MANCHEGO CHEESE FLAN WITH TOFFEE ICE CREAM AND APPLE, CELERY AND FERMENTED WALNUT SALAD
FRAN MARTÍNEZ - MARALBA
Ingredientes
  • For the Manchego cheese flan: 400 g PDO Manchego cheese, 600 g sheep's milk, 160 g sugar, 160 g egg yolks, 
  • For the caramel sauce: 100 g sugar, 50 g water, 1 tablespoon of Lemon Juice, 
  • For the apples soaked in basil: 2 apples, 25 g fresh basil, 25 g (half and half) syrup, 10 g lemon juice,  
  • For the celery in syrup: 300 g celery, 500 g water, 150 g sugar, 
  • For the apple essence: 1 kg of apples or their trimmings, a tablespoon of Xanthan gum
  • For the basil gel: 200 g of basil leaves, 150 g (half and half) syrup, 10 g lemon juice, 3 g Xanthan gum,
  • For the lemon confit slices: 4 lemons, 115 g salt, 65 g sugar, 1 L water, 500 g sugar.
  • For the spice crumble: 120 g flour, 80 g sugar, 80 g butter, 4 Cloves, 5 cardamom, 6 pcs. black pepper, 5 g star anise, 1 g salt,
  • For the fermented walnuts: 50 g walnuts, salt,
  • For the caramel toffee ice cream and sugared walnuts: 50 g walnuts, 50 g sugar, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 592 g whole milk, 83 g cream, 45 g skimmed milk powder, 20 g dextrose, 20 g invert sugar, 140 g sucrose, 100 g yolks.

Preparation

For the flan:

  • Heat the sheep's milk and add the diced Manchego cheese to the Thermomix. Blend at maximum speed for 1 minute.
  • Strain through a fine sieve and set aside.
  • Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and pour over the milk and cheese mixture set aside previously.
  • Mix the two together without getting any air in the mixture. 
  • Put 10 grams of liquid caramel in the chosen flan mould followed by 70 grams of the custard mixture. Place in a gastronorm food tub with holes and put film over them. Bake at 80ºC for 45 minutes and set aside in the fridge.
  • Allow to stand before serving.

For the caramel sauce:

  • Add the sugar, 15 g of water and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to the saucepan. Warm over low heat until dark in colour. Stop cooking by pouring in the rest of the boiling water, stir and leave to cool.

For the apples soaked in basil (80 pax)

  • Peel the apples and make balls using a melon baller.
  • Soak the balls by vacuum packing them with lemon juice, half and half syrup and coarsely chopped fresh basil.
  • Keep the apple trimmings for point 4.

For the celery in syrup (80 pax)

  • Peel the celery and candy it until it has an "al dente" texture in the syrup made with the above-mentioned quantities of water and sugar. Cool quickly and set aside.

For the apple essence

  • Put the apples in a Korean OCOO bain marie and use the extract programme.
  • Reduce the apple extract to 80%.
  • Texturize with a little Xanthan gum if necessary to get a gel texture.

For the basil gel

  • Blanch the basil and cool quickly in water and ice.
  • Blend the blanched basil leaves with 150 g syrup and 10 g lemon juice.
  • Strain through a kitchen cloth to get 200 g of basil liquid.
  • Texturize with the Xanthan gum. This gives us 200 grams of gel.
  • Set aside in a bottle.

For the lemon confit slices

  • Make a syrup with the water and sugar, leave to cool. 
  • Wash and cut the lemons into 4 wedges lengthways, keeping the base uncut. Fill with the salt and sugar mixture and place in a jar, squeezing the lemons tightly. Pour the syrup over them once cold and close the jar. Set aside for 6 months in cold storage before opening. After this period, remove the lemon peel and chop finely.

For the spice crumble

  • Finely crush the spices.
  • Mix all the ingredients together with the softened butter.
  • When we have a smooth dough, break into small pieces on the baking sheet with baking paper.
  • Bake at 180ºC for about 8 minutes until evenly browned.
  • Leave to cool and blend in the Thermomix until granules are obtained.
  • Store in an airtight Tupperware dish in a dry place. Put a small spoonful on the ice cream base.

For the fermented walnuts

  • Put walnuts in sterilised glass jars and cover in 6% brine for at least 7 days. Leave to ferment and after a week, check for PH <4.5, peel the walnuts and set aside.

For the caramel toffee ice cream with sugared walnuts

  • Sugared walnuts: Brown the walnuts in the oven at 180º C without burning them. Prepare the caramel and add the browned nuts, then mix well with a spatula and add a knob of butter. Once melted, spread on a silicone mat, and set aside.
  • Toffee ice cream: Make a white caramel with the sucrose. When ready, pour over the caramel and the hot milk and cream mixture. Sprinkle the powdered milk over it, then the dextrose. At 40 ºC, pour in the egg yolk and then the invert sugar. Cook to 82 ºC, to cool quickly. Set aside for 12 hours. Create a sorbet with the sugared walnuts.
FRAN MARTÍNEZ - MARALBA