Raspberry & Rosé Sorbet Shots

now this is summer 

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Credit for this genius recipe goes to the king of ices David Lebovitz  one of my all time favourite dessert cooks and this recipe features in his ice cream bible “The Perfect Scoop”.  Here I have used a gorgeous local off dry rosé and a little fructose to keep things very tart. Refreshing doesn’t really do the word justice. Somehow the wine lifts the raspberry flavour, the alcohol makes the mixture a little more scoopable and well its just magic. Three ingredients only,  proving that some of the best things in life are indeed very very simple. 

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Fast Summer Fridge Pickles

Add some crunch to your summer picnics.

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I first made these this year in spring with radishes and carrots and they were almost too pretty pink to eat. Now that summer veg starts to pile up this is a brilliant way to use up those little cucumbers and peppers you might be persuaded to buy too many of.  The fridge part is the cheating bit – because you store them in the fridge you don’t need to be so uber concerned with the exact concentrations of brine and vinegar necessary to pickle the veggies and prevent fermentation or worse. 

carrot & radish fridge pickles

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Rosewater Biscuits

Biscuits for the Boudoir 

 

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Now if ever there was a biscuit for the “Boudoir”  (Larousse: “a woman’s private sitting room” and derived from the French verb “bouder” to sulk…go figure) this is it. This is what you want at hand to energise and inspire you as you leaf through something Cartlandesque or maybe even Marquis de Sadesque. Handily bite size as who wants crumbs in her boudoir? 

These delicately flavoured nibbles are perfect served with black tea ( in porcelain cups and saucers p-lease) and also add a satisfying crunch and hint of perfume served with to ice creams and sorbets. I luckily have some cochineal essence   which I purchased in Paris some years ago. Cochineal is made from ground up beetles from Mexico & South America and was invented by the Aztecs and used in their food and dying industries.  It has been used since the 17th century in those other famous pink biscuits “Biscuits rose de Reims”. Luckily because it is all natural and nobody is yet concerned with beetle rights, cochineal is becoming  fashionable again. Find in specialist patisserie and baking supply shops.

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