Cardo con pure dorado de nabos (cardoon with golden turnip purée)
Ingredients:
600 g clean, boiled cardoon
400 g turnips
3 cloves of garlic
50 g of peeled, roasted almonds
3 spoonfuls of pine nuts
50 g extra virgin olive oil
50 g butter
1 tablespoon of flour
black and white pepper to taste
1 sprig of fresh parsley
1 sprig of fresh coriander
some grated nutmeg
2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
salt to taste
Preparation:
First wash, peel and slice the turnips*. Boil them in salty water until they are tender; drain well. Mash the turnips by hand or in a mixer until they form a purée, adding butter and a little black pepper. Then add to this purée the parsley, coriander and grated nutmeg.
Divide the hot purée into little piles on a baking tray greased with oil, and, brush each with melted butter. Put the baking tray into a hot oven (200◦C) until the piles become golden brown.
Meanwhile, clean the cardoon and peel the leaves, discarding the outer layers on both sides. Cut the remaining leaves into strips of some 5 cm width. Boil these in salted water with a spoonful of flour, so that the cardoon leaves maintain their white colour.
Grind the almonds in the mixer with one clover of garlic, the breadcrumbs and 50 ml. of olive oil. Just when the almonds are appropriately ground, add to the contents of the mixer 10 ml. of the water the cardoon was boiled in. Fry two sliced cloves of garlic gently in oil in a frying pan until golden and then add the boiled strips of cardoon. Continue to fry gently over a low heat for 15 minutes, and keep turning over in the frying pan.
Serve with the little piles of turnip purée.
* these turnips of northern Spain are rather special, parsnip-shaped, flavoursome turnips
