Two Sensational Summer Sweets!

Hi there gastronauts!

Well, I hope you've been managing to get out in this glorious sunshine, it's perfect picnic and brilliant barbecue weather!

As soon as the sun comes out my mind turns to glorious summer puds and ice cream, I still get that automatic reflex to run and get some money when I hear the chimes of an ice cream van pulling up outside in the street!

These days I have my own ice cream maker so I can experiment with flavours you cant get from Mr wippy, my favourite is bay leaf and toasted fennel seed, but it's also useful for smooth exotic sorbets, like my mango and lime sorbet that, believe it or not, goes fantastically well with Parma ham as a starter.

It's not an expensive bit of kit really, mine was a Christmas present from my mom a couple of years ago, it was about £15 from Aldi  and it consists of a double walled bowl that you freeze and a paddle with a motor that you clamp to the top to churn whatever kind of iced concoction you desire. It makes really good smooth ice cream and I keep the bowl in my freezer all the time in case I fancy turning left over custard or fruit that's over ripe into ice cream or sorbet. If you get the chance I would grab yourself one when you can. You may not use it every week but it's good to know its there when you need it! ( as you can probably guess, I have a lot of culinary gadgets that have hardly ever even come out of their box, including a ravioli maker, a pasta machine, a panini press, etc etc etc! I'm sure I'll get round to using them one day!)

If you haven't got an ice cream maker you'll be glad to know that you can still make cooling frozen desserts that are every bit as satisfying as churned ice cream, and I'm going to show you one of them in this blog. It's an Italian dessert  called "semi-freddo" and, whilst it isn't as soft as ice cream, its still gorgeous and creamy and can be knocked up ready to freeze in about 15 minutes.





The second pud I'm doing this week is also easy and quick to assemble, it takes a good day in the fridge to let it come together properly before you can serve it but the actual building of it is simple and takes about 30 minutes. It's a good old fashioned English pud that uses seasonal summer fruit like strawberries or, in this case, wonderful British cherries of which there is a glut this year as the spring we've just had makes for ideal cherry-growing.
It's called summer cherry pudding, or, more traditionally, summer fruit pudding. Its usually made with left over bread for the outside case but I've used Madeira cake as its much nicer and sweeter and I know a lot of people don't like the feeling in their mouths of what is basically wet soggy bread!
As you can see from the pictures in the recipe I've also given it a real "wow!" factor by using up the egg whites left over from the semi-freddo to make a meringue. It's easier than it looks, believe me!

So I suppose we'd better get you started then!

Raspberry and Pistachio Semi-Freddo:

( makes about 8 portions if serving with the summer cherry pudding.)

Equipment:

Medium saucepan.

Mixing bowl.

Balloon whisk.

Non-stick loaf tin.

Cling film.

Freezer.

Ingredients:

200g fresh raspberries.

100g shelled unsalted pistachios.

3 eggs, as fresh as you can get them. ( fresh eggs make better meringues for the summer cherry pudding.)

300ml single cream.

150ml whole milk.

1 heaped teaspoon of cornflour.

75g vanilla sugar, or caster sugar if you don't have vanilla sugar. You can add about a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the eggs and sugar mix later on if you want to instead.

1 tablespoon of fennel seeds. ( this is optional, but the mild aniseed flavour of the fennel seeds goes really well with the sharp tart raspberries.)

Method:

Firstly, if you are using them, toast the fennel seeds in a dry frying pan over a high heat for about 3 minutes, as soon as you start to smell the scent of aniseed remove from the heat and leave aside to cool.

 Next, separate the egg yolks from the whites. Do this over a clean tub or bowl so you can keep the whites for the meringue later on.
 I like to crack the eggs into my hand as I find that juggling the yolk from half-shell to  half -shell can lead to the yolks being broken on the jagged edge of the shell, you can also get more whites separated from the yolks this way. It's a bit messy but I think its the best way as any trace of yolk in the whites will mean you won't be able to whip them up to make the meringue.








Put the egg yolks in a separate bowl and add the vanilla sugar, or caster sugar and vanilla extract.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until they are pale and creamy, meanwhile, put the cream and milk in the saucepan over a low heat and gently bring up to just under boiling point, remove from the heat and allow to cool a little. You're basically making a custard here.









Add a splash of the warm milk and cream to the egg and sugar mix and whisk  together.

Then pour the mixture from the bowl back into the saucepan and
whisk again.

Put the saucepan back on the heat and stir continuously until it starts to thicken.

Mix the cornflour with a splash of milk until there is no lumps then add this to the custard, whisk furiously until it thickens again and remove from the heat.
( incidentally, I don't usually add cornflour to custard to thicken it, but the addition of it here makes the finished frozen semi-freddo less icy, its something to do with the chemical reaction between the cornflour and the cream which reduces the size of the ice crystals in the finished dessert, but I'm no scientist so am not really sure how it does it!!!)

Continue to whisk for another couple of minutes until you have a good thick custard. Set it aside and allow to cool. give it a whisk now and then to stop it forming a skin on top.











Next, line the loaf tin with the cling film, try and get it as snug a fit to the bottom as you can and make sure there's plenty of over hang to make it easier to release when its frozen.














 When your custard has cooled add the raspberries, toasted fennel seeds, if using, and raspberries and fold them in gently.















Then pour the mixture into the cling film lined loaf tin. cover tightly with more cling film and pop it in the freezer.


Freeze for a minimum of 4 hours, or overnight, just to be on the safe side. When its good and frozen remove from the freezer and give it 10 minutes to soften a bit before slicing and serving. You can serve it on its own, maybe with a chocolate sauce or raspberry coulis, or it goes great with the summer cherry pudding!

Summer Cherry Pudding Recipe:

( makes two puddings, enough for 4 people to share.)

 

Equipment: (for the puddings.)

2 large ramekins, approx 4" diameter by 4" deep. ( I bought my ramekins from the 99p shop.)

Cling film.

medium saucepan.

A good long serrated knife, to make it easier to slice the cakes without crushing them.

Equipment: (for the meringue.)

Very clean and dry metal mixing bowl.

Balloon whisk.

Piping bag and star nozzle.

Chefs blowtorch.

Cherry stoner, if you have one, or small sharp knife.

Ingredients: 

2 x all butter Madeira cakes ( sorry but I didn't take note of the weight of each cake, I bought them from ASDA as you can see.)

350g of frozen morello cherries. ( I used these as I had them already in the freezer, but you can use all fresh cherries if you want.)

200g of fresh English cherries. Or 600g if not using the morellos.

6 tablespoons of caster sugar.

3 egg whites, saved from the Semi-Freddo recipe.

1/4 of a teaspoon of cream of tartar.

Method:

 

Stone all of the cherries with the cherry stoner. ( told you I had a lot of gadgets!)

If you don't have a cherry stoner then you will have to halve the cherries and dig the stone out.


























If you are using the morello cherries put them in the saucepan along with 3 tablespoons of the  sugar and put on a medium heat on the stove.

If you are using all English cherries then put about 3/4 of them in the saucepan with 3 tablespoons of the sugar and a splash of water and put on the stove on a medium heat.

While the cherries are stewing, line the ramekins with clingfilm, making sure its a good fit on the bottom of the ramekins and there is plenty of over hang.

 

 

 

 

Next, slice the cakes lengthwise about 1/2 inch thick.

 

Gently push the cake slices into the side of the ramekins, don't worry too much if the cake breaks up, once the bits are in there push them against the side gently but firmly until there is a complete ring of cake. If you see any gaps, just fill them in with spare bits of the cake, then cut a square large enough to fill in the hole at the bottom. What you're looking for is a completely encased ramekin, as in the picture. Don't squash the cake too much as the juice from the cherries wont soak through when you put in the stewed cherries.








When the cherries have been gently bubbling for about 10 minutes, add the rest of the fruit and continue to stew for a couple of minutes. ( the idea here is the first cherries you put in will be nicely stewed down and will release their juice whilst the second lot of cherries you put in will still have a bit of bite to them. )

let the stewed cherries cool for a few minutes and taste to check for sweetness. I like them to be not too sweet as the Madeira cake is quite sweet itself, but if you've got a really sweet tooth then you can add more sugar if you like.

Once the cherries have cooled a little spoon them into the cake cases and press down. get plenty of juice in there too so that it soaks into the sponge nicely.














Cut another 2 pieces of the Madeira, big enough to fit over the base of the ramekin entirely, then trim to size.

Press down the cake pieces and push them into the side of the ramekin to get a nice tight fit. Once again, if there's any holes in the base, fill them in with any leftover bits of cake.














Gently tease out the overhanging clingfilm and wrap it over the base as tightly as you can.

Press down on the base and pop in the fridge. It might be a good idea to weigh the puddings down with something, a tin of beans standing on top of the puddings is ideal .












 Now, once you've done the same with the other ramekin, it's time to leave them in the fridge overnight so that Madeira cake and stewed cherries become one with each other.

The Next Day!

Meringues Method:

In your clean dry metal bowl, whisk the egg whites to semi-stiff peaks. (the classic test of this is to turn the bowl upside down, I'm sure you've either done it before or seen it done.)













When you are happy with them you can start adding the sugar. Add 1 tablespoon and whisk in, then repeat for the second and third tablespoon.
The egg whites will take on a more silky look and will stiffen up more.
Finally, add the cream of tartar and whisk again for a couple of minutes. You should have firm, glossy looking meringue.










Fill the Piping bag, with nozzle inserted, gently with the meringue then twist the end of the piping bag until you can see the meringue just starting to come out of the nozzle.

Remove the puddings from the fridge, peel back the clingfilm from the base and tip upside down onto a serving plate.

Gently ease the clingfilm out whilst lifting the ramekin off and the pudding should release easily.














Now you can go mad with the meringue! you can do any pattern you want, just make sure the pudding is covered.

Then you can light your blowtorch and gently lick the flame over the meringue to colour it up. ( just a quick note, I don't know if the meringue would be suitable for pregnant women as you're not actually cooking the egg whites, just giving them some colour. They won't make you ill, and it's perfectly safe, but I know pregnant women are usually advised against eating stuff like this, sorry!)

Once you are happy with the colour you're ready to serve. Don't be tempted to leave them hanging around too long as the meringue will eventually collapse, so serve them straight away and they wont be there for long I guarantee it!

As I said, you can serve it with the semi-freddo if you like, or on their own, maybe with an extra bit of cherry coulis.

Phew! there you go then. I must say that I was really pleased with the end result. its a proper show-stopper of a pudding, if I do say so myself!

The juicy cherries, the rich buttery cake and that light-as-a-feather meringue along with the sharp raspberries, crunchy pistachios, and aniseed tang of the fennel enrobed in that creamy cool semi freddo makes one hell of a summer dessert!

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this weeks blog. I think it's probably my favourite looking and tasting pud I've ever made!

Look forward to seeing you next time when I'll hopefully be able to bring you a full report of Low n' Slow's pop up I'm helping out with this weekend, as well as another recipe blog later in the week! No rest for the wicked, eh?

Until next time then,

Happy cooking!

 

Mat.

Two classic English sides!

Hey there fellow foodies!

Welcome back to my recipe blog.

Well, it looks like summertime has finally hit jolly old England at last! Blue skies (sometimes.), Sunshine (usually when I'm at work.) and people everywhere showing a complete disregard for style as milk-bottle white legs get revealed underneath daft shorts and football shirts are proudly worn.
Oh, and I think there's some sort of sporting event happening in south America.

At this time of year there's nothing I like more than a fresh crisp salad of an evening, with a few ripe tomatoes and good olives, simply dressed and maybe lying alongside a nice rare tuna steak or stuffed chicken breast with some good bread. I have, you'll be pleased to know, been doing some cooking as well so I can share more recipes with you.
As it turns out both the recipes this week are vegetarian sides, rich tangy braised red cabbage and creamy unctuous cauliflower cheese. ( as I write this now I'm also scoffing down left over cauli cheese, just warm, with salad and I think it makes a good meal in itself.)
Also, you may like to know, cauliflower was one of the last things I didn't used to like when I was young, I think it was standard practise in the '80's to boil it till it was grey and mushy and serve it, still soaking wet so that it watered down everything else on the plate. Horrible!
Thankfully I think people everywhere today are more aware of good cooking in general, and cooking vegetables properly in particular,  These days Cauliflower is one of my favourite vegetables, especially when it's smothered in a good cheese sauce.

The braised red cabbage recipe is also one of my favourite sides, it's one of the things I cooked on Masterchef and I've barely changed the recipe since then, the only real difference is that I let it braise for longer and slower these days. It's easy to do and goes great with steak, pork chops, duck or venison. It also freezes really well so you can make a load of it and freeze it for later use, it's easily re-heatable  then for when you need it in a hurry!

Right then, lets crack on as I want to go out for a walk in the cooling evening air.

Creamy Cauliflower Cheese Recipe: 

Equipment:

Large saucepan of salted boiling water.

Deep fat fryer set at 150 degrees c. (or you can use a wok or deep frying pan with about 1" of oil )

Gratin dish 10" x 5" x 3" deep.

Medium saucepan.

Clean dry tea towel.

Ingredients:

1 large cauliflower.




2 tablespoons of butter.

2 tablespoons of plain flour.

approx 500ml/ 1 pint of milk.

200g of extra mature Cheddar, grated.

50g of Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese, finely grated.

Approx 3 tablespoons of dried breadcrumbs. ( I've used Panko breadcrumbs for mine, but home made are as good.)

A good grate of nutmeg.

salt and ground white pepper. ( you can use black pepper if you like, but the reason for using white pepper in these sort of sauces is so that you cant see the pepper in the finished sauce.)

Method:

Cut the florets of cauliflower from the stem, try not to break them up too much, it doesn't matter if they are different sizes.

Separate the larger florets from the smaller ones. We are going to deep fry the smaller ones as they add a nice difference of texture to the finished dish.


Put the larger florets into your pan of boiling salted water, bring back to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for about 3 minutes. You want the cauliflower to be just done, to test for this, find a medium sized floret and stick a sharp knife into the thickest part of the stem. It should still be firm.

 If you are happy with them take them off the heat, remove from the saucepan straight onto a clean tea towel.
This will remove a lot of the excess water, and they will gently steam away the rest of the water.













Now take the smaller florets and drop them into the pre-heated deep fat fryer for about 5 minutes until they start to take on a lovely golden brown colour.

Arrange all of the cauliflower in the gratin dish and pop it in the fridge whilst you make the cheese sauce.
 This will help remove any traces of water.







In your medium saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour to make a roux. Mix together well and cook for a couple of minutes.

Add a little of the milk to the roux and mix until smooth, then add the rest of the milk a bit at a time stirring constantly. if you do get any lumps then a quick whisk will get rid of these.
Gently bring the sauce up to the boil, stirring constantly then remove from the heat and add the two cheeses. Season with salt and pepper and grate in the nutmeg. You should end up with a good thick pouring sauce about the thickness of double cream.

Cover the cauliflower with the sauce and you can either bang it in the oven straight away or cover with clingfilm and return to the fridge until you're ready to cook it off.



When you are ready to cook it off, remove from the fridge, take off the cling film and
heat your oven to 160 degrees c/ gas mark 4.

Bake the cauliflower cheese, uncovered,  in the bottom of the oven for about 15 minutes,remove and add the breadcrumbs then bake again until golden brown and bubbling hot.

Braised Red Cabbage Recipe:

This is dead easy to do!

Equipment:

Large cast iron cooking pot.

A good sharp knife.

Ingredients:

1 large red cabbage, about 800g/ 2lb in weight.

350ml of good medium or dry cider.

1 Bramley, or cooking apple, peeled and finely sliced.

4 shallots or 1 medium onion, finely sliced.

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced.

approx 100g of butter.

A splash of red wine vinegar.

a grate of nutmeg.

salt and pepper.

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 120 degrees c/ gas mark 2.
 
Remove any tough outer leaves from the red cabbage and cut into quarters. Remove the core from each quarter and slice the remaining cabbage as finely as you can.













Put your pot on the stove over a medium heat and add a knob of the butter, then gently saute the sliced onions for a few minutes.

Add the sliced garlic and, after a couple of minutes, add in the cabbage and the apple slices.

Give everything a good mix round and add the cider.















Bring to the boil on the stove then remove from the heat, add the rest of the butter and season very well with salt and pepper and the nutmeg.

Put the lid on the pot and stick in the oven for 2-3 hours, remove a couple of times to check how its doing and to give it a good stir.

The apples will dissolve into the braised cabbage and there should be very little liquid left in the bottom of the pot. The cabbage itself will be very tender, sweet, and delicious. check the seasoning and add some more salt and pepper, if you like.
If there is a bit too much liquid left after cooking, just pop the pot back onto the stove and heat, uncovered, stirring constantly until the liquid has steamed away.







As I said, the braised red cabbage is great to freeze, let it cool first then either portion up in freezer bags or plastic containers. I used some the other day that had been in the freezer since Christmas day, and it was still absolutely gorgeous!


Well, thanks again for viewing blog buddies. I'd especially like to thank the 10 people in Iran who had a look at my Key lime and coconut jelly pie recipe last week! If you are looking at this one, I'd love to know if you made the pie, or if you have made anything else from my blog.


Until next time then foodie friends, wherever you are in the world!

Happy cooking!

 

Mat.

Key Lime and Coconut Jelly Pie recipe.

Hello there food fans!

Welcome back to my recipe blog.

Well, I've had another great week of cooking adventures this week, Firstly, last Thursday I took a trip over to Stafford to check out a place recommended to me by my friend and fellow foodie Stuart Robinson.
Its called "Bean Encounter" .
The idea was to do a review for you lovely people but my phone has lost most of the photo's I took on the night so, unfortunately, I'll have to go over there again to do the place justice. ( such a shame!)
I did have a really good burger there though, and possibly one of the nicest cups of coffee I've ever had! So expect a full review in a couple of weeks.

Last Friday was also a special day for me as I got to help out Andy Stubbs and Donna Church with their "low n' slow" stall at Digbeth Dining club. Andy had made Brisket chilli, his famous Pulled pork as well as a limited number of his awesome smoked beef short ribs and a few racks of smoked pork ribs. Needless to say once the first customer came at about 5.15pm it was non stop all night until Andy sold out at about 8.30!

We also had a special visit from a guy from Texas who had been craving proper BBQ since leaving America to work over here, nothing he had tried in Britain had impressed him that much, until he tried some of Andy's pulled pork and baby-back ribs. He literally could not believe that the flavours of the food were so authentic, even saying to Andy that he could make money in Texas with his BBQ!!!  It was great to see Andy get some praise from a genuine American bloke who grew up eating this sort of food. I'm going to be helping out again this Friday so if you're down in  Digbeth, come say hello!


This weeks recipe is also a classic American dessert. I've made Key Lime Pie using this recipe since I was at the Bank Bar. If I remember correctly the original recipe came from off the side of a can of condensed milk but over the years I've tinkered with it and made it my own. It's a "no-bake" recipe, ( well, apart from giving the biscuit base a blast in the oven for a few minutes before adding the filling.)

I've always, in the past, stuck with just the biscuit base and the Key lime topping but for the blog I wanted to Jazz it up a bit for you by adding another layer of flavour. I must say that the sweet creamy coconut jelly layer works really well with the zingy lime topping and chocolatey base although when I was making it I didn't know if it was going to work at all! ( you'll see what I mean in the photos for the recipe below.)
 but that's the thing about cooking isn't it? you've got to experiment with ingredients and recipes because you never know what you're going to come up with!

If you like an easy life, or you don't like coconut then you can make the pie without the coconut jelly layer, or you could do a meringue topping like a lemon meringue pie, or decorate the top with chocolate curls, whatever! The basic recipe is really easy and satisfying when it's time to serve. the Key lime layer is not over sweet, is lovely and fluffy and light and is full of vitamin c, so its even relatively good for you! ( well apart from the whipped cream and condensed milk!)

So, here we go then!

Key Lime And Coconut Jelly Pie:

part 1: coconut jelly layer:

If you are using the jelly layer then do it first so it has time to set whilst you make the base and the lime layer.

Equipment:

Large saucepan.

Measuring jug.

Round plastic container, the same size as the spring form tin you're going to use for the rest of the pie, very lightly oiled to aid the release of the jelly when it's set.

Ingredients:

500ml of coconut cream. ( not coconut milk, as this is too thin to set the jelly.)

Leaf gelatin sheets x 5.

70g of vanilla sugar, or plain caster sugar.

2 tablespoons of lime juice.

Method:

Break up the gelatin sheets and put them in the measuring jug, cover with cold water and allow to "bloom" ( go soft and,well, jelly-like!)

Put the coconut cream and the sugar over a low-medium heat in the saucepan on the stove and gently bring up to just below boiling. ( if it does boil, let it cool for a few minutes before doing the next step.)

Squeeze any excess water from the bloomed gelatin sheets and pop them into the coconut cream, stirring well for about 5 minutes so that the gelatin properly dissolves.

Add the lime juice and stir in, then pour the jelly into the lightly oiled plastic container to set in the fridge. It should take a couple of hours to set.

Part 2:

Biscuit Base:

Equipment:

Carrier bag.

Rolling pin.

oven, pre-heated to 120 degrees c/ gas mark 1.

10 inch spring form cake tin.

greaseproof paper.

large mixing bowl.

Ingredients:

 

350g of Bourbon biscuits, bashed up in the
carrier bag with the rolling pin.

3 good tablespoons of butter.

Method:

 

line the cake tin bottom with greaseproof paper. The easiest way to do this, I find, is to lay the greaseproof over the spring form bottom then clamp it down using the spring form tin ring.

Soften the butter in your microwave, just for about 30 seconds on medium power. 

Put the bashed up biscuits in the mixing bowl and add the softened butter. ( incidentally, I don't like to bash my biscuits up too much, as the different sized pieces add a nice difference in texture to the base.) mix the butter into the biscuits then tip into the lined spring form tin.

Press the biscuit mixture down into the cake tin with the back of a spoon. Try to push it up the sides a little way and smooth it over as best you can.

Pop the base into the oven for about 5 minutes then remove and allow to cool, in the fridge or, preferably, the freezer.

Part 3:

Key lime topping:

 Equipment:

Mixing bowl.

Balloon whisk.

Lemon juicer. ( I juiced the limes by hand but a juicer is much less effort!)

Ingredients:

 8 whole fresh limes.

1 pint of double cream.

1 397g tin of condensed milk.





 

 Method:

Juice all 8 limes. to make it easier to get all of the juice stick them in the microwave for 1 minute on full power. you should be able to get about 325ml of juice.

In the mixing bowl whip the cream until it is firm and "peaky".












Add the condensed milk to the cream and fold in as gently as you can. ( you want to keep as much of the air you whipped into the cream as possible.) until the mixture is smooth. ( don't be tempted to rush it, as it takes a good 5 minutes of folding to combine the two into a silky smooth mixture.)


Once the cream and condensed milk mixture is combined add the lime juice and, again, mix in slowly and carefully until it is combined.

At this stage i like to add a couple of drops of green food colouring. You don't have to if you don't want but I think it makes the pie look more limey.





Let the lime topping sit for a few minutes. You will see that the lime juice will start to thicken the mixture slightly.

By the time you've done all this the coconut jelly should be set. Remove it from the fridge, put a plate over the top of the plastic container and turn the whole thing upside down to release it. If it doesn't release after a few minutes of being upside down then give the top of the plastic container a few sharp taps with a wooden spoon and it should flop down onto the plate. By the way, the speckled bits you can see in the picture are the bits of vanilla pod from the sugar.







So, this is the tricky bit, and also the part where I thought it wasn't going to work...

The idea was to remove the biscuit base from the freezer, turn it upside down on top of the plate with the jelly on it then in one swift movement turn the lot over so the jelly layer fell gracefully from the plate onto the waiting biscuit base....hmmmmm!

The plan nearly worked apart from I wasn't quite quick enough and the jelly kind of flopped onto the base over one side. I tried moving it about so it covered the base evenly but to no avail.

So, I thought, as the coconut jelly was going to be covered by the lime topping, it didn't matter too much what it looked like so I did the best I could and spread the jelly out over the base. (see photo) Not very appetising looking, I'm sure you will agree!













Once the jelly layer was (kind of!) covering the base it was just a matter of pouring on the topping.

Now, when you're doing this part you may worry that the topping isn't thick enough and it won't set, but believe me, with enough time the lime juice will work its magic and turn the topping into a gorgeous smooth, light and airy topping that will slice.

Cover the key lime pie with tin foil or cling film, being careful not to let it touch the topping , put the whole thing on a plate to catch any leakage and put it in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours. ( I know its a long time to wait, but if you try and remove the ring from the tin before that it WILL simply pour out of the sides, ruining all of your hard work.) If you can possibly leave it longer than 24 hours then all the better as the longer you leave it the more it sets.

After the 24 hours remove the pie from the fridge, carefully take off the cling film or tin foil and run a wet knife round the edge of the tin so the pie doesn't pull apart when you release it.

carefully release the clasp on the side of the spring form tin and lift the ring out of the way to reveal your perfectly set, zingy citrussy Key lime pie!

As you can see with mine, the coconut jelly layer turned out fine and it really adds a good balance to the sharp sweet lime layer.

When you have cut the slices out of it that you need put the ring of the tin back on and re-cover with cling film or tin foil before putting back in the fridge.
It will keep in the fridge, covered for around 5 days.

This has always been a firm favourite of mine, and I must say, the addition of the coconut jelly layer really does make it a gorgeous dessert. I've kept the way of making it a secret for a long time, I didn't even tell the other chefs I've worked with over the years how I made Key lime pie, and they've all loved it!

Right then I'm off to try and work out how to get the jelly layer into the pie a bit tidier!

hope you've enjoyed this weeks recipe!

till next time,

Happy cooking!

 

Mat.