Serves: 4
Preparation time: 1 hour
Soaking time: overnight
Cooking time: 1 hour
Extracted from Flavors from the French Mediterranean by Gérald Passedat (Flammarion). Photography by Photography © Richard Haughton.
Ingredients
½ cup (3 oz./80 g) chickpeas
1 lb. 5 oz. (600 g) beef trimmings
1 tablespoon (15 ml) Passedat olive oil*
1 bouquet garni
2 zucchini
1 large artichoke
½ red bell pepper
2 orange carrots
2 yellow carrots
1 small turnip
¾ cup (200 ml) concentrated chicken stock
3 tablespoons (1 oz./30 g) raisins 1 ½ tablespoons
(½ oz./15 g) golden raisins
½ cup (2 ½ oz./80 g) couscous
1 orange
2/3 cup (150 ml) sheep milk
1 1/3 tablespoons
(1/3 oz./10 g) Passedat Volubilis Couscous spice mix*
Salt, pepper
Directions
1A day ahead, soak the chickpeas in a bowl of cold water. Make a concentrated beef jus. Sauté the beef trimmings in the olive oil, and add the bouquet garni and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until the liquid has reduced to 20 percent. Strain and reserve ¾ cup (200 ml).
2The following day, slice one of the zucchini into rounds, blanch in boiling water, then refresh in iced water. Drain, blend to a puree in a food processor, and add salt and pepper to taste. Remove the outer leaves of the artichoke, cut off the top half, and then scoop out the inside leaves and the hairy choke. Cut the remaining heart into quarters. Cook in boiling water for 10 minutes, then push it through a fine-mesh sieve and add salt and pepper to taste. Roast the half bell pepper for 15 minutes on each side in a 300°F (150°C/Gas mark 2) oven, remove the skin and seeds, and slice lengthways.
3Peel the carrots and turnip, wash the remaining zucchini, and shape them into small cylinders using an apple corer.
4Mix together the beef jus and chicken stock in a saucepan, season with salt and pepper, and place over the heat. Drain the soaked chickpeas and cook them in the stock until tender. Add the cylinders of vegetables and cook them too, then remove the saucepan from the heat, add the raisins, and leave them to plump up.
5Soak the couscous in a little water, a splash of olive oil, and a pinch of salt until the grains swell and absorb the water. Reserve.
6Slice the orange into rounds without peeling it, then lightly brown the slices on a preheated ribbed grill pan. Warm the sheep milk with the spice mix, then process in a blender or centrifuge to obtain a foam. Warm through all the prepared ingredients and arrange them attractively in a deep serving dish, with the vegetables on top of the zucchini and artichoke purees, and the foam poured over the top.
CHEF’S NOTE
- Replace the meat stocks with vegetable stock for a vegetarian version
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