Category: egg

chocolate and passion fruit baked alaska

Post author By Gary @ BigSpud
Post date March 20, 2013
10 Comments on chocolate and passion fruit baked alaska

What a show-stopper this recipe is. How I came to get the recipe is still utterly bewildering to me.

Would you like to go to the Waitrose Cookery School and have Heston Blumenthal cook for you? Um, let me think about that fo- yes please. So I rock up, where they are filming an Easter show for Waitrose TV. I’ve been to the Cookery School a couple of times before, but not in these circumstances. The whole thing is hosted by Sue Perkins, who I’ve always wanted to best friends with. It has the recipe to be a completely amazing afternoon.

It begins very strangely. I pretty much walk in off the street and take a quick visit to the gents (I promise, not too much detail here but the context is important). I’m there not a minute, doing my thing, when someone takes up the urinal next to me. I’m not sure if you know the rules of public toilets but you don’t budge your neck an inch. But I do. And I can’t help but notice relieving himself next to me is Brian Turner.

What do you do in that situation? I’ve admired Brian Turner for years, for me he reaches back to Ready Steady Cook days and he’s never really gone away. Whenever he’s on TV I know whatever he makes is going to be brill. But do I say hi mid-flow?

I elect not to, hoping to get a chance to introduce myself in a more normal surroundings. Making my way back into the school itself a Waitrose rep introduces herself and says I’m going to be on the top table with all the chefs. Urp.

So the scene is set: Heston Blumenthal, Brian Turner, Dhruv Baker are cooking the food alongside Cookery School stalwarts Gordon and Eleni, while Sue Perkins presents. At one point during the afternoon, Sue Perkins is sat next to me, shovelling lamb on to my plate that has been roasted by Heston Blumenthal who is opposite explaining his mustard gravy, with Brian Turner sat on the table positively barking that we Brits must return to our roasting greatness. As I sat there with a glass of ridiculously good Lebanese red wine, I was momentarily lost in a moment of surreal stupor: how the hell did I get here, eating this, with these people? I felt stupendously unworthy.

My left ear’s moment of glory as noted vegetarian Sue Perkins shovels lamb on to my plate.

Needless to say, the afternoon was complete magic. Sue cemented herself as the witty professional, Brian was exactly the person he is on TV, and Heston cooked lamb for me.

The whole video featuring Heston’s roast lamb, Dhruv’s accompaniments and this recipe, plus more besides, can be seen on the Waitrose TV website.

However in tribute to that afternoon I cooked the dessert served up by Eleni: a stunning baked alaska that looks like far more effort than you actually put in. With a few choice ready-made ingredients propping it up it’s a great one for a dinner party.

Dark chocolate and passion fruit baked alaska (serves 8):

750g dark chocolate ice cream

8 slices Madeira loaf

For the passion fruit coulis:

Pulp from 8 passion fruit (about 250ml)

150g caster sugar

8 cloves

1 vanilla pod, halved lengthways

For the Italian Meringue:

4 egg whites

300g caster sugar

Using an ice cream scoop, form 8 large balls of the ice cream. Place on a plate or tray and return to the freezer, so that they are as frozen as possible. Meanwhile, take the slices of madeira cake and using a 6cm round pastry cutter, cut into 8 discs, and set aside.

Make the passion fruit coulis, place all the ingredients with 4 tbsp water in a small pan and bring to the boil. Continue to boil for about 4-5 minutes until the mixture has reduced to a nice thick, syrupy consistency. Allow to cool then refrigerate until needed.

To make the Italian meringue, place the caster sugar in a saucepan and add a little water until a wet sand texture is achieved. Then heat the mixture and bring to the boil and continue to heat until the temperature reaches 118°C. Using a an electric mixer start to whisk your egg whites on a medium speed. Once the sugar reaches 121°C, remove from the heat and gradually add the syrup to your whisking egg whites and increase to maximum speed. This will take approximately 5 minutes to whip up into a smooth, glossy meringue. Place this mixture into a piping bag with a star shaped nozzle, about 6mm or simply cut the piping bag at an angle and set aside.

To assemble, place the ice cream balls onto the sponge discs and pipe around the Italian meringue and smooth over with a palette knife so that none of the ice cream is exposed. Take the piping bag and pipe peaks around the Alaska starting from the bottom and working your way up to the top. Once all the surface space has been covered return to the freezer and leave there until ready to serve.

When you are ready to serve, preheat the oven to 220°C, gas mark 7. Then place the Alaskas in the oven for about 5-7 minutes or until the meringue turns a nice golden colour. Spoon the passionfruit coulis onto the plate and place the baked Alaska on top. Serve immediately.

Tags eleni tzirki

almonds cinnamon egg food meringue

mulled wine macarons

This photo is of easily the worst one of the bunch. I figured you can Google macarons and get a million results of perfect Parisienne treats. But I bet you’d struggle to find another that looks like Audrey.

I have been very lucky – expert tuition on how to make macarons, from the excellent Waitrose Cookery not once, but twice. This time Kenwood were laying on an event to promote their Boutique range. It’s a range of vivid and colour-themed small appliances. At the school each colour was arranged on a table with well-matching items which were very eye-catching.

They are gorgeous items, but here’s what else was eye-catching: the price. Each of these things are well made but I certainly can’t justify spending £55 on a kettle. Or £85 on a toaster. And when you have one item in the range, you’re going to want the rest… ouch.

I teamed with Helen to make macarons. The coloured cocktails had got to her a little, and she started piping little green nipples onto our pukkah pink blobs. We had a whale of a time.

These macarons are made not with mulled wine, but mulled fruit juice from Waitrose. Heavy with spice and warmth, this juice made the perfect accompaniment to super-sweet and chewy macarons. The macaron recipe is Waitrose Cookery School’s, and I was inspired to make the mulled reduction by my previous trip to the macaron class.

Thanks to Z-PR for the fruit juice, and Clarion Comms for hosting the Kenwood event.

Mulled wine macarons (makes loads):

1 litre mulled fruit juice

1 tablespoon icing sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon cornflour

275g caster sugar

95g egg whites (approximately 3 egg whites)

½ tbsp red food colouring

275g ground almonds

275g icing sugar

95g egg whites (approximately 3 egg whites)

Pre heat the oven to 145ºC. Cut out two sheets of parchment paper, the same size as the baking tray and set aside ready for piping.

Boil the mulled fruit juice over a high heat with the cinnamon stick until reduced by half, and then add the icing sugar. Mix the cornflour with a splash of water and whisk into the fruit juice, and continue to reduce until thickened. Put aside to cool.

For the Italian meringue: In a small saucepan, add the sugar and 100ml of water and mix until there are no lumps. Add the food colouring and place the saucepan over medium to high heat and place the sugar thermometer inside. The required temperature is 114C.

In the electronic mixing bowl, add the 95g of egg whites with the whisk attachment. This will then be ready for the sugar syrup when the required temperature is reached.

Once the sugar syrup has reached 110C, start whisking the egg whites on a medium speed and once the temperature has reached 114C, (the whisking egg whites should be frothy at this stage) lift the thermometer out and slowly pour the syrup down the side of the bowl ensuring not to splash yourself! Turn onto full speed and after approximately five minutes, the Italian meringue will become glossy and whipped.

Meanwhile, whilst the meringue is whisking, we can make the paste. In a separate bowl, combine the ground almonds and icing sugar and add the other 95g of egg whites and mix with a wooden spoon until a paste has formed. The paste should be stiff.

Once the Italian meringue is ready (soft peaks will form) this is combined with the paste in three stages. If it is over mixed the mix will become too liquid and the macaroons will become very flat once cooked. It is important to ensure a nice gentle mixing motion. The first addition of the meringue to the paste will be the most aggressive in order to ensure there are no lumps. The second amount of meringue must be folded in gently and the final addition of meringue must be extremely gentle.

The macaroon mix is then ready to be piped. Using a spatula, fill the piping bag half way. Pipe some mix into each corner of the baking trays in order to stick the parchment paper onto the tray. Pipe in straight lines going from left to right leaving a 2cm gap in between each macaroon. These are now ready to be baked for 17-19 minutes at 145C.

Once they are cooked, take the trays out of the oven and leave to cool. Pipe some of the sticky fruit juice inbetween two halves, before downing in one.

egg food olives pork potatoes

tortilla de patatas

It was all ready to go so well.

Only the night before I’d watched talented, charismatic and effortlessly handsome chef Omar Allibhoy throw together one of his childhood favourites: Spanish omelette. Just eggs, onions and potatoes required, but his version contained chorizo and olives. Myself and a host of other foodie people were attending an event laid on in celebration of Olives from Spain. We’d gathered at The Lounge in Balham to enjoy some great food and try olives in a three course meal. I’d quickly found a corner with two bloggers I’d not had the pleasure of meeting before, affable Ally from Dinneraholic and the splendidly-named Gary from London Foodaholic. We downed Tio Pepe whilst enjoying some fine tapas, which was followed by the omelette demonstration. We then settled down to a sardine salad with olives, sea bass with olives, chicken with olives, chocolate-olive truffles… all of it was so good. Look at my happy face!

It was clear from Omar’s presentation that beyond a PR event he truly loved olives and they’ve always been part of his life. I had to smile when he said to try them on small children so they develop the taste early on: my 2 year old girl adores them, nibbling round the stones; and my son has a legendary appetite for them, even receiving jars of them as Christmas presents. It can honestly be said olives are a big favourite in our house.

Note Omar’s perfect tortilla at the front

I managed to snaffle a piece of Omar’s omelette. It tasted amazing. It was still a touch runny in the centre – perhaps “moist” is a better word. I’d always had them thoroughly cooked and struggled to achieve the right results. His way – taught to him by Ferran Adria – was to not bother the eggs at all, and cook them gently. I had to try cooking it myself, so that was dinner sorted for the very next day. I had some leftover roast pork belly from the weekend so with a little paprika seasoning that substituted for the chorizo. So far, so good.

It was all going really well, until it came to flipping time. I’ve been using the same non-stick frying pan for the past 5 years, and I probably cook with it at least twice a week. But tonight, when I need the non-stickiness more than ever so I can flip it over, it gave up. It just wouldn’t turn out.

my poor destroyed, beloved 30cm non-stick frying pan

If you browse round this site you may well see the frying pan holding many of my dinners. It’s had to go. I will miss that pan.

How could I rescue dinner then? Lee had specifically asked about putting it under the grill, which Omar flatly rebutted. Flipping was the way to go. But flipping was out, so it had to go under the grill. And then getting it out of the pan was a scraping affair. Hence the raggedy mess in the lead photo. That aside, it tasted great. Tender potatoes, sweet onions, oozy eggs… and of course sweet, salty olives. If only I could’ve cooked it the way I meant to. See you on the other side of a new pan, I guess.

Based on a recipe by Omar Allibhoy. His version can be seen here. Thanks to Storm Comms for putting on a great night.

Tortilla de patatas (serves 4):

1 large onion, sliced

3 potatoes, peeled and sliced

200g cold roast pork belly

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon cornflour

About 12 olives, halved

8 eggs

Get a pan really hot and add a splash of oil (olive oil, naturally). Add the onion and fry for a couple of minutes until starting to colour. Add the potatoes and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.

Meanwhile, crack the eggs into a bowl. Crack the yolks but don’t bother stirring. Season and move on to the pork. Put the paprika and cornflour in a bowl and add a splash of water to make a thick paste. Add the pork and stir well to get it coated.

Tip the onion and potato mix in with the eggs, and add a little more oil to the pan. Fry off the pork for one minute and then add the olives. Tip the eggy-potato mix back into the pan, lower the heat and give it a little shake to distribute everything. After about 5 minutes, if you have a working non-stick pan, flip the tortilla over using a large plate and cook on the other side for another minute or two until set. Otherwise pop under a hot grill. Serve with a zingy balsamic salad.

Tags omar allibhoy

cream egg food meringue strawberry vanilla

strawberry pizza

This was supposed to be a strawberry roulade, but the meringue was too fragile for rolling! As a birthday treat for Mrs. Spud, she didn’t mind. When I cut into it, it held it’s shape nicely to the point where you could pick it up to eat – hence, Strawberry Pizza. Massively inaccurate, but makes me smile.

Strawberry pizza (makes a meringue approx 35cm x 20cm):

For the meringue:

3 egg whites

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon white wine vinegar

½ vanilla bean paste

200g caster sugar

1½ teaspoons cornflour

For the cream topping:

200ml double cream

½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste

For the strawberry sauce:

500g strawberries

1 tablespoon honey

For the strawberry garnish:

6 strawberries, quartered

1 tablespoon icing sugar

Zest and juice of half a lemon

½ teaspoon vanilla paste

Heat the oven to 120°C. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Whisk the egg whites, salt, vinegar and vanilla until soft peaks form; by hand if you’re bored or using an electric gadget like everyone else. At this point add the sugar and cornflour until stiff.

Smear the meringue in one swooping layer across the baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 2 hours until it is a gorgeous ivory colour and crisp on top.

While it bakes, combine all the strawberry garnish ingredients and leave in the fridge to macerate until needed. For the sauce put all the ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes. Want it rough and ready? Mash with a fork. Want something smoother? Pass through a sieve.

When the meringue has cooled and been removed from the paper, whisk the cream and vanilla together and layer on top of the meringue. Drizzle the sauce over and serve with macerated strawberries on top. If you have some knocking about, some holy basil dotted about would be awesome.