Rhubarb Compote and Pistachio Biscuits served with Saffron and Cardamom Cream

Square Bottle Vase by Rice

Bold, bright, cheap but beautiful and fresh from Cornwall. No, I am not immodestly talking myself up, newly
returned from our winter break to the far south west, but refer rather to a bunch of daffodils I've just bought from the green grocers. A customer recently commented on how she likes to take pleasure in small things whenever she can. If that is the happiest way to live life - and I think it might be - then the promises of spring beginning to show everywhere must be making her a very happy woman.

I think my Mum's excitement at seeing the first daffodils in the garden and picking some for the table has always left me with a particular fondness for the flowers and so, thinking forward to Mother's Day, I've been letting my imagination loose on my childhood to help dream up a recipe full of the colours and tastes of spring. My Grandmother on my Dad's side was Cornish so the almost indescribably unique taste of saffron she used to use in her baking also provokes particularly powerful maternal memories for me. There is something about those early formed memories which stay with you in vision and smell, taste and texture more than in words and description. Trying to dredge up those thoughts of spring and childhood, my mind explores the garden we grow up in from a child's height eye: the bank of daffodils, the towering stems of rhubarb and the pea shoots amongst their netting which would grow soon enough into giant, yet
delicate and abundant plants.

Candle holder by Rice

It's partly these colours and textures which have inspired me to come up with this dish and, although it is actually quite sophisticated, I wanted to present it in a fun way - again, a homage to baking at home with Mum or Gran, when decorating things up would be so much part of the fun.

The below quantities serve 4, with maybe a few biscuits left spare. It is quite a rich desert so you don't need too much.

Rhubarb Compot

Ingredients

100g sugar

70ml water

4 stems of Rhubarb, cut unto 2 inch lengths

Rhubarb is just coming into season at the moment. The early stems are often the forced ones, but soon it will be in full flow. It tends very tender this young so I don't bother to take off the outer skin, which becomes stringy later in the season. Put the water and sugar in the pan. Bring to the boil. Add the rhubarb and gently simmer for 5 minutes or enough time to allow the rhubarb to soften without going completely to mush. Set aside to cool.

Saffron and Cardamom Cream

Ingredients

300ml Double Cream

300ml Condensed Milk

20 Green Cardamom Pods

20 Strands of Saffron

Zest and Juice of 2 Lemons

The taste of this part of the dish is partly inspired by the Indian ice cream "kulfi" - made using condensed milk
and often subtly spiced. It is set in the same way as lemon posset, by the acidity of the lemon juice.  The lemon zest and saffron give this part it's spring yellow colour.

Bring the double cream, condensed milk, cardamom pods (lightly crushed to release their flavour) and saffron slowly to a gentle boil in a pan, stirring and being careful not to let it boil over. Simmer gently for 3 minutes, add the lemon zest then leave to cool and infuse. After 10 minutes, pick out the cardamom pods from the cream. Now add the juice of the lemons and stir thoroughly. The cream mix should instantly thicken when you add the juice. 

Depending on how you want to serve it, you can either add a spoon of the rhubarb to the bottom of a glass or coffee cup now, then put the cream over the top in individual portions and leave it all to set in the fridge, or leave the cream for 2-3 hours in the fridge as it is and then pipe it or spoon it onto the desserts at the end.

Pistachio Biscuits

Ingredients

190g Shelled Pistachios

100g Ground Almonds

120g Caster Sugar

2 medium egg whites

Preheat oven to 170 centigrade. Toast the pistachios for 10 minutes to bring out their flavour. In the meantime put all the other ingredients in a bowl. I also added a drop of green food colouring as I was feeling particularly colourful.

Put half the toasted pistachios in the food processor and blend down finely. Add to the other ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Roughly chop the rest of the pistachios. Spread them out on a lined baking tray or silicone sheet. Now
spoon, pipe or use wet finger tips to add small balls of the biscuit mix to the tray. It is quite sticky and difficult to handle so I find the piping bag easiest. Having the chopped nuts already spread out like this it makes rolling the balls of mix in them easier - as they pick up the chopped nuts they become more handleable for
shaping. You should have enough mix for about 10 small biscuits.

Bake for 14 minutes. They should remain quite soft and chewy in the middle, so don't bake them until they are solid. When they are done, use a pallet knife to gently remove them from the tray and place on a cooling rack.

Acacia Chopping Board by House Doctor

Presenting the Dish

I wanted to go for an ice cream sundae look, so I carefully cut the biscuits down the centre and piped some of the cream in it. I then added a crumbled biscuit to the bottom of the cup, soaked it with some of the rhubarb juice and then piped in some of the cream, followed by rhubarb, then cream, so it was a mixed bag of surprises. Finally I topped it with some piped whipped cream, some chopped puts and a little lemon zest. Served with a biscuit on the side. I'm sure you can let your own imagination run wild.

Pictures: presented on Rice "Japanese Style" Melamine ... although we think it is more Ice Cream Parlour. Maybe a recipe for Green Tea Ice Cream next??

Coming Soon....

We're having a give away of some of the new beautiful Andrea Letterie illustrated melamine plates from Rice. We love this new range. We should be launching the competition in our news letter on Monday - simply go to our website www.fig1.co.uk and fill in the form on the bottom left of the page to subscribe to our mailing list.

Give away coming soon....

Saffron Poached Pear and Goat’s Cheese Salad

It’s still difficult to believe with the temperature barely above freezing, but spring is on its way. I love the colours of this salad for early spring – the yellow of the saffron, the white of the goats cheese and the green of the watercress give it a real Easter feel – however it is made with produce which is all available from the UK at this time of year, before the growing season has really started. We like the goats cheese to be soft and a little salty, but maybe not as salty as feta. The salty and sweet tastes go well together with the peppery watercress but too salty can be too much. This is a very imprecise recipe - as so much with this kind of dish depends on personal taste and the ingredients you have to hand. Cooking should always be about tasting, trying and using a little of your own experience and inspiration.

Ingredients

6 pears
20 strands of saffron
100g of watercress
100g goats cheese
250ml of extra dry vermouth of white wine
Sugar, salt, pepper and water to taste
Olive oil

75g walnuts
1tbsp icing sugar

Serves 6 as a light lunch or more as a starter

We tend to use fairly hard pears for this recipe and poach them until they are soft – that way they are not too sweet. How sweet you want them is a matter of taste, but the ripeness of the pears will greatly effect the time they need poaching, so we’re unable to give you an exact poaching time – test them with a skewer to see if they are soft, but try not to make them too soft or they will reduce to mush!

Soak the saffron in a cup with 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Peel and half the pears. Remove the core with a sharp knife or a melon baller. Put the infused saffron, vermouth and half a cup of water in a flat, wide pan with the pears face down. Bring to a low simmer and cover with a lid. The liquid should come half way up the pears and will need to be topped up with water depending on how long you cook the pears. Turn the pears half way through cooking so that the saffron dyes the outside yellow and they cook through evenly. After cooking for 2 minutes, taste the liqueur. Depending on how sweet the vermouth and pears are you may want to add a little sugar – 1 or 2 teaspoons.

While the pears are poaching warm a heavy based frying pan on a medium heat to toast the walnuts. The pan should be hot but not burning. Add the walnuts and stir for 2 minutes until they start to colour. Dust on the icing sugar with a fine sieve, and season with black pepper and a little salt. Stir for a few more minutes as the icing sugar dissolves.

Once the pears have finished poaching remove from the pan onto a board and reduce the liqueur by boiling it until you have half a cup. Pour into a small jug for dressing the salad.

We like to fan the pears so you see the more intense yellow on the outside, but how you plate the salad is also a matter of personal choice! Pile on some watercress, add the pears, crumble over the goats cheese, pour over some liqueur and a good grassy extra virgin olive oil and finally top with some walnuts. Use your favourite serving dish, or plate up individually on white plates. We like either viola or chive flowers to decorate up the plate with a little extra colour for a real Easter garden look.

Pictures credits: 

Served on House Doctor Linen Plates
Retro-style dispensers and kitchen timer by Capventure
Duck-egg blue patterned by House Doctor
Lemonade tray in background by House Doctor