Apple and Raspberry Meringue Crumble with Custard: lovely little pre-desserts served in shot glasses

Ready to be served,  but I forgot to add the meringue to the fruit puree!

Richard Hughes is the chef-proprietor of The Lavender House at Brundall (a village just outside Norwich in Norfolk) and this recipe comes from his first book Hughes Cooking? 2004  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hughes-Cooking-reflections-recipes-Richard/dp/0954763602/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379169403&sr=8-1&keywords=Hughes+Cooking%3F  Richard is well known throughout Norfolk for his fabulous restaurant and among other ventures as a lecturer and teacher at the catering department of Norwich City College. The Lavender House (formerly The Old Beams) was lovingly refurbished in 2003 and ever since then I have spent many a happy occasion there from New Years' Eves to meals with friends to cookery courses and themed foodie evenings. It is probably safe to say that Richard Hughes has inspired me with my cooking over the years and has helped me to devise more inventive and creative dishes which I've loved experimenting on with friends! When you visit the restaurant it's the extra touches that really stand out whether it's the delicious canapes on arrival, the amuse-bouches (pre-starters to me!), the home made after dinner chocolates, the hot chocolate that Richard makes especially for me because I don't drink coffee or the pre-desserts. It is these wonderful extras that add to a sense of occasion when you visit the restaurant.

The subtitle of the book is 'The rants, reflections and recipes of Richard Hughes' so you may gather it's not just a bog-standard recipe book but a book with Richard's life story so- far, punctuating the recipes, and all manner of other tales and local knowledge which do make for an interesting read. The recipes are what I would call typical Lavender House fare:  delicious, inventive and using all manner of seasonal produce. Confession time again: I have not cooked from this book before, that said, I have sampled some of these delights whilst dining at the restaurant. For example on page 11 there are a couple of recipes for what Richard calls 'cup-a-soups', pre-starters of a little cup of delicious soup; the cauliflower, smoked cheddar and mustard soup is particularly good. I seem to remember sampling the rather lovely goats cheese and olive tarts on page 35. The roast tomato tart served with chilli ice cream (pages 27-28) is equally gorgeous. I've got my eye on the brioche, whisky and apricot pudding on page 129 as my second foray into this book as I know it'll go down really well with hubby.

The recipe I am profiling this time is on page 153: Apple Meringue Crumble and Custard although I have adapted it to make it a bit more trans-seasonal by adding some raspberries. It's perfect served as a pre-dessert particularly if you are waiting for your pudding to bake/be ready. Alternatively you could serve these at a party or buffet. When I made it I divided the ingredients up to serve 4 but ended up with enough to put into 8 small shot glasses with some crumble and custard sauce left over. I also cheated and bought ready-made custard as this course was part of a number of dishes I was making for my dinner party. If you do want to make your own custard (I know it may be a problem to buy custard for my American friends), I have a recipe for quick custard on my rhubarb crumble blog entry or here's a rather good recipe you could use: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/realpropercustard_65614 . The following quantities are the ones specified in the recipe by Richard, if you find you've got far too much just keep in the fridge for a couple of days, if your home is like ours, it will all soon get gobbled up!


Apple, Raspberry, Meringue Crumble with Custard

Apple Meringue
250 g Bramley apples
100g raspberries
50 g meringue shells, roughly broken
100 g sugar
50 g butter
1 tot of framboise liqueur or Calvados

Gently cooking the apples, raspberries, butter and sugar

1. Peel and core the apples, cut into small dice. Melt the butter, apples, raspberries and sugar until the apples begin to break down.
2. Add the liqueur and remove from the heat.
3. When completely cold, fold in the broken meringue pieces.

Crumble
100 g toasted oats
100 g plain flour ( I used half wholemeal and half white)
100 g butter
75 g sugar
50 g toasted/roasted finely chopped hazelnuts

Preparing the crumble topping

1. Rub the butter into the flour, the oats and the sugar. Mix in the hazelnuts
2. Place on a baking tray and place in the oven at 190 degrees for 10 minutes
3. Allow to cool completely

Have you custard sauce ready, either homemade or a tub of shop-bought!

To assemble: Place the fruit mixture in the base of the glass, add the crumble mix and finally the custard. You can serve immediately so it's warm or chill in the fridge. I like to serve this at room temperature as a make-ahead pre-dessert.

Making room for the custard sauce

A little something before the main pudding, don't forget to include the meringue!

Some dinner- party guests being my guinea pigs!

Next time: A great recipe for Bombay Aloo (Bombay potatoes) courtesy of Kenny McGovern which has to be my current favourite for this tasty dish. Also, I can't resist having a go at his take on a well-known brand of chocolates!

Warm Fig, Blue Cheese and Hazelnut Salad - a delicious starter for entertaining

Warm Fig, Blue Cheese and Hazelnut Salad with a dressing made from my homemade blackcurrant jam

I must confess I've made this twice now. The first time was part of a very rushed dinner party and I completely forgot to take photos of this wonderful starter which I think does sum up a lot of what my blog is all about: the fact that I'm cooking within my everyday life for various friends and family means that I don't always have the time to 'stage' my pictures and they do sometimes look a bit rushed and hastily snapped! That said, I just had to make this again and it was as the starter for a dinner party which was a lot more organised and stress free this time.

I cannot sing the praises highly enough for the wonderful book that this recipe comes from. It really does appeal to me. Bonne Maman: The Seasonal Cookbook (2011) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bonne-Maman-Seasonal-Cookbook/dp/085720209X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378034144&sr=1-1&keywords=bonne+maman  is, as its name suggests, a book full of recipes using the conserves and compotes of the well-known French brand. Although this book hasn't been in my possession very long I have already tried out a number of recipes and have not been disappointed. For example, the Avocado, Prawn and Cabbage Salad on page 74 is perfect for a summer buffet party (it uses apricot conserve). The Raspberry Frangipane Tarts on page 130 are gorgeous individual tarts that are lovely served with homemade ice cream ( I served mine with some lemon verbena ice cream) and of course as they are virtually Bakewell tarts they use raspberry conserve. The Strawberry Souffles on page 50 are another delight: really easy and using only four ingredients; when I made them I used raspberry conserve and am thinking about using my own blackcurrant jam next time.

Other recipes I've got my eye on are the Confit of Duck Salad with Asparagus on page 24 (using strawberry conserve), Roasted Potato Salad with Apricot Chilli Mayonnaise on page 121 and the Chocolate Cherry Drizzle Cake on page 162 (using cherry compote)...I could go on! The book is divided into four main sections: spring, summer, autumn and winter and each section has a selection of sweet and savoury recipes. I quite like this format as it's nice to browse through and stumble upon something different on every page whether it's the Black Bean Chilli Pot (page 156) or the delectable looking Strawberry and Passion Fruit Brulees on page 158. Another reason I like this book is probably down to the fact that you can do so much more with a jar of jam than just spread it on your bread or croissant, it seems the sweet addition of a jam/conserve to a savoury dish can often give it that extra special touch...


Warm Fig, Blue Cheese and Hazelnut Salad (copyright Simon & Schuster 2011)

Serves 6
6 fresh figs
250g blue cheese, I used Roquefort although Saint Agur or Gorgonzola is fine
125g soft salad leaves
25g toasted hazelnuts, skinned and chopped
Walnut bread ( I made my own from the following book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Bread-at-Home/dp/1405416599/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378055044&sr=1-3&keywords=making+bread+at+home )

For the dressing
2 tbsp blackcurrant jam (I used my own homemade recipe, see previous blog entry, but of course the book recommends Bonne Maman!)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp hazelnut oil
1 tbsp sherry or white wine vinegar 

The dressing all made up

Halved fresh figs

Plating up the salad

1. Put all the dressing ingredients in a jar, give them a good shake and place in the fridge until you need them. (This can be done up to 3 days ahead and it's a lovely dressing to serve with smoked duck slices...)
2. Halve the figs from tip to base and crumble the cheese in a separate bowl, put to one side.
3. Place salad leaves on 6 small plates and add the cheese.
4. When ready to serve, brush the cut side of the figs with a little of the dressing and fry cut side down for a couple of minutes until beginning to turn golden.
5. Arrange 2 fig halves on each plate with the salad and cheese and drizzle over some more dressing adding the chopped hazelnuts. Serve immediately with slices of the walnut bread.

My willing guests!

Next time: coming soon a pre-desert recipe courtesy of local chef Richard Hughes.

Blackcurrant jam that is lower in sugar than most traditional recipes

Picking blackcurrants in the garden

Some juicy specimens

Our untreated blackcurrant bushes, possibly organic?

Every year we are usually lucky enough to have a wonderful crop of the most gorgeous and juicy blackcurrants you have ever seen. These bushes have been here for years (as it was a former fruit farm) and to my knowledge have never been treated, they are left to their own devices and yield crop after crop. So over the last five or so years I have been perfecting my blackcurrant jam recipe in order to produce a conserve that is lower in sugar than the typically shop bought variety but contains an abundance of fruit and I think I have come up with the ideal recipe!
The lovely Delia Smith uses more sugar than fruit, but I have managed to come up with a recipe that uses more fruit than sugar so has a more tart yet fresh taste. One of the key differences is to use preserving sugar instead of normal granulated sugar, by doing so the extra pectin that is in this sugar helps to give you a set so you need less sugar. I have actually used even less sugar than what I'm going to specify here and managed to get a set which has created a jam which I feel confident my mother-in-law (who is diabetic) can indulge in and enjoy from time to time. Nevertheless, the following recipe has a nice balance of fruit and sugar which you'll find has gone in no time because it is so moreish!

Marianne's Blackcurrant Jam

3lb (1.3 kg) blackcurrants
2 1/2 lb (1.25 kg) Preserving sugar (Silver Spoon do a version which is recommended for blackcurrants)
1 1/2 pints (855 ml) water
5 or 6 jam jars with lids

Blackcurrants simmering in water

Boiling the jam

Checking for a set

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade. Place the sugar in a heat-proof bowl and allow to warm through in the oven. Also place the jam jars and lids in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes to sterilise. Place two or three saucers/small plates in the freezer.
2. Slowly cook the blackcurrants with the water for about 15 to 20 minutes until the fruit is tender.
3. Add the hot sugar from the oven to the blackcurrants and let it dissolve - this should take about 15 minutes.
4. As soon as the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat right up and boil rapidly for between 20 to 35 minutes. You can check for a set by getting a saucer from the freezer and spooning a little on to the plate. If you get a crinkly skin you know it is set.
5. When the jam is ready, add a knob of butter as this will remove any scum from the jam, you can also remove any with a slotted spoon



Yummy bread and jam, mum!



Jam-packed with fruit blackcurrant jam!

6. Leave the jam for 15 minutes to settle and then pour in the jars and seal with a waxed disc and the lid. Label the jars when the jam is cold.

   

   The finished article
   
   
   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   Next time: A lovely dinner party starter which uses blackcurrant jam: Warm Fig Blue Cheese and Hazelnut Salad from the Bonne Maman Cookbook.