For the Love of British Food

With the advent of the poly-tunnel, the UK strawberry season has been extended greatly and is less at the mercy of the weather, but the berries don’t have the fuller flavour of those grown outside.I have Alpine strawberries in pots on my patio, and had a delicious early crop then nearly lost them in some very dry weather. I was set to throw them away and start again next year, but noticed some green shoots and tiny runners, so I am nurturing them again.

My garden doesn’t lend itself to the other soft fruits I love, so I have been reliant on farm shops and supermarkets for my favourite raspberries. I like them simply with ice cream or clotted cream and a light sprinkle of fine caster sugar. They are also delicious as topping for a scone or brioche with thick or clotted cream.

I’m not sure if non-UK readers will know exactly what clotted cream is, so I looked out this link from one of Cornwall’s major traditional suppliers.  http://www.roddas.co.uk/roddas.html

It also goes especially well with this traditional English dessert which brings back many happy memories as it was a family favourite made by my mother and grandmother.

Summer Pudding

Line a pudding basin or deep souffle dish with thin slices of bread, packing it closely - cut little triangles to make sure that all the spaces are filled. You can use up bread or even croissants that are a couple of days old for this dish.

Lightly stew a mix of any of the following fruits. Raspberries, loganberries, tayberries, blackberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, whitecurrants with a couple of tablespoons of caster sugar, just till the juice starts to run. You will need enough fruit to fill your dish, so start off with about one and a half times the volume as the berries will soften and collapse - any leftovers can be kept as a garnish. A zap in the microwave on full power for about 3-4 minutes will get the fruit to the right consistency.

Allow the fruit to cool slightly and pour half into the basin. Put in another layer of bread, press down lightly, then the rest of the fruit, then top with more bread, filling in all the little gaps again. Pour over any extra juice left to wet the bread.

Cover tightly with cling film and place a saucer or small plate on top, pressing it down. Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours, then invert the dish for a short while before serving. Turn it right side up to remove the cling film, then put a serving plate on top and invert again to turn out.

Serve with clotted cream or a very good vanilla icecream, preferably made with organic milk.  Mackies is my current favourite - their website is well worth a visit - look for ‘Old Fergus’s Favourite’ in the recipe section.

I had this dessert in Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant in the Cornish town of Padstow a couple of years ago, where he makes it ‘flat’ sandwiching the fruit between two layers of bread in a lasagne dish or similar, Just as gorgeous!