Pistachio and Olive Oil Cake Recipe

Alan Murchison's pistachio and olive oil cake is served with sweet, poached apricots, apricot purée and sorbet. If you don't have all of the equipment required, feel free to poach the apricots using traditional methods and churn the sorbet in a regular ice cream maker.

Apricot sorbet

1kg apricot purée
100ml of water
40g of sugar
1 gelatine leaf, soaked
1 lemon, juiced

Pistachio and olive oil cake

200g of pistachio nut
3 eggs
200g of sugar
125ml of olive oil, warmed
100g of butter, melted
2 oranges, juiced
2 lemons, juiced
50g of polenta
75g of flour
1 tsp baking powder

Poached apricots and purée

10 apricots, halved and destoned
1/2 lemon, juiced
20g of sugar

To serve

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Blender
Water bath
Sous vide bags
Pacojet
15cm x 9cm x 7cm loaf tin

Begin by preparing the apricot sorbet. Add the apricot purée, water and sugar to a saucepan and bring to the boil

40g of sugar
1000g of apricot purée
100ml of water

Mix in the soaked gelatine and lemon juice and stir to dissolve the gelatine. Pour into 2 Pacojet containers and freeze

1 lemon, juiced
1 gelatine leaf, soaked

Preheat the oven to 150°C/gas mark 2

To prepare the pistachio and olive oil cake, start by making a sabayon. Add the eggs and sugar to a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of gently boiling water. Whisk vigorously until the mixture becomes light and frothy

3 eggs
200g of sugar

Slowly mix in the oil, butter, lemon juice and orange juice

2 oranges, juiced
2 lemons, juiced
100g of butter, melted
125ml of olive oil, warmed

Blitz the polenta, pistachio nuts, flour and baking powder into a fine crumb, then gently fold into the sabayon mixture until a dropping consistency has been achieved

1 tsp baking powder
75g of flour
200g of pistachio nut
50g of polenta

Add to a lined cake tin and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes

For the poached apricots and purée, place the apricots, lemon and sugar in a sous vide bag and seal

20g of sugar
1/2 lemon, juiced
10 apricots, halved and destoned

Add this to a water bath set at 90°C and cook for approximately 5-10 minutes until tender, then remove the bag and submerge in a bowl of iced water to chill

Select the 8 most presentable apricot halves and reserve. With the remaining apricots, drain off the excess liquid then blitz in a blender until puréed

To serve, sweep some of the apricot purée onto each plate, then arrange the apricot slices on top. Slice the pistachio and olive oil cake into 1cm thick pieces and serve alongside

Finish each plate with a sprinkling of red vein sorrel, some sugar-coated pistachios and a scoop of sorbet

sugar-coated pistachios

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Alan Murchison

Alan Murchison began working in family-run hotels in Scotland at 14, but it was a stint at Inverlochy Castle in Fort William that gave him his first taste of cooking fine food.

Pistachio and olive oil cake with apricot

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