Alain Passard has unveiled a striking vegetable creation titled the religieuse de navets, blending botanical architecture with contemporary culinary art.
- The dish utilizes three identical turnip shapes in varied sizes and colors to build a vertical structure.
- Preparation requires a twenty-five-minute gentle simmer for the fine stuffing combined with specific herbs and vegetables.
- A vibrant green sauce made from blanched flat-leaf parsley and almond milk frames the final composition.
The recipe calls for three turnips of identical shape but varying caliber and color. Chef Alain Passard builds the foundation of the dish using a fine stuffing composed of one large onion, three shallots, and an écrasée of garlic.
Cooks must fold in finely chopped herbs including mint, verbena, and coriander. The mixture also incorporates ciselé leek, celery leaves, a chiffonade of sorrel, diced button mushrooms, a small diced carrot, lime zest, rapeseed oil, and fleur de thym with fleur de sel.
In a large sauté pan over low heat, the stuffing melts without coloration. The process takes twenty-five minutes covered, with regular stirring before the mixture is cooled.
Using a Parisian melon baller measuring one-and-a-half centimeters in diameter, the cook hollows out the turnips from the base. The harvested turnip pulp is cooked until tender and folded back into the prepared stuffing.
The hollowed roots are then stuffed and steamed for specific durations. The smallest turnip requires ten minutes, the medium version takes fifteen, and the largest needs twenty.
While the roots steam, flat-leaf parsley is washed, spun dry, and blanched in boiling water before being plunged into ice water. Almond milk is warmed gently on the stove and blended with the drained parsley, olive oil, Madras curry, tarragon mustard, and fleur de sel.
The green sauce finishes in a warm double boiler to maintain its consistency. On a warmed serving platter, the three turnips stack vertically, brushed with rapeseed oil and ringed by the vibrant green sauce.
For a proper accompaniment, the dish pairs with a 2019 organic red wine from Arbois-Pupillin, specifically Le Grapiot Trousseau.
