Blueberry/Raspberry/Strawberry Pudding Cake

The Rhubarb Strawberry Pudding Cake I was going to bring to the Devon Horse show tonight vanished during the day.  It's a quick, easy, delicious desert so I threw together another one home when I returned from work.  I was out of rhubarb and vanilla extract so improvised with the punnets of raspberries and blueberries I had in the fridge and added lemon extract.  Even better than the original.




Ingredients
1/2 cup water
3 teaspoons cornstarch
1/3 cup plus 1 cup sugar
2 cups blueberries
2 cups raspberries
1 cup chopped fresh strawberries 
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2  large eggs
1 cup whole milk
2 sticks butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Butter an 8-inch square glass or ceramic baking dish.

Stir together water, cornstarch, and 1/3 cup sugar in a small saucepan, then stir in strawberries and blueberries. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly, then simmer, stirring occasionally, 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in raspberries.  

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining 1 cup sugar in a bowl.

Whisk together eggs, milk, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.

Reserve 1 cup fruit mixture, then add remainder to baking dish and pour batter over it, spreading evenly. Drizzle reserved cup of fruit mixture over batter. Bake until a wooden pick inserted into center of cake portion comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes before serving.  Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

The start of summer and time for parades, speeches and old fashioned fun.  The garden is a sauna, with a heat advisory in place for later in the day.  I'm always nostalgic this time of year, memories of childhood summers, rolling down grass banks, the thwock of tennis balls, hot sticky days on the beach and the music of the ice-cream van.  I miss cones of soft white ice-cream with a cadbury's flake in the middle, but in reality would rather a refreshing dish of Italian gelatto.  

Lemon Granita
On hot summer days, lemon granita is delicious served with biscotti or even spooned onto brioche for breakfast.  Easy to find on the streets of Rome, more difficult in Philadelphia but making your own is fairly simple.

Ingredients
9fl oz water 
17oz golden granulated or caster sugar 
7 large Amalfi lemons 9 (if you can find them, ordinary lemons will do), about 18fl oz juice 
5fl oz soda water

Make a sugar syrup by heating the water and sugar together until the sugar dissolves. Zest the lemons directly into the warm syrup (if you grow your own lemon trees and have any leaves you can wash one or two and add them to the warm syrup where they will release their rather peppery oils). Squeeze the lemons, strain the juice and add it to the syrup, removing the leaves if used. Stir in the cold soda water and refrigerate the mixture for 20 minutes.

Freeze in a stainless-steel container (a rectangular one is best) and stir with a fork every hour or so, making sure you pay attention to the sides where the mixture can quickly freeze solid.  Once the mixture is firm and frozen, cover with parchment paper so that the granita is not exposed to the freezer air and wrap in cling film.

To serve, place the granita in the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes, then scrape along the top with a heavy-duty ice-cream scoop or metal spoon to create slushy ice crystals.

Top the granita with candied lemon peel and serve with sweetened whipped cream with a tablespoon of marsala.

Watermelon Ice
A slice of ripe watermelon, chilled in the fridge, is the essence of summer.  Making it into a ice cream seems almost redundant, but they can make a delicious thirst quenching water ice.  The pallid tasting stuff from Rita's Ice is a far cry from the glasses you find in Italy, often studded with fresh jasmine flowers and sprinkled with coarsely grated dark chocolate to resemble the missing pips.  Much better to make your own, with a pinch of salt that cuts through the sweetness of the fruit like a good margarita. 

Ingredients
2lb 4oz watermelon flesh 
generous pinch of salt 
juice of 2 limes 
2oz golden granulated or caster sugar 
6oz dark chocolate, coarsely grated (optional to sprinkle on top)

Process the watermelon flesh in a blender with the salt and lime juice. Pour the mixture through a fine sieve into a stainless-steel container or plastic tub. Using the back of a ladle, push it through and strain out all of the remnants of pips. Stir in the sugar, and keep stirring until it has dissolved.

Place the container in the freezer and freeze, stirring with a fork every hour or so making sure to stir in any frozen mixture on the sides, if not mixed well while freezing, the water will separate from the fruit, creating white patches in the granita.

Serve with a straw on hot days so you can suck it up when it starts to melt.  It is nice to serve this in waxed paper cups on a hot day, with straws for sucking it up when it starts to melt. 

Chocolate Pudding Ice Cream
For all chocoholics this ice cream fits the bill.  It's incredibly simple to make and relatively low fat though with an intense flavor.  Sicilians use cornflour instead of egg as a thickener in gelati as it's cheaper and lighter to digest.  It also doesn't inhibit the flavors of the other ingredients as egg can. 

Ingredients
16fl oz whole milk 
1/2 oz cornflour 
1¾oz good quality cocoa powder 
2¾oz golden granulated or caster sugar 
pinch of salt

Mix 4 oz of the milk with the cornflour to a smooth paste. Set aside. Mix together the cocoa powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Heat the remaining milk to simmering point, then pour in a steady stream over the cocoa mixture, whisking vigorously to prevent lumps from forming. Return the mixture to the stove in a stainless-steel pan, cooking over a very low heat at barely simmering point. Stir the bottom constantly to prevent burning. Cook for six minutes, then add the blended cornflour, whisking again to prevent lumps. Return to a simmer and cook for two minutes until thickened and smooth.

Strain the mixture into a clean container and cool in an ice-water bath, stirring often to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate for at least four hours (this 'ages' the ice cream so that the water and fat cells mingle and the ice cream has better body and melts more slowly once frozen).

Freeze and churn in an ice-cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Serve with cashew nuts and a pinch of lightly toasted ancho chilli seeds ground up with sea salt, or with sweetened whipped cream and grated dark chocolate.

The vegetable garden is coming to life with vengeance.   I harvested a mesculan green mix, arugula, mizuna, romaine, spinach, baby peas. asparagus spears and some oregano, parsley and cilantro.  Time to toss them in a salad with a basic vinaigrette (2 tbls olive oil and a tsp of pomegranate or fig vinegar, a dash of salt and pepper and some diced spring onions) and some crumbled goat cheese, fried and crumbled bacon from the farmers market, buttered croutons and top with a poached egg gathered from the chickens this afternoon.  

I finally conquered poaching, the key seems to be to add a tbsp of white vinegar to 4 cups of water and bring to a soft boil (little bubbles, not a rolling boil).  Drop the cracked egg into the water as you stir the water with a spoon, so that the egg swirls around in a circle in the warm water.  After approximately 3 -4 minutes, the egg will be soft boiled (Test it by lifting the egg on a slotted spoon and gently shaking it.  It should move but not look watery.  The goal is that the yolk is still liquid, but the white is fully cooked).