Name: Moroccan-spiced vegetable and almond pastries with a cucumber-coriander yoghurt sauce
Yield: For four
Cuisine: Moroccan
Ingredients: 400 g roots - carrots, turnips, parsnips, celeriac - at least two types; pinch of cayenne pepper; 1 egg yolk; 12 sheets filo pastry; 100 mls single cream; ½ tsp salt; rind of 1 orange; 80 g whole almonds, toasted and chopped; ¼ tsp cinnamon; 1 whole star anise, ground; ½ tsp turmeric; ½ tsp nutmeg; 1 tsp fennel seeds, ground; 200 g green beans; 2 tsps coriander seeds, ground; small handful fresh coriander, chopped; 300 mls yoghurt; 1 clove garlic; ½ medium cucumber; 80 g melted butter; 2 onions, finely chopped; 2 tsps whole black mustard seeds; 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped; ½ tsp chopped dried chillies; 6 cloves, ground

Preparation info

For
four

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Café Paradiso Cookbook

By Denis Cotter

Published 1999

About

It is what I think of as the ‘sweet’ spices in these pastries that prompt me to call them Moroccan-spiced. Maybe these spices trigger memories in me of a trip through Morocco long ago, maybe it was something I read in a book. The only pastry I remember from that teenage holiday was eaten on the rooftop of a posh hotel and claimed to feature pigeon. Forgive me, I was young and curious. This humbler version features mostly root vegetables because they are best suited to carrying these spices.