Berry Crumbles
SERVES 4 There is something very special about the deep crimson juice from raspberries. This crumble is one of my favourite dishes. Try it with blackberries and mulberries too. It deserves being served with the very best cream.
50 g unsalted butter
400 g raspberries (or mulberries or blackberries or a mixture)
1/3 cup caster sugar
double or clotted cream, to serve
CRUMBLE TOPPING
1/3 cup soft brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
60 g unsalted butter, chopped
2/3 cup plain flour
EXTRA EQUIPMENT
4 x 125 ml-capacity individual gratin dishes
Preheat oven to 200°C.
To make the crumble topping, mix sugar, baking powder and ginger in a bowl. In another bowl, crumble butter into flour with your fingertips to make pea-sized pieces, then toss flour mixture with sugar mixture. Set aside.
Use some of the butter to grease four 125 ml-capacity gratin dishes. Divide berries among dishes. Press them down lightly with the back of a spoon. Scatter over sugar. Spoon over crumble topping; it should be no more than 1 cm deep (any extra crumble topping can be put into a suitable container, labelled and frozen, ready for a crumble some other day). Divide remaining butter into small pieces and dot over tops of crumbles. Set dishes on a baking tray with a lip to catch any overflowing juices.
Bake crumbles for 15 minutes or until topping is golden and berry juices are bubbling through. Leave crumbles to cool for several minutes before serving with spoonfuls of double or clotted cream.
Lamb Skewers with Fresh Bay Leaves
SERVES 4
Children like to help assemble these skewers. The best family barbecues involve the whole family helping in some way. Although I've cooked the skewers on a metal grill over charcoal (see below), they are just as good when cooked in a char-grill pan or on the barbecue.
Enjoy these lamb skewers with a salad made from ingredients picked fresh from your kitchen garden.
1 red onion, unpeeled
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons oregano leaves
8 fresh bay leaves, halved widthways
4 small lamb fillets, cut into 3 pieces each
freshly ground black pepper
2 small lemons, halved widthways
4 flatbreads
juice of 1 lemon
sea salt
EXTRA EQUIPMENT
4 metal skewers
ridged cast-iron char-grill pan or barbecue grill-plate
Place onion in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain onion in a colander, then rinse briefly with cold water and, as soon as you can handle it, peel and quarter it. Separate onion quarters into 3-4 'petals'.
Place olive oil, oregano, bay leaves, lamb and onion in a deep dish and grind over some pepper. Mix lamb and onion around so that they are coated with olive oil/herb mixture. Leave at room temperature for 1 hour.
To assemble the skewers, alternate onion, bay leaf halves and lamb pieces among 4 skewers, finishing with a lemon half.
Heat a char-grill pan or barbecue grill-plate until very hot. Grill skewers, turning once or twice and brushing them with any oil remaining in the marinating dish, until lamb is tender. They will be cooked in about 5-8 minutes, depending on how pink you like your lamb. The onion pieces should look charred on the edges.
Warm flatbreads on the barbecue grill-plate, if using, or in a non-stick frying pan over high heat. Place a lamb skewer in each flatbread, pull out the skewer, squeeze with some lemon juice, then add a sprinkle of sea salt and roll to eat.
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