Christmas How To... Make Custard

Making custard sounds like a pain... it really isn't. The stuff you can buy in pots in the refrigerator section isn't terrible tasting, at least from some suppliers.
However, it doesn't hold a candle to the real thing and, when you make it yourself, you have a lot more control over where those eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla pods came from. It also tastes fabulous in a trifle...

Separate six egg yolks into a bowl and add 60g caster sugar and a tablespoon of corn flour (to help it thicken). Whisk up until thoroughly mixed.

Put 400ml of milk into a saucepan with 120ml double cream and the seeds from a vanilla pod and the pod casing. Gently warm until almost at a boil, but not quite.

Take off the heat and slowly pour onto the eggy mixture, while constantly whisking. It's even easier if you have a kitchen helper to hold the bowl!

When it's all combined, pour it back into the saucepan and put back onto a low heat. Keep gently whisking over the heat until the custard thickens. Perfect!

Go to the Christmas Dinner (2011) post

Christmas How To... Make a Trifle

Some people love christmas cake, some people love christmas pudding, some love mince pies... we might not agree on any of the above, or what film we want to watch, but the one thing my whole family can agree on is that we all love trifle!

It does help with this one if you've already made the swiss roll and the custard!

Take a large mango (or a few peaches, nectarines... anything of that nature. I chose mango because they're still in season in Southern Spain in December and can be shipped here without airmiles). Skin and slice into small wedges. Melt a couple of tablespoons of dark sugar in a frying pan, chuck in the fruit and sprinkle a tablespoon of brandy over. Cook until the fruit is lovely and soft and the sugar has turned to caramel.

Slice the swiss roll and layer the bottom of a trifle dish with it. Sprinkle over a couple of tablespoons (or more!) of brandy, and then tip all the cooked, caramelised fruit on top. Spread  the custard over the top, cover with clingfilm and put in the fridge for as long as you can - ideally a day.

Mix together two tubs of creme fraiche with the seeds of a vanilla pod and a tablespoon of dark sugar. Slather on top of the custard and pop back in the fridge.

Melt a couple of tablespoons of caster sugar in a non-stick pan and throw in a small packet of salted peanuts. Cook, stirring, until the sugar has turned light brown, then tip out onto a sheet of greaseproof paper. Let cool, then crush with a rolling pin and sprinkle on top of the trifle before serving.

  Go to the Christmas Dinner (2011) post

Rhumble

I can't think of any better tribute to a spring rhubarb than to turn it into a tasty crumble pudding. I'm sure there are lots of other exciting things I could be doing with it, but the first rhubarb of the year deserves a crumble.

Rhubarb and ginger are a well known duo and my pudding isn't going to be an exception: a bit of stem ginger in syrup gives it a lovely, warm, spicy flavour. Chop it up pretty finely though, as you probably don't want to bite down on a huge chunk of ginger, no matter how much you like it.

Ginger and rum are also a common pairing, so it wasn't a huge leap for me to go from rhubarb to ginger to rum, making this dish a Rhumble in more ways than one.

Cut your rhubarb into nice little lengths and pop it into a saucepan with some sugar (to taste), the ginger, a splash of water and a couple of capfuls of dark rum. Heat up until it goes all squishy, ten minutes maybe.

In the meantime make your topping. It's very like making pastry at the beginning: rub 50g butter into 100g flour until breadcrumby. Then add 50g sugar, I like brown sugar best for this, and whatever oats or nuts you happen to have in the house, crushed into little peices.

Put the rhubarb mixture into the bottom of a dish, top with the crumble and sling in the oven for 20 minutes.

Particularly delicious with freshly whipped cream! Equally tasty with custard.