Magic Key Lime Pie

'Magic' because it sets without the need for egg yolks and baking, harnessing the power of acid reacting with fat (lots of fat....) to set, like a lemon posset.  There are so many recipes for Key Lime Pie, some using eggs, some with gelatine, some with a meringue topping, but this is my favourite.  It has the added virtue of being suitable for veggies.  Rich and creamy, yes, but also refreshing and tangy with the zest and juice of 6 limes.  A little goes a long way.  Mind you, so does a lot, ha!  To make: crush 200g Hobnob biscuits in a processor, or a plastic bag and a rolling pin.  Stir into 75g melted butter, and press firmly into the base of a loose-bottomed cake or flan tin.  Leave to set in the fridge, while you prepare the filling.  Into a large bowl, put a tin of sweetened condensed milk (you can use the 'Light' version if you want), a medium carton of double cream (about 228ml, usually) and the finely-grated zest of 6 limes.  Stir, and watch the cream turn an amazing green from the zest.  Now, squeeze the juice from the limes (rolling them under your flattened palm or heating them for 5 seconds in the microwave helps release the juice), and stir into the milk/cream mixture.  Like magic (hence the title), the creamy mixture will thicken before your very eyes.  When the juice is well incorporated, turn it onto the chilled biscuit base and spread out evenly.  Lick the bowl.  And spoon.  Dig out a little spoonful from the mix and eat.  Patch up the top again, erasing the evidence. Repeat. Now, leave to set for a good couple of hours or overnight if possible.  Run a knife round the edge and push up the base, to serve.  This is rich, so should serve 8-10 people.  Allegedly.

Creamy Roast Tomato Sauce

When you think of roasted tomatoes, you probably also think of olive oil as the logical fat to use to cook them.  But adding a little butter and cream raises the sweet roasted flavour to a different dimension, as well as mellowing the acidity.  For 2 people, I simply halve 5 large ripe tomatoes, cover with a clove or two of chopped garlic, some salt and pepper and a couple of teaspoons of olive oil drizzled over.  Roast for 30 minutes until starting to go golden and juicy.  Blend in a processor or with a hand blender, then stir in around 25g of butter and a tablespoon of cream, creme fraiche or mascarpone.  Add basil if liked, and stir through 200g of freshly cooked pasta with some freshly-grated Parmesan or veggie equivalent.  Simple, cheap and delicious for a summer supper.  Double up to serve four, and it will still cost less than a fiver, especially as we move into the UK tomato season.

Pork Meatballs with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

A somewhat Swedish vibe for this lovely supper, which can be served with rice or pasta.  For 4 people, mix 500g of minced pork, a thick slice of white bread turned into crumbs, a medium onion, finely chopped, 2 cloves of garlic, crushed, 1 egg, a tablespoon each of chopped dill and parsley, the zest of a lemon, and plenty of salt and pepper.  Mix well with your hands, then form into meatballs - whatever size you prefer, but I got 20 out of the mixture.  Brown the meatballs in oil, then finish off in the oven on a baking sheet at 180C for about 20 minutes to cook through.  Whilst that is happening, melt 40g of butter in a pan big enough to hold the meatballs later.  Over a medium heat, fry a finely-chopped medium onion for 5 minutes until soft and translucent.  Slice 500g mushrooms (I used chestnut mushrooms) and add to the buttery onions.  Stir and cook for a further 5 minutes.  Now stir in a tablespoon of flour and 300ml of vegetable or chicken stock.  Simmer for 5 minutes until thick and the flour has cooked out.  Now stir in a small (150ml) pot of double cream or equivalent of creme fraiche, along with a further tablespoon of chopped dill and parsley.  Taste for seasoning, add a squeeze of lemon juice, and stir in the now cooked meatballs.  Pork mince is good value, and can be substituted with turkey mince if you prefer. Either way, this qualifies for under a fiver!

Rhubarb Fool

Hubby went to the excellent pick-your-own Rectory Farm in Stanton St. John on Thursday, and picked some wonderful asparagus, which is late this year, but with an intense grassy flavour.  He also got some of their main crop outdoor rhubarb.  Normally, this is fairly green, but the variety they grow here is the most amazing red colour, and is tender and not too tart.  We baked it with sugar, orange zest and juice, and when cool, folded the drained fruit through pillows of softly-whipped double cream and 0% Greek Yoghurt, (about 2:1 ratio) with a tablespoon of icing sugar to sweeten.  Served with shortbread thins (recipe follows) this is a delicious dessert to have in early summer - a perfect blend of tart/sweet fruit, creaminess and crisp biscuitiness. 

Strawberry and Blueberry Trifle

Ah, trifle!  For me the single most important rule of a trifle is - NO JELLY!  Yuk.  But everything else, well, what can one say about Madeira sponge sandwiched with redcurrant jelly, then drenched in sherry, a layer of pureed and chopped strawberries with some just-poached blueberries folded through, then a proper vanilla egg custard (or Bird's, I don't mind!) and a billowy layer of softly-whipped cream, topped with finely-grated chocolate.  You want a bowl, don't you?  Right now.  Then another one......I'm not stopping you.

Beetroot Gratin

A most unprepossessing-sounding recipe, this, but extremely delicious.  It comes from the Riverford Cookbook.  For two, you need 3 medium uncooked beetroot, scrubbed and peeled (wear rubber gloves).  Slice thinly with a sharp knife or mandolin, and layer in a small gratin dish.  Bring to the boil 100ml of double cream, with a clove of crushed garlic, and some fresh, chopped rosemary.  Season with salt and pepper, and add a teaspoon of grated horseradish if you have any.  Pour over the beetroot - it won't seem like enough cream, but trust the recipe!  Cover tightly with foil and bake at 160C for an hour - I slipped it in next to a lovely joint of Aberdeen Angus topside and shallots, and some potatoes and parsnips, for a meal-in-an-oven.  photo courtesy of Waitrose.com

Swiss Chard in Cream with Black Pepper and Juniper

A simple little dish from Nigel, but a lovely way of serving chard, and it accompanied a roast chicken very nicely.  You chop some chard stalks and leaf, and blanch in deep, salted boiling water - not too long, a minute or so.  Meanwhile, in a non-stick pan, melt about 20g of butter, and gently saute 4 crushed juniper berries and quite a lot of black pepper - about 20 grindings of the mill.  Stir in 3 or 4 tablespoons double cream or creme fraiche and allow to bubble and reduce a while.  Then, stir in the blanched chard and stir around in the creamy juices, adding salt if liked.  Serve whilst still bubbling hot.

Salmon en papillote

I love baking salmon fillets (and other fish fillets for that matter) en papillote - it keeps the flesh super-moist, creates a sauce, reduces washing up and also seems to cut down on some of salmon's oilyness.  I take a sheet of foil and top it with a smaller sheet of baking parchment.  Then build the dish - you can simply put the fish in with a dot of butter, some lemon and seasoning.  Or you can put a bed of spinach, chard, julienned leeks, whatever, on the bottom first, then lay the fish on top.  I added some lemon and a tablespoon of Noilly Prat (white wine would be fine), then sealed the package tightly, placed on a baking tray and baked in a hot oven (200 degrees) for 20 minutes.  The smell when you unwrap the parcel is divine.  Serve as it is with the juices poured over, or pour the juices into a pan and boil for a minute, then stir in a spoonful of double cream or creme fraiche and some chives for a bit of indulgence.  I'll leave you to guess what we did.

Cream of Leek Soup

A little too early for potato and leek soup, as the maincrop potatoes haven't hit the shelves yet. Am I the only one craving creamy mash??!!! Anyway, this was a lovely soup that showcased the fabulous leeks that Riverford have been supplying. Simply clean and slice 3 big leeks, and do the same with a large onion. Allow to sweat for a good 20 minutes in quite a lot of butter - about 30g. Then stir in a heaped tablespoon of flour, and then a pint and a half of veg stock (or chicken if you prefer). Simmer for another 20 minutes. I then remove some of the soup to a jug, and blend the rest in the pan with a stick blender with lots of parsley, then return the unblended portion to the pot - this gives some nice textural contrast. Stir in a couple of tablespoons of double cream or creme fraiche and dish up. I served quite small portions as it is surprisingly rich and filling, and we had another course to follow. Delicious, and freezes really well.

Roast Plums with Kentish Cob Nuts and Clotted Cream

This recipe from Mark Hix is surely meant as a reworking of the famous Italian dish of baked peaches with Amaretti crumbs and Mascarpone cream? It uses classic English ingredients instead, and is so right for this time of year, with Victoria plums and the little-used cob nuts from Kent, a relative of the hazelnut. It is a very simple dessert to prepare, and here is a link to the recipe should you want to try it. If you see cob nuts in your local market, grab them while you can. If we don't use them, the orchards will be grubbed up and a traditional old English ingredient will fade from memory.

Eton Mess

There are so many versions of this recipe, and it is really up to the cook to decide how they want it. For me, there needs to be the right balance betweeen creaminess and fruitiness - sometimes, there is just too much cream. I slice strawberries (these ones from Rectory Farm just north of Oxford) and mix them with more strawberries, pureed, and lightly sweetened. Then I mix softly whipped cream with some Greek Yoghurt to cut the richness and crumble in store-bought meringues - absolutely fine for this, as they stay nice and crisp. Then I layer the fruit and cream mixture in a glass, rather than mixing it all together - that way, you can taste each of the constituent parts, and it is less of a 'mess' - but each to their own, if you like to whack it all in a bowl and mix it together, then don't let me stop you!

Vanilla Pannacotta with Rhubarb Compote

More lovely rhubarb in the Riverford veg box this week, which was baked with sugar and a little rosewater to make a lovely counterpoint to a creamy, delicate pannacotta. Deliciously cool after the lamb navarin. I made the pannacotta with half milk and half cream, so it isn't quite so sinful, and set it with as little gelatine leaf as I could get away with - makes turning out a wee bit of a gamble but worth it!

Tomatoes baked with Thyme, Cream and Parmesan [#247]

I have lots of versions of this, but based this one on a Rachel Allan recipe - pure comfort food, as she says, and delicious served with a bowl of tiny steamed Jersey Royals, and some wonderful red oak leaf lollo rosso and cucumber salad to mop up the copious juices. Simply slice ripe tomatoes in half, around their equator. Place in a baking dish and top each half with a teaspoon of creme fraiche, a pinch of chopped thyme and a good sprinkle of grated Parmesan. Bake in a moderately hot oven for 20 minutes until the tomatoes are soft and the cream and cheese has formed a scrumptious golden, bubbling topping. These are also yummy stirred through pasta, or simply on top of some hot toast.

Sauteed Chicken with Spices, Fennel and Cream [#188]

This turned out like a mild korma, very nice, but not really what we were expecting! Also, the fennel got a bit lost, and was more of a texture than a flavour that contributed to the dish. OK, nice sauce, but nothing very special. Of course, we used WAAAAY less cream than Nigel suggested, about 40ml rather than the 300ml in the recipe. Nigel's arteries must be made of steel to tolerate that amount!!!

Baked Onions with Parmesan and Cream [#187]

We used a large Spanish onion for this dish, boiled whole for half-an-hour (it makes for a really great stock, by the way) which was then sliced and baked with cream and Parmesan. A delicious accompaniment to a good smoked Gammon steak from M&S with steamed potatoes and broccoli. Surprisingly nice, elegant little dish, this. We did, of course, scale the recipe down by reducing the quantity of cream to about 4 tablespoons - plenty enough!