Seasonal recipes!
ingredients
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500ml White Wine Vinegar
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500g Raspberries
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80g Sugar
Raspberry Vinegar​
Place the raspberries into a large bowl (not aluminium it reacts with the vinegar) and lightly mash the raspberries with a potato masher or the back of a fork.
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Pour over the white wine vinegar mixing together well. Cover and leave for a couple of days.
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Drain the liquid through a fine sieve or musline cloth and leave for a few hours or overnight if you have the time for fruit to release the vinegar.
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Pour this liquid in a large pan (again not aluminium) and add the sugar and bring to the boil then reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 10 minutes. Skim off any foam that bubbles to the surface,
Leave to cool and then pour into sterilised bottles and store ina cool dark place where is will last a year.
ingredients
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500g Freshly podded peas
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4 Baby Gem Lettuces
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100ml Fresh Double Cream
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2 Fresh eggs
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Olive Oil
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1 small knob of butter
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1 tsp White Wine Vinegar
Braised Lettuce & Peas with a Poached Egg
Place the peas into lightly salted boiling water, turn the heat down and simmer for 10 minutes.
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Meanwhile cut the baby gem lettuce length ways and heat a griddle pan. Brush the cut halves of the lettuce with olive oil and lightly season with salt and pepper and place cut side down onto the now hot griddle pan. What you are looking for here are char lines on the lettuce and for it to wilt slightly.
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Once ready remove lettuce from heat and set aside. By now the peas should also be ready, drain and set them aside saving the water you cooked the peas in.
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Add the knob of butter to a large flat bottomed pan together with your lettuce, peas and cream and heat gently until ready to serve being careful not to overheat.
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To the reserved pea water add a teaspoon of white wine vinegar bring to the boil again and then stir vigourously to create a whrilpool in the pan in which to cook one egg at a time to poach your eggs. Eggs are ready when the white is set but the yolk is still runny.
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Split the lettuce and peas mixture between two bowls and add a poached egg to the top of each and serve with crusty granary buttered soliders.
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A delicious way to enjoy fresh peas, especially if you are lucky enough to have picked them straight from the garden!
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ingredients
​ For the Meringue
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4 Large Egg Whites
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250g Caster Sugar
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1 tsp Vanilla Extract
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1 tsp Cornflour
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1 tsp White Wine Vinegar​
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​ For the Topping
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500g Strawberries
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2 tblsp Icing Sugar
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350ml Double Cream
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Strawberry Pavlova
Mark out the circumference of a dinner plate on greaseproof paper or baking parchment.
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Whisk the egg whites with a hand mixer until stiff peaks begin to form, then whisk in the sugar gradually until the meringue begins to look glossy. Once you have done this whisk in the vanilla extract,
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Transfer the meringue onto the greaseproof paper/baking parchment and spread it so that you create a crater by making the sides/edge of the meringue slightly higher than the middle. Don’t be too fussy with this so long as you have a dip into which you are going to put the cream later.
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Transfer to the oven and bake for about one hour at 150c/130fan/gas mark 2. Remove from the oven and let the meringue cool completely.
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Chop 100g of the strawberries. Mix them with 1 tablespoon of the icing sugar. Blitz in a food processor until smooth and then push through a sieve.
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Whip the cream with the remaining 1 tablespoon of icing sugar. Once it has thickened transfer it to the meringue and spread it within the dip of the crater. Put the remaining hulled strawberries on the cream and drizzle the sauce over the lot.
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For an even better effect slice open 2 passion fruits, scoop out the fruit pips and juice and drizzle around the edge of the meringue.
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You can use just about any soft fruit such as nectarines, raspberries, peaches, blackberries as an alternative to strawberries.
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