Bryan Martin's beefed-up vegetable tortilla bake with chilli jam

So a sprouted buckwheat salad with yoghurt chia seed dressing and all that sort of stuff wasn't enough to prove I don't necessarily have to eat meat every meal. Although I do like a blood pudding and liver fry-up as a light breakfast when the mood takes me.

The first kitchen that took me on as a cook was situated just across the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne's west. I want to say Spotswood but I think it was more Yarraville. It was a long way from where we lived in Warrandyte but as I was an older, unqualified chef (at 30 years of age) that's the only place that would take me on. It was a refurbished topless bar where the owner's daughters took over the place and first thing was to get rid of the topless part and created a pretty cool, urban kitchen that was run by a rather large cook of African descent. She had a great menu that was mostly vegetarian – you can imagine there was a slight change in the demographic of the customers at this point – and one of the most popular dishes was this large vegetable bake where she made her own tortillas and layered them with a spicy bean mixture, guacamole, spinach and cheese. It's like a nacho cake and should impress anyone even if there's no meat involved.

Vegetable tortilla bake

13 large corn tortillas
4kg ripe tomatoes, chopped roughly
1 tbsp salt
½ cup olive oil
1 head of garlic, peeled but each clove left whole
300g red kidney beans, soaked in water for 24 hours, drained
Pickling reduction (recipe follows)
1 cup grated mozzarella
¼ cup pickled jalapenos, chopped
2 ripe avocados
1 lime
1 small red onion
1 bunch coriander, leaves chopped coarsely
2 bunches spinach, chopped
1 thumb-sized knob of fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp turmeric powder
Salt and pepper
1 cup sour cream to serve

Heat your oven to 220C. Mix the tomatoes with salt, oil and garlic cloves, cover and bake until they all collapse. If you have a pressure cooker, on high pressure this will take 20 minutes plus cooling time. In the oven it will take an hour or so. Once fully cooked through, pass the tomatoes mixture through a food mill to remove the seeds and skin. In a pot, add the soaked and drained beans and cover with about half the tomato mixture. Bring to a very low simmer and cook covered until the beans are super soft, the tomato sauce has been mostly absorbed in the process. Mash them up with a potato masher so that they are half smashed, like an Irishman at 10am on St Pat's Day. Set aside.

Bring the rest of the tomato puree to a simmer, add the pickling reduction and cook this down to a very thick sauce, stir often as it has a propensity to burn but it needs to be almost paste like so that it sets when cold. Cool a little and pour into sterilised jars. Add half a cup of the tomato jam to the smashed beans.

Remove the seed and skin from the avocados, chop into a dice and then mash them up with a fork, doesn't have to be super smooth. Grate over the mashed avocados, the zest from the lime and the squeeze the over juice. Add, and mix in, the red onion and coriander leaf. Bring a pot of water to the boil and blanch the spinach, refresh under cold water and heat up a large pan. Add a splash of olive oil and cook the spinach with the ginger and turmeric for five minutes. Set aside

Turn the oven down to 180C. Cut the tortillas to the same size as the base of a 20cm springform pan that you will now use. Line the base and sides with parchment paper (make the sides a little higher than the pan) and brushed with oil. Now you can start to build the cake.

One tortilla on the base, smear it with one third of the bean mixture which should cover it neatly. Next add another tortilla and add a third of the avocado mash, cover with another tortilla. Add a third of the spinach to the next layer. The last layer is some grated cheese and a sprinkle of the jalapenos. Now repeat that twice more so you have twelve layers and the pan is quite full. Place the last tortilla on the top, press down and smear with a few tablespoons of the chilli jam and sprinkle with a little cheese. Bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes and leave to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, weigh it by placing a plate on top and a few bags of flour or something like that. Now remove the pan and place on a serving dish. Cut into 12 slices and serve with chilli jam, the sour cream and a green salad.

Pickling reduction

2 tbsp coriander seed
2 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp caraway seed
¼ cup mustard seeds
2 cups red wine vinegar
100g sugar
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp annatto seed, optional
2-4 tbsp chilli paste
2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp black peppercorn, ground

In a dry pan, fry the coriander, cumin and caraway seeds until they get all fragrant, grind to a powder and set aside. Bring the red wine vinegar to a simmer with a cup of water and the sugar, then add the mustard seeds. Cook this down by two thirds over a gentle heat; it should take an hour or so. Add the rest of the ingredients and reduce to a thick jammy-like liquid. Keep warm