Saturday, February 14, 2009

An Apple a Day...

here is a recipe for a mayo...
Apple Mayonnaise:
3 tblsp double cream
4 oz (100g) standard mayonnaise
1 tblsp white wine
3 tblsp apple puree
1 tsp grated fresh horseradish or bottled horseradish cream
good pinch of each: sugar and salt
Whip the cream until thick but not too firm. Fold into the mayo then carefully fold in the wine, apple puree, and horseradish. Season to taste with the sugar and salt.
tip: using icing sugar sifted over the mixture makes it blend in more easily than using caster or granulated.

tip: when using mayo to bind salad ingredients (potato salad etc) always dilute with a little water so that it flows more easily as the food needs only a light coating, not glued together by a thick gunge.

Depending upon the time of day this is read, there could still be time to make this rather special dessert for Valentine's Day. As the predominant flavour for the syllabub is ginger, this would go with both orange or lemon, so the choice of which jelly you use is up to you. The jelly will set faster if first dissolved in a very little water, then made up with really chilled wine. Much depends upon the size of the serving dishes/glasses. If larger, then more jelly may need to be made, in which case use an extra half pack of jelly and the required amount of wine to go with this.
Oranges with Wine Jelly with Ginger Cream: serves 4 -6
2 oranges, segmented - peel, pith and membrane removed
1 pack of orange or lemon jelly
chilled white wine
1 x 284ml pot double cream
2 tblsp orange juice
2 tblsp lemon juice
3 tblsp Cointreau or similar
1 piece stem ginger, shredded finely
2 tblsp ginger syrup from the jar
3 oz (caster sugar)
finely grated zest of 1 orange
First prepare the orange segments, then break up the jelly into cubes, place each pack in a pint jug and just cover with hot water (or cold if using a microwave) then stir (or microwave on Full for a couple of minutes) until the jelly has completely dissolved, then stand the jug in cold water to cool down the jelly before adding wine to bring it nearly but not quite up to the pint in each jug.
Divide the orange segments and place at the bottom of individual serving (wine) glasses and pour over the wine jelly (leaving space at the top for the syllabub) and then place in the fridge to set.
Make the syllabub by putting into a bowl the cream, orange zest and juice, lemon juice, liqueur, ginger syrup and the sugar, whisking them all together until soft peaks. Spoon onto the top of the set jellies and leave in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours before sprinkling with the stem ginger.