Recipe: Orange, Beetroot & Pistachio Nougat (Turron, Nougat)

Sunday 12 June 2016

Recipe: Orange, Beetroot & Pistachio Nougat (Turron, Nougat)

We were recently asked to do a Prince themed party for Immy of Miss Immy’s London.
The brief was: “A nod to Prince and his lyrics and some purple action in the menu but not to go mad with the purple!!” So we knocked a few ideas about and came up with the first draft of the menu.

Orange, Beetroot & Pistachio Nougat

I’d agreed a desert called “Butterscotch Clouds & Raspberry Sorbet”, and although I had a rough idea what I was aiming for I hadn’t quite got a complete picture in my head. Now that’s not great! You see the masterchef lot get given invention tests all the time, and the half baked ones don’t always end well!! At all!

In the end (I think I finished about 3AM the night before service) I created an array of components hoping I’d be able to create something that passed for “Butterscotch Clouds & Raspberry Sorbet” the following day!

On the list of components was the obvious raspberry sorbet, butterscotch creme pat, and and Italian meringue. (for me butter scotch clouds)

hibiscus meringue spears

Then less obvious, borage & lemon meringue, some hibiscus meringue spears, rum baba, raspberry & Champagne syrup, and various fruits (raspberry, passion & pomegranate), and an orange & beetroot nougatine. Well a nougat in the end.

And In the final analysis . . .

Butterscotch Clouds & Raspberry Sorbet

Bloody hell it’s sweet!! I’m not a huge dessert fan, but I quite like this one. (Ahem, and I thought it met the brief.)

This is the recipe for my favourite component: the orange and beetroot nougat with roasted pistachio nuts.

ingredients (makes 2 trays - 18cm x 25cm)

for the orange & beetroot syrup (200ml)

200ml grenadine

400ml orange juice (fresh)

2 beetroot (peeled & grated)

Put ingredients into a small pot and bring to the boil, set to simmer and reduce by 2/3.

Sieve and put aside until needed.

for the nougat

200g orange & beetroot syrup

380g sugar

175g glucose

125g honey

2 tangerines (zest)

60g egg white

10g sugar

800g pistachio (shelled)

rice paper (or 50/50 cornflour / icing sugar mix)

This is all pretty tight timing wise, so everything has to be ready before you start the syrup!! You have been warned!

First line trays with rice paper, or 50/50 cornflour / icing sugar mix, if you can’t get rice paper.

Put the nuts in the oven @ 140C

Blast the honey & zest in the microwave until it’s bubbling then put to one side. Add it to the syrup just before adding the syrup to the egg whites.

Take the orange syrup, sugar and glucose mix up to 155C.

Start whisking the egg whites when syrup hits 110C, whisk it until it reaches soft peaks. (best to use a standing mixer, see what could go wrong)

Pour syrup into the egg white slowly so as not to wreck the meringue. Keep whisking for 3minutes.

Take the warm nuts out of the oven and fold them into meringue. Pour the mix out into 2 heavy gauge trays lined with rice paper.

Oil a pallet knife and smooth out the mix then top w/ rice paper (or 50/50 cornflour / icing sugar mix) and flatten with another tray.

Glad wrap it (cling film), and put it into the fridge to set.

Vac pack / glad wrap when set.

Cut when needed 1x3cm pieces.

Or 5cm, or make a texan bar out of it . . . whua har har!! (Leave the nuts out to do that, probably need to take the sugar unto 165C too)

apparatus / equipment

Standing mixer.

Temperature probe. (preferably with an alarm!)

This gadget is handy because it changes colour and bleeps
when it reaches the target temperature - handy!

what could go wrong? (notes)

The first time I tried to make something similar to this - turron - I used a hand whisk when mixing in the 155C syrup. Looking back on it I was extremely lucky not to get badly burnt! As soon as the syrup hit the whisk molten sugar when flying all over the kitchen - really dangerous! Pour the hot syrup slowly down the side of the bowl.

If you pour the syrup in too quickly it over cooks the egg and you get a kind of cooked egg white consistency, not what you want. Pour the syrup in really slowly as the mixer works it in.