Boozy Cherry & White Chocolate Crème Brûlée

This dessert has been a long time in the planning, but I struggled to find British cherries anywhere. As you know I'm passionate about British produce and where possible if it can be grown in the UK I will always try to buy British and only when it is in season. It would turn out Derbyshire or the East Midlands in general is a bit of a desert for British cherries. Searching the local markets and farm shops proved to be unhelpful as most were selling cherries from warmer climes. Morrisons eventually came to the rescue, but I was rather put out having to pay equivalent of £10 (yes £10!) per kg of British cherries whereas the Spanish cherries sitting next to them on the shelf were on offer and far cheaper. Why, why, why can't British supermarkets support British produce for a change. Sorry rant over. If your interested in supporting the great British cherry pop along to CherryAid (thank you Beth for reminding me!).

Ever since we received a cook's blow torch for a wedding pressie, pyromaniac Hubby has been itching for us to make crème brûlée. A while back I made a baked custard, but never a crème brûlée so this was a bit new for me. Come to think of it, before this I've never eaten a proper crème brûlée.

I was really pleased how they turned out and they were very, very tasty. The cherries & liqueur refreshingly cut through the creamy custard and Hubby had caramelised the sugar perfectly. The sugar had a very satisfying crunch as you put the spoon through it. Rach & Nick, if your reading this don't be surprised if I make them for us in a couple of weekends time!

Boozy Cherry & White Chocolate Crème Brûlée
Serves 2

12 cherries, halved and stoned
2 tbsp Crème de Framboise
190ml double cream
35g Green & Blacks white chocolate, broken into small pieces
1/2 vanilla pod
2 egg yolks
2 tsp golden caster sugar, plus more for topping

1) Slowly heat cream, chocolate and vanilla pod seeds. Once the chocolate has melted take off the heat and allow to infuse for 15 min. White the cream is infusing share the cherry halves between the ramekins and cover with 1 tbsp of Crème de Framboise each.

2) Preheat oven to 150oc. Beat together the egg yolks and sugar then gradually stir in the cream. Strain into a jug and pour into ramekins on top of the cherries. Some of the cherries may float.

3) Place the ramekins in a deep roasting tin and pour boiling water into the tin until the water is 1/2 the way up the ramekins. Bake for 20-25 min until custard is set and has a slight wobble in the middle. Chill for at least 5 hours.

4) Generously sprinkle the top with golden caster sugar. With either a blow torch or grill caramelise the sugar. Allow to cool for a few minutes before eating to allow the sugar to harden.

Duck eggs

Today we managed to get our hands on some huge duck eggs. I'm never used or eaten them before and was really drawn to their beautiful colours. All of them appeared to be different hues of blue. The photo doesn't show how fabulous the colours were.

For lunch Hubby used some of the duck eggs to make scrambled eggs with purple sprouting broccoli as inspired by a dish A Slice of Cherry Pie. The only difference was that hubby flash fried the PSB in butter for a minute rather then boiling. The duck eggs are slightly richer than hen eggs and Hubby was really impressed on how the duck eggs complimented the PSB so well.

From what I can gather you can more of less use duck eggs where you use hen eggs, but just take into account they are bigger. I'm thinking of using them to make Yorkshire puds to go with tomorrows roast chicken.

Does anyone else have any other fab ideas for duck eggs?

Thank you so much to Sylvie at the wonderfulA Pot of Tea and a Biscuit for her Excellent Blog award. I'm truly flattered. Now I'm meant to pass this onto bloggers whose blogs I believe to be excellent, but there are so many fab blogs out there I'm struggling to narrow it down!

Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Goats Cheese Tart

The chicks have gone back to school and the house seems very quiet without them. However it was nice to get our dining table back!

Purple Sprouting Broccoli is one of my favourite vegetables and whenever it's in season I make a concerted effort to eat as much as possible. After seeing David at Book The Cook's Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Sheep's Cheese Tart I decided to have a go at making my own version using some of the leftover goat's cheese from the Mother's Day Feast.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Goats Cheese Tart
Serves 4

9-inch baked shortcrust pastry base (do a Delia and cheat with a ready-made one or make your own)
3 eggs
200ml milk
50g goats cheese, broken into small chunks.
handful of small purple sprouting broccoli florets
a couple of twists of black pepper

1) Preheat oven to 160oc. Whisk together eggs, milk and pepper.

2) Sprinkle broccoli florets and goats cheese over the base then pour egg mix over. Bake for 30-40 until golden. Allow to cool for 10 min before eating.

Chorizo Frittata

Firstly apologies to anyone who has clicked on my blog this afternoon and noticed my blog format and colours changing with every click. I've spent the day experimenting with the graphics tab I received for Christmas, hence the new header and blog template. Don't be surprised if it is different yet again tomorrow.

For dinner tonight I made a chorizo & spring onion frittata using my basic frittata recipe. I've never eaten chorizo before...or I have, but thought it was salami/pepperoni! Can anyone enlighten me as to what the difference is between chorizo, salami & pepperoni?!? With the weather about to get cold again I'll probably be back to cooking comforting stodge tomorrow.

Spinach & Feta Frittata

This week is Farmhouse Breakfast Week and to celebrate I made Scotch Pancakes with the butter and buttermilk I made earlier on in the week. They were beautifully fluffy and if my waistline allowed I would eat them every day.

With the miserable weather and all the stodgy comfort food we've been eating today I was craving a simple veggie summer dish. Although a frittata is traditionally done on the hob in a frying pan, I prefer to oven bake it. This is a slightly different version on the oven-baked frittata I've baked before. On the way home from work I popped into Morrisons to pick up some feta, while walking to the fridges I noticed a huge display promoting 5-a-day. On this display was potatoes, I didn't dare point out to the woman setting up the display that potatoes don't count as one of your 5-a-day!

Spinach & Feta Frittata
Serves 4

4 eggs
1 tbsp cornflower
200ml milk
200g spinach
handful of feta
seasoning

1) Heat oven to 220oc. Wilt spinach, allow to cool then squeeze out water. Blend the cornflower with a bit of milk, then whisk in the rest of the milk and eggs. Season with salt and pepper.

2) Line 8in x 8in baking tin with baking parchment. Pour in the batter, then sprinkle the spinach and feta over the batter. Bake for 20 min until firm and golden. Can be eaten warm or cold.

Bacon & Mushroom Quiche

Continuing our theme of not-so-healthy dinners, I made a bacon & mushroom quiche for tea tonight. I admit I cheated slightly with the pastry. I can make really short pastry which is great for mince pies, but not so good with quiche so I picked up some ready made pastry in the shops. I've never really "baked blind" before and I forgot that pastry does sometimes shrink, but I managed to fit nearly all of the egg mix in. However I forgot that our oven is on a slight slant and the egg mix tipped out of the back of the pie and into the oven. Oh well!

Bacon and mushroom quiche
serves 4

pre-cooked pastry base
3 rashers of bacon, cut into pieces
5 mushrooms
3 eggs
100ml double cream
100ml milk
handful of grated mature cheddar
seasoning

1) Preheat oven to 160oc. Fry bacon and mushrooms until cooked. Sprinkle pastry base with cheese then bacon & mushroom

2) Whisk eggs, milk and cream together then season. Pour egg mix in base. Cook on a baking tray in the middle of the oven for 30-40 minutes.

Spinach & Potato Omlette

After the disaster of my lasagna (even though I've made it loads of times before), I decided to make something tonight that couldn't possibly go wrong. Until just under a year ago I had convinced myself that I didn't like omlette/quiche/egg based meals apart from scrambled eggs. I don't know why. As I'm not really an meat eater I decided I really should begin to like eggs. Tonight's most recent veggie dish was spinach and potato omlette. Both hubby and I liked it, but next time I'll add a bit more seasoning. The leftovers will be in my bento tomorrow!

Spinach & Potato Omlette

250g spinach, wilted
1 medium onion, finely sliced
2 medium potatoes, finely sliced
8 eggs
olive oil

1) Slowly fry onion and potato in non-stick frying pan until potato is softened. Stir in spinach.

2) Whisk eggs and season. Pour over potatoes, stir until it begins to firm. Once the omlette is almost set put until a high grill to set top. Turn omlette over and put back onto the hob for a couple of minutes.

We're working for my brother at a big sailing event this weekend as photographer/dogsbody/chief biscuit maker and I'm planning to make custard creams and chocolate caramel nuggets . In the coming few weeks hubby wants to attempt Créme Brûlée Bubbles

Oven-baked frittata

I've always wanted to cook a frittata, but for some obscure reason, never have. This months GFM inspired me with thier oven-baked frittata. By god, does gruyere cheese smell of sweaty socks!

I really really enjoyed it and hubbie has taken the left overs for his lunch today.

Oven-baked frittata
serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium sized courgette, diced
1 red pepper diced
100ml milk
1 tbsp cornflower
4 eggs
100ml single cream
50g gruyere, grated

1) Heat oven to 220oc . Heat oil in a pan and cook courgette and peppers until just softened. Allow to cool. Blend the cornflower with a bit of milk, then add the rest of the milk, eggs, cream. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk until smooth. Mix in grated cheese.

2) line 8in x 8in baking tin with baking parchment. Pour in the batter, then sprinkle the cooked veg over the batter. Bake for 20 min until firm and golden. Can be eaten warm or cold.

On a different domestic front, yesterday I decided to try and teach myself to crochet. Hmmm, well considering it is meant to be easier than knitting, I dread to think how hard knitting is!

Meringues

Yesterday was my birthday and my best friend came up trumps by sending me some Hotel Chocolat marbles, which I seemed to have for breakfast, lunch and dinner with a cup of tea! For birthday pudding I made the meringues and turned them into a kind of Eton Mess. This was the first time I had made meringues and I was really pleased as to how they turned out. They were crispy on the outside and slightly chewy in the inside. I also used the vanilla sugar I made at xmas, and this gave them a nice hint of vanilla. No photo's as I *cough* got bored waiting for the meringues to cook and cracked open a bottle of fizz.

Meringues
makes about 12 medium sized meringues

2 egg whites
100g caster sugar

1) Preheat oven to 100oc. Whisk egg whites in a dry clean bowl until you get soft peaks.

2) Whisk in half the sugar. It will thicken to the consistancy for shaving cream.

3) Fold in remaining sugar, ideally with a large metal spoon. Blob onto baking parchment. Bake for 1.5 - 2 hours until they are beginning to brown the surface is beginning to crack.