Vegetable Timbales (Tri-color Vegetable Cupcakes)

Timbales are actually shallow single-headed drums, much smaller than the regular drums, and resembling inverted cups. Yes, they are musical instruments, and if you are wondering why I am rambling about music on a food blog, it is because the recipe that I share with you today is "Vegetable Timbales" or "Tri-color Inverted Vegetable Cupcakes", as I like to call them. They are so named because of their distinct resemblance in shape to the Timbales instrument. In fact, it is an excellent Appetizer with a Soup, or goes perfectly well as a side dish too! This recipe is an inspiration from a similar one I saw on one of the Food Network shows. It is basically a boiled or baked dish, cooked with layered vegetables, and the colors and flavors found in this dish make it a worthy addition to your party platters!

The focus of this dish is more to its color and presentation, so choose colored vegetables to form the layers. The egg-yolks and cream give it a nice texture, firm yet soft and pliable. It can be steamed or baked, but I prefer the previous method as it's more close to the original recipe and also makes the timbales more fluffy.
Ingredients
1 cup carrots- shredded
1 cup peas - boiled and mashed
1 cup red capsicum - chopped finely
1/2 cup whipping cream
3 egg yolks
pinch of nutmeg
salt and black pepper - to taste

Method
Steam the carrots or boil them so they are fully cooked. Wash and boil the peas too and mash them. Chop the capsicums and keep aside. Now take a sauce pan and put 1 tsp olive oil and saute all the 3 vegetables separately. Saute them one after the other until fully cooked and stop when they start giving out a grilled-like aroma.

Now Puree each vegetable separately in a blender. For carrots, add 1/3 of the cream to make a smooth paste. Divide the remaining cream into 2 parts and add each portion to the capsicums and peas separately while blending.
Keep in 3 separate bowls.

Beat the egg yolks and add individually to each paste. Season each batch with salt, pepper and nutmeg powder.

Grease 2 muffin moulds; layer each mould with the 3 purees starting with the carrot, then peas and finally capsicum at the top. Cook these moulds in a double boiler with water coming half way up the sides of the moulds. Cook for a little more than an hour. You can also use a steam coooker without the whistle, but be careful not to overcook the timbales.

To serve, put a plate over each mould; turn it upside down and gently tap the mould to release the timbales. This works as a great appetizer for your parties or you could even Serve it with a salad or Tomato Soup !

Tip: I've used only 3 veggies here,but you can pick as many and whatever vegetables as you like to create more layers. Some suggestions would be spinach, watercress, potatoes and even cheese! You can even combine Cooked Rice as one of the layers!

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