Spiced butternut squash soup with miso ice cream
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Spiced butternut squash soup with toasted sunflower seed miso ice cream
Inspired by the sunflower motif in the film Calendar Girls and the Women's Institute of the northeast. Jamie uses the entire sunflower plant across the dish. Jamie: "Based around the sunflower that's seen quite a lot throughout the film. So I'm using the entire sunflower. Cooking the sunflower down really gently. I've made a sunflower seed miso, which I'll be turning into an ice cream, and I'm gonna finish that with a spiced butternut squash soup that's been infused with a little bit of lemon verbena." The soup is built by sweating shallots, chili and garlic in vegan butter, cooking down butternut squash, and infusing with lemon verbena. Jamie: "So it's a toasted sunflower seed. Miso." The ice cream is scooped, rolled in toasted sunflower seed crumble, hollowed out and filled with a vinaigrette made from sunflower leaves, petals and their liquor. Preserved sunflower hearts top the ice cream. Fresh sunflower petals finish the dish. Paul during preparation: "The chili's been in there at the beginning?" Jamie: "Yeah. So I sweated the chili down with a bit of garlic and some shallots, a little bit of the vegan butter, brought the squash down with it, infuse [with lemon] verbena and then I'll bring it back up." The central challenge was preventing the ice cream from cooling the hot soup too quickly. Soup was served from a separate jug, poured at the table.
VETERAN ROUND: Paul during tasting: "Okay, Jamie, let's start with the soup. Happy with the consistency?" Jamie: "Yeah. The texture. Really happy with it." Weike: "I like the texture." Ryan: "I'm loving the contrast between the soup and the ice cream." Paul: "The temperature contrast between hot soup, the cold ice cream. Is that what you're going for?" Jamie: "Yeah. Yeah. I think it's quite interesting. Something a little bit different." Cal: "It's brave doing ice cream for a starter." Paul: "Jamie, the chili, is that playing its part?" Jamie: "Yeah, it's definitely lightly spiced, but it's not meant to be sort of knock your head off." Host: "I'd quite like a bit of, like, a slice of something to dig in." Cal: "I think you're right. You need some on the side. Soup deserves bread." Peers scored it 8. Paul at formal scoring: Score 7. "Jamie, for your dish, Calendar Chefs, I really liked your link to the brief. The sunflower seed ice cream was well made. The butternut squash soup had great flavor, but the soup cools down quite quickly, especially next to the ice cream. You had enough time, and I feel you could have made something delicious like a nice bread." Host: "Jamie, I had the same concerns as Paul about your dish, but you brought it together so beautifully on the plate. You really did. I have one word for you, though. Bread." JUDGING ROUND: [To be completed when judging round transcript is received]
BANQUET FINAL: No changes from the heats. Jamie stuck with the dish that scored 9, 7, 8 and trusted the temperature contrast again. Sunflower seed miso ice cream rolled in toasted sunflower seeds, preserved sunflower chokes, sunflower petal vinaigrette, verbena-infused squash soup poured hot at the table, sunflower miso glazed tear and share bread, sunflower seed miso butter.
Reception at the pass. Corrin: "That butter is the best vegan butter I've ever..." Josh: "Yeah, it's nicely made bread." Lorna McNee: "The butter tastes great, and I love the crunch on the outside of the bread. I really enjoyed the soup this time, more so than last time. But I'm not a fan of the ice cream this time. I don't think it works together at all." Tom Kerridge: "It's an uplifting dish. The soup is outstandingly good. It's rich. That little bit of spice that comes through is wonderful and warming. My issue is the cold temperature of the ice cream. It just seems to fight everything." Phil Wang: "When you hit that temperature difference, it's just kind of distracting." Jack: "By the time you've chewed the crumb around the ice cream, the ice cream's melted. So I can see how it's working with the heat of the soup." Marley Sue (guest): "I've never had savoury ice cream. I think it's amazing. I would eat this every day."
Final result: 4th place. Phil Wang: "I love this dish. It's nutty, it's delicious, and that butter is just superb. I gave it a nine, which just goes to show how competitive these top spots are."
