Pistachio and olive oil cake with apricot

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Alan Murchison's pistachio and olive oil cake is served with sweet, poached apricots, apricot purée and sorbet. If you don't have all of the equipment required, feel free to poach the apricots using traditional methods and churn the sorbet in a regular ice cream maker.

First published in 2015

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Apricot sorbet

Pistachio and olive oil cake

Poached apricots and purée

Equipment

  • Blender
  • Water bath
  • Sous vide bags
  • Pacojet
  • 15cm x 9cm x 7cm loaf tin

Method

1
Begin by preparing the apricot sorbet. Add the apricot purée, water and sugar to a saucepan and bring to the boil
2
Mix in the soaked gelatine and lemon juice and stir to dissolve the gelatine. Pour into 2 Pacojet containers and freeze
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 1 gelatine leaf, soaked
3
Preheat the oven to 150°C/gas mark 2
4
To prepare the pistachio and olive oil cake, start by making a sabayon. Add the eggs and sugar to a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of gently boiling water. Whisk vigorously until the mixture becomes light and frothy
5
Slowly mix in the oil, butter, lemon juice and orange juice
6
Blitz the polenta, pistachio nuts, flour and baking powder into a fine crumb, then gently fold into the sabayon mixture until a dropping consistency has been achieved
7
Add to a lined cake tin and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes
8
For the poached apricots and purée, place the apricots, lemon and sugar in a sous vide bag and seal
9
Add this to a water bath set at 90°C and cook for approximately 5-10 minutes until tender, then remove the bag and submerge in a bowl of iced water to chill
10
Select the 8 most presentable apricot halves and reserve. With the remaining apricots, drain off the excess liquid then blitz in a blender until puréed
11
To serve, sweep some of the apricot purée onto each plate, then arrange the apricot slices on top. Slice the pistachio and olive oil cake into 1cm thick pieces and serve alongside
12
Finish each plate with a sprinkling of red vein sorrel, some sugar-coated pistachios and a scoop of sorbet
First published in 2015

Alan Murchison began working in family-run hotels in Scotland at 14, but it was a stint at Inverlochy Castle in Fort William that gave him his first taste of cooking fine food.

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