Monday, July 30, 2007

Get out of jail free dessert


Lemon posset with twice poached raspberries.

The lemon posset is an Allegra McEvedy pudding and it is she that describes it as a get out of jail free dessert. It is absolutely delicious, if not for the figure conscious. Incredibly simple, it uses lemon juice to thicken the double cream instead of eggs.

For four

Ingredients
420 ml double cream
150g granulated sugar
Zest of 3 lemons, unwaxed
Juice of 2 lemons (about 5 tbsp)

Method
Put the cream, zest and sugar in a pan and bring to the boil, stirring constantly as the sugar dissolves. Boil for three minutes, making sure the cream does not overflow, which it is wont to do. Take off the heat, allow to sit for 10 minutes, then stir in the juice and watch it start to thicken.

Strain to remove zest. Fill ramekins, or one larger dish, allow to cool and then chill in the fridge for several hours or overnight.

Twice poached raspberries
This is my own recipe, an invention born of necessity.

It’s very difficult to get raspberries to stay whole if you poach them. The first lot I tried, poached in sugar syrup, came to pieces. So I sieved them, brought the coulis to the boil and poured it over another batch of raspberries in a jar. Bingo! Intact berries in a satiny coulis.

Ingredients
50g granulated sugar
3 tbsp water
500g raspberries
Another 500g raspberries

Method
Heat the sugar and water slowly until the sugar dissolves. Tip in the first lot of raspberries, put a lid on the pan and poach slowly for about five minutes. Sieve the coulis. Return to the pan and bring slowly up to simmering point. Meanwhile fill a jar with the remaining 500g of raspberries and when the coulis is simmering pour it into the jar to cover the berries. Allow to cool.

The raspberries are quite tart, which goes well with the sharp/sweet lemony posset.

11 comments:

Joanna said...

the raspberries sound great ... when you say put them in a jar, do you think that they'll keep? If so, what sort of time? probably in the fridge?

Joanna
joannasfood.blogspot.com

June said...

Good question Joanna! The reason for putting the raspberries in a jar is so that you disturb them as little as possible so they don't break up. A bowl would do just as well. You then have something fresh and fruity with some sugar in it, so I would think they would last in the fridge for about four days.

Figs, Bay, Wine said...

Oh this is brilliant! Truly get out of jail free. Sounds absolutely magical how the whole thing comes together, and anything lemony is heaven in my book. Now, I just need to get my hands on some lovely British rasps!

June said...

I didn't know raspberries were hard to find in the US. How do you live without raspberries!

Figs, Bay, Wine said...

Oh no, they're everywhere. It's just that the flavor is so unimpressive compared to British berries. I have no idea why that is!

June said...

Actually that's a problem here too - some varieties have great flavour and some varieties taste of nothing. Octavia, for example, is good, Leo on the other hand is rubbish. We do though have lots of varieties, many of them local. Scottish rasps are the best of course!

browniegirl said...

WOW! That looks stunning!! I tasted Scottish raspberries once and nothing compares!! We do have some lovely ones here in SA but the season is very limited and they are expensive! I am crazy about berries!! :)

Anonymous said...

Strawberries are another problem here- our local strawberries -even ones I've grown myself, are nothing compared to English strawberries- you'd be amazed. It's probably due in part to the varieties available to grow, but I've been convinced- (after a certain long ago plant smuggling enterprise -nothing to do with me, mind you, just something I heard about, you understand) that it is to do, in further part, with the soil and climate of Western PA.

And while I'm whinging, I'm wondering if we've got any local double cream with body enough to do the job with this gorgeous sounding recipe. When I was in college in Dairyland, USA-a/k/a Wisconsin, we used to get cream at a farm that would stay in the bottle (the cream, not the farm like a ship-in-the -bottle) if you upended it. Haven't seen the like around here, though.

June said...

Care package on its way!

Anonymous said...

O my! It has arrived. I am controlling myself, because I am going to make the posset tomorrow to feed to my friend, who is coming to dinner the next day, for dessert.
But I can see that some sampling will have to take place before then. The only question is when the breakdown will occur.

thank you thank you thank you, and, well, you get the idea.

Anonymous said...

The posset was delicious. And easy.

 
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