On Temporary Hiatus

Thanks to all who read this blog on a regular basis. I really appreciate it. You'll note that I haven't updated this quite as frequently as I used to. I'm placing this blog on temporary hiatus at the moment, while I sort some stuff out at home. I shall return.

Returned from Holiday + Birthday Lunch

Greetings!

I haven't posted for a while, due to being on holiday. I went to Vendée in France. I had a lovely time and I'm now back to work which alas isn't as exciting, but there you go!

The day before we left, which was Sunday 1st September, I cooked a birthday lunch for my Aunt. I referred to it in my previous blog post, where James of the always informative Cotswold Food Year, gave me a helpful insight into creating the perfect Quinelle. Unfortunately, I still couldn't master it in time, so I made pearls, using a regular ice-cream scoop. James: It wasn't your instructions at fault, it was my incompetance!

For the meal, I cooked:

Mustard Ice Cream with Red Cabbage Gazpacho

Fennel Ristotto and Scallop

Venison with a Balsamic Shallot Crumble, Beetroot and Pepper Jelly, Truffle Toast and Spiced Wine Reduction

Lemon Bavarois with Lemongrass and Coconut Ice Cream, Lemon Biscuits, with a Champagne Sauce.

Cheese and Biscuits

I started, pretty much on Friday night. I cooked all Saturday, making the neccessary prep for the main cooking on Sunday. I recall cooking 2 loaves of bread, the beetroot and pepper jelly, the bavarois, ice cream x2 and the gazpacho. Sunday I finished it it all off and served it up. Here are some pics.

Here's the truffle toast. I baked a brown loaf, gently toasted it with a blowtourch, added chopped truffles, radishes and parsley. Lovely.

Here are three (of eight) balsamic crumbles. These went down extremely well. In fact, they were cited as being a stand out part of the meal. The sweetness of the balsamic shallots and the crumble topping worked in conjunction with the earthy beetroot jelly. YUM.

Here's one of the mains (click for a better view). You can see the venison nesting on top of the long stem broccoli, with the trffule toast offset on the opposite side of the plate by the (very powerful) beetroot and pepper jelly, which I'd cubed and placed three of on each plate.


Here's the Bavarois, with the biscuit and ice-cream. Very tangy, this dessert pleased everyone. Unfortunately, you can't really see any sauce on it, but it was there (I think!)

They're ready to serve! GO! GO! GO!

A final shot mid-prep. Note the energy drink in the centre of the frame. I needed it!

I have to say, I was very pleased with how it all turned out. I'd put immense effort into it (I think it was my most labour-intensive meal I've ever done), but the end result really worked. There wasn't one dish I wasn't 100% happy with (though I had planned to do sherbet, but could I find citric acid? Could I bobbins). My aunt was chuffed and everyone had a good time.

Eat well! (I did!)

Practice Experiment: Red Cabbage Gazpacho with Mustard Ice Cream

Greetings.

Is it really a week since I last posted? Blimey, time flies when you've done nothing of any merit. Since I last wrote, I took a delivery of American candy and stuff, which I ordered from here. I ordered 12 cans of Wild Cherry Pepsi, 12 cans of Dr Pepper (Cherry and Vanilla flavour), 2 packets of Jolly Ranchers, 9 packets of Nerds, 2 packets of Fruity Pebbles cereal and 1 packet of Shake 'n Bake (the relevance will become apparent soon). The whole lot arrived the next working day in a huge box and cost me a lung and my left leg. All I'll say is, it wasn't cheap!

Anyway, the reason for this, was, well, I haven't got a reason. I just wanted some sweets and stuff which you couldn't get over here and thought it would be a nice treat. Which it is. The reason I bought Shake n' Bake, which by any conventional reasoning is simply just flavoured breadcrumbs is a story in itself.

When my grandmother used to go to the States to visit my father, she for whatever reason, latched onto Shake 'n' Bake and proclaimed it as the second coming. She used to bring it back and for quite a while, on chops and chicken, we would be eating this American 'delicacy'. Tomorrow is her birthday and as a present to her, I ordered from the importers site, a packet of Shake 'n' Bake. Now, before you bombard me with hate mail, I have got her a 'proper' present, this is merely a joke - but the look on her face is going to be a classic when she opens it up. The whole family know what's coming and have been winding her up about it something chronic - so I can't wait until tomorrow!

In the birthday theme, next week it's my aunt's birthday and she's asked me to go 'all out' and cook her a lunch as her present. I've been thinking about this for quite some time, what precisely I'm going to cook. I think I've finally got most of it nailed with the following:

Mustard Ice Cream with Red Cabbage Gazpacho

I need a dish here (small soufflé, perhaps?)

Venison with a Balsamic Shallot Crumble, Beetroot and Pepper Jelly, Truffle Toast and Spiced Wine Reduction

Cinnamon and Ginger / Vanilla Sherbet Dip

Lemon Bavarois with Lemongrass and Coconut Ice Cream with a Champagne Sauce.

Cheese and Biscuits

To ensure that it isn't going to be a complete horlicks, I decided to make the one dish that I was unsure of recreating in a practice run this morning. Mustard and Red Cabbage Gazpacho. It's a dish I had last month at The Fat Duck and man, was it good. At the time, I said the following:

Mustard ice-cream? Well if you can suspend your disbelief that oysters, passion fruit jelly and lavender can work, then why not this? This was in my top three dishes of the meal. It's something I'm going to have a bash at too. The grain mustard and the cream melted in the mouth. Your first mouthful was very strange, but then the taste became sweet and mustardy (I'm sure that's not a word, but hey) as you would expect. It sat on what I think I identified as very finely (like 1mm) chopped cabbage, perhaps even Sauerkraut and red cabbage gazpacho poured around it. I resisted the temptation to send my soup back for being cold and ploughed through it. High praise from the Phantom Chef on this one - Heston will be pleased no doubt!

I approached this dish with trepidation as it seems so easy and yet the potential for EPIC FAIL due to the ingredients is MASSIVELY HIGH. I set about prepping it last night.

Ok, here is the version I had at The Fat Duck. perfectly presented, the quinelle sat in the Gazpacho and was perfectly formed. The quinelle didn't bleed into the gazpacho either. However, I was less worried about presentation at this point and more about the flavour.


Here, you can see a top down version of my first go. The noticable visual differences being firstly, the bleed of the ice-cream into the gazpacho making it look, well, ropey (!) and secondly, the lightness of my version in comparison. In mine, I used a teaspoon of double cream which gave it a more silky texture. I'm unsure as to whether I'll retain this ingredient in the final version.

To make the Gazpacho I used:

350g Red Cabbage (very thinly sliced)
1tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
125ml of Apple Juice
Some Cayenne Pepper
1 Clove of Garlic (chopped)
Slice of White Bread
1 tsp Double Cream

Place all the ingredients bar the bread and cream into a sealable container for 24 hours in the fridge. Remove from the fridge when required and place into a blender with the bread. Push through a sieve and add the cream. It's then ready to serve.

To make the Ice Cream I used:

250ml Double Cream
50g Caster Sugar
75ml of water
2 Egg Yolks
1 tbsp of Coarse Grain Mustard

Bring the cream to near boiling point and remove from the heat. In a different pan, dissolve the sugar into the water and reduce 2/3 to form a syrup. In a bowl, beat the eggs and mustard and pour in the syrup, then pour into the cream. Easy! Place into an ice cream maker and then into the freezer to finish.

How did it work?

Well, I needed to use less garlic, in the Gazpacho, half a clove would have sufficed and that's about my only criticism. It tasted exactly how I remember it, so I'm very, very pleased. The mustard ice cream was the right balance of sweet and savoury, so I'm not going to change this, one iota. I just have to work on my quinelle shaping and presentation for Sunday now I've got the flavours right. A big ask, I know.

To stop the bleeding, I think I'm going to retain some red cabbage, chop it up and make a little heap at the bottom of the dish. I'll place the quinelle gently on top and then drizzle slowly the Gazpacho around it. Hopefully, that should work a bit better. Job done!

I need a couple of courses in between - I really want to try Parsnip Cereal - but looking on here and taking out the guff, it appears cornflakes are made using a spinning, heated silo - Unfortunately, mine's on the blink at the moment :( so, it looks unlikely that I can do them. I'll figure something out anyway.

Eat well!

South Beach Chicken in 15 minutes

Hello!

Browsing the interweb, looking at various food-related sites, I came across the 'South Beach Diet'. From my cursory look, the name 'South Beach' denotes some fad diet by Arthur S Agatston, who I'm quite sure, would berate me if he ever read that (here's a tip, instead of spending £££ - eat less, exercise more (yes, I know I'm a fine one to talk!)).

Anyway, I looked at various recipes around this and decided to make South Beach Chicken, simply because it looked rather nice, with some flavoured cous-cous (which wasn't part of the diet I hasten to add). Not exactly haute cuisine, but nevertheless it made a change from my usual daily cookery. What makes this 'South Beach' is a mystery to me. If you know the precise reason, answers on a postcard to the usual address, please.

I marinated some chicken breasts in ginger, garlic, lemon juice, lime juice and the zest for 1.5 hours, turning them over halfway through. I then covered them with a liberal sprinkling of chili flakes, salt and pepper and placed them on a griddle pan and cooked them on a medium heat until they were done. I used minimal oil (I only use olive oil anyway) to ensure the juice wasn't diluted.

I then made the cous-cous. I've blogged about cous-cous before and it's fatal properties, so in this instance, I chopped up some coriander, added some more lime juice and zest and added some Nandos periperi sauce which complimented the flavours really well. Yep, it's simple but you know what? It tasted great. Very flavoursome, very moist and that's all that counts. Right readers? The picture below does in fact look rather dry, but I assure you - it wasn't in the slightest.



I had a friend over to stay this weekend and I made Mushroom Soup among other things which you can read over at Phantom Soups. I love mushroom soup and this one worked really, really well.

Next week it's my Aunt's birthday. Instead of a present, she's asked me to go all out and cook her a meal. I haven't decided on the final menu yet, but it's definitely going to contain Venison with a savoury crumble plus something else which I haven't decided on (probably a beetroot and pepper jelly) and a lemon bavarois with a champagne sauce. So far, I'm at 5 courses, so I need another one. Lets hope I don't have to ressurect the Confessional Corner :(

I'm Bored of Mince

Greetings!

I've hit a brick wall. Not literally, thankfully, particularly as I've just renewed my car insurance. That'd be terrible! But in my everyday cooking. I have probably about two dozen recipes that I rotate regularly. I'm not sure, but I think that's the norm with most people. These staple 'favourites' that require little or no imagination and you can get in from work and whip up quickly. I save any kind of inventive cookery for the weekend usually, when I've plenty of time to faff around, cock things up, restart or fluke my way through.

When I go shopping, for no other reason than thinking 'it'd be useful to have this in', I always buy minced beef. And you know what? I'm absolutely sick of it. Spaghetti Bolognese, Burgers, Meatballs, Cannelloni, Cottage Pie are my regulars - It's a chore and I'm thoroughly, utterly bored with it. I've resolved not to buy mince for a while now, but I decided to make a minced beef and onion pie yesterday in order to make room in the fridge.


It came out really well. Both Mrs Phantom and myself loved the pie which was a simple mix of mince, onions, mushrooms, garlic and some seasoning in gravy, topped with a puff pastry top. Served up with mash and beans, it went down a treat.

But you know what? It's still boring. I want you *points* to inspire me with your mince recipes. Anything a little different, would be greatly appreciated.


GO!

EDIT:

Those of you kind enough to contribute to my blog and who read it regularly will note that I'm rather fond of making soup. As demonstrated here, here, here, here and here. To this end, I am separating out my soups to a separate blog, which is snappily entitled 'Phantom Soups' - Check it out!

I've created this, because The Belly Rules The Mind is now a year old and although I took a sabbatical for a few months and only regularly started updating in January of this year, I can see certain directions for my postings. I want to keep The Belly Rules The Mind as my main outlet for my cooking, musings, ramblings and such, but because soup is an absolute favourite of mine, it is worth having a dedicated repository.

The Fat Duck

Greetings!

Yes, it was my birthday yesterday and I turned 28. For my birthday, Mrs Phantom took me to The Fat Duck in Bray *big grin*

It's difficult to explain how good it was. It was a combination of great food and a form of theatre. I'd got high expectations before I went, which usually means it's going to be a colossal disappointment when it arrives as it's never going to live up to expectations. I'm pleased to report that not only did it live up to expectations, it exceeded them too. We had the tasting menu, which from my very non-scientific survey of what others in the place were eating, it appeared to be all they served! The tasting menu costs £125 per head, with the À la carte menu costing £95 per head for 3 courses. Without wine (I was driving and Mrs Phantom isn't a big wine fan) and with coffee and water the whole shebang cost £340, or to put it another way, £100 per hour. Yes, we were eating for over three hours and each of our 16 courses came to the table looking, well, fabulous.

As someone who loves cooking, going to a place like the Fat Duck was a rather humbling experience. The skill, presentation and the service was immaculate. But more than that, as someone who enjoys the subject, going to a place like that makes you realise that a good home cook is one thing, but this is on an entirely different level. It even highlights the difference between one Michelin star and three - it makes everything seem, well, a little mundane or moribund. It does sound like an awful lot of money, and it was, but in terms of value, it was pretty good taking everything into consideration.

The tasting menu was as follows:

NITRO-GREEN TEA AND LIME MOUSSE (2001)

OYSTER, PASSION FRUIT JELLY, LAVENDER

POMMERY GRAIN MUSTARD ICE CREAM, RED CABBAGE GAZPACHO

JELLY OF QUAIL, LANGOUSTINE CREAM, PARFAIT OF FOIE GRAS
OAK MOSS AND TRUFFLE TOAST
(Homage to Alain Chapel)

SNAIL PORRIDGE
Joselito ham

ROAST FOIE GRAS "BENZALDEHYDE"
Almond fluid gel, cherry, chamomile

"SOUND OF THE SEA"

SALMON POACHED IN LIQUORICE GEL
Artichokes, vanilla mayonnaise and “Manni” olive oil

BALLOTINE OF ANJOU PIGEON
Black pudding “made to order”, pickling brine and spiced juices

HOT AND ICED TEA (2005)

MRS MARSHALL’S MARGARET CORNET

PINE SHERBET FOUNTAIN (PRE-HIT)

MANGO AND DOUGLAS FIR PUREE
Bavarois of lychee and mango, blackcurrant sorbet,
blackcurrant and green peppercorn jelly

PARSNIP CEREAL

NITRO-SCRAMBLED EGG AND BACON ICE CREAM (2006)
Pain perdu, tea jelly

PETITS FOURS
Mandarin aerated chocolate, Violet tartlet, Carrot and orange lolly

Sooooooo, here's my experience in 5 billion words.

NITRO-GREEN TEA AND LIME MOUSSE (2001)

We started with this palette cleanser. It was 'cooked' at the table in liquid nitrogen and consisted of egg white, sugar, vodka, green tea and lime juice. It was then powdered with green tea. You ate it instantly and it was like a very tangy meringue. Mrs Phantom took a little too long to eat hers (they said eat it quickly, not instantly) and it started to disintegrate and cause her all kinds of issues. I saw her error and by the time mine was on the plate, it was in my mouth

OYSTER, PASSION FRUIT JELLY, LAVENDER

This came in an oyster shell on a bed of salt. The passion fruit and the salt of the oyster, just worked. It was just fantastic. The brittle shards were heavily flavoured with lavender and while the dish was quite salty, the balance of flavours was a masterpiece.

POMMERY GRAIN MUSTARD ICE CREAM, RED CABBAGE GAZPACHO

Mustard ice-cream? Well if you can suspend your disbelief that oysters, passion fruit jelly and lavender can work, then why not this? This was in my top three dishes of the meal. It's something I'm going to have a bash at too. The grain mustard and the cream melted in the mouth. Your first mouthful was very strange, but then the taste became sweet and mustardy (I'm sure that's not a word, but hey) as you would expect. It sat on what I think I identified as very finely (like 1mm) chopped cabbage, perhaps even Sauerkraut and red cabbage gazpacho poured around it. I resisted the temptation to send my soup back for being cold and ploughed through it. High praise from the Phantom Chef on this one - Heston will be pleased no doubt!

JELLY OF QUAIL, LANGOUSTINE CREAM, PARFAIT OF FOIE GRAS
OAK MOSS AND TRUFFLE TOAST
(Homage to Alain Chapel)

Another of my favourites, this is where the theatre comes in. They came over with a table - then they come over with a box of oak moss which they place in the centre of the table. They provide you with strips of flavour which you place on your tongue and it dissolves (there's some breath fresheners which are identical in appearance). As the flavour from the strips takes effect, they pour liquid nitrogen over the moss and the whole table in engulfed in dry ice. Then the smell of the moss hits you and you really could shut your eyes and think you're in a woodland in the alps. They then place down your jelly of quail, langoustine cream, parfait of foie gras and your truffle toast. They implore with you to take in the smell and sample each of the layers of the jelly and cream. It's difficult to articulate quite how good this was without swearing, but holy parsnips! It was FABULOUS! The aroma of the moss and the taste of that toast adorned with tiny, weany radish slices *swoon* As I'm writing this, I'm grinning again at how good this was. I have absolutely no idea who Alain Chapel was or is, but clearly he is GOD amongst men.

SNAIL PORRIDGE
Joselito ham

One of Blumenthal's most famous creations, this is the one dish that most people go 'urgh' at when you mention where you're going or what you're having. I have to say, it wasn't my favourite, but that's not to say it wasn't nice. It was just, I dunno - odd. It tasted a little like a beef Oxo cube, bizarrely. I don't know why - nor did I understand why the oats were green. The shaved fennel on top was a nice touch though. Mrs Phantom however, took a slightly different view. She loved it and is her top dish.

ROAST FOIE GRAS "BENZALDEHYDE"
Almond fluid gel, cherry, chamomile

This. Was. Amazing. The Foie Gras was tender, the almond 'gel' was however more of an emulsion, the cherry was PACKED with flavour and the small golden cubes were Ameretto flavoured, and blimey, did they taste good. It was very, very sickly as a dish and I thanked the lord it wasn't any bigger.

"SOUND OF THE SEA"

This meal came out and there's only one word to describe it - Epic. It resembled a beach and consisted of razor clams, baby eels, oysters, five types of seaweed, brine foam and tapioca. Again, the theatre of it was enhanced by a shell that came out, with an ipod shuffle inside it. You wore the earphones while you ate and on the ipod was a track consisting of seagulls and waves lapping against the rocks. It really enhanced the experience and made for a really enjoyable course. You read people say that this course was a 'sensory explosion' and view it with suspicion. It's easy to scoff at such statements and the pantomime around it, but I have to say, until you actually experience it, you can't comprehend what it is like.

SALMON POACHED IN LIQUORICE GEL Artichokes, vanilla mayonnaise and “Manni” olive oil

When this dish arrived, it hit me how much preparation goes into each dish. Scattered over the plate was little grapefruit segments. Some poor sod had to do this, for every dish. The salmon was moist (bordering on underdone) and the artichoke was cooked sublimely. The vanilla mayonnaise was an odd one though. It was lovely, don't get me wrong, but it was very, very sickly and sweet. The balsamic reduction on the plate cut through the grapefruit perfectly, though the liquorice gel wasn't as strong as I was expecting. An enjoyable course.

BALLOTINE OF ANJOU PIGEON Black pudding “made to order”, pickling brine and spiced juices

Another stand-out dish. The final 'main course'. Have you ever heard of black pudding which had the texture of an emulsion and contained no bits? Nope, didn't think so, and neither did I. Having said that, this was brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. The pigeon was cooked 'blue' (even though it's red) so wouldn't suit many people. However, it was tender and just melted in the mouth. I could eat this every day. I have no idea what the spiced juices were, but I mopped them up with my pigeon so my plate was clean. The plate had baby turnips (probably about 1cm cubed) and a shallot which was caramelised with a crisp which (forgive me here) had the texture of a Quaver!. What a masterpiece. Amazing.

HOT AND ICED TEA

Hot at the top, freezing cold at the bottom. Tasted like lemon tea. Down the hatch in one. The cold was definitely heavier (to divide the two) and I suspect this was gelatin or arrowroot to thicken it up. Was lovely and is something I'm going to try at home.

MRS MARSHALL’S MARGARET CORNET

For this, we got a little leaflet which we got to take away before they served it. The waiter watched us with the eye of a hawk so that as soon as we had read it, they came over with the food. It explained who Mrs Marshall was and the purpose of this course. She was a Victorian, who was a frozen dessert pioneer. The recipe the Fat Duck uses authentically recreates her recipe and method, resulting in apple ice ream with a ginger granita. The smooth flavour of the apple complimented the ginger granita and to be honest, it left me wanting more!

PINE SHERBET FOUNTAIN (PRE-HIT)

This wasn't my favourite part. Pine sherbet, delivered on a vanilla pod. I felt the sherbet was lacking flavour, though in all honesty, it was being used as a palette cleanser and so I was too fussed. Having said that, the container which it arrived in was very cute and took me back to my youth!

MANGO AND DOUGLAS FIR PUREE
Bavarois of lychee and mango, blackcurrant sorbet,
blackcurrant and green peppercorn jelly

Back to one of the greats. I've been meaning to make a bavarois for some time and this has inspired me. This was perfection. The blackcurrant sorbet was packed with so much flavour I'm surprised it didn't burst. The peppercorn jelly was a mixture of beetroot and blackcurrant (Mrs Phantom asked as she loved it) and the bavarois just melted away into a smooth, tasty mixture. I genuinely have nothing but praise for this dish. One of the best dishes I've ever eaten.

PARSNIP CEREAL

Ho Ho Ho. This was brilliant. I'm tempted to call it 'witty' - but I think that's a little too pretentious! A small box arrived, like a Kellogg's variety pack, alongside a small jug of milk. Inside the box contained what looked like small cornflakes. Instead, they were shavings of parsnip and the milk was flavoured with parsnip! I was astounded at how good this was and Mrs Phantom and I laughed all the way through. I'm going to experiment with this dish and see what I can do - However, the lightly toasted parsnips were perfect and the milk had a slight taste of banana about it - Nevertheless, it was very well conceived and executed!

NITRO-SCRAMBLED EGG AND BACON ICE CREAM (2006)
Pain perdu, tea jelly

Like the snail porridge, this is another of Heston's most famous creations. The way I explain it to people is that it might sound odd but you've got to remember that you don't get to the level that Blumenthal has by serving up awful food and you have, to a certain extent, place your trust in him to provide you with excellent food. This dish was very, very good.

A table came over to us, with a copper cooking stove. An egg was cracked into the pan, which had been drilled and drained of the white and the yolk. The mixture of bacon and eggs was pre-prepared and inserted into the egg with a syringe. The yolk was then sealed and placed in a box ready to be brought over to our table.

The mixture was placed in the pan and liquid nitrogen was poured in, making instant ice cream. Amazing. It was placed on a sumptuous pain perdu, which was also covered in tomato jelly (although to me, it looked like tomato confit - who am I to argue?) and a shard of what I assume was cornsyrup, flavoured with bacon. Alongide this was a cup with a fashioned broken rim, to resemble a cracked egg shell and inside was lemon tea jelly. Words cannot describe how good this was. Perfectly rounding off a meal which quite honestly was mind-blowing.

PETITS FOURS
Mandarin aerated chocolate, Violet tartlet, Carrot and orange lolly

Finally, the petits fours arrived with some coffees. I note that on the careers section of the Fat Duck website, they're looking for a Chocolatier, so I guess this section is being revamped. They were good, but the carrot and orange lolly was a bit non-descript. The outstanding iteam was a treacle toffee in edible (what gave the appearance of) a plastic wrapper.

And that's the lot. If you've got down this far. Congratulations! You've won a prize. That prize is hearing me sound off at how awesome my birthday was. Coupled with this I also recieved:

A breadmaker
An ice cream maker
A very high quality carving knife
Some dvds
Blank CDs
Some cash
Chocolates and bits and bobs

All in all a fabulous haul and I promise to update a bit more often in the coming months!

El Bulli 2009?

How to make Soufflé

A Soufflé is one of the most difficult things to get right. It's flummoxed me no end since I've been cooking and I've tried different recipes, different methods and amazingly, I've always had consistent results. I.e. rubbish.

I've never managed to get them to rise properly. They've always been fine in terms of taste, but lacking the visual impact that a well-risen Soufflé should have. It's even more annoying when you consider that I absolutely adore them and can't cook them. The light, fluffy texture which literally melts on the tongue is simply wonderful to finish off a hearty meal. If I go out and they're on the menu - it's no contest as to what I have for pudding.

Today being Sunday, meant that it's Sunday lunch (obviously), with the family. We were somewhat reduced in numbers today, due to some holidays. My grandmother was cooking and much to my delight, when I arrived she had a grin on her face. "I'm attempting Soufflé" she said. Of course, I immediately grinned back and snatched the recipe to see what she was working to. At first glance, I must confess dear reader, I was apprehensive as to whether they'd work. No ban marie, gas mark 7, ten minutes, contains milk? Colour me confused!

Anyway, my grandmother set to, remarking how she hadn't followed a recipe for ages because she knows all of her dishes off by heart! After reading. re-reading and some discussion and encouraging words, the mixture was made and they were plonked in the oven. The end result was nothing short of perfection. You genuinely couldn't fault it. Flavoured well, well risen, fluffy. If you've got a Soufflé checklist, believe me - this recipe ticked all the boxes, made some more boxes up and ticked those too - it really was that good.

I snatched a quick photo with my phone - apologies for the poor quality of the picture, but this needed to be preserved for posterity. Had I have known what was on the menu, I'd have been there with a better camera.


Orange and Lemon Soufflé Recipe (serves 4)

110g Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
140ml Milk
55g Butter
1tsp Vanilla Essence
2tbsp Acacia Honey
1 Jaffa Orange
2 Lemons

(Gas Mark7)

Grease the ramekins and sprinkle with sugar, lightly coating them. Pour the milk into a saucepan and heat over a medium flame until warm. Add in the honey, vanilla essence and the zest of the orange and lemon together with half of the sugar. Heat until the mixture starts to simmer, remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Seperate the eggs into seperate bowls. Add in the remaining sugar into the egg whites and beat until you have stuff peaks. With the egg yolks, add in the butter and whisk until it becomes stiff, pale and fluffy.

Add the egg yolk mixture into the milk and mix until combined. Fold this into the egg whites gently until this combines too. Spoon into ramekins and place them on a baking tray for 10 minutes until risen by half.

Now, my grandmother's Soufflés didn't rise until after the 10 minutes was up and she reduced the heat to gas mark 4 for a further 5 minutes - then BANG! They started to rise. I'd therefore suggest you do that.

That's all there is to it - It's tricky. It's a lot of processes to get right, but the end result was superb. Not only did I have a fantastic pudding to eat which was made for me - but I got a Soufflé recipe and a blog post out of it too! I'm one very happy chappy!

Eat well!