August 2006

Summer Berry And Basil Pudding With A Chunky Strawberry Soup

Click for larger image

This is a good old fashioned recipe with a bit of a modern twist. For this dish we used some slightly stale medium sliced white bread. We also used a mixture of fresh berries. We used raspberries, blue berries, strawberries and a few black berries. You can use any berries that you prefer as long as they are ripe and sweet. We picked through all our fruit and kept aside all the best berries.

We then collected all the slightly too soft or bruised fruit and put that into a small saucepan with a little sugar some ripped basil leaves and some cold water. We heated the mixture gently and then simmered it until the fruit had broken down and cooked. We then put this into a liquidizer and ran it until the mixture was smooth. To remove any pips we then poured it through a sieve. This was then allowed to cool. We are now ready to start to put the pudding together.

We made our puddings in individual ring moulds. We used the mould to cut out small discs of bread. We have used three discs per dessert. We lined a tray with some greased proof paper and laid out the ring moulds. We dipped a disc of the bread into the smooth fruit puree and put this into the bottom of the mould. Then we carefully arranged some of the good fruit to make a full, even layer. We spooned over a small amount of the puree and a basil leaf. Then we dipped another disc of bread and added that. Again some fruit, puree and a basil leaf and finished with the final layer of dipped bread. This was then gently pressed down and then put in the fridge over night.

The strawberry soup is very simple to make. Again we sorted through the strawberries and kept aside the best ones. These were chopped up but not too small. The rest of them were put into a liquidizer with a little castor sugar, and a good slug of kirsch. This was then liquidized until smooth. At this point you need to taste the mix to see if it needs more sugar or not. When you are happy pour the puree through a sieve. Then we added the chopped strawberry to the mix and put the mixture into the fridge. If you want to make the soup a little different you can add a little basil to the mix, or some orange zest or for a little extra something you could add a little freshly ground black pepper. That might sound a little strange but the combination really does work!

We served our pudding in a bowl with the soup around it with a little bit of whipped cream with lemon zest and a thin crispy biscuit. If you prefer you could make the pudding the traditional way in a glass bowl lined with over lapping bread slices and filled with layers of fruit and bread and serve the soup separately. Now the sun has finally arrived, why not give it a try.

I hope you enjoy it.

Paul Vincent, Head Chef.