Charity Begins Chez Nous

A few weeks ago, the daughters of a good friend of mine decided to do a charity event to help raise money for their forthcoming school trip. Having rigidly stuck to my deeply tedious slimming regime since January, I jumped at the chance to offer some homemade sweet and sugary delicacies from the Bardies repertoire. It doesn't take much to have me rustling around amongst jars of vanilla or lavender sugar, rosewater, orange or lemon essence and the ubiquitous white or dark chocolate chips. I'm like a kid at Christmas. "Would you like me to make you a couple of posh pastries for one of your stalls?" I asked plaintively. Yeeeeeeeeees! Any opportunity to experiment with new flavours and away I go.

The French, I always feel, are so locked into convention that it's best not to tell them what that 'petit element tres secret' consists of. It happens all the time. Mention chilli, or lemongrass or, heaven forbid, garum masala and you'll find your elegant 'assiette' politely ignored as they make a dash for the Proustian, and ever safe, 'madeleines' nearby. I once put rosewater in my 'madeleines', 'a la Nigella', which caused a few eyebrows to rise; in pleasure rather than disapproval, I hope. So despairing have I become of the capacity of rural French people to challenge centuries old culinary orthodoxies, I'm thinking of writing our very own cookbook. Watch this space! I know that I am always banging on about how well the British have absorbed their immigrant food cultures but, as far as I can see, French cuisine has moved on very little since Brillat-Savarin, Careme and Escoffier. Just think cous-cous and you get my gist.

Anyway, enough ranting for today. Like all of us, I have my favourite standby posh cakes. Apart from my Jewish orange cake and chocolate torte, my favourite, and easiest, is a raspberry and lemon curd tart, assembled, for an extra bit of style, in a rectangular, loose bottomed flan tin. It's so easy and looks stunning.

RECTANGULAR RASPBERRY AND LEMON CURD TARTS

You will need 2 x 35cm x 12cm tart tins

I use the River Cafe recipe for pastry as I find that grating the pastry gives a better finish in square tins and saves all those odd, manky bits of pastry that are left over after rolling out.

PASTRY:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C

350 g plain flour [you can use 200g plain flour and 150 g ground hazlenuts for a yummy dessert version]
pinch fine sea salt
125 g unsalted butter, cut into cubes and kept cold in the fridge before use
100 g icing sugar
3 large egg yolks

Pulse the flour, salt and butter in the food processor until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, then the egg yolks, and pulse again. The mixture will immediately combine and pull away from the sides of the bowl. Stop immediately or your pastry will be overworked. Remove and shape into a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and leave for at least an hour.

Divide the pastry ball evenly into two. Using the large holes of a cheese grater, coarsely grate the pastry into two 35cm x 12cm rectangular fluted flan tins. Press the pastry evenly onto the sides and base of each. Prick the bases with a fork and chill for 15 minutes. Bake them blind for 20 minutes at 180 degrees C, until pale honey in colour. Cool and remove from the tins.

FILLING:

800 g fresh raspberries
2-3 jars of zesty lemon curd
icing sugar to sprinkle
a few sprigs of mint to decorate

You can, of course, make your own lemon curd, which is incredibly easy to do*.

Spoon the lemon curd into the tins and arrange the raspberries very neatly in each tin. You want it to look like a French patisserie so it will take a bit of time. The extra effort more than pays off in admiration. Sprinkle the top with icing sugar from a tea strainer and add a few mint sprigs for additional creative effect. Voila! There is nothing contentious in these divine tarts.

* EASY LEMON CURD

Makes approximately 4 jars

325 g organic golden caster sugar
125 g organic unsalted butter, cut into cubes
juice and finely grated zest of 4 organic, unwaxed lemons
4 eggs, lightly beaten

Put the sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest, butter and eggs into a large heatproof bowl on top of a pan of gently simmering water. The bottom of the pan must not touch the water, otherwise you will get a sticky, lemony, scrambled eggie gloop. Stir constantly [as with a risotto, don't answer the phone or nip quickly to the loo!] with a clean, fragrance free wooden spoon [nothing worse than the smell of tomato paste or garlic in something sweet], until the mixture is thick and coats the back of the spoon.

Pour the curd into hot, sterilised jars, cover and seal. The lemon curd should last in the fridge for up to two weeks. Once a jar has been opened, though, eat within three days to be on the safe side.

QUICK AND EASY LEMON CURD DESSERT SLICES

Bake a ready rolled rectangle of all butter puff pastry between two baking sheets for 15 minutes at 200 degrees C. When golden brown, remove from the oven, cool and cut into three smaller rectangles with a pizza cutter.

Spread one piece with a generous dollop of freshly made lemon curd and either whipped cream or mascarpone cream. Place the second rectangle on top and repeat. Put the final, preferably best, piece on top and dust with icing sugar. Cut into slices and serve. Voila!

CARAWAY AND ROSEWATER YOGHURT CAKE

It had to be done! See my last blog for the basic recipe but add a teaspoonful of carraway seeds - no more or your cake will have a metallic taste. Decorate with sifted icing sugar, confectioners' pink rose petals and a pink ribbon. Delish!

CHILLI CHOCOLATE, GINGER AND LEMONGRASS TORTE

This one was a new creation! Every so often I have a Heston moment and feel like turning traditional notions of sweet and sour upside down. This one was a huge hit with Brits at a clothes sale but I think that the jury is still out vis a vis the French!

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C

Grease the base and sides of a 25cm springform cake tin with butter and line with baking parchment.

200 g Lindt and Sprungli 'Excellence' Chilli Chocolate
50 g Lindt and Srungli 85% cocoa solids dark chocolate
4 large eggs
175g organic caster sugar
250 g ground almonds
200 g unsalted butter, melted
2 tsps Ginger extract [I use Star Kay White from Lakeland, which has to travel as hold baggage because, being in American measurements, it comes in bottles of 106g]
2 tsp Uncle Roy's Lemongrass concentrated extract [available in 50 ml bottles from good specialist baking shops or by mail order]
2 tbs Green and Black's Organic Cocoa to decorate
Finely shredded and dried red chilli to decorate [or crystallise with a little egg white and caster sugar]

Melt the butter gently and set aside.

Whisk the eggs and sugar for about 10 minutes until pale, light and fluffy.

Break the chocolate into pieces and melt in a bowl over hot water. Do not let the chocolate come into contact with the water or you will have a horrible, gloopy mess - I use my vegetable steamer with the lid removed. Add the concentrated ginger and lemongrass extract.

Tip the ground almonds into the egg and sugar mixture and fold in, followed by the melted chocolate and butter. Fold in well, making sure that the chocolate is completely absorbed.

Tip the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for about 40 minutes [check after 35] until a skewer comes out cleanly. Turn out and allow to cool. Decorate with the sifted cocoa powder and chilli pieces. You could even put a bright red ribbon around the cake for maximum visual effect.

NO MORE CAKE RECIPES FOR A WHILE, I PROMISE!