red onion, finely sliced
2 tbsps olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp dried thyme or 1 tbsp of freshly chopped
1 tsp ground cumin or 1 tbsp of seed toasted & ground
1 tsp ground coriander or 1 tbsp of seed toasted & ground
1/4 tsp allspice
pinch of nutmeg
200g plain tofu
3-4 tbsps tamari or shoyu
100g cashew nuts, crushed
100g pumpkin seeds, roughly crushed
50g sunflower seeds, roughly crushed
50g sun-dried tomatoes, in oil
50g gram flour, sieved
small handful fresh parsley chopped
salt & freshly ground black pepper
Filling
250g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
100g shitake mushrooms, sliced
100g oyster mushrooms, sliced
1 garlic clove, sliced
2 tbsps olive oil
1 tbsp tamari
Courgette Wrapping
3 medium straight approx 18cm courgettes, finely sliced lengthways using a peeler
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to Gas 5/180c.
Roast
Fry the onion in the olive oil until soft, add the garlic, thyme, cumin, coriander, allspice & nutmeg & fry for 2 minutes.
Add the grated vegetables & sauté until soft, but still with some bite (al denté)
Puree the tofu, sun-dried tomatoes & tamari together until smooth.
Roast the pumpkin seeds & sunflower seeds for a few minutes, until going golden. Roughly chop.
Combine the cooked vegetables, cashew nuts, pumpkin seeds & sunflower seeds, tofu, sun-dried tomatoes, gram flour, parsley & season well with salt & pepper.
Filling
Fry the mushrooms in the olive oil, until they change colour, then add the garlic and quickly stir-fried. Stir in the tamari and set aside
Courgette Wrapping
Cut a piece of baking parchment 30 cm by 30 cm. Place the baking parchment on a tea towel, as this will help when rolling the roast.
Lay courgettes on the baking parchment, lengthways towards you, overlapping each other, leaving 5 cm of parchment free from courgette top and bottom.
Spread out the roast mixture starting from the bottom of the courgettes and leaving 12cm of courgette free from mix at top.
Press a thick sausage of mushroom filling along the middle of the roast mixture.
Roll up like you would a roulade by picking up teatowel and the baking parchment from the near side keeping the filling in the centre. Roll the baking parchment over to meet the other side so that the filling is wrapped in courgettes. Lift the top edge of the baking parchment & press and roll, so that the join rolls to the underneath.
Place in the fridge to rest for an hour.
To bake either:
Place the roll on a lined baking tray. Cover with silver foil tucked around the roll and bake for 30 minutes. Serve whole to slice at the table, or
Leaving initial rolled parchment in place, cut into 10 x 3 cm pieces sprinkle with pumpkin and sunflower seeds and bake for 20 minutes remove parchment and serve as individual portions.
Can be made smaller as a light starter topped with cranberry relish served with salad leaves and a hazelnut dressing.
Tips: The roast mix can be made in advance and frozen un-cooked. Take out 4 hours before you need it to de-frost.
The mushroom and courgette rolling can be done a day in advance and kept in the fridge.
For a simpler alternative to wrapping in courgettes, make a large Christmas roast to slice. Line a bread tin with baking parchment and press the mix in. Loosely cover with silver foil. Bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes. Take off the silver foil and bake for a further 10 minutes or until turning golden.
You can change the filling or leave it out. As an alternative filling, try roasted squash or cooked spinach with feta and chopped black olives, or goats cheese and walnuts.
Shallot Port Gravy
Serves: 6
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
350g small shallots peeled and halved
4 garlic cloves, crushed
200ml port
500ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tbsp redcurrant jelly
1 tbsp tamari or shoyu
2 tsps cornflour, mixed to a paste with 1 tbsp cold water
salt & freshly ground black pepper
Method
Fry the shallots in the olive oil until soft and caramelising, then add the garlic and quickly stir-fry.
Stir in the port and simmer to reduce for a couple of minutes.
Add the vegetable stock, redcurrant jelly & tamari, bring to the boil and season well with salt and pepper.
Thicken the gravy with the cornflour by putting some of the hot gravy into the cold cornflour paste then returning it to the gravy and stirring while the gravy simmers and thickens (about 5 minutes).
Tips: The easiest way to peel shallots is to cover them with boiling water, when the water has cooled they should easily pop out of heir skins.