An easy peasy pastry that lifts any dish. You dont even need a rolling pin
This pastry is ridiculously easy to make. You do not need any special equipment at all yet it is sophisticated all the same. All you need is a bowl, a regular kitchen knife and some scales to weigh the ingredients.
….because sometimes blonds do have more fun
Look at these white onions frolicking around with a happy hoppy blond beer, fronds of fresh thyme, a big dollop of butter and a dribble of honey. For this is the basis of white onion and beer confit the paler perhaps more interesting cousin of red onion marmalade and definitely the fun one. It is absolutely “the” relish to eat with a large slab of mountain cheese such as Gruyere, Emmental or the Carpathian “Trascau”, it makes quiches taste way better and it provides a magical base for an instant “pissaladière” …that gorgeous creation from the South of France that is sweet onions, anchovies and black olives on a bread or puff pastry base. As if by magic here is one I made earlier…
As old school as it gets. Fruit and sugar alchemy.
I try and make this every summer so I can savour the flavour of fresh raspberries all the way through winter. Making fresh raspberry jam is a little secret that avid jam makers have long known about and should share more! Because there is no cooking this jam really does taste like fresh raspberries. I like to add some lemon juice just to accentuate the flavour even more. The raspberries simply leak their juices into the sugar, you stir a little…I sometimes leave overnight…and heh presto you really do have jam. The jam is not set as there is not enough pectin… nor the temperature required for the setting but it hardly matters – the taste is heavenly.
In this batch I added a few red and white currants due to over exuberance at the market! I love the extra tartness they add. As there is no exceedingly hot sugar involved this is a brilliant “first jam” for kids.
