A bit of a Mess

Forever popular, Eton Mess is a firm favourite of ours. Simple and quick to make, and today this will be the ideal end to a Chinese style meal. The dish can be as simple as just whipped cream with mashed Strawberries but here we add a few twists to give the dish a little more complexity in taste, yet still it retains the fresh smooth delicate balance that has made it a classic.

200g Strawberries
200g Raspberries
300g Lychees
200g Blueberries
Zest of 1 Orange
500ml Double Cream
4 Meringue nests



Method
1. Remove zest from Orange, place  to one side.
2. Remove green leaves from Strawberries, chop into small bite sized pieces, place in a bowl.
3. Remove the shell like skin from the Lychees, cut each in half and gently remove stone from middle, place in bowl with strawberries.
4. Add raspberries and Blueberries to the bowl.
5. Pour cream into another clean bowl and whisk until well risen and stiff.
6. Pour fruit and orange zest over the cream, place in fridge until required.
7. Break meringues into small pieces.
8. At the last minute, add meringue to fruit and cream, fold everything together gently, serve.


The combination of fruits can easily be varied to suit the occasion or even the season, try adding halved grapes, some nuts for texture or even broken biscuits, consider adding fresh chopped mint leaves or the explosive taste of fresh basil with black pepper and some soft crumbly goats cheese. Top it all with a generous serving of honey or Maple syrup, its really there to be tried. Explore, imagine and enjoy.

Home made vanilla ice cream

Forget tubs of insipid synthetic tasting ice creams when you can recreate the taste of real dairy ice cream using just a few basic ingredients. We were inspired to make this when we found an ice cream maker on offer locally at a price too low to refuse! You will need to master the skills involved in making a sauce anglaise first but once you have done this you have the base on which to make memorable ice creams with the added benefits of having a sauce that is delightful to use in its own right.


Ingredients


1 Quantity of Sauce anglaise (see sauce anglaise recipe)
250 ml Double Cream

Method

1. Follow instructions for your ice cream maker. The one we used needed the bowl to be frozen for 24 hours first.

2. Set up ice cream maker and switch on. When paddle is turning pour in the sauce anglaise.

3. When this begins to freeze and thicken lightly, pour in the cream. 

4. Continue churning until the ice cream is thick and frozen. 

5. Remove ice cream from machine. Place in plastic container and put this in the freezer.

6. If ice cream has been frozen for some time remove

 from freezer for approx 15 minutes before use.

ENJOY