Cookbook Lottery #4 - Brian Turner's Leek and Cheese Pudding with Panfried Beetroot

Today's recipe comes out of Brian Turner's Great British Grub.  As soon as I opened up the recipe page I had two immediate thoughts.  First was 'Oh God, that looks yummy!' and the second was 'Bugger, it's a vegetarian dish'.  I then realised that I could use this dish as the carb and vegetables on the plate and still serve some meat with it.  Sorted!

When I showed Sheila the recipe, she asked why did we want leek in a pudding?  It took a little while explaining that pudding did not nessesarily always refer to a dessert but could also refer to a main course.  Think of Steak and Kidney Steamed Pudding for instance.  The word pudding originally referred to a grain (flour) product and binder (egg, butter, etc) encasing either a sweet fruit or meat filling which would determine whether it was served for dessert or as a main course.  Puddings can then be baked, steamed or boiled.

Sheila hated beetroot for the longest time but this started slowly changing when a friend of ours served up a beetroot, caramelised onion and goat's cheese tart at a braai (BBQ) we held recently.  I was curious to see how Sheila would handle a large portion of stand alone beetroot on her plate.  Her next question to me was, 'What happens if you open the page in a future cookbook lottery and it is something neither of us like?'  I said that I would cook it as it is part of the rules... The whole idea of this challenge is to expand our food horizons and explore potential new tastes and cooking methods and styles.

Shopping for this recipe was easy.  Everything is readily available in the supermarkets and a quick 5 minute run round secured everything I needed in my basket.  Remember to get fresh breadcrumbs and not the Paxo cheap crumbs.  I halved the recipe as I was only cooking for 2.

Step one: pre-heat oven to 160C.

Next, I prepped the 225g leeks and cleaned off the outer leaves and as much dirt as I could.  Leeks are notorious for being full of dirt because as the leek grows, it can trap soil near the top of the outer layers of leaves.  The leeks were placed into boiling, salted water for 5 minutes.  It is not explained in the recipe why pre-cooking is required, but I'm guessing its to soften and release some sweetness in the leeks before baking in the oven.

Whilst the leeks were boiling, I grated the 110g cheddar.  Bing! 5 minutes up so I drained the leeks in a colander and refreshed them with a little cold water and flushed out a little more dirt I could see.  Transferring the leeks to a board, I chopped them into 1 cm width slices.

Select a suitable sized dish to hold all of the ingredients plus a little room for rising and butter it using the butter from the recipe.  I only used about half the butter suggested, about 10g.  I sprinkled a little of the grated cheese into the dish, then layered the sliced leeks and 90g crumbs till all was gone.

Seeing as I am a little health concious, I used only skimmed milk for the liquid instead of milk and double cream as suggested.  Personally, I imagine the dish will be extremely rich if double cream and milk is used in equal measures.  Also, I reduced my quantity of milk by 30%. 

To make the milk 'custard' mix, I mixed 2 eggs with 200ml of milk, then added a sizeable pinch of both cayenne pepper and nutmeg.  I grinded some salt and pepper into the mix and whisked it all together.  Finally, I stirred in the remaining cheese.  This mix is then poured slowly over the leeks and crumbs trying not to disturb the layering too much.

I plonked the dish into the pre-heated oven and set the timer to 40 minutes.  Right, 30 minutes to chill and do something else.  Read a book?  Watch tv? I know! I'll go annoy Sheila...

Half an hour gone and it's beetroot time!  

I placed a frying pan on the stove and turned the flame on.  The bright juice running from the cut open packet of beetroot looked like a scene from the movie SAW and made me smile a little.  It also reminded me of the several occasions in the past when I had accidentally cut myself whilst learning knife skills...

I sliced the beetroot into 1 cm thick rounds and then tossed about 30g butter into the hot pan.  The beetroot followed and was allowed to heat through whilst absorbing all the yummy buttery taste.  After about 5-6 minutes of frying and turning, I splashed in a little white wine vinegar, swished it all about and beetroot was done.

I cooked off a couple of lamb chops to go with the meal as I felt the lamb and beetroot would complement each other well.  So, three pieces of beetroot on a plate, spoonful of the leek and cheese pudding on top of the beetroot and served with the medium rare lamb and mint sauce and we were ready to eat.  Quick mention of how good the leek pudding smelt.  It was making both of us salivate thinking about dinner.

Thoughts?
As mentioned earlier, I doubt I will ever use cream in this dish.  I just think it'll make it too heavy and too rich.  Without the cream, the leek and cheese pudding was still scrumptious, so much so that Sheila insisted she wanted to make it herself for a friend visiting on Tuesday evening.  She even overcame her beetroot fear and ate it all!  This dish will definitely become a regular addition to our household meals as it is cheap, very easy to make and totally yummy.  I am even considering adding it to the recipe database at work for inclusion into the school menu cycles.  The kids will love it!