Strawberries

It's raining a lot so summer's here! Recently i've been strawberry picking (pick one, eat one) and last year I destroyed a pan trying to make jam. So this time I decided for a safer, but far more sophisticated option. Strawberry Champagne jelly. My 1st attempt.
I've never used gelatine before, so this was a 1st too. It's a doddle. I used leaf gelatine (over powder) as it was recommended as being easier, by the chef of this dish, a bit of a relative unknown called Ramsey.
You can find this in his book, Just Desserts.

Serves 8:

600g strawberries hulled
100g caster sugar
juice of 1 lemon
8 sheets of leaf gelatine
75 cl bottle of pink Champagne or sparkling rose (I used rose, due to poverty)
2 tablespoons creme de peche (I couldn't find this so used creme de framboise)

1. Slice 500g of the strawberries and place in a large, heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir in the sugar and lemon juice. Cover the bowl with cling-film and leave it like this for 30-40 minutes.

2. Check the water in the pan and keep topping up occasionally. The fruits will yield a clear pink jus.

3. Meanwhile line a large sieve with wet muslin and place over a clean bowl. Pour the strawberry jus into the sieve and leave it to drip through, but don't rub the pulp otherwise the jus will lose its clarity.
At this point Ramsey says discard the fruit pulp but what you'll have at this point is a sticky load of strawberries, which have still got some of their shape, like semi-jam. I say don't bin them, but when they're cold, stir in some plain fromage frais and serve a small dollop on top of the set jelly.

4. Soften the gelatine sheets in cold water (leave them to soak in bowl of cold water for 5 minutes). Meanwhile, pour the strawberry jus into a clean pan and heat until the point of boiling. Take off the heat. Remove the gelatine from the cold water, squeeze out any excess water then slip into the hot jus, whisking until dissolved. Pass through a sieve into a bowl.

5. Allow to cool, then mix in the champagne and creme de peche. Leave until the jelly is cold and just on the point of setting.

6. Meanwhile, thinly slice the remaining 100g strawberries. Have ready 8 wine glasses of Champagne flutes. Dip the strawberries into a little of the setting jelly and stick to the side of the glass. (I did this before the jelly was fully set and then lay the glasses on their sides in the fridge, so the strawberries were well stuck on when i added the jelly)

7. To make the jelly sparkle, whisk the setting jelly (lightly, you don't want to make the Champers go flat) until it's lightly frothy. Divide it between the glasses and chill until completely set.

8. To serve, Ramsey recommends a thin float of double cream, or a layer of raspberry cream and a spoonful of whipped cream. I say use the strawberries from earlier, mix with fromage frais, and put a dollop on top that's tidier than my effort.



So what's it like? Well it's fair to say that i'm not a fan of jelly. And this is a recipe from a chef with 3 Michelin stars. Ramsey wins. This tastes fantastic. Unlike cheap packet-jelly gloop, this is light and as Ramsey says, "the Champagne bubbles add a pretty pickle as you bite into the soft melting texture." It's fizzy jelly!
The texture's much lighter to that of packet-jelly. Packet-jelly wobbles. This shimmies.
Couldn't you just see yourself eating one of these on a hot summer day at Wimbledon? I've never been so I had one whilst watching Ana Ivanovic go crashing out.

Marrakech express loaf

Despite the name, this is a cake, not a loaf. In terms of consistency, it's on the opposite end of the cake spectrum from, say, the Victoria Sponge. If you like your cakes rich, moist and sticky then this is for you.

There's nothing subtle about this cake, it's a big-hitter on flavours and where it lacks on aesthetics, it wows on taste. Most people i give this to wax lyrical after the 1st mouthful.
Best of all, making it is a piece of cake.

Thanks to Dan Lepard for 1st introducing me to this. He's a master baker with real flour-power and has loads of great bread and cake recipes on his website: http://www.danlepard.com/

Serves 1 (if i'm eating it)

300ml black coffee
the crushed seeds of 6 - 8 cardamom pods
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
zest 1 small lemon
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp pomegranate syrup, or treacle
125g dark molasses or muscovado sugar
75g unsalted butter
150g chopped stoned dates
1 large egg
100g chopped walnuts or pecans
2 tbsp sesame seeds
125g spelt or wholemeal flour
100g hemp flour, or more spelt
2 tsp baking powder

Line the base and sides of a 1 lb loaf tin with non-stick baking parchment. Pour the coffee into a saucepan and add the spices, lemon, honey and pomegranate, sugar, butter and dates. Bring to the boil then leave until cool. Beat in the egg, stir in the walnuts and sesame seeds. Sift the hemp, plain flour and baking powder though a coarse sieve, as the oil in the hemp flour makes a fine one clog up, straight into the saucepan, stir everything together well and spoon it into the tin. Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan-assisted) and bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer poked in comes out clean. Let it cool, remove from the tin and wrap well, and it's even better the day after baking.

For starters

Food glorious food! It has to be my favourite drug. If i weren't so vain and influenced by the pressures of modern living, I wouldn't hit the gym very often and i'd waddle around with my gut spilling over my pants. As it is, I eat in moderation and although i'll never be able to grate cheese on my washboard stomach, my stomach pines for that cheese nevertheless. And if it were allowed it would devour the whole block and probably the dairy it came from too.
They say as you get older, you become more reserved and conservative but the exact opposite applies as far as food is concerned. Age only makes my tastebuds tingle all the more at the cosmopolitan variety of sustenance available today. As a kid, olives, curry, spices and alcohol (to name a few) were foul offerings. My mother tried to convince me that i'd like them one day. And lo here I am acknowledging her. Humble pie? It's not to be scoffed at - I'll eat that too these days.
Now i've taught myself to cook a bit. For me, time spent in the kitchen, especially on a lazy Sunday, is therapeutic. A couple of hours lost in my world, savouring the smells, listening to some music & enjoying some wine is for me, as beneficial as a burst of exercise, or as relaxing as an oily massage.
So now, I am going to indulge myself by doing this blog and hoping that someone will like what they see and read, and will share my little pieces of theatre.