Ava's roasted pear, sweet parsnip, hazelnut and wattle seed toast.

Our Marrickville head chef, Ava, shares her recipe for her favourite weekend brunch. Brown sugar and lemon roasted pears, sweet parsnip puree, wattle seed, honey and hazelnuts on sourdough. Sweet, earth and delicious! 

Serves 4 

Ingredients:

Parsnip Puree

  • 4 parsnips
  • 4 cups full cream milk 
  • 1 tbsp honey 
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • pinch of salt 

Citrus Roasted Pears 

  • 2-3 whole bosc pears
  • 50g Brown sugar 
  • Zest and juice of 1 lemon (about 60ml)
  • 4 tbsp of roasted hazelnuts
  • 1 teaspoon of wattle seeds.

 

Method:

Preheat oven to 180ºc.

Peel quarter the pears, removing the cores. In a medium size bowl, whisk the brown sugar and lemon juice together until syrupy. Toss pears through the sugar mix until well coated and spread out on a baking tray. 

Roast for 25 minutes or until the pears are soft and the sugar has caramelised and browned. Remove from the oven.

For the puree, peel and chop the parsnips into large chunks and place in a medium saucepan. Cover with milk until fully submerged and then bring to simmering point, place a lid on the pot and gently simmer on low for 45 minutes. 

Once the parsnip is very soft, strain (reserve the milk for baking, you can freeze for up to a month). Using a stick blender or food processor, blend the parsnip into a puree, add salt, lemon juice and honey and continue to blend until well combined and very smooth. You can sweeten it up with more honey or add more lemon juice for a more acidic puree.

To assemble your dish, toast your sourdough and cut into halves or thirds. Smear a good dollop of parsnip puree on each piece, then arrange pears on top. Drizzle with remaining syrup,  and sprinkle hazelnuts and wattle seeds. Enjoy with a coffee or pot of tea!