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Strawberry fare
FIRST of all I hope none of you paid any attention to the unfortunate error (allowed to slip through by my dear non-cook editor) in my rice salad receipt last week where it told you to 'stew' the tomatoes with parsley and basil. The word was intended to be strew.
A kind firm dealing with soft fruits has sent me masses of strawberries and as our own glorious fruit are just appearing on the market I thought they could be the main theme. 'Doubtless God could have made a better berry, doubtless He never did,' nice quote from Dr Boteler in The Compleat Angler. Although straight strawberries and great jugs of yellow Jersey cream can hardly be bettered, the following pudding is quite something. Both rich and expen- sive. A party treat.
Strawberry Charlotte Malakoff
1 lb of strawberries 1/2 pint of Cointreau or Grand Marnier, 1/4 pint water 1/2 lb best unsalted butter (softened)
3/4 pint of thick cream
6 oz caster sugar 1/4 teaspoon (8 drops) almond essence 6 oz fresh ground almonds 48 sponge fingers (best quality)
You need a three-pint cylindrical mould about four inches high and seven inches across, a soufflé dish would do. Line the base with a round of grease-proof paper. In a soup plate pour a quarter-pint of water and half the liqueur. Rapidly dip the sponge fingers one at a time and drain on a rack. Line the base of the mould with the fingers in a cartwheel spoke position laying them curved side down. You will have to cut them to fit snugly. Line the sides with more of the fingers with the curved sides against the mould. There should be no gaps. Cream the softened butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, beat in the rest of the liqueur and the almond essence until the sugar is totally dissolved then beat in the ground almonds. Whip the cream until it can leave a trail and fold into the almond mixture. Put a third of it in the lined mould.
Insert a layer of hulled strawberries head down, cover with a layer of sponge fingers, then repeat the operation. Fill the mould with the remaining third of almond cream and any fingers that are left as a final layer. Trim the fingers around the edge of the bowl and press them into the cream. Cover the mould with cling film or greaseproof paper, put a little plate to fit on top, and weight it with something weighing a pound or so. Refrigerate overnight. When needed run a knife round the inside of the dish and turn out onto a pretty plate. Cover with more strawberries and serve with whipped cream or a Strawberry sauce This is an unusual sauce using green peppercorns. Melt about an ounce of butter in a saucepan, add a teaspoonful of soft green peppercorns and a pound of quartered strawberries, cook gently for two minutes carefully turning the fruit. Pour in a tablespoon of Pernod and eight ounces of Grand Marnier, let them Warm, then set fire to the whole lot. When the flames die down add eight ounces of fresh orange juice. Check for sweetness. Very good with ice cream. This is recommended by the kind soft fruit firm.
Strawberry salad For a ravishingly pretty salad peel a cucumber and slice very thinly on a man- doline. Add a little salt then place the slices between two plates with a weight on top for an hour or two returning now and then to pour liquid away. Cut an equal amount of strawberries into horizontal slices, grind some black pepper over them and sprinkle with a little wine vinegar or lemon juice. Just before you need to serve the salad arrange the two ingredients together to surround a beautiful cold fish or fowl. A delight to the eye.
Finally a plug for a nice little cook book which is being sold in aid of the Cornwall Historic Churches Trust, a very charming cause and quite a change from Ethiopia. Entitled Men's Menus (£4.95) it is just that. A collection of very different receipts from men all over Britain edited by Alice Boyd and published by the Trust. Some very good receipts they are too, including our dear Alan Watkins's efforts.
There is an hilarious introduction on the art of not cooking by Professor John Bayley, who is married to Iris Murdoch. They have some pretty weird eating habits, nothing takes more than ten minutes to prepare except vegetables, which must be soggy, and they don't clean the saucepan.
Jennifer Paterson
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