Sticky blackcurrant shallots

A really easy, delicious preserve using red wine and cassis from Sybil Kapoor's recently released The Great British Vegetable Cookbook - a great present for anyone who has an allotment.

Sybil says "This ultra-sticky shallot confit will keep for several weeks covered in the fridge. It tastes amazing in blue cheese sandwiches or as an accompaniment to roast venison or steak.

SERVES 6–8

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

450g/1lb smallish shallots, peeled

salt and freshly ground black pepper

150ml/5fl oz full-bodied red wine

150ml/5fl oz crème de cassis

1½ tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 Set a wide sauté pan over a low heat. Add the oil and, once warm, mix in the peeled shallots. Season lightly and fry gently, stirring regularly, for 10 minutes, until they start to colour, then cover the pan with some dampened crumpled greaseproof paper and a lid. Cook gently over a low heat for 20 minutes, or until very soft, remembering to give the pan the odd shake.

2 Remove the lid and paper. Add the wine, crème de cassis and vinegar. Return to the boil, then simmer gently for 30–35 minutes, or until the liquid has evaporated into a sticky juice and the shallots are dark and soft. Season to taste and transfer to a clean container. Once cool, cover and chill until needed. Gently reheat to serve.

Sybil Kapoor’s The Great British Vegetable Cookbook is published by National Trust Books. Recipe photography is by Karen Thomas.

Lemon and cherry possets with fruit marshmallows

It might seem perverse to choose a dessert from a barbecue book* but the Pitt Cue Co crew are as good at trashy desserts as they are at meat. And you need to finish off your BBQ somehow, don't you?

So here, from Pitt Cue Co: The Cookbook . . . "A cute, citrusy and velvety post-pork refreshment. These possets can be made well in advance and will suit all sorts of fruit, which makes it a pretty perfect get-me-out-of-the–shit dessert candidate.

Serves 5–6

cherries 500g

demerara sugar 40g

blackcurrant jam 20g

vanilla pod, split lengthways 1

double cream 600ml

caster sugar 170g

lemon juice 100ml (about 2 lemons)

Marshmallows (see below)

Set aside a cherry for each posset, to use as a garnish. Remove the stones from the remaining cherries and cut them all in half. Put half the cherries into a bowl with 20g of the demerara sugar and set aside to macerate for 1 hour.

Put the rest of the cherries into a pan with the other 20g of demerara sugar, the blackcurrant jam and the split vanilla pod and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes, until softened. Remove the vanilla pod, blitz the cherries to a thick pulp in a blender and pass through a sieve to make a thick purée. There should be about 70–80g. Set aside.

Divide the macerated cherries evenly between serving glasses, reserving the juices. The cherries should just cover the bottom of the glass. Put the glasses into the refrigerator to chill.

To make the posset, bring the cream and sugar to the boil in a pan, whisking to ensure that the sugar is well combined. Take the pan off the heat and pour in the lemon juice, then pass the mixture through a fine sieve. Take the glasses out of the fridge and pour the posset on top of the cherries.

Allow to cool, then return the glasses to the fridge for 4 hours to set.

To serve, arrange the marshmallows on top of each posset. If you like, you can blowtorch the marshmallows until just browned andmelting. Finish with a cherry on top.

Marshmallows
(makes lost)

gelatine leaves 12g (about 1–2)

water 30ml

caster sugar 200g

liquid glucose 20g

fresh free-range egg whites 80g (about 4 eggs)

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

fruit purée, optional 80g

cornflour, for dusting 70g

icing sugar, for dusting 70g

Maldon sea salt, a pinch

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Put the gelatine leaves into a bowl, cover with cold water and leave to soak until soft. Put the 30ml water, caster sugar and glucose into a large pan and heat until the temperature reaches 121°C on a sugar thermometer.

In a free-standing electric mixer, slowly whisk the egg whites and lemon zest on a medium speed until they reach stiff peaks. When the sugar mixture reaches temperature, take the pan off the heat. Squeeze out the gelatine leaves and add to the pan, mixing gently. Be careful: the mixture may bubble and splutter a bit. Turn the mixer to the lowest setting. With the mixer running, gently pour the hot sugar mixture down the side of the bowl into the egg whites, then increase the speed to medium and continue to mix until the whites are cool, glossy and stiff, about 8–10 minutes. Fold in the fruit purée, if using, until well combined.

Scoop the mixture into a piping bag with the smallest nozzle available. Combine the cornflour and icing sugar and sift over the prepared baking tray – this will stop the marshmallows from sticking. Pipe little marshmallow teardrops on to the greaseproof, about the width of a 10p piece with a nice quiff. Put the tray into the fridge for 1 hour to allow the marshmallows to set.

What to drink: Not an easy one. I would be tempted to serve a sweet sparkling red like a brachetto d'acqui or a Cabernet Franc ice wine like this Peller one here. (But not a sparkling shiraz - too strong, too dry)

* A lot of the savoury recipes also involve sub-recipes that would take up too much space but don't be discouraged - the book, which is published at £20 by Mitchell Beazley, is awesome. Photograph © Paul Winch-Furness.

Rustle up a Red Nose Pudding!

If you’re organising a Red Nose Day tasting tonight here’s a zany idea for a pudding that I devised for a Sainsbury’s magazine feature a couple of years ago when I interviewed TV presenter Phillip Schofield for Comic Relief.

It’s based on the classic French cherry dessert Clafoutis, a crisp sweet batter with cherries - or rather, red noses . . .

serves 8-10

2 x 425g cans of black cherries
3 tbsp of kirsch, cherry brandy or brandy (optional but good!)
4 medium eggs
60g (2 1/2 oz) caster sugar
110g (4 oz) plain flour
A pinch of salt
400ml(14 fl oz) whole milk (i.e. not skimmed or semi-skimmed)
Finely grated rind of one medium unwaxed lemon
A little flavourless oil for the tin
Icing sugar to serve

You will need a shallow rectangular cast iron dish or baking tin about 30cm x 20 cm or 1.5 litres (2 1/2 pints) in capacity

Get the cherries and batter ready two to three hours before making the pudding. Drain the cherries and place in a bowl with the kirsch or cherry brandy, if using. Mix lightly together with a metal spoon and leave to macerate, stirring the cherries into the juice a couple of times. To make the batter put the eggs in a food processor or liquidiser with the sugar, flour, salt and half the milk. Whizz together until smooth then gradually add the rest of the milk. Add the lemon rind and whizz again then pour the batter into a large jug, cover, and leave in the fridge until ready to use.

To bake the pudding preheat oven to 190°C/375° F/Gas 5. Brush the baking dish or tin lightly with the oil and put in the oven for 5 minutes to heat up. Drain the cherries (reserving the juice - a treat for the cook!) and tip into the base of the dish. Give the batter a final stir, pour over the cherries and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes until nicely puffed up and brown. (Check after 20 minutes and if it seems to be browning too quickly turn down the heat to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4.) Sift icing sugar over the pudding and serve with pouring cream or vanilla ice cream.

Recommended match: A cool cherry-flavoured fruit beer (Kriek) would be the perfect match with this although you could drink a southern French Muscat or other dessert wine.

Don't forget a number of retailers are selling wine in aid of Wine Relief which is contributing to the Red Nose Day charities. You can find my pick of what's on offer in the Guardian though some are no longer available as part of the promotion.

The photograph which is not of my recipe but one very like it is © Lilyana Vynogradova - Fotolia.com

Pomegranate Eton Mess

To round off National Vegetarian Week here's a recipe from one of the most inspiring vegetarian cookery books I've come across: Sally Butcher's charming, idiosyncratic Veggiestan.. Sally runs an Iranian food store called Persepolis in south-east London so the recipes - which are terrific - all have an middle-eastern slant. It's also a cracking read!

This is how she introduces it:

Now I’m a bit cross about this dish. ‘Cos I sort of invented it. And then a friend of mine in Oz said she’d read a similar recipe in the Melbourne Times or some such. And then the divine Nigella came out with another version of it.

Anyway, this is my recipe. Completely unauthentic but drawing upon the very finest ingredients of the Middle East. And the perfect conclusion to a Middle Eastern feast.

Eton Mess has to be the easiest sweet in the world to prepare. And, as this recipe shows, it is so easy to tart up.

Rose syrup is easy to find in Greek shops – ask for ‘triandafilou’.

Serves 4

2 egg whites
100g/3½oz/½ cup caster sugar
¼ teaspoon baking powder

(or replace the above 3 ingredients with 4–5 shop-bought meringue nests)

2 medium pomegranates
250ml/9fl oz/1 cup whipping/double cream
2 tablespoons rose syrup
handful of rose petals (optional decoration)

Meringues first. Preheat your oven to 160ËšC/325ËšF/Gas mark 3. Whip the egg whites until they start to peak, and then fold in the sugar little by little, followed by the baking powder. Line a baking tray with baking parchment, and then spoon the mixture on to it in random blobs – the finished product is to be broken up anyway, and so appearance and uniformity are irrelevant.

Turn the oven down to 120ËšC/250ËšF/Gas mark ½, and pop the tray in there for 2 hours. If you have time on your side, and the luxury of an airing cupboard at home, take the meringues out of the oven a little earlier, cover them lightly with a cloth and leave them in the airing cupboard overnight – this will get you the perfect, light finish.

Next to the pomegranates. Take one in both hands and gently knead it all around with your thumbs: you will be able to feel the seeds inside popping as you go. Do not do this too vigorously, as you may burst the skin, which will at the very least splatter you with largely indelible red juice. After a couple of minutes, make a small incision in the skin of the pomegranate, and invert it over a glass: you should now be able to squeeze out the juice from all the seeds you have burst. Now that the tension in the skin has been eased, it will be easy to pry the fruit open, and you will be able to crumble all the intact seeds into a bowl. Repeat this exercise with the other pomegranate.

Next, whip the cream together with the rose syrup and the pomegranate juice. Such a pretty pink, no?

Assembly time. Don’t do this until just before you want to serve – the whole thing will sink slowly if you do it too early. Break the meringue roughly into the rose cream, and then stir in most of the pomegranate seeds. Arrange a few rose petals around your chosen serving dish, pile the Eton mess into the centre, and strew with the reserved pom seeds.

Note:
Never choose a pom because it will look good in your fruit bowl; generally speaking the ones with the tauter, drier skins and the slightly angular shape are best. Size is immaterial – the smaller ones are often the sweetest.

What to drink:
You need a fresh-tasting young dessert wine with good acidity for this. A late harvest Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling would be ideal or, echoing the rose syrup, a vendange tardive Gewurztraminer

Recipe from Sally Butcher’s Veggiestan, published by Pavilion. Recipe photography by Yuki Sugiura.