Chef Carla Schulze’s wild and earthy take on malva pudding

Carla Schulze at Salon in Woodstock, Cape Town. (Photo: Supplied)

By Tony Jackman

26 Jan 2024

Every week in TGIFood, a professional chef is asked to share a recipe with our readers. Today, Carla Schulze of Salon, part of Luke Dale Roberts’ Cape restaurant empire, shares her highly inventive take on the traditional South African malva pudding.

Artichoke in malva pudding? Yes indeed, but this is Jerusalem artichoke, the variety that grows in soil, like a potato and other tubers. These babies, however, become somewhat sweet while growing underground, where the inulin carbohydrates they are mostly composed of (as opposed to the starch in potatoes) turn into fructose.

Carla Schulze describes her menu at Salon, which is in the Silo building at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock, Cape Town, as “a culinary journey around the world, celebrating different regions, flavours and cooking techniques”.

The recipe she chose to share with us is Salon’s take on the classic South African dessert: malva, custard and ice cream. But that’s all before her inventiveness kicks in.

“I developed a dish with Chef Luke that was ‘a trip to South Africa’; the classic malva pudding,” she told TGIFood. “We wanted to honour and use local ingredients, such as making an amasi ice cream, and elevate the malva by making a Jerusalem artichoke cake in a smoked whiskey and maple caramel.

Carla Schulze at Salon in Woodstock, Cape Town. (Photo: Supplied)

“We created a take on Ultramel [the popular household custard brand sold in cartons at supermarkets] which was a coffee anglaise – the flavours of coffee and artichoke work magnificently together and really made the malva the star of the show.

“Hanepoot poached pears were added for freshness to the warm and nostalgic dish.”

Note the yield: for home cooking, or a dinner party, you’ll need to adapt the quantities to the number of servings you need. Here’s Chef Carla’s recipe…

Jerusalem Artichoke Malva, Amasi Ice Cream and Coffee Anglaise

(Yields: 40 desserts)

Malva Pudding

Ingredients:

30 ml butter

250 ml castor sugar

80 ml Jerusalem artichoke purée* (see recipe below)

10 ml white vinegar

500 ml cake flour

500 ml milk

2 eggs, beaten

10 ml bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of salt

Syrup For Cake:

400 ml brandy

200 ml whiskey

50 g smoking chips

10 ml vanilla paste

Pinch of salt

200 ml maple syrup

200 ml cream*

Butter or Spray & Cook for greasing

Equipment: muffin tins/ small cake pans 7cm in diameter, blender, small saucepan, spatula, whisk, chinois, medium-sized bowl, blowtorch, serrated knife.

Method

Malva Pudding:

Preheat the oven to 180℃. Grease the muffin or cake tins with butter or Spray & Cook.

In a small saucepan, melt together the butter, sugar, and vinegar – over low to medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Sift the dry ingredients together into a bowl, then add in the butter mixture. Next, add in the milk bit by bit while whisking to incorporate well and create a smooth batter.

Incorporate the beaten eggs.

Divide the batter into the muffin or cake tins, filling the batter halfway up the tin. Bake for 15 minutes or until the cake is baked through (insert a skewer; if it comes out clean the cakes are ready) and golden brown on top.

Syrup for the cake:

While the cake is baking, prepare the syrup.

Place the smoking chips in a pan over medium to high heat. Using a blowtorch, burn the chips until they begin to smoke. Deglaze the pan with both alcohols and flambe until the alcohol has cooked out (the flame will begin to subdue). Add the maple syrup and vanilla. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Then strain out the smoking chips. Keep warm.

When the cakes come out of the oven, allow them to rest for 5 minutes before slicing off the top using a serrated knife, creating a flat even layer on top. Pour over 1 tablespoon of warm syrup and allow the cake to soak up the syrup.

Place leftover syrup in a pot and add the 200 ml of cream. Reduce over medium heat to create a butterscotch, this will be used to plate the dessert.

Jerusalem Artichoke Purée:

Ingredients

500 g Jerusalem artichokes

85 g butter

Equipment: Bowl of ice water, peeler, greaseproof paper, blender, medium pot.

Method

Peel the Jerusalem artichokes and drop them into a bowl of ice water to prevent them from oxidising.

Once peeled, remove from the water and pat dry with a paper towel or a kitchen towel. Slice into thin rounds.

In a medium-sized pot, melt the butter. Next, add the sliced artichokes and cover with a cartouche.

Cook over medium heat, while occasionally stirring, until the artichokes are soft.

Place the contents of the pot into a blender and blend until completely smooth.

Use artichoke purée as directed in the malva cake recipe.

Hanepoot Poached Pear:

Ingredients

125 ml hanepoot

125 ml white wine

15 ml maple syrup

½ a vanilla pod

25 ml beurre noisette

4 pears, peeled and cheeks removed

Equipment: small pot, peeler, medium pot, fitted bowl for medium pot, clingwrap.

Method

Place everything except the pears into a small pot and bring to the boil. Remove the liquid from the heat.

Place the pear cheeks into a bowl that fits on top of a medium pot. Fill the pot a quarter of the way with water.

Cover the cheeks in the poaching liquid and wrap the bowl in cling wrap.

Place the pot with the wrapped bowl on top, over a low–medium heat. Allow to poach for 20 minutes or until the pears are al dente.

Remove from the heat and place the bowl in the fridge. Allow the pears to cool in the liquid.

Remove the pears from the liquid and cube. Place the cubes back into the liquid.

Amasi Ice Cream:

Ingredients

500 g milk

200 g cream

125 g castor sugar

150 g glucose

2 tonka beans, microplaned

14 egg yolks

500 g crème fraÎche

500 g amasi

Pinch of salt

Equipment: bowl of ice water, medium bowl, spatula, thermometer, ice cream churner or whisk, chinois, medium pot.

Method

Place the milk, cream, glucose, grated tonka bean and pinch of salt into a medium pot. Heat the mixture over a low heat.

Meanwhile, whisk the yolks and sugar until pale and fluffy. Remove the milk mixture from the heat and slowly temper the egg mixture. Once all the liquid has been added, place back into the pot and over low heat take the anglaise to 82.5℃.

Have the bowl of ice with a bowl on top ready. Immediately once the anglaise reaches 82.5℃ strain through a chinois into the bowl over ice.

Stir using a spatula to rapidly cool the anglaise.

In a separate bowl, combine the amasi and crème fraiche. Fold through the anglaise.

Place in an ice cream churner or alternatively pour into a container and keep in the freezer, whisking every 40 minutes.

Coffee Anglaise:

Ingredients

600 ml cream

120 g egg yolks

80 g sugar

15 ml vanilla paste

1 ½ gelatine leaves

2 double espresso shots

Equipment: bowl of ice water, medium bowl, spatula, thermometer, whisk, chinois, medium pot, espuma gun, 1 x cream whip charger.

Method

Bloom gelatine in a bowl of ice water until soft and rehydrated, squeeze out any excess liquid.

Place the cream and vanilla into a medium pot. Heat the mixture over a low heat.

Meanwhile, whisk the yolks and sugar until pale and fluffy. Remove the cream mixture from the heat and slowly temper the egg mixture. Once all the liquid has been added, place back into the pot and over low heat take the anglaise to 82.5℃, and add the gelatine.

Have the bowl of ice with a bowl on top ready. Immediately once the anglaise reaches 82.5℃ strain through a chinois into the bowl over ice.

Stir using a spatula to rapidly cool the anglaise.

Add in the espresso to cooled custard.

Pour the coffee anglaise into an espuma gun and charge once with a cream whip.

To assemble the dish:

Place the malva in the oven at 180℃ for 2 minutes to heat through.

Once it comes out of the oven, plate on your desired serving dish and cover with a teaspoon of the whiskey butterscotch. Scatter 5-7 cubes of hanepoot poached pears around the malva.

Place a scoop of amasi ice cream on top of the warm pudding. Serve the coffee anglaise in a side bowl.

Carla notes: “At the restaurant, we garnish the dish with fried artichoke crisps in a spiced blood orange sherbet and finish off the coffee anglaise foam with a thinly sliced pear shard.” DM

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