June recipe: Red berry fool

Red berry fool

Fruit fools involve combining a fruit puree with custard or whipped cream or both, and are some of the easiest desserts to make.  I’ve previously posted a recipe for gooseberry fool. This variant uses red summer berries.  The photo shows a redcurrant fool, but you can use raspberries or strawberries instead, or any combination thereof. Raspberries and strawberries need no cooking.

Red berry fool

8 oz (approx 250 g) red summer berries (redcurrants, raspberries, strawberries or a mixture)

1.5 oz (approx 40 g) sugar

5 fl. oz (approx 140ml) double cream

Wash the fruit.

Hull the strawberries and raspberries. Snip the stalks off the redcurrants.

If using redcurrants, put the fruit in a saucepan with the sugar.

Heat gently, stirring from time to time, until the sugar has dissolved, then cover the pan and simmer for a few minutes until the fruit is soft and starting to break up.

Remove from the heat and crush the fruit with a wooden spoon.  You can puree it in a food processor if you like, but I never do.  If you don’t like pips, you can sieve the puree, but I never do this either.

Leave to cool.

If using strawberries or raspberries, simply mash the fruit and mix the puree with the sugar. Again, if you don’t like pips you can sieve the puree, but I never do.

If using a mixture, mix the mashed strawberries/raspberries with the cooled redcurrant pulp.

Whip the double cream until stiff.

Stir the cooled fruit pulp into the cream.

Divide between four glasses and chill in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight before serving.

For larger portions, divide the mixture between two or three glasses instead of four.

June recipe: Strawberry and lemon layer pudding

This is a lovely summer dessert.  The lemon mixture separates during cooking to form a lemon sauce with a light spongy layer on top.  The sharpness of the lemon brings out the flavour of summer berries.  You can use raspberries instead of strawberries if preferred. 

The lemon pudding can be made in advance, then the fruit added just before serving.

The quantity below serves 4-6 people.  It will keep for a day or two in the fridge, if it gets the chance.

Strawberry and lemon layer pudding

3 oz (approx 75 g) light brown soft sugar

1 oz (approx 25 g) butter

1 lemon

1 oz (approx 25 g) self-raising flour

0.5 teaspoon (2.5 ml spoon) ground nutmeg

4 fl oz (approx 120 ml) milk

2 eggs, separated

Approximately 1 lb (approx 450 g) fresh ripe strawberries

Grease a deep heatproof dish about 7 inches (approx 18 cm) diameter and about 3 inches (approx 8 cm) deep, preferably one with straight sides like a souffle dish. 

Cream the butter and sugar together until soft.

Beat in the egg yolks.

Beat in the nutmeg and flour.

Stir in the rind and juice of the lemon.

Gradually stir in the milk to make a thin batter.

Whisk the egg whites until they stand in soft peaks.

Using a metal spoon, fold the whisked egg whites into the lemon mixture.

Pour the mixture into the greased heatproof dish.

Put a roasting tin half full of water in the oven, and stand the heatproof dish in the tin of water.  Bake in a moderately hot oven at about 180 C for about 30-35 minutes until the pudding is set and the top is golden.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the dish.

Remove the leaves from the strawberries.  Halve the strawberries if they are large, or leave whole if small.

When the lemon pudding is completely cold, arrange the strawberries on top.

Serve with cream if liked.

June recipe: Lentil rissoles with garlic and herb sauce

These crisp lentil rissoles are easy to make, and the cold yoghurt and herb sauce is refreshing on a hot day.

You can vary the herbs and the amount of garlic in the sauce according to taste and availability. The rissoles go very well with rice and a green salad.

This quantity should serve two.

Lentil rissoles with garlic and herb sauce

For the rissoles:
4 oz (approx 100 g) split red lentils
8 fl oz (approx 200 ml) water
Half a small onion
1 teaspoon (1 x 5 ml spoon) ground coriander
0.5 teaspoon (1 x 2.5 ml spoon) ground cumin
Approximately 2 teaspoons (2 x 5 ml spoons plain flour for coating

For the sauce:
Approximately 5 fl oz (approx 140 ml) natural yoghurt
Approximately 2 Tablespoons (2 x 15 ml spoons) fresh herbs (oregano, mint, sage, basil, chives, or any mixture of your choice)
1 large clove garlic

To make the rissoles:
Put the lentils in a small saucepan with the water, bring to the boil, and simmer over a very low heat for 15-20 minutes until the lentils have absorbed all the water and formed a soft mass. Stir from time to time to stop the lentils sticking to the pan.

Chop the onion. Fry in cooking oil over a medium heat for a few minutes until soft and beginning to colour.

Stir the onion and spices into the cooked lentils and season with salt and pepper.

Divide the lentil mixture into four, and form between your hands into four roughly circular rissoles about 1 cm thick. Coat each rissole in the plain flour.

Fry the rissoles in cooking oil over a medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Turn the rissoles and fry the other side for 1-2 minutes. Lower the heat and continue to fry for another 3-5 minutes each side, turning once more, until the rissoles are golden brown.

To make the sauce:
Chop the herbs. Crush the garlic. Mix both into the yoghurt

Spoon the sauce over the rissoles to serve. Serve with rice or new potatoes and a green salad.

June recipe: Gooseberry meringue pie

Summer time, and the gooseberry season comes round again. I’ve previously posted recipes for gooseberry fool and gooseberry jam. Last year, Gabriele commented that meringue-topped tarts or pies are called Baisertorten in Germany, and can be made with gooseberries. So I thought I would try making a gooseberry meringue pie this season. I made the recipe up, and it seems to have worked well. I used green gooseberries, which are the first to come into season, and I should think it would also work perfectly well with red gooseberries. Here’s the recipe:

Gooseberry meringue pie

Sweet pastry
6 oz (approx 150 g) plain flour
4.5 oz (approx 125 g) butter
2 Tablespoons (2 x 15 ml spoons) icing sugar
1 egg yolk

Gooseberry filling
10 oz (approx 300 g) gooseberries
3 oz (approx 80 g) light brown soft sugar
1 oz (approx 30 g) cornflour
1 egg yolk

Meringue
2 egg whites
2 oz (approx 50 g) white sugar (granulated or caster)

To make the pastry case
Sieve the icing sugar and mix with the flour

Rub the butter into the flour and icing sugar until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Stir in the egg yolk and mix to a soft dough. In theory, you’re supposed to chill the pastry in the refrigerator overnight. I never do, and it seems to be fine. This quantity of pastry will make enough for two tart cases, so split the dough into two. The second piece can be frozen and used for another tart or mince pies. (Or you could use ready-made pastry if you prefer)

Roll out pastry thickly and line a flan tin about 7 inches (approx 28 cm) in diameter.

Bake the pastry case ‘blind’, i.e. empty, in a hot oven approx 200 C for about 10 - 15 minutes until pastry is set.

To make the filling
Wash the gooseberries. Top and tail them (i.e. cut off the stalk at one end and the remains of the flower at the other).

Put the gooseberries in a pan with the sugar. Heat gently (lowest possible setting) until the gooseberries release some juice, stir to dissolve the sugar. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the fruit is cooked.

Mix the cornflour to a smooth paste with a little water.

Pour the cornflour paste into the gooseberries, stirring all the time. Bring to the boil. It should thicken to a near-solid consistency.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little. Beat in the egg yolk. (The spare egg yolk will keep in the fridge for a day or two and can be used in custard tart)

Pour the gooseberry filling into the cooked pastry case.

To make the meringue
Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until standing in soft peaks.

Fold in the sugar using a metal spoon.

Pile the meringue on top of the gooseberry filling in the cooked pastry case.

Bake in a hot oven, approx 180 - 200 C, for 10 – 15 minutes until the meringue is set, crisp and golden brown.

Serve hot or cold. I expect to get 4 – 6 slices out of this recipe, but that depends how big a slice you like. It will keep a day or so at room temperature if you don’t eat it all at one sitting.

June recipe: Smoked salmon with cream and pasta

This is a simple and delicious dish for a warm summer day when you don’t want to do much cooking. It goes particularly well with early summer vegetables such as asparagus, mange-tout, peas or green beans. I like it either with hot-smoked salmon (the kind you flake) or cold-smoked salmon (the kind that comes in thin translucent pink slices) – they are slightly different, but both work well.

If you don’t like smoked salmon, you could also make it with chicken breast, thinly sliced and fried for 5-10 minutes or so along with the mushrooms.

Smoked salmon with cream and pasta (serves 2)

4 oz (approx 100 g) pasta
0.5 oz (approx 10 g) butter
3 oz (approx 75 g) mushrooms
4 oz (approx 100 g) smoked salmon
5 fl. oz (approx 140 ml) single cream
Fresh oregano (or herbs of your choice)

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water according to the instructions on the packet. Most shapes of pasta will work in this dish – spaghetti, tagliatelle, macaroni or the various pretty shapes such as shells, bows, twists etc.

Flake or chop the smoked salmon into small pieces. Chop the herbs.

Peel and slice the mushrooms.

Fry the mushrooms in the butter over a low to medium heat for 5 minutes or so until softened and starting to colour.

Pour in the single cream, then stir in the chopped salmon and chopped herbs. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Cook gently for 2-3 minutes or so until the cream bubbles.

Stir in the drained pasta.

Serve immediately with a green vegetable or salad of your choice.

June recipe: Lemon syllabub

Syllabub has been a popular dessert since at least the sixteenth century, as the Oxford English Dictionary lists the first recorded use at around 1537. It generally involves cream, alcohol, sugar and a flavouring, often fruit, though there are as many variations as there are cooks. It makes a fine dessert for a summer evening.

Here's my recipe. The mixture tends to splatter more than ordinary whipped cream, so a large mixing bowl is a good idea, and if using an electric whisk (and it would be hard work to whip by hand), use a slow speed to begin with and increase to higher speed after the mixture has started to thicken.




Lemon syllabub

1 lemon
4 fl. oz (approx 100 ml) sherry, white wine or cider
0.5 teaspoon (0.5 x 5 ml spoon) ground nutmeg
3 oz (approx 75 g) sugar. I like light brown soft sugar for the warm colour and slight caramel flavour)
0.5 pint (approx 250 ml) double cream*

Put the lemon juice, lemon zest, sherry and nutmeg in a large bowl and leave to steep for an hour or two.
Stir in the sugar and mix until dissolved.
Pour in the double cream.
Whisk until the mixture is thick and standing in soft peaks (like ordinary whipped cream, or perhaps a bit softer).
Spoon into wine glasses or glass dessert bowls. I expect to get 6 or 8 portions out of this quantity, but it depends how big your wine glasses are.
Sprinkle with a little grated chocolate if liked. Chill in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours, then serve.



*I think double cream is called heavy cream in the US

June recipe: Frittata

A frittata is a sort of cross between an omelette and a souffle. It makes an ideal dish for the summer months, being quick to cook so you don’t have to hover over a hot stove for too long, and susceptible to variation according to the available ingredients. This variant uses spring onions and mushrooms and is good served with a green salad. Later in the season you can use courgettes and sweet peppers and serve it with a tomato salad.









Bacon and spring onion frittata

Serves 2

Four spring onions (or half a small onion)
2 oz (approx 50 g) mushrooms
2 oz (approx 50 g) bacon
2 oz (approx 50 g) hard cheese (Cheddar works well), grated
3 eggs
Fresh herbs of your choice (I usually use parsley, thyme, marjoram or basil, depending on what’s growing well at the time), or dried mixed herbs if fresh herbs aren’t available

Trim and chop the spring onions.
Peel and slice the mushrooms.
Chop the bacon into narrow strips.
Beat the eggs in a jug, and stir in the grated cheese and chopped herbs.
Fry the onions, mushrooms and bacon in cooking oil in a frying pan over a medium heat until softened and starting to brown.
Season with salt and black pepper, and spread the mixture in an even layer over the bottom of the pan.
Pour in the eggs and cheese, and tilt the pan if necessary so that the egg mixture runs out to the edges. Cook for 2-3 minutes over a medium heat until the bottom is set (you can tell by lifting the edge with a spatula and peeking underneath).
Remove from the heat, and place under a hot grill for a further 2-3 minutes until the top is puffy and golden brown.
Serve immediately with fresh bread and salad.

Best eaten in the garden on a warm summer’s evening, with the swifts screaming overhead like black-clad bikers roaring through a sleepy resort, blackbirds feeding their fledglings shoulder-deep in daisies on the uncut lawn, and a kamikaze wasp doing ineffectual backstroke in your wineglass before expiring with a slurred alcoholic buzz.

Litha (June): the early English calendar

Before they converted to Christianity and adopted the Roman calendar, the early English (‘Anglo-Saxons’) reckoned time using a system of lunar months. Each cycle of the moon, probably from full moon to full moon, was a month. The year began at the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. There were two seasons, summer, when the days were longer than the nights, and winter, when the nights were longer than the days (See my earlier post for a summary of the early English calendar.)

The sixth month of the year, corresponding approximately to the Roman and modern month of June, was called Litha. Like its counterpart in the winter, Giuli (from which we get the word Yule), Litha was a double-length month, or two months of the same name, placed either side of the midsummer solstice.

Bede, writing in 725, tells us:

Litha means “gentle” or “navigable”, because in both those months the calm breezes are gentle and they were wont to sail upon the smooth sea.

--Bede, On the Reckoning of Time, Chapter 15. Translated by Faith Wallis.

In the online Old English Dictionary, “lithe” is translated as “soft, gentle, mild, serene” and the verb “lithan” as “to go, travel, sail”, both consistent with Bede’s statement.

However, it might also have another meaning, since elsewhere in the same passage Bede says:

“Winterfilleth”, a name made up from “winter” and “full moon”

--Bede, On the Reckoning of Time, Chapter 15. Translated by Faith Wallis.

This suggests that the element ‘-leth’ can mean ‘moon’, or at least that Bede thought it could. This is somewhat puzzling, as it doesn’t appear in the Old English Dictionary, and the usual Old English word for ‘moon’ is ‘mona’, related to 'monath', modern English ‘month’. However, the same dictionary also gives the Old English word ‘lyftfaet’ meaning ‘vessel in the air’ for ‘moon’. The element ‘lyft’ appears as ‘Luft’, ‘sky’, in modern German, so it isn’t directly related to ‘-leth’. But to speak of the full moon ‘sailing in the sky’ is occasionally used as a poetic figure of speech now, and I wonder if that poetic image of the full moon as a serenely sailing ship goes back to Bede’s day. If so, it could be a link between ‘Litha’ and ‘-leth’. Perhaps some sort of kenning described the moon as ‘sailing’ and could be used as an alternative name for the moon in certain contexts, much as the sea could be called the ‘whale-road’. If so, perhaps the name ‘Litha’ could have been something to do with the moon, as well as being a description of prevailing travelling conditions? I should stress that I am no linguist and I have no evidence for this suggestion.

We know from Bede’s account that the midwinter solstice was an important feast day. Since Litha bracketed the midsummer solstice in the same way that Giuli bracketed the midwinter solstice, it would seem a reasonable inference that the midsummer solstice was also celebrated in some way. Bede doesn’t mention any celebration, ceremony or feast, so the imagination is pretty well free to roam. Kathleen Herbert argues that Bede’s silence on the subject shows that Litha “… must have been a sacred name, too holy – or too pagan – for common use and Christian explanation.” (Herbert 1994). I don’t think I would go quite that far in inference from a negative. But there may be a few clues to be gleaned from the Christian feast-day held on the same date in the calendar.

The Christian church celebrates the feast of the birth of St John the Baptist on or near Midsummer’s Day. That might be pure coincidence, since according to Luke’s Gospel St John was supposed to have been conceived (and therefore, presumably, born) about six months before Jesus and therefore once Christmas had settled on the midwinter solstice, logically St John’s nativity would have had to settle on the midsummer solstice for consistency. Or it might indicate the importance of the midsummer date. St John the Baptist was an extremely important saint, so giving him the midsummer solstice feast day may indicate that the pre-Christian festival had also been a very important one, perhaps second only to the midwinter feast.

Various European traditions involve a special fire being lit on St John’s feast-day (see Wikipedia for some examples), along with drinking, feasting and revelry. This might suggest that a pre-Christian midsummer festival, if one existed, also involved a fire ceremony. Or, prosaically, it might just indicate that a big fire helps any outdoor party go with a swing! As usual, other interpretations are possible.


References
Bede: The Reckoning of Time. Translated by Faith Wallis. Liverpool University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-85323-693-3.
Herbert, Kathleen. Looking for the Lost Gods of England. Anglo-Saxon Books, 1994. ISBN 1-898281-04-1.

June recipe: Strawberry cheesecake

Yes, Glastonbury Festival a foot deep in mud, severe flooding, play repeatedly delayed by rain at the Wimbledon lawn tennis tournament – it can only be summer in England. The item above all others that marks out TH White’s Arthurian epic The Once and Future King as fantasy isn’t the griffin hunt, or the spells that turn the young Arthur into a variety of animals or Merlin’s second sight, it’s the line, “But in Old England there was a greater marvel still. The weather behaved itself.”

Be that as it may, the long daylight hours still persuade soft fruit to ripen, and the blackbirds in my garden have kindly left a few strawberries for us to eat (or perhaps they missed them among the weeds, which love warm wet weather and are doing a passable imitation of a jungle). So here’s a summer dessert recipe for this month. If you don’t like or can’t get strawberries, you can substitute any dessert fruit of your choice.

Strawberry cheesecake

For the pastry:
8 oz (approx 250 g) plain flour
3 oz (approx 100 g) icing sugar
4 oz (approx 125 g) butter
1 egg
Or you can use ready-made pastry if you prefer

For the cheesecake:
4 oz (approx 125 g) cream cheese
1.5 oz (approx 40 g) sugar
Few drops vanilla essence
1 egg, separated
4 fluid oz (approx 100 ml) double cream (or whipping cream, I think the US name may be heavy cream)

For the topping:
Sliced or whole strawberries (or fruit of your choice)

To make the pastry:
Cream the butter and icing sugar until pale and fluffy.
Beat in the egg.
Beat in the flour to form a dough.
This quantity of pastry is enough for three 7-inch tart cases, so divide the dough into three and freeze two of them.
Wrap one portion in cling film or foil and refrigerate for about an hour.
Roll out the pastry on a floured board, and line a greased tart tin about 7 inches (approximately 18 cm) in diameter. Don’t try to roll it out too thin. If the pastry breaks or tears when you lift it into the tin, don’t worry too much. Arrange the pieces in the tin, press the broken edges back together like Plasticene and you’ll probably get away with it.
Bake the empty tart case in a hot oven (about 200 C) for about 15 minutes until golden brown and set. You can go through the palaver of blind-baking with the pastry weighted down with beans or marbles if you like, but I never bother.
Cool on a wire rack.
Or you can just buy a ready-made tart case of your choice.

To make the cheesecake:
Beat the cream cheese and sugar together until well mixed and smooth.
Beat in the vanilla essence.
Separate the egg, put the egg white in a clean bowl, and beat the egg yolk into the cream cheese and sugar.
Whip the egg white until stiff (an electric whisk is a boon here). Fold into the cream cheese mixture.
Whip the cream until stiff. Fold into the cream cheese mixture.
Pour into the cooked pastry case. (If there is any left over that won’t fit in the tart case, which may happen if your tart tin is a little smaller than mine, put it in a wine glass and it will set to something resembling a vanilla mousse. Or just eat any leftover mixture out of the mixing bowl, which I confess is what I do).
Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight to set. If you don’t have time to wait, the cheesecake will still be just as delicious to eat, but it won’t have set and you’ll find it flows off the spoon when you serve it instead of staying in a neat slice.

To finish:
Top the set cheesecake with strawberries, sliced, halved or whole according to personal preference.
Dust with icing sugar if liked.
Serve cut into slices. I generally expect to get 6-8 slices out of this recipe, but it depends on how large a slice you like…
Will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, if it gets the chance.