Grilled Hispi Cabbage, Celeriac Mash and Ancho Relish

This meat-free Mexican inspired recipe from the brilliant Thomasina Miers, uses sweet hispi cabbage which chargrills perfectly. It is served on a bed of roughly mashed celeriac with thyme, olive oil and garlic and finished with an "insane" Ancho chilli relish which is made in advance. It can be stored for several weeks and increases in flavour!

Ingredients

For the Ancho relish:

8 Ancho or Aleppo chillies, de-stemmed and de-seeded
3 banana shallots, peeled and finely chopped
4 garlic cloves,
finely chopped
150ml red wine vinegar
300ml olive oil

For the celeriac mash:

60ml olive oil
1kg celeriac, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
3 sprigs of thyme, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

For the cabbage:

2 Hispi cabbages, outer leaves removed, cut into quarters through stem
2 big handfuls of tarragon leaves, roughly chopped
2 big handfuls of parsley leaves, roughly chopped

For the buttermilk dressing:

150ml buttermilk
150ml extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp brown sugar
30ml sherry vinegar
Freshly chopped mint
Salt and pepper

Method

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Make the relish first. Tear each of the chillies into a few pieces and then pulse in a food processor until roughly chopped–you want pieces the size of small snowflakes.

Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the remaining ingredients (you can use the machine for the shallots but only if you pulse briefly so they don’t turn to mush).

Season generously to taste and leave to macerate for a few hours or preferably overnight. The flavour will keep getting better for several weeks.

To make the mash heat 40ml of oil in a large pan over a medium-high heat and add the celeriac, thyme and garlic. Season well and fry, stirring once or twice, for 5 minutes until the celeriac begins to brown, then turn the heat down to low, add 75ml water, cover and leave to cook for 20-25 minutes until completely soft.

When soft, roughly mash then stir in the remaining 20ml of oil and check the seasoning. Keep warm.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and blanch the Hispi wedges for 3 minutes then remove and leave to steam dry. Heat up a large griddle pan or grill and char the Hispi on both sides until it has nice dark char marks and the edges are crisp.

Divide the celeriac mash between warm plates and sit 2 pieces of grilled cabbage on top. Spoon over the relish and drizzle with the some of its oil. Sprinkle each plate with plenty of herbs, then serve.