Vegetable terrine, for a great Mediterranean style dinner party!
Great dish for dinner parties! As everything in this dish is very easy to prepare ahead except for the last-minute baking of the celeriac fries. This dish reminds me a bit of a ratatouille, because the main ingredients of the terrine together with the tomato sauce gives you that same warmth as a ratatouille does. The presentation is just a bit more interesting 😉
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
🥘 Main ingredients
- red peppers
- aubergine (eggplant)
- courgette (zucchini)
- celeriac
- tomatoes
- apple
- shallots
- garlic
- olive oil
- flour
- aquafaba
- breadcrumbs
- espelette substitute; Aleppo pepper or hot (unsmoked paprika)
- plant based milk
- fresh thyme
- fresh rosemary
- balsamic vinegar
These are the main ingredients for the whole dish. Obviously you could just enjoy the terrine on its own, or with a salad.
I balanced the flavours with the warm espelette spice in the fritters, and freshness in the celeriac/apple mash. I like to use a lot of thyme and rosemary in the tomato sauce, because it goes so beautiful with the vegetable terrine. This terrine has no agar-agar in it. It is purely and only vegetables (with the use of a heavy weight, in order to put long term pressure on the terrine)
🍷 Wine pairing
Like mentioned before, this vegetable terrine goes flavour wise very much towards a ratatouille. So you could stick with the ratatouille suggestions, like an Australian Shiraz, a Rhone Syrah, or an Italian Chianti. Or go for the more green herbaceous Carmenere from Chile. which would match the herby flavours well.
Let me know what you think of this dish, and if you changed any of it’s ingredients while cooking. A little Tip might be, to add some glazed mini-onions to the dish, that might bring an interesting sweetness to the dish. I will put it on my list for my next experiment 😉 I always LOVE to see your pictures. Make sure to add @haricoco1 to any of your Instagram pictures. And have FUN creating and editing….
📋 Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 red peppers
- 2 small aubergine
- 2 courgette
- 1/2 celeriac root
- 2 tomatoes chopped, keep the juice
- 1 apple peeled & cored, cut in parts
- 2 shallots finely chopped
- 1 garlic in thin slices, divided
- 50 ml (¼ cup) olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons flour
- 60 ml (⅔ cup) aquafaba (chickpea liquid)
- 100 grams (1 cup) breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon grounded espelette substitute; Aleppo pepper or hot (unsmoked paprika)
- salt
- pepper
- 80 ml (⅓ cup) plant based milk
- 2 teaspoon fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary
- 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Instructions
For the terrine:
- Heat the oven to 180C / 356 F
- Start with pre roasting the red peppers. approx 40 min. until skin is blackened, after cooling down, de-skin the peppers so you are just left with the flesh.
- Cut aubergine and courgette in long slices, approx. 3 mm think.
- Start pan frying (in olive oil) the aubergine and courgette slices with a pinch of salt, until they cooked & lightly browned. Lay the pan-fried slices on a paper towel to get rid of some of the oil.
- Once cooled down you can start layering the red pepper, aubergine and courgette in your terrine dish. Then find something heavy, with which you can put heavy pressure on the vegetables. In a way that the juices can escape (overflow) see picture.
- Leave in the fridge for minimum 4 hours (under continues pressure).
For the celeriac fritters:
- Discard the tough outer peel of the celeriac, and cut the celeriac in same size ‘fries’ shapes.
- Pre-boil 5 minutes, than set aside to cool down.
- While cooling down, prepare 1 plate (or low bowl) with the flour, Prepare another bowl with the aquafaba, and the third bowl with a mixture of the breadcrumbs, espelette pepper, salt and pepper.
- When the celeriac is cooled down ,dip all of the ‘fries’ in the flour, followed by the aquafaba, and lastly dip them into the bread crumbs.
- Arrange all fritters on an oven tray with baking paper, and set aside till 45min before serving-time.
For the puree;
- Use the off-cuts of the celeriac for the puree, boil them until well cooked and soft.
- Cut the apple in parts, discard the core and skin. Cook the apple with a Tablespoon of water until soft. You will have to add sometimes a splash of water so the apple doesn’t brown, or burn.
- In another pan warm the plant based milk, and add half of the garlic so it can infuse.
- Once everything is cooled down slightly, combine apple and celeriac and blend, slowly add the plant based milk till you get your desired texture.
For the tomato sauce:
- Sauté the shallot with a pinch of salt for approx. 3 minutes (not browned) add the rest of the garlic and stir for another minute.
- Add the chopped tomatoes including their juice.
- Leave to simmer (covered) for 7 / 8 minutes.
- Take the lid off and reduce until you get the desired thickness. Season, add fresh herbs, and a splash of balsamic vinegar.
- Cool down and use a stick blender to blend the sauce to a nice smooth texture.
- Set aside
Assemble:
- Drizzle the fritters with a bit of olive oil, and bake them in a pre-heated oven (180C / 356F) for 45 minutes. (turn them twice while baking)
- Meanwhile, reheat the tomato sauce.
- Reheat the puree and put into a piping bag, ready for use.
- Take the terrine out of the fridge, and very carefully lift off the terrine with the help of a cutting board (up side down), so you end up with the vegetables on the cutting board.
- When fritters are golden brown, start plating your plate with the tomato sauce, carefully cut the terrine in slices, add 1 or 2 slices on top of the tomato sauce. Scatter some of the celeriac fries around and lastly pipe out the puree. Decorate with some extra herbs.
