Summer might decide not to arrive on this island this year but I refuse to be put off.
I have been making ice cream. If I have to eat it in the rain with 15C degrees out there, then so be it!



300g strawberries
100g sugar
2 tbsp Framboise

For custard
400ml whole milk
200ml double cream
pinch of salt
1 vanilla pod
4 egg yolks
120g sugar

Slice strawberries into a bowl and sprinkle with sugar and liqueur. Leave to infuse for a few hours.

For the custard, pour milk and cream into a saucepan, add salt and vanilla and cook over a low heat. Whisk egg yolks with sugar.
When milk is about to start to boil, lift from the heat and trickle some milk over the egg yolks. Keep whisking and adding the milk. Heat the mixture over a waterbath until it starts to thicken, whisking all the time. When it coats the back of a spoon, lift off the heat, cover and let cool.

Mash the strawberries using a fork. It's okay to leave some chunks in there.
Pour the custard into an ice cream machine and chill until just about ready, then mix with the strawberries.
If you don't have a machine, then just skip this step, it will be fine.
Fill popsicle moulds with streaky ice cream.
Pop in the wooden sticks and chill in the freezer.

Blood orange and strawberry mousse tartlets

Just something that I quickly put together when blood oranges were in season.
Puff pastry. Simple strawberry mousse made with frozen strawberry purée and whipped cream. Lightly caramelised blood orange slices on top.

I created this recipe two years ago. For a magazine. It's about time to post it.

It is a bit fiddly and it requires two cake tins or rings (20cm and 23cm) if you want to achieve the look.
But it is seriously tasty, looks effective and can be prepared about a week in advance.
Ideal in this hot weather we're having.

Frozen strawberry torte


1 sponge bottom, about a centimetre thick

Zabaglione layer
3 egg yolks
2 tbsp sugar
90ml brandy
1 vanilla pod
2 gelatine sheets
200ml double cream
1 tbsp icing sugar

Strawberry layer
300g strawberries
2 tbsp liquid glucose
2 gelatine sheets

Mousse layer
3 egg whites
5 tbsp sugar
300ml double cream
2 tbsp icing sugar
400g strawberries
4 gelatine sheets


Make the zabaglione by whisking egg yolks with brandy, sugar and vanilla over a water bath until it turns into a pale fluffy foam. Soak gelatine sheets in cold water, squeeze and add to the egg foam. Mix until gelatine has melted. Take off the heat and let cool, stirring occasionally.
Whisk double cream to soft peaks with icing sugar. Fold into cooled zabaglione.

Take the biscuit sponge and using the 20cm cake ring cut it into a circle to fit inside the ring. Before fitting it in there, take some cling film and wrap the base so no liquids could seep out. Now place the sponge inside the tin/ring. Pour the zabaglione on top. Tap the tin to even the surface of the zabaglione. Cover and place in the freezer.

While it hardens, prepare the strawberry purée. Take a quarter of the purée, mix it with liquid glucose and heat to 50C in the microwave. Soak gelatine sheets in cold water, squeeze and add to the heated purée. Stir until melted. Add to the rest of the purée and let cool.

Take the cake tin from the freezer and pour a layer of purée. Cover and put it back into the freezer.

Take the 23cm cake tin/ring and wrap with cling film.

Lastly, prepare the strawberry mousse.
For that, purée the strawberries. Soak gelatine sheets in cold water. Heat a quarter of the purée, squeeze the gelatine sheets and mix into the warm purée until melted. Add to the rest of the purée. Whisk egg whites to stiff peaks with sugar and whisk double cream to soft peaks with icing sugar. Now stir all three parts together, the egg white, the cream and the purée.

Take the smaller tin from the freezer, the contents of which should now have hardened, and remove the ring. Place the frozen cake layers in the centre of the larger tin. Pour the mousse on top, ensuring that the gap between the tin and the frozen layers gets correctly filled, tap the tin very carefully.
Cover and place in the freezer.

It can then be served after a couple of hours of freezing or left in the freezer for up to a week (just place in the regular fridge about an hour before serving).

June was slightly rainy and not so hot, perfect for plump strawberries. July, however, was hot and very dry which resulted in super-sweet but rather tiny strawberries.

I'll let you in on a little secret - the ugliest strawberries are often the tastiest. They look pale and withered compared to the usual large and fleshy heroes but make no mistake, these ugmos are bursting wih flavour. The taste is as if the sweetness and aromas of ten strawberries have been crammed into one. Yes, they are not as juicy as the water-laden perfectly plump supermodel strawberries but they taste amazing.

But you will not find these ugly babies on the shelves of a supermarket, not even when rifling through the isles of a fancy farmers' market, as they are considered very ugly. And even more likely so, commercial strawberry growers (farmers) with their automatic fertilising and watering systems would never even grow such gems as these require a dry and sunny spell resulting in firmer and smaller berries full of flavour. Smaller berries would mean less money so they make sure their plants stay well watered.

You can recognise these palate-tinglers by some simple characteristics - very firm flesh, protruding achenes aka "seeds", elevated calyx, somewhat anemic colour (or even downright hideous greenish-whitish hue) and possible splitting. See examples above.

Strawberry feta bruschette

A quarter of a baguette
100g feta cheese
200g strawberries
1 tbsp runny honey
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
fresh mint and basil leaves

Cut the baguette into 1cm thick slices. Brush with oil and grill until golden on one side.
Slice the feta and arrange on hot toasts. Drizzle with honey.
Slice or quarter the strawberries, depending on size, and pile on the feta. Add a handful of mint and basil leaves. Drizzle some balsamic on top.
Serve straight away.

This is one of the recipes I created for a local magazine back in May. It was a bit hectic and also fun. My family got to eat so much cake during the 4 week period like never before.
I had to come up with the recipes, test them (sometimes twice) and also photograph the goods. The hardest part being the fact that it is best to photograph a cake straight from the oven but you can never be too sure of the weather. You simply cannot wait around for that perfect ray of light.

Ladybird on Greek basil.

Strawberry trifle and peach Melba.

It is a twist on an Estonian classic, the curd cheese slice, where a layer of dough is covered with a layer of curd cheese and berry mixture.
Apricots, cherries or plums could also be used, and with the same visual effect.



 
Strawberry slice


125g butter
200g sugar
4 large eggs
250g flour
2 tsp baking powder
300g curd cheese paste with vanilla (see below)
about 600g strawberries, halved

Cream butter with sugar and add the eggs, one by one. Mix flour with baking powder and sift into the dough. Add half of the curd cheese and combine into a smooth dough.
Spread the dough on a 40cm x 30cm baking tray, dotting the other half of curd cheese inbetween and on top of the dough with a spoon. It should look nice and spotty.
Top snugly with halved strawberries, cut side down, do not leave any gaps, they will shrink as it is.
For a more sparkling look, you might want to brush the strawberries with melted apricot jelly or simple sugar syrup but it is not necessary.
Bake in the lower section of a 180C oven for about 30-35 minutes.


*If for whatever reason you cannot get your hands on some creamy curd cheese paste, use regular curd cheese (or ricotta) and loosen it with a few tablespoons of cream. Add some vanilla seeds and two-three tablespoons of sugar. Beat with a wooden spoon until spreadable consistency is received.

Eggy bread.
Childhood nostalgia.

This is one of those dishes that my grandmother used to make. She made it very simple, no fancy extras or grandiloquent names. Just sweet and golden eggy bread, dusted with icing sugar.

Also known as French toast, pain perdu or poor knights.
Probably one of the simplest and cheapest breakfast/dessert creations. For the plain version you need some white bread, an egg, sugar, milk and Bob's your uncle.

But I suggest going all out, use cream instead of milk, just egg yolks in place of the whole egg and add flavouring according to your liking - vanilla, Amaretto, cinnamon, Calvados, Cassis, elderflower, orange zest and so on and so forth.

I played around with various versions, all of which included fat juicy strawberry slices.
Strawberry and pistachio paste, strawberry and salted caramel, strawberry and curd cheese.

I discovered that I'm not such a big fan of caramel but also, once a sticky gooey luscious caramel spread it melted into a sad pool of wet mass after a trip to the frying pan. It oozed out of the bread pocket making quite a mess on and off the plate.

Pistachio paste has the tendency to stick to your teeth a bit but the flavour was great. Could also use Nutella or frangipane. So many possibilities!

This month, my grandmother celebrated her 80th birthday.

Where would we be without grandmothers? They are like magical fairies I tell you.

Always cooking your favourite foods, 

letting you eat dessert before anything, 

saving all the best bits of cake for you,

having a pie or pancakes waiting for you on the stove when you get home from school (or work! now that we're a bit older), 

always making sure you never run out of coins for an ice cream in case you ever needed one, 

chasing off all the creepy crawlies staring at you in the darkest corner, 

turning her sitting room into a makeshift fortress for you to play in :D

Thank you, granny, I'm so lucky to have you in my life.

 

Strawberry and curd cheese eggy bread


2 slices of toast
1 egg, separated
3 tbsp cream
vanilla paste
sugar
50g curd cheese (can substitute with ricotta)
9 to 12 small strawberries


Whisk egg white with a fork until it is no longer lumpy, bubbles start to form.
Mix it with curd cheese and sweeten to your liking.

Whisk egg yolk with a tablespoon of sugar and a pinch of vanilla paste until foaming. Stir in the cream.

Now take your toast slices, spread the curd cheese mixture on the slices, top with strawberries (when using smaller ones, use them whole) or strawberry slices (cut larger strawberries into 1cm thick slices, eating the leftovers as you go along). Press toast slices together, making a sandwich.
Dip the sandwich in the egg yolk mixture, turning once, letting it soak it all up.
Fry in butter until golden and crispy on both sides.

Although it doesn't look like much, since the strawberry loses its bright red colour during baking, it does taste excellent. I opted for dried strawberries because fresh strawberries will collapse when baked this long and the whole thing might get very soggy. Adding a few slices might be considerable though.
I used freeze dried strawberry slices, but any version should do. Could even dry your own!
Halve the sugar content if using sweetened or sugar-coated strawberry pieces.



Strawberry and pistachio loaf

2 eggs
100g butter
100g sugar
100g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g dried strawberry pieces (no added sugar)
50g pistachios

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one by one. Combine flour with baking powder and sift into the batter. Finally add the strawberry bits and pistachios. Make sure everything is evenly mixed through. Scoop into a small loaf tin (about 15cm x 9cm) and bake in a 180C degree oven for 20 minutes, then turn the heat down to 160C and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Summer and strawberries go hand in hand. So far it has been an exceptionally dry summer, plants are quite dry and berries minuscule. I didn't want to mock about with what little I had, so I opted for a variation on Eton Mess.

300g strawberries, quartered
50g sugar
50g water
vanilla
black pepper
200ml double cream
200g sweetened curd cheese paste
icing sugar, to taste
about 60g crisp meringues

First make a syrup to macerate the strawberries. Heat the water with sugar, vanilla and a few cracked black peppercorns. Pour over strawberries and let stand until you prepare the cream but not less than 20 minutes.

Whip cream to soft peaks and fold into the curd cheese paste.
When ready, drain the strawberries and layer into glasses with the cream and crushed meringues. Serve right away.