Sweet Eve Strawberry Tapas

This is such a simple and easy way of serving fresh, ripe seasonal strawberries at the end of a relaxed supper party. Everyone can get stuck into their preferred flavour combinations, and can taste each accompaniment. Ricotta is an Italian whey cheese and can be found in most supermarkets. Let the sweet and fragrant taste of Sweet Eve strawberries speak for itself, or enhance it by dipping in this wonderful array of spices and flavours.

Serves 4 / Preparation time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 500g fresh Sweet Eve strawberries
• 100g Schwartz black peppercorns
• 100g red peppercorns
• 250g Galbani® Ricotta cheese
• ½ teaspoon of Schwartz ground cinnamon
• 100ml of aged traditional, balsamic
• vinegar from Modena
• Zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
• 100g unrefined soft brown cane sugar

Method

Hull and clean the strawberries, removing the green stem with a teaspoon. Now slice the strawberries in half, and place them in a serving bowl on a tray. Prepare 5 more small bowls, all to be served on the same tray.
Using a pestle and mortar, lightly crush the black peppercorns, and then place them in a small bowl, on the same tray as the strawberries. Lightly crush the red peppercorns, as above, and place them in a separate
bowl, again on the tray. Mix the ricotta in another bowl with the ground cinnamon. Pour the balsamic vinegar in a small bowl. Place the lemon zest in another bowl, and mix in the sugar. Serve the prepared tray to your guests, and they can dip each strawberry into the flavours alternatively.

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Smoked mackerel with spring onion, fennel and watercress salad with mustard dressing and croutons

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 medium smoked mackerel
• 2 medium spring onions
• ¼ fennel bulb
• 1 bunch watercress, washed and picked through
• 1 slice stale white bread, cut into approx 1 cm cubes
• 6 tbsp virgin rapeseed oil
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 2 tsp English mustard
• ½ tsp runny honey

Fine sea salt, sea salt flakes and ground black pepper

METHOD

1. First make the dressing. Mix together the mustard, honey, cider vinegar and 4 tbsp of rapeseed oil in a clean jam jar or small bottle with a lid and shake vigorously to blend. Taste, season with fine sea salt and adjust ingredients as preferred.
2. Next the croutons: heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan then fry the cubes of bread untilgolden all over. Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper.
3. De bone and remove the skin from the mackerel and break the flesh up into bite-sized pieces.
4. With a man doline or sharp knife, very thinly slice the fennel and spring onions.
5. Mix together the fennel, water cressand some of the dressing and then arrange the salad. Place the watercress and fennel first on the plate, in a small pile, then lay on the pieces of mackerel, with sea salt flakes and black pepper, and finally the slices of spring onion over the top. Drizzle over more dressing and arrange the croutons roughly around the outside of the plate.

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Wild garlic

Also known as Ramsons, you’ll find bunches of slim, green, wild garlic leaves on our farmers’ market stalls
from Ted’s Veg to Brambletye Farm and naturally, The Garlic Farm. Alham Wood Dairy wraps them around their little Lambos buffalo milk cheese. Pasta maker Giovanni Carleschi of Simply Italian is passionate about
using local, seasonal ingredients in his products and uses wild garlic to make wild garlic pesto. If you spot
wild garlic growing wild, usually in woodlands but also spotted in inner London parks and open spaces, you’ll  not mistake it for anything else. Tear off a piece of leaf and the pungent aroma is an instant giveaway. Use it
in sauces, soups and salads, add to mashed potatoes, make pesto with it, and stir into a risotto. Like other
delicate leaves it will wilt immediately (think spinach) and leave behind a delicate breath of garlic.

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Smoked mackerel

If you usually buy smoked mackerel from the supermarket, do yourself and your taste buds a favour and instead buy direct from a fisherman and you won’t ever go back. Mackerel at farmers’ markets is caught by our fishermen from small day boats, often line caught and as fresh as you can get. Smoked, it’s often sold as a
whole fish rather than fillets, succulent and flavoursome. Full of omega-3 fatty acids and tasty too. This salad is great for spring; the robust flavours of the mackerel stand up well to the zingy watercress and crunchy fennel.

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Yoghurt pudding and poached rhubarb

Serves 4
Ingredients

• Pudding
• 2 large eggs
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 vanilla pod
• 235g thick, natural yoghurt
• Zest of 1 lemon and ½ orange,
• finely grated
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 15g plain flour

Rhubarb

• 4–6 sticks rhubarb
• Coarse zest strips of ½ orange
• and 1 lemon
• 1 star anise
• 300ml water
• 1 seeded vanilla pod
• 100g granulated sugar
• 100g honey

Rhubarb
The appearance of rhubarb at markets after long, cold winters is always a cheerful sight. These beautiful bright pink stalks remind us that spring possibly isn’t too far away. Rhubarb was first grown in the UK around 1760 for scientific purposes, with indoor rhubarb a recent 19th-century occurrence. It has a long history of medical usage, dating as far back as 2700 BC in China where among other uses, it was utilised to ward off plague. In 1759 a Chinese emperor forbade the export of tea and rhubarb to the Russians after a border conflict in the northern part of China. Rhubarb is classified as a vegetable and it goes well with oily fish and fatty meats. Try pairing it with mackerel or pork belly. In the UK market, the first delicate pink-hued rhubarb is forced indoors. It’s followed later in the season by outdoor-grown strains. Although it doesn’t have the same fragile flavour, it holds a well-deserved place in our crumbles and pies and works beautifully with this yoghurt-based dessert. 

METHOD

1. 1 Preheat oven to 180˚C. Place a large baking dish or tin with a little water in the oven.
2. Separate the eggs – be especially careful that none of the yolk gets left with the white (the other way round is not so crucial). Beat the egg yolks in a bowl with threequarters of the caster sugar until thick and pale. Split the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds into the yolk mixture (reserve the pod). Mix well with the yoghurt, lemon and orange zest, flour and lemon juice to taste. 
3. Bring a full kettle to boil.
4. In another bowl add the remaining sugar with the egg whites and whisk to soft peaks. Gently fold the whites into the yoghurt and yolk mixture.
5. Pour this mixture into a smaller baking dish and place this into the larger dish. Pour boiling water into the larger dish until it comes halfway up the side of the smaller dish.
6. Place in the oven and bake for 30–40 minutes. Check occasionally that there is still sufficient water in the large dish.
7. While the yoghurt pudding is baking, prepare the rhubarb. Put the water, zest, sugar, honey, star anise and leftover vanilla pod into a pan over a low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved. Bring to the boil then set aside for about 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse. Chop the rhubarb sticks into roughly 4 cm pieces.
8. Check the yoghurt pudding is ready: it should be light brown on top of a light sponge, and like a custard underneath.
9. Just before serving, remove the vanilla pod and pieces of zest, warm the syrup again to hot but not boiling and gently poach the rhubarb for about 2 minutes until tender but still holding its shape.Remove immediately from the pan. Serve on warm plates: rhubarb pieces just to one side with a light covering of the syrup and the yoghurt pudding next to and around the rhubarb.

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Lemon and raspberry cupcakes

For the frosting
*200g full-fat cream cheese
*200g unsalted butter, softened
*500g icing sugar,sifted
*Finely grated zest of 2 lemons

For the sponge
*200g unsalted butter, softened
*200g caster sugar
*Pinch of salt
*Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
*4 medium eggs
*200g self-raising flour
*Punnet of raspberries, plus extra for decoration

For the sugar syrup
*150ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
*150g caster sugar

Equipment
*2 x 12-hole muffin trays
*24 large brown cupcake cases
*Piping bags
*Large round piping nozzle

Preheat the oven to 175°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Place the cupcake cases inside the holes in the muffin trays.
To make the frosting, place the cream cheese in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Place the
butter, icing sugar and lemon zest in a separate bowl and cream together until very pale and fluffy. Add the cream cheese, a little at a time, to the butter mixture and mix at medium-high speed until combined. Chill until set. To make the cupcakes, place the butter, sugar, salt and lemon zest in a mixing bowl and cream together until pale and fluffy. Beat the eggs lightly in another bowl and slowly pour into the butter mixture while whisking quickly. If the mixture starts to separate or curdle, beat in 2-3tbsp of the flour. Sift in the remaining
flour and stir until just combined. Using a tablespoon, place the batter into the cupcake cases until two-thirds
full. Drop 2 or 3 raspberries into each cupcake. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the tops are golden brown and spring back. Remove and rest for 10 minutes. While the cupcakes are baking, prepare the sugar syrup. Place the lemon juice and sugar into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer until all the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool.

Using a pastry brush, soak the tops of the cupcakes with sugar syrup while they are still warm. Let them cool a little longer, then remove the cupcakes from the trays, and leave to cool on a wire rack. Fill a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle with the chilled frosting. Pipe a swirl of frosting on top of each cupcake, then finish with a raspberry on top

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SUMMER BERRY CAKE

Serves: 12
Prep time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 20 minutes

For the sponges
*200g unsalted butter, softened
*200g caster sugar
*Pinch of salt
*Seeds of 1 vanilla pod
*4 medium eggs
*200g self-raising flour

For the sugar syrup
*150ml water
*150g caster sugar
*1 vanilla pod, scraped

For the buttercream
*250g unsalted butter, softened
*250g icing sugar, sifted
*Pinch of salt
*3tbsp mixed berry jam

For decoration
*1tbsp cocoa powder

Equipment
*3 x 15cm (6in) round cake tins
*Turntable
*Metal side scraper
*Cake stencil

First, bake the sponges one day ahead or they may crumble when trimmed. Preheat the oven to 175°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Grease the cake tins and line the bottoms with greaseproof paper. Place the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla seeds into a mixing bowl, and cream together until pale and fluffy. Beat the eggs lightly in another bowl and slowly add to the butter mixture while whisking quickly. If the mixture starts to separate or curdle, beat in 2-3tbsp of the flour. This will rebind the batter. Sift in the remaining flour and fold through until combined. Divide the batter mix evenly between the cake tins. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until
the sides begin to shrink away from the edges of the tins and the tops are golden brown and spring back to the touch. Remove them and rest for 10 minutes. While the sponges are baking, make the sugar syrup. Place the water, sugar and vanilla pod in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer until all the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool. Using a pastry brush, soak the tops of the sponges with syrup. After they’ve cooled a little more, run a knife around the sides of the tins, remove the sponges and leave to cool on a wire rack. Once
cool, wrap the sponges in cling film and rest them overnight at room temperature.The next day, make the buttercream filling. Place the butter, icing sugar and salt in a mixing bowl and cream together until very pale and fluffy. Add the jam to the mixture and stir until combined. To assemble the cake, trim the sponges so they are all the same size, then sandwich together using one-third of the buttercream. Use the remaining buttercream to cover the top and sides. Centre your stencil on the top of the cake. Dust with cocoa powder, and remove the stencil. Serve the cake at room temperature

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