Cooking my wedding amuses! Onion & lovage cone and an artichoke & pistachio tartelette

We’re going to make my wedding bites or amuse bouche. Last week Beau and I got married in Italy and to share a touch of the experience I thought it would be nice to share some recipes! We’re going to make an artichoke & pistachio tartelette and an onion cone with lovage and white onion cream.

The artichoke salad & crisp

First trim the stem from 4 artichokes. Now transfer them into a big pot and submerge them completely with water. Now to prevent the artichokes from turning brown squish in two lemons and also add them to the water for the flavor. After that season the water with 10 grams of salt for every liter of water. I used 5 liter of water, so that’s 50 grams of salt. Now bring the pot to a boil on a medium high heat and then let it boil for 5 minutes. After that turn off the heat and let the water cool down out of the fridge. Once that’s done take them out of the water. Then you can clean the artichokes. For that first remove all the leaves. These you can eat as a snack with a delicious aioli of lemon dip. I’m not using them this time, but I always keep the leaves in my freezer. In an upcoming video I’ll show you what to do with them. Now remove the leaves on all artichokes. Then take a spoon and use it to scoop out the inside. After that use a small knife to trim the sides. These trimmings you can also keep for later with the leaves. Now take half of the artichokes and cut them in slices. Then cut these slices in cubes also known as brunoise. Also finely slice some chives and use it to season the artichoke brunoise together with a drizzle of olive oil, some lemon zest and when necessary some salt. Keep it in your fridge for later. The remaining artichokes you can gently slice in thin slices on a mandolin. Then deep fry them at 160 degrees Celsius till crispy and golden. Now remove them from the oil and directly season them with salt.

The buckwheat tartelette

100 grams	flour
60 grams	buckwheat flour
15 grams	egg yolk
60 grams	cold water
20 grams	olive oil
10 grams	sugar
3 grams	salt

First pour the flour on your worktop and us the bowl to make a well in the middle. Then fill the well with the egg yolk, the buckwheat flour, the cold water, the olive oil, the sugar and the salt. Now mix it to bring everything together and then knead it into a beautiful dough. Then wrap it in foil and let it rest in your fridge for at least 1 hour. After that dust some flour on your worktop and roll out the dough into a thin sheet. Now cut it with round cutter and then remove the excess dough. Once that’s done transfer the dough on some tartelette molds and make sure that you place them in the center. Then place another layer of tartelette molds on top and then another layer of dough. The final layer needs to be tartelette molds. Now press them well together and place them upside down on a tray. Then bake them at 160 degrees Celsius for around 30 minutes till golden brown. Once golden let them first cool down a bit and then when still lukewarm remove the tartelettes from the molds. Keep them dry and covered for later.

The pistachio butter

200 grams	pistachio nuts
3 grams	salt

Spread the pistachio on a tray and toast them at 160 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. Then transfer them into a blender and also add the salt. Then blend it till smooth. Now while you’re blending it may seem that not much is happening. The only thing you can do is continue blending. This will generate a lot of friction which means heat. The heat will make sure the pistachio will release it’s oils and then you’ll end up with a beautiful smooth nut butter. If really nothing is happening, you can always add a tablespoon of pistachio oil to jumpstart the process. The only disadvantage is that the nut butter will be thinner than necessary. Now keep it out of the fridge for later.

The cones

First place a couple sheets of brick dough on top off each other and use a bowl to cut them into the desired size. Now cut them in half. Then lay the sheets with the flat side to the left next to each other. Now melt some butter on a low heat and add a thin layer with a brush. Make sure everything is well covered. Then lay cone shapers on top and roll the dough on the shapers. Make sure it’s super tight. After that lay them next to each other on a tray and bake them at 160 degrees Celsius for around 25 minutes till golden brown. Let them cool down for 5 minutes and then gently remove the cones from the shapers.

The onion cream

5	white onions
5 grams	salt
80 grams	cream
10 grams	white wine vinegar
	Xanthan gum

First cut the white onions in half and clean them. Now chop them. Then add a drizzle of oil to a cold pan add glaze the onions together with the salt on a low heat. This is going to take a couple of hours. Almost all the moisture needs to be vaporized without coloring the onions for a super intense flavor. Then add the cream with the white wine vinegar and bring this to a boil for 1 minute. Now transfer it into a blender and blend it till smooth. Once smooth add a knife tip of the xanthan gum or any other binder like unique binder. Then blend it for another minute to prevent the cream from splitting. This is not 100% necessary, because the flavor and texture will stay the same. It will only stabilize the cream making sure that it won’t leek any liquid on the plate and that will bring your cream to the next level!

The lovage powder & deep fried lovage leaves

I have a lot of lovage in the garden right now and these recipes are a great way to use it and keep it for a long time. First the powder. Spread some lovage leaves on a tray and dry them at 50 degrees Celsius for a couple of hours. You can also do this in your microwave for 30 seconds a time at the lowest watt. This is way faster, but the chance of the leaves turning brown is also bigger. Then transfer the leaves into a blender and blend it into a fine powder. Keep it dry and covered for later. After that deep fry some leaves at 160 degrees Celsius till they stop bubbling. This means that the moisture has vaporized and that they are crispy. Then transfer them on a kitchen paper and directly season them with salt.

The lovage puree or coulis

50 grams	lovage stems and leaves
60 grams	vegetable broth
10 grams	ponzu
	Xanthan gum

First blanch the lovage stems and leaves in salted water for 30 seconds. Now cool it down in ice water and let it let it sit for 2 minutes. Then take it out of the water and squeeze out any liquid. Transfer the lovage in a cub and also add the vegetable broth and the ponzu. Now blend this till smooth. Once smooth like before add a knife tip of the xanthan gum to prevent the puree from splitting. Then cool it down as fast as possible to prevent it from turning brown. I always keep some frozen in ice cube trays for whenever I need small quantities.

How to finish the amuses or bites

First pipe a layer of pistachio butter in the tartelettes and cover it completely with the artichoke salad. Now cover this with the crispy artichoke and decorate it with fennel flowers. Then pipe some onion cream in the cones and pipe some lovage puree on top. In total you’ll need 3 layers of onion cream and 2 of lovage puree. Just make sure you end up with a big dot of onion cream. Then dust some lovage powder on the cream and decorate it with the deep fried lovage leaves.

These bites where great to prep and all the components can be stored dry or in your freezer, this made it perfect for me to prep at home and bring it frozen to Italy.