Monday 10 March 2008

Crème Brûlée for pyrophobics!

Currently listening to: "Rotterdam" - Beautiful South

Sorry I haven't blogged for a long while... just have been really busy and living at home with my parents so didn't have the chance to cook much! However I'm now back in my student diggs so expect an avalanche of culinary delights over the next few weeks!





Anyway, it was Mothering Sunday a week ago so me and my sisters decided to put on a three course meal for the family. By the time my sisters had decided to tell me what they were planning they had already shot-gunned the best courses so I got lumbered with desert... This would normally be easy but my mum doesn't really do chocolate!

For full details of the whole meal see my sisters blog.

With the chocolate ban in place I set out to find a light quick and easy dessert as I knew the kitchen would be chaotic!

I ended up making Strawberry and Lemon Gratin, which looks Crème Brûlée and tastes like cheesecake. I found the recipe in the Sarah Raven Garden Cookbook which I can strongly recommend for quick and easy dishes.

Strawberry and Lemon Gratin

Serves 6

300ml double cream
300ml natural yoghurt
225g strawberries
grated zest of 1 lemon
caster sugar, to taste
lemon juice, to taste
115g demerara sugar
  • Whip the double cream to soft peaks (use an electric whisk, unless you want to do it by hand for a couple of hours!) and fold in the yoghurt, a few of the strawberries, and the lemon zest, with enough caster sugar and lemon juice to taste.
  • Fill the bottom of 6 ramekin dishes with the remaining strawberries and cover with the cream mixture.
  • Over this carefully spread the demerara sugar, smoothing it with the back of a spoon.
  • Put into the fridge for at least 2 hours to form a crust.
  • Enjoy...

I'm not normally a fan of light deserts but this dish was perfect considering the heavy main course.

More blogs to follow very soon...

5 comments:

Jules said...

I thought it was yum and I'll certainly be making it in the future.

Wendy said...

Ah, so you are the Trainee Domestic Goddess' brother. My this food blog world is a small one.
Highly impressed by your attempts to eat intrestingly on a student income and feeling quite sheepish recalling my own diet at uni.

Mike said...

Indeed it is a small world, but i wouldn't of even thought about blogging if big sis hadn't of introduced me to it. I had my Creme Brulee featured on
tastespotting today and hits have gone through the roof! Loads of
americans emailing me atm...

LyB said...

That's a cool idea, does it really form a brulee type crust? Looks delicious anyway!

Mike said...

lyb - It forms a crust but not as strong as what you get on a brulee. IT's worth a try, tastes really good.
Mike