Eton Mess

This is the finest dessert available to humanity. It's highly English, but I've always found the English know their puddings. This is transcendent, heavenly, exquisite. It's also really simple--which is when English cooking is at its best--it's just strawberries and cream mixed with crumbled crunchy meringues. It's only worth making in the summer though, with summer strawberries. I've had cravings and tried to make it in the winter and the berries are simply not good enough. That being said, this is good even with slightly mushy or over-ripe strawberries, because in the summer the flavor is all there. The berries should hit you with their fragrance and be juicy and plump.

Here's what you need:

200 gm chopped strawberries (I find the worse the condition of the strawberries the smaller you should chop them--don't worry, they'll still taste great.)

150 gm double cream/heavy whipping cream

1 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 meringue nests (These you can buy in shops in Britain, I'm not sure where they're available in the US. When I get back, I might have to start making my own meringues.)

Also, optionally, a small dribble of balsamic vinegar.

Take those chopped strawberries and place them in a bowl.
Sprinkle about half a teaspoon of sugar on the berries and pour over a tiny dribble of balsamic vinegar, around 1/4 a teaspoon. Mix the berries up gently and leave them to mascerate. They'll burst forth all their juices. The balsamic vinegar is strange but somehow it heightens the taste of strawberries because it's sweet and sort of tangy. You don't want to really taste it, it will just make the strawberries taste even more strongly of strawberry.
Put the cream in a larger bowl, sprinkleo n the rest of the sugar and dribble in the vanilla.
Softly whip the cream in the bowl. You don't want it too hard whipped, just to the point where it's no longer a liquid, just a big floppy mass.
Crumble the meringues in the cream. There should be some bitesize chunks and some dust.
Mix the meringues into the cream gently. Don't overmix.
Now add the strawberries.
Now when you mix them in, mix it only very, very gently. You want it to be loose and clumpy masses of crunchy bits in cream, with strawberries and their juice rippled through.
This is why it's called Eton Mess. It looks a mess, but...
...ew, still ugly. But... oh... so... delicious. It's hard to explain how good this is. Just try it.

Recipe Index

Applesauce

Bacon Sandwich

British Roast Vegetables

Buttercream Frosting

Butternut Squash Risotto

Chickpea Curry

Electric Goat

Enchiladas

Eton Mess

Garlic Bread

Lentil Shepherd's Pie

North African Cous Cous

Pancakes

Panna Cotta

Pepper and Halloumi Bake

Pizza

Pork Chops with Cider, Mustard and Cream

Potato Curry with Fried Eggs

Roasted Butternut Squash with Red Onions and Goat's Cheese

Roasted Garlic Puree

Scrambled Egg Curry

Spaghetti

Yellow Cake

Panna Cotta

Have you ever had panna cotta? Please try it some time. If you like creme brulee, you'll like this. If you like vanilla, you'll like this. If you like food, you'll like this. Please note: Some people think the texture of panna cotta will be the same as creme brulee. It isn't. Instead of being thickened by eggs, it's thickened with gelatin, so it feels more like gelatin. However, a good proportion of cream in the mix keeps things tasting and feeling creamy.
Here are the ingredients. I'm giving measurements in grams and milliliters. If you can't measure that, well, tough nuggets.

100 gm sugar

10 gm powdered gelatine

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Then you need 600 total milliliters of liquid, split by any proportion between cream and milk. I think the ideal is 300 mls of cream and 300 mls of milk. Keep it relatively low on calories and fat, but keep up a nice texture and flavor.

I also added a packet of my vanilla sugar from France so that I ended up with lots of tiny vanilla flecks in the final custard.

Take a bit of the milk and put it in a separate bowl. Sprinkle the gelatine on top and swirl/stir to dissolve it.
In a saucepan combine the milk and cream mixture, the sugar and I added the vanilla sugar. Bring that mixture to a boil.
In the meantime, the gelatine should have sort of dissolved into the milk.
I like to make the panna cotta in individual ramekins. I get 8 ramekins with this recipe.
Once the milk mixture is boiling, add in the gelatine mixture and stir to combine and dissolve the gelatine. Bring the mixture to the boil again and boil for about 1 minute.

After that, take off the heat and cool for a few minutes. Add the vanilla.
In order to get the cream mixture into the individual ramekins, I pour it back into the measuring jug first. It gives you more control when pouring.
Fill the 8 ramekins (or you could do one large shallow dish) and leave to cool to room temperature. Then cover and put in the fridge overnight.
Once set, they look like this and are firm but yielding to the touch.

You can eat them like this, but they are really good when you top them with some fruit, especially fruit that has a sharp edge, such as passion fruit pulp or my favorite, raspberries.
You can add the raspberries right on top and dig in, but I like to crush the berries up first. Put them in a bowl with a tiny bit of sugar and just mash with a spoon. No need to make them perfectly smooth as long as they're crushed and juicy.
Spoon on top of the panna cotta and dig in. It's a lovely combination of sharp and fruity and creamy and sweet. Try it!

Easy Vegetarian Spaghetti with Garlic Bread

This is a very satisfying meal for me, makes me think of home. And for some reason it is the one dinner with which I have to have a tall glass of cold skim milk. Normally I don't drink plain milk.
This is an easy vegetarian spaghetti sauce, so here are the easy ingredients. Adjust to your tastes

onion

bell peppers

zucchini (here in the UK they're called courgettes, don't ask me why)

garlic

tomato sauce

pasta of some sort--spaghetti here--it is, after all, a spaghetti sauce

dried chili pepper flakes

fresh basil

Start by chopping all the veg. Throw them in a pot with some olive oil. Start with the onions and zucchini to soften them first. Once they're half-way cooked, throw in some garlic along with the dried chili pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
Once they're about halfway cooked, throw in the peppers and cook for only a few minutes so that they keep crisp.

Pour in the tomato sauce and stir it up. Then cover with the lid slightly ajar and simmer until everything else is ready.
Get the water boiling and put the pasta on.
Now make the garlic bread using the above ingredients.

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp roast garlic puree

salt

fresh basil or any other herb

Mix the butter and garlic up together.
Add the herbs and salt.
Mix it all up and prepare to smooth on to bread.
I'm using plain old sandwich bread.
I toast the bread on the first side under the broiler (called a grill here, in Her Majesty's realms). Spread the butter on the other side of the toast.
Put the garlic bread, butter side up under the broiler until it's not brown but sort of toasted. This is so as not to burn the garlic.
The sauce should be a bit thickened.
At this point I like to throw in a bit of fresh basil.
Plate it up! Some people like parmesan over the top. I don't. That's just me.

Pancakes!

Normally I wouldn't make these silver dollar pancakes, I would make regular sized ones, put them in a stack, pour maple syrup over the top and cut straight down, eating the whole stack like this. There is a famous internet clip of the comedien Jim Gaffegin talking about the fact that when you eat pancakes, you're pretty much declaring it's a no-shower, staying-in-your-pajamas day. I decided to start making these silver dollar pancakes because I like all things miniature and cute. And also because I find when I make them small I eat less overall and therefore avoid that ball-of-cement-in-the-stomach feeling. I also think it's essential when eating sweet carby pancakes to have alongside something salty and meaty. The combination is perfect. It simply must be done, if you're not vegetarian.
The recipe itself is easy and I'm going to include it here from memory!

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large egg

lemon juice

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt
Okay, this part is weird. The first thing you do is squirt some lemon juice into a measuring jug. Even just a tablespoon will do. This is to sour the milk. If you have buttermilk use that, but I never have it around. Sour milk works well too. Squirt the lemon juice into the measuring jug and fill up to the volume of 1 cup. Leave there for about 5 minutes.
Now mix up the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Crack the egg right into the milk and mix up thoroughly. Add the oil and mix in well.
Now add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix gently. There will be some lumps.
Heat the pan and dollop the batter out one tablespoon at a time.
If the pan is hot enough, the pancakes will be ready to flip really quickly.
Stack them on a plate and cover lightly with a piece of foil to keep them warm.
Once all the pancakes are done, I do the breakfast meat in the same pan. This day I had bacon. Otherwise I'd have some sausage. Cook until crisp and brown.
I like the arrange the silver dollar pancakes on a plate like this, for maximum maple syrup absorption.
Add the bacon. The meat juices mix with the maple syrup and make everything sweet and salty. The perfect combination.
Yummy yummy yummy in my tummy!