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By Anna, 2 September, 2010 6:27 pm

I get a lot of page views for my Pear and Peach Crumble, so when I decided to use up some more of the raspberry crop, I thought I’d show you this delicious alternative.

The joy of this is that you can just clatter in some frozen raspberries without the need to defrost them and I used a couple of tins of pears that were hanging around in the larder; so it needn’t be a ‘go to the shops especially’ recipe, but could potentially be a shore cupboard/freezer recipe.

I substituted vanilla sugar for the brown sugar in it and that heightened the shortbread aspect to the crumble, which further complemented the raspberries. We had it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but I imagine clotted cream would sit very nicely with it too… It would appear that I can’t get enough of hot berries. Is that a Tina Turner song?

Continue reading 'Pear and Raspberry Crumble'»

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By Anna, 27 August, 2010 10:32 pm

Or Galette, or Crostata, or open-face pie, or bottom crust pie or as Alex said, ‘Oh. I thought it would have a lump in the middle, you know, like a hat’. It’s worth noting at this point that a strawberry pie was his request, thus he had a mental image of its appearance.
His disappointment didn’t affect his ability to eat two slices though, so disgard your worry.
The pastry is a Nigel Slater recipe and is really quick to knock together. You only chill it for the length of time it takes you to prepare the fruit, so no waiting around for upwards of three hours.
It could have taken a little more sugar for my liking, but we had some custard with it which sweetened it up nicely.

I’m not a fan of strawberries (unless they’re wild – in variety, that is; not in nature) but I have discovered that I like them cooked. Alex said that it tasted a little like jam, at which point it struck us that jam is the taste of cooked strawberries, rather than the pie tasted a little like jam. Oh dear. You had to be there, OK? So a little like jam, but not as sweet as jam and certainly fresher-tasting.
Yum.

Continue reading 'Strawberry Pie'»

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By Anna, 20 August, 2010 8:40 pm

An unchurned, non custard base ice cream that seduces anyone who tries it, this is not a sickly toffee/fudge sweet ice cream but the more sophisticated cooked caramel type.
It’s a creme caramel flavour- sweet yet bordering on bitter- a flavour to savour in the mouth long after the final swallow.
I have made this recipe countless times but we had it as an accompaniment to Tarte Tatin and it was a perfect match. Ice cream rarely stands up to the flavour of apple and caramel, but this, being of the same caramel technique not only stood alongside it, but enhanced and shored up the flavour.
It isn’t slow to melt due to its lack of custard base which is another point in its favour- you taste the caramel quickly and it lingers.
This is a John Torode recipe that I ripped out of an old Olive magazine and he says of this recipe that it has been a favourite for years and it’s not hard to see why; it’s easy to make, requires no specialised equipment, melts beautifully and is utterly delicious.

As an aside, I was flicking through a set of Marguerite Patten magazines that I rescued from the tip (and only paid £1 for to the man there) and discovered that this is her suggested method for making ice cream, although she uses the whole rather than just yolk of the egg. That opens up the opportunity for differing flavours whilst maintaining the ease with which it’s made.
Try this one first though; dinner party, simple dessert or evening solace, it’s an outstanding flavour.

Continue reading 'Caramel Ice Cream'»

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By Anna, 17 August, 2010 3:39 pm

That’s better! I reverted to the double boiler and it’s much thicker, holding its shape and my, oh my, intensely packed with blackberries. Even better, because we picked the blackberries from the park, free! Well I say ‘free’ – that would be apart from the eggs, sugar and butter. If picking wild fruit doesn’t give you that Hedgewitch glow then nothing will.

I’m loving these curds because the flavour is just so intense, but the butter and sugar temper the intensity. All of the flavour without having to grip the side of your chair.
Versatile too – I think of lemon curd as being something to fill a cake with or smear over fresh bread, but these berry curds are so very good on ice cream – a kind of fruit sauce but better.
Fantastic on crunchy toast and warm croissants, traditional on scones, they are a marvellous thing to have in the fridge. One of our friends ate it by the teaspoonful by the fridge door. That’s about as complimentary as it gets.

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By Anna, 15 August, 2010 4:54 pm

A passion for baking.
Thousands of recipes in the cookbooks that fill 3 shelves of our bookcase.
A whole internet-full of recipes from all over the world.
A larder filled with interesting ingredients.
A freezer, well actually, no. The freezer seems to have lots of fish in it and some freezer-burnt ribs, but nothing amazing, so forget the freezer.
But I have all the basics.
So what am I going to make this evening? Nothing. I’m just not feeling any of the recipes.

What I really want is a great big bag of Maltesers and for NCIS and True Blood to be back on. And The Sopranos.

But mostly, I want a big bag of Maltesers. Have I got any? No.

Bugger.

I really fancy some Maltesers. Or those little KitKat Kubes that disappeared as quickly as they arrived. (Why did they stop making them?)

That’s all. Just wanted to put that out there. Blackberry Curd to follow, as promised.

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By Anna, 13 August, 2010 1:38 pm

I’m really happy with this recipe, not least because I couldn’t find a recipe for it in any of my books and an internet search only turned up a recipe that included cooking apples.
I wanted a pure, unadulterated and intense curd.
Using La Lawson’s cranberry curd as a starting point, it yielded a great result.
The quantity is for 300g blackcurrants because that is the modest amount I yielded from my blackcurrant bush, but as that is a significant improvement on last year’s harvest and it’s only its second year of life, I can roll with that. If you harvest pounds and pounds of them, alter the quantities to suit you and prepare to distribute jars of joy throughout your community…

Continue reading 'A Tale of Two Curds. First, Blackcurrant Curd'»

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By Anna, 2 August, 2010 11:16 am

This is my friend Julie’s recipe. Her family love it and as I watched Alex tuck into his second slice, it’s fair to say he loves it too. I’ll show my hand as well; it’s a winner!
Incredibly quick to do, with only 6 ingredients, it’s a marvel. Where has this recipe been all my life?
The filling; well, it’s somewhere in the region of a chiffon pie, a light airy unbaked cheesecake, a lemon sharp cream syllabub; delightful. The lemon cuts through the richness so successfully that it is easy to have a smaller second slice. Hooray, for that.

Continue reading 'Julie’s Lemon Tart'»

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By Anna, 26 July, 2010 3:39 pm

This most elegant dessert was lovely to make and even more lovely to eat. The original recipe is from ‘Delicious’ magazine, but instead of the original boozy jelly layer with berries suspended within, I opted for a non-alcoholic but more full-flavoured raspberry jelly over the pannacotta layer.

There is a thrilling element of danger about a layered dessert that relies on the power of gelatine and your own patience, but your tense, nervous headache is rewarded handsomely when it turns out to reveal its Summer beauty. Having said ‘summer’,it’s worth remembering for the Winter months because it is a great use for frozen berries.

Continue reading 'Raspberry Jelly and White Chocolate Pannacotta Terrine'»

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By Anna, 20 July, 2010 9:08 pm

… walked into a pub.

Actually, they attached themselves to my husbands fishing line. How perfectly marvellous of them!

Continue reading 'A lobster and a dover sole…'»

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By Anna, 19 July, 2010 1:12 pm

Now, I know and you know that this is an odd recipe to share in the height of a very warm Summer, but there is method to my madness.
1. We had had a salad week – that is, one piece of protein and lots of salad. I wanted something filling, darn it.
2. I fancied a substantial pudding but couldn’t bear the thought of an oven blasting away.
3. I saw a pot of tres posh ‘made-with-the-eggs-of-a-golden-hen-and-milk-from-the-Queen’s-cow-and-a-pod-of-vanilla-plucked-by-a-tame-cheetah’ custard and it was cheap. If someone else had bought it, they might have poured it over something horrible.
4. I had a dreg of raspberry jam in the bottom of the jar and the jar was annoying me in the fridge. It kept getting in the way. It even fell out of the fridge that morning, so its fate was sealed.

So, actually, this is an extremely sensible recipe for the height of Summer because it takes moments to make, doesn’t require an oven or hob and is jolly nice to eat after endless days of what is essentially the ritual munching of humans on glorified grass otherwise famed as ‘seasonal eating’. Seriously, I am this close to going off beetroot again. Don’t even talk to me about feta.

If you cannot stand the thought of eating a hot pudding in this weather, then be kind to yourself and print it out for Autumn. Having such a quick option for a pudding that usually takes hours to steam is invaluable.
Continue reading 'Speedy Sponge Pudding'»