Humble Vegetables

Roasted carrot and smoked butter puré

Prepare a smoker and smoke the butter for 30 minutes.

Peel the carrots and save the peel for the sauce later on.

Chop the carrots into smaller pieces. Roast the carrots together with smoked butter on 185°C for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through and has caramelized a little.

To make the 1-2-3 solution, boil ättika (Swedish vinegar), sugar and water in a pot on medium-high heat just to melt the sugar completely.

Blend everything until smooth and add salt.

Charcoal grilled carrot

Cut out and save the carrot leaves for the carrot leaf oil and for garnish later on.

Peel the carrots and save the peel for the sauce later on.

Cut the carrots into 8cm long, 1½cm wide and 5mm thick rectangles. Save all the carrot trimmings for the sauce later on.

While reducing the juice, cook the carrot rectangles in the juice for 7 minutes, take the carrots when it's cooked thoroughly and dry them in the dehydrator for 45 minutes.

Put the semi-dried carrots on sticks brush them with some rapeseed oil and put them on the charcoal grill and glaze them with the carrot glaze.

Turn the carrots and glaze every 1-2 minutes for about 6 minutes.

Carrot juice reduction

Juice the carrots in the electric juicer and reduce it to about 20% of the volume and while reducing, cook the carrot rectangles in the juice for 7 minutes or until cooked through.

Save the reduced carrot juice for the glaze later on.

Jerusalem artichoke tartlet

To make the shell, peel the Jerusalem artichokes and chop them into smaller pieces.

Vacuum pack the Jerusalem artichokes with a little bit of rapeseed oil and salt.

Cook sous vide on 100°C for 45 minutes or until cooked through. Blend until its smooth and chill. 

Spread the puré on a Silpat in 2mm thickness.

Save some of the puré for the röra later on. Dry on 90°C for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Cut circles using a medium small-sized ring cutter and put the dried puré between 2 tartlet baking forms and press.

Fry while in-between forms on 170°C for 20 seconds.

Röra

To make the “röra”, cut brunoise of Jerusalem artichokes and apples, chop the sunflower seeds into small pieces about the size of the brunoise.

Finely chop chives. Mix the Jerusalem artichoke puré with whipped creme fraiche.

Mix everything together and season with some lemon juice and salt. Put into a piping bag.

Fried leek

To make the fried leak, take the bottom part of the leak and cut very fine julienne.

Fry at 140°C for 80 seconds. Fry in portions and let dry in portions.

Season with salt.

Carrot powder

To make the carrot powder, slice carrots as thin as possible and dry at 65°C until all the moisture is gone or overnight.

Blend later on spice blender into a very fine powder.

Charcoal baked leak

Take the middle part of the leak (7cm) and put it together with charcoal in the grill and let the outside part be burned.

Let bake for 10-13 minutes depends on the size or until cooked through.

Chill.

Cut the leak into the middle part of the leak and not through.

Peel out the burnt leak and save it for the sauce.

Peel the layers of the leak and put on each other until it’s about 1cm thick.

Trim the sides for even sides and save all the trimmings for the sauce.

Portion it to 1cm wide and cut lengthwise.

To finish it heat it up in the oven on 160°C for 5 minutes and drizzle rapeseed oil on and rub very hot coal on the surface of the leak which creates smoke that gives the leak this delicious smoky, charcoaly, grilled burnt leak flavor.

Season with salt.

Carrot glaze

Take some of the roasted vegetable stock and reduce it.  

Season with some soy sauce and sweeten it up with the carrot reduction.

Add the xanthan gum to thicken it up.   

Roasted vegetable sauce

Preheat the oven to 185°C.

Chop the vegetables into smaller pieces.

Toss them with a little bit of rapeseed oil in a deep baking tray and roast them until they get a dark caramelized hue.

Deglaze with water and let it cook in the oven for 10 minutes.

Moved to a pot, add charcoal burnt leak and trimmings and let it simmer for another 15 minutes on medium heat.

Pass it through a fine sieve and reduce it for another 10 minutes on medium heat.

Season with mirin, soy sauce and salt.

Carrot leaf oil

Heat up rapeseed oil in the Thermomixer to 60°C.

Add the carrot leaves and blend for 5 minutes on max speed.

Pass through a fine sieve. Chill.  

Presentation

To assemble the tartlet, pipe the “röra” in the tartlet shell, put a portion of fried leak on top and finish with carrot powder and fresh carrot leaves. Put the tartlet on a small bowl filled with sunflower seeds to be served á part.

In a small pot, heat up the roasted carrot puré and put a spoonful on the left side of the bigger bowl and place the charcoal baked leaked beside it on the right. Leave space for the charcoal-grilled carrot. Garnish with fresh carrot leaves.

Pour hot sauce on a small pot. Add a little bit of carrot oil in.        

The tartlet and the bowl are served, and the carrot is served by me directly from the grill, placed just beside the charcoal baked leak. And to finish the dish, I pour the sauce on the dish myself in front of the guests or jury.

(If possible, I want to grill the carrot in front of the guests or jury while interacting with them. And also, while grilling I would tell them to start with the tartlet. And the carrot is to be placed just beside the charcoal baked leak. And then finish by pouring the sauce on the dish in front of the guests or jury)

The tartlet is supposed to be eaten first. And the grilled carrot is supposed to be picked by hand and be eaten directly from the stick. A knife and fork are needed to eat the dish.