Recipe XCIX - Apple-Vanilla-Mascarpone Dessert

I'm now on my 99th recipe. This has been a fabulous adventure for me to attempt to cook a different meal at least once a fortnight, but on average every eight or nine days. This one is so easy and yet fulfilling to make and a remarkable crowd-pleaser. You need a good hour for this, but it'll be worth it.

Ingredients:

5 apples

2 tablespoons of brown sugar (approx)

4 tablespoons of white sugar (approx)

1 carton of ordinary dessert cream

1 tub of mascarpone

3 eggs

2 vanilla pods

A handful of speculoos biscuits but shortcrust will do

A spoonful of cinnamon

Equipment:

An electric whisk

A blender

Instructions:

Cut up the apples and put them in water and tip some brown sugar over them. Some remove the skins, but I leave them on as I like a nice zesty tang to my apple purée.

Put the biscuits in a blender and give them a whiz until they're pulverised. Put them aside until later.

Take the cream, eggs and mascarpone and fold them into each other. Add the white sugar (to your own tastes) and empty the vanilla pods into it by cutting down the centre from one end to the other and scooping the vanilla out with a teaspoon. Then get the electric whisk and turn it into a creamy substance.

Meanwhile, get half the apples and scoop them out of the water and into a blender. Whiz it up until it turns to pulp. Put them in a bowl to cool.

With the other half, add some cinnamon and blend it to a pulp. So below you see the difference. The one on the right I am saving for my roast pork later, and the one on the left is going further in this story. Put it in the fridge for a while first though.

Spoon very carefully some apple purée into the bottom of a glass and smooth it down to a flat surface either with a spoon, or by gently swirling the glass. Add the mascarpone layer after this, and then the biscuit crumbs.

Use various sizes of glass depending on who they are intended for.

You can do the same thing with other fruits, such as raspberries, pineapple or blackcurrants. The vanilla would be an unnecessary, depending what you choose.

Recipe XCVI - Celeriac Purée

Last week I had what I can only believe must have been the world's greatest chicken, a superhero amongst all the other farmyard fowl, a titan of the coop, a caped crusader of a bird which provided us not only with an unbelievable amount of the best chicken meat I have ever tasted, but gave me the best stock in living memory, and I wanted to do something with that stock to give it the perfect send-off. Anything less would have been an insult to this magnificent specimen of a bird, so I decided to make one of those dull dishes with one of those vegetables which is almost laughed at due to its likeness to the Ood from Doctor Who, the type of vegetable that makes people pleasantly surprised when they realise it's actually pretty damn tasty when served properly...




Ingredients:1 celeriac, peeled and chopped into 2cm cubes
2 onions
1 litre of chicken stock
1 tablespoon of cumin
Half a tablespoon of turmeric
Ground white pepper
40g butter
A carton of cream (optional; preferably thick)



Instructions:
Put some butter into a high-sided frying pan, put on a low-to-medium heat and when hot add the spices. Throw the onion and celeriac into it and stir until all the ingredients are nicely covered. 





Continue stirring for 2 to 3 minutes, then pour the stock on top. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat to simmering temperature for about 20 minutes.





Keep the liquid, but put all the solid ingredients into a blender and allow the mixture to turn into a saucy consistency. Put the cream in at this point, but adding some of the liquid from the stock is a good idea too.



Keep it warm until all your other food is prepared; when serving, you can put a large spoonful on the plate and with the underside of the spoon run it through the purée to create a decorative look.





It is best served with something like boiled potatoes so that it can act as a kind of dip. With the rest of the leftover stock, I let it boil down in a pot of Savoy cabbage until the fat from the stock fried it gently.

Recipe XCIII - Carrot and Ginger Purée

This week, we're doing something nice and simple to go with your average meal. I have never seen the reason why people seem to boil the living daylights out of vegetables and serve them as they are, except hot, soggy and bland, especially for kids. You can steam them, fry them, roast them, pickle them, eat them raw or even barbecue them. But if you are going to boil them, at least make them interesting... This one is so simple, yet is really delicious, and the ingredients you wish to use are flexible. The timing is the most important.

Ingredients:
10 medium-sized carrots, or 6 large ones
A teaspoonful of ginger
A teaspoonful of sugar
Some garlic (optional)
Some onions (optional)
A spoonful of butter
10cl cream (optional)
Some Savoy cabbage (optional)
Some new potatoes (optional)
Some chives, chopped (optional)
Some meat - pork cutlets, for example



Instructions:
Cut up your carrots and place them in some lightly-salted water, putting the new potatoes on top to steam and not forgetting to put the lid on.

All this time, you can be gently frying the meat and the Savoy cabbage (See recipe LXXXV). If you just want simple savoy cabbage, fry it in a little butter and olive oil, then once sweated add about 1.5 centimetres of hot water. Salt it and let it reduce on a medium-low heat.



Once the carrots are properly boiled (25 minutes should do it), place them in a mixer. At this point you can quickly sweat an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic and put them in, but it is not essential. Add some sugar, some butter, some ground pepper and powdered ginger. Some chives are also welcome.



Blend them well, and add some cream if you prefer it that way.



While they are still hot, put some butter on the potatoes and the chives.



Serve as soon as possible before everything gets too cool.