Grain Roast Ornamental

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Another year is coming to it’s grand finale. Make sure you celebrate in style and with many loved ones.
Main Course for the Festive Menu 2024 (Rcp# 56, the second part in the list of reverse preparations for the menu).

*** You’ll find the complete collection of recipes for this year’s Festive Menu in the Featured category. Or, you can find them tagged as ‘featured_posts’. ***

Pre-Preparations

  1. Prepare the dough from the [‘Torf Brot’] recipe
  2. Allow the dough to cool completely and absorb as much of the liquid as possible while storing in the refrigerator (takes about 30 – 45 minutes).
  3. Preheat the oven to 160°C, convection plus top and bottom heat.
  4. Line a baking sheet with heavy-duty baking paper in two layers. Spread the dough in a rectangle about 1 – 2 cm high. Use a knife or large spoon to flatten the dough evenly. This will not fill the entire baking sheet, but that is okay. Then, using a spoon, flatten the dough about 3 cm on the sides to a very thin layer (less than 1 cm), leaving the rest of the dough at the original height (1 – 2 cm).
  5. Bake the dough mat for 20-25 minutes, then remove and carefully cut along the edge of the tall dough to create one tall mat and four thin strips of dough on all four sides. Return to the oven to bake for another 15 minutes, then remove the cut-out thick dough mat, flip and place on a cold surface to cool (juicy side up, crispy side down). Return the remaining thin strips of dough to the oven at 180°C for another 5 minutes to crisp. Then remove to cool. To use on salad, let cool (lukewarm max) and cut into small pieces (side length about 2-3 x 3-5 cm).

Ingredients for ‘Grain Roast Ornamental’

For the grain roast

  • 1 ½ Recipes of ‘Phantom Bearlings’ (recipe with [Ingredient Special on Bear’s Garlic])
  • Bread mats made from ’Torf Brot’ dough (see pre-preparations above)
  • You will also need: a small metal bread baking pan

For the green and golden ‘ornaments’

  • 55 – 60 brussels sprouts (about 700 – 750 g uncleaned with outer leaves)
  • 300g hoccaido pumpkin flesh without peel, cut into chunks
  • 200 g of polenta
  • 2700 ml of hot water: 1 liter and 200 ml for golden ornaments plus 1 ½ liters for green ornaments
  • 2 tablespoons almond butter
  • ¼ teaspoon cinnamon (less, if cinnamon is very strong)
  • ¼ teaspoon mild salt
  • ¼ teaspoon dried ginger powder

For the sauce

  • 4 fresh fennel stems, crispy and sliced, or 5 tablespoons fresh chopped fennel bulb (use cleaned outer leaves)
  • 5 tablespoons dried, salted and chopped tomatoes
  • 5 tablespoons crushed walnut kernels
  • ½ tablespoon dried and crumbled sage leaves (or 10 – 12 medium to large fresh sage leaves)
  • 1 teaspoon dried and crushed rosemary needles (or the equivalent in fresh needles)
  • 1 tablespoon dried and crushed lemongrass or 10 – 15 leaves fresh lemon balm
  • ¼ to ½ teaspoon smoked sea salt (amount depends on the strength of the smoke flavor, color may be an indicator)
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons hot water
  • 100 ml olive water (water from olive jar)
  • 1 liter of cooking stock from the brussels sprouts
  • Pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
  • 3 tablespoons of oat yogurt
  • You will also need: a medium mesh strainer or a sauce strainer and a wooden spoon to stir the sauce through.

Preparations for ‘Grain Roast Ornamental’

  1. After finishing the ‘pre-prep’ from above (bread chips for salad and and dough mat for grain roast), make the dough for the [‘Phantom Bearlings’] according to the recipe and set it aside to rest in the fridge.
  2. Scald the pumpkin chunks in a saucepan with 1200ml hot water, then heat and cook until the pumpkin is soft. Turn off the heat and allow to cool to a safe temperature, then place the cooked chunks in the liquid in a blender bowl, add the almond butter (make sure you stir the butter before taking out the correct amount), salt and spices. Blend to a smooth sauce.
  3. Return blended pumpkin sauce to saucepan and heat briefly. Use the hot liquid in the saucepan to make polenta according to the instructions on the polenta package (some polenta is extremely heat-sensitive and only needs to be cooked and left to rest for a short time, others have different requirements, so follow the instructions carefully as polenta can stick and burn easily). Allow the finished polenta to cool completely (lukewarm).
  4. Shape the cooked polenta into balls about the size of a walnut. Bake on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper for 30-35 minutes in a preheated oven at 125°C (convection plus top and bottom heat). Remove baking sheet from oven. Take off and leave the polenta balls to cool on a platter.
  5. From the sauce ingredients list: Combine the sage, rosemary, lemongrass, and smoked sea salt in a small bowl with 3 tablespoons of hot water (70°C will do) and 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and marinate for at least half an hour at room temperature.
  6. Grease the bread pan well with canola oil. Place two long slices of the ‘Torf Brot’ dough mat (see prep above), moist side down, on the bottom of the pan so that the bottom is completely covered. Fill in the dough for the grain roast (from the recipe ‘Phantom Bearlings’) and flatten with a spoon or knife. Then place the rest of the dough mat on top of the grain dough, juicy side up (except for the crispy cut-off sides, which you will need for the salad).
  7. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (convection plus top and bottom heat) for 35 minutes. Place a piece of baking paper on top of the dough in the pan for 20 minutes. After 35 minutes of baking, remove the roast from the oven, place it on a heat-resistant surface and continue with the rest of the menu preparations.
  8. Wash the brussels sprouts and cut off the outer leaves and hard bottoms, saving both for later. Heat 1 ½ liters of water in a pot and add the cut leaves and hard bottoms of the brussels sprouts. Bring to a brief boil, simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes, then remove the solids. Heat the cleaned brussels sprouts in the cooking liquid and cook briefly for 8-10 minutes. Then remove the vegetables – again, save the cooking liquid – and stop the cooking process by pouring cold water over the vegetables (as you would with eggs or pasta).
  9. To prepare the sauce, heat the canola oil in a saucepan. Add the dried and salted tomato pieces, the chopped fennel and the walnut crumble. Saute until the fennel is slightly browned, then add the marinated herbs and olive water. Stir well. Add the nutmeg and the Brussels sprout stock. Bring to a brief boil, then turn off and remove from the heat. When cool enough to handle, blend with a handheld blender and strain through a sieve to obtain a smooth, creamy sauce. Set aside on a heat-resistant surface and proceed with the rest of your menu preparations.
    Note: You can do steps 1 through 9 of the main course a little ahead of time (like in the afternoon if you want to serve the menu in the evening). Just be sure to store all the components in a cool place after they have cooled down to room temperature. Once you have completed steps 1 through 9, the preparations are basically done. All you need to do is make the salad fresh, reheat the main course components (see below), and enjoy the dessert, which should be prepared and stored in the freezer a day or two ahead.
  10. Prepare and serve the salad [‘Covered Green Tops’] with the crisp bread chips on top.
  11. Take the rack out of the oven and preheat the oven to 160°C (convection only). Place all the pre-cooked brussels sprouts in an oiled baking form. Place the pre-baked ‘golden ornaments’ (polenta balls) on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. When the oven has reached the correct temperature, place the rack in the middle of the oven, put the pan with the grain roast on top of the rack and the baking form with the Brussels sprouts on the side. Slide the baking sheet under the roasting pan and vegetable dish. Bake for 15 minutes. Check the heat inside the roast. If it is not cooked through, give it another 5-8 minutes, but remove the ‘ornaments’ (polenta balls and brussels sprouts) and keep them warm (cover with a piece of baking paper).
  12. While reheating the rest of the main course: Heat about 150 ml of water in a saucepan. When it begins to boil, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and add the sauce for the menu. Stir well, turn off the heat, and remove the pot from the stove. Place sauce in a sauce boat to serve with the main dish.

This recipe will serve four to five people. So you’ll have to adjust the amount proportionally if you have more friends and family coming over 😉

Side Notes:

  1. The critical parts here are the prep work with the Torf Brot dough mat and the dough for the grain roast loaf. This actually takes the most time. The rest is very quick and easy. Some of the more time-consuming preparations can be done in advance. For example, the Torf Brot dough mat (and the bread crisps for the salad) can easily be made the day before. Just keep everything refrigerated for later use. The dough for the grain roast can wait an hour or two. So before you actually start cooking on the day, just make it and leave it in the fridge to use later.
  2. Of course, the pumpkin for the golden ornaments should also have been cleaned, sliced, and frozen beforehand. Don’t throw away the peel and the seeds though, they are very good for stews and soups: see [‘Smutje’s Otherday Stew’], [‘Tella Peel Soup’] or [‘Multi-Meal Prep II – The Sequel’]) and also the ingredient special [‘No Hokkaido is ever wasted’]. Yes, I know, I should decide whether to spell the versatile pumpkin with a ‘k’ or a ‘c’ … Sorry. 😉

Please note: For all my recipes (text) on this blog (By MagS, Parsley-Lane Blog) I grant a CC license under the terms of BY-NC-SA 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further explanations, please see the Legal Notice or visit creativecommons.org.