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Hold on to your toques, this is a Blumenthal gadget-fest. Here’s a run-down of the Heston kitchen toys employed in this recipe:

That’s a hell of a list. The odd one out in this list is the Kitchen Wizz Pro, a beast of a food processor, but more on that in a future post. I’ve also used my trusty chef’s knife, easily the best knife I’ve ever used. Most of them are Salter’s / HoMedics to celebrate the launch of their new range of Heston gadgets. It’s fair to say they’re a mixed bag.

The initial range of Heston By Salter tools are all solid: the probe thermometer, kitchen timer, fridge thermometer, oven thermometer, measuring jug, scales; all good. Some of the newer items feel superfluous. First up the adjustable rolling pin. It comes with discs that adjust the height of the pin from the surface. Genius! I was looking forward to this. As someone who is mostly terrible at pastry the ability to roll out to a consistent thickness really appealed to me. Unfortunately the pastry stuck immediately to the pin and made a complete mess. After prodding it for a while I transferred it to the pastry dish for baking and rolled it up loosely around the pin. Again it all stuck to the pin and essentially turned my smooth-plasticine dough to a patchwork quilt. Just look at the pastry in the picture, that’s supposed to be 3mm but it’s more like a centimetre! Very disappointing.

The whisk is much better, being well-balanced, sturdy and comfortable to hold when whisking an egg custard over a bain marie. The measuring spoons are a cute gimmick, in that you slide the compartment to the right measurement (e.g. 1 teaspoon, ½ tablespoon) and then drag a little lid over the powder to level it off. But a couple of things bothered me: my fingers were a little greasy from handling butter and I just couldn’t work it without putting everything down, washing hands and re-measuring. And I can’t get past the price: £17.99 RRP for two spoons when the same thing is achieved with a £1 (or less) set of plastic measuring spoons available anywhere, with the help of any knife for levelling.

Rounding out the collection are the spatulas which are quickly becoming two of my favourite things in the kitchen: with one curved end for sculpting and smoothing, and a firmer end for flipping and scraping. I use a lot of non-stick bakeware, frying pans and saucepans so having something to poke at the edges of something to flip it over is really handy. Again though I have to wince at the price: £17.99 for two spatulas isn’t great value.

All the equipment in the range is well made and thoughtfully designed, but these items are just not as “must have” as the original kitchen gadgets. They’d make great gifts though.

I used all these tools and more in making Heston’s lemon tart. There’s an awful lot of Heston in this; he spent years at the Fat Duck perfecting the ‘wobble’ in his cakes. It comes down to temperature – a tart at 70°C is perfectly set. And of course, he’s right. It’s a brilliant dessert, and the probe thermometer is the most essential gadget of them all. Just one niggle: serving with creme fraiche is a complete waste of time. Totally gets lost against the lemon flavour – don’t bother.

Heston Blumenthal's lemon tart

Servings 12 people

Ingredients

For the pastry:

120 g icing sugar
3 large egg yolks
300 g plain flour
150 g unsalted butter
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
Zest of ½ a lemon grated

For the filling:

9 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
Finely grated zest and juice of 5 lemons
300 g double cream
390 g caster sugar

To serve:

80 g caster sugar
Creme fraiche

Instructions

Start with the pastry: blitz the icing sugar and yolks together and set aside. In a mixer mix the flour, butter and salt until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the vanilla, lemon and yolk mixture and continue to mix until you have a smooth, soft dough. Mould into a rectangle and allow to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. After resting, roll the pastry to 3mm (ha ha) and line it in your 20cm tart tin. Prick with a fork all over and freeze for 30 minutes. Blind bake the base for 40 minutes and trim off the excess pastry. Drop the oven to 120°C.
Place the eggs and egg yolks in a bain marie and whisk together until it reaches 62°C (mine took about 10 minutes). At this point strain through a sieve, remove the bubbles from the surface with a metal spoon and pour into the pastry case. Bake until the filling reaches 70°C. Allow to cool to room temperature.
When ready to serve, sprinkle over the caster sugar and caramelise with a blow torch. Serve with creme fraiche if you like.

Video

What is it with burgers? After spending the 2000s in the doldrums, they’re now elevated to greasy lunch treat du jour.

I was a little surprised to see this recipe from Heston pop up online; his In Search of Total Perfection Burger involves grinding different meat cuts together, the most laborious method for making a bun you’ve ever seen, and a quite detailed method of making cheese slices involving sodium citrate and other odd things (a recipe that’s in marked contrast to my ingredient infographic!).

But this version appears to mostly be a shill for his Heston burgers, with a much simplified cheese slice recipe. So I gave it a go. And being the arrogant sod I am, endeavoured to improve it.

I used Comté cheese and cheddar for a more interesting blend, and whisked it with Chardonnay over ale as I don’t like the taste of beer. I included my own touch that I usually use of a drip of oyster sauce to act as a glaze. It provides a tantalising umami layer in your burger that you can’t quite place but makes it irresistible. The cheese slice was very tasty and really not a lot of work so well worth doing again. You could probably come up with a bunch of interesting ingredients to add into it too.

Looking for a tasty burger recipe this bank holiday weekend? You could do a lot worse than this recipe.

The original Heston recipe without me mucking about with it can be found here. And read In Search of Heston having a go too.

Heston’s ultimate cheeseburger (serves 2):

For the cheese slices:

50g mature cheddar, grated

50g Comté cheese, grated

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

10g cornflour

¼ teaspoon dried yeast

¼ teaspoon Marmite

¼ teaspoon English mustard

80ml white wine

For the burger sauce:

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1 teaspoon tomato ketchup

½ teaspoon burger mustard

Everything else:

2 quarter pounder burgers

2 sesame seed buns, split and toasted

½ teaspoon oyster sauce

Handful of crisp lettuce leaves (I like lollo rosso)

Combine the cheeses, mustard, Marmite, cornflour, yeast and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl and refrigerate for 2 hours (I’m not sure what this refrigeration achieves. Do the flour / yeast expand in the fridge? I’d try this again without the fridge step to see what happens).

Line a shallow tray with baking parchment, and get the wine on to a simmer. Add the cheese mix a handful at a time whisking merrily until all dissolved and smooth. Pour into your tray and chill for at least 30 minutes or until needed.

Mix the ketchup, mayo and mustard together to make a smooth sauce and set aside until you’re ready to serve.

Heat a drop of oil in a pan and add the burgers. Cook for 30 seconds on each side, turning until they’re done to your liking (anywhere from 5 – 10 minutes depending on thickness and how done you like them). 2 minutes before the end, smear the oyster sauce over the patties to make a thin glaze, and after a minute cut out a cheese rectangle and plonk on top to heat through for the final 60 seconds.

Serve in a bun with the sauce and lettuce, plus gherkins and onions if you like.