SUMMER PUDDING

It has been ages since we published a post here, but we have been sticking to really simple recipes since covid. And days are so busy with work...

Still, we did this for a weekend meal by the seasid and it came out really well (despite we used mostly frozen fruit) so we thought we would post it. Summer pudding is one of my favourite desserts. When we lived in London I used to buy individual summer puddings - one of the many many things I miss from London while living in the USA. 

You need: 

- 1 kg of frozen berries 

- ideally this is done with red currants, but since we could not find them here we added 200g of cape gooseberries (cut in half) for acidity.

 - 175 g sugar

- 2 tbsp of water

- a small loaf of stale white bread (without the crust)

Put the sugar and water in a pan and cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes until the mixture becomes transparent. Add the fruit and cook it all for another couple of minutes until the fruit is soft. Remove some of the juice with a ladle and set it aside. Let it all cool down. 

Line a pudding bowl with cling film and then with the bread (using a combination of squares and triangles).  Tip the fruit in it. Cover it with more bread (cut a circle with four squares of bread of the same dimensions as the top of the bowl). Cover the pudding with the cling film. Put a small plate on top of it and a couple of heavy cans on top of the plate - leave it in the fridge overnight. 

When you are going to serve it, put a deep plate on top of the pudding and turn it upside down (get rid of the cling film). Pour a bit of the left-over juice on top and serve it with cream. 

BLUEBERRY CAKES

These are not muffins, but mini cakes, which means that making them takes a tiny bit more time than muffins, but the result is much better. There is a dispute as to whether the recipe comes from the Ritz or from the department store that led to Macy's. It is because of the latter that I have dared to touch the recipe, because I have a physical allergy to 'anything Ritz' (which I hope I share with most other Europeans) since the London billionaires owners of that hotel became leading supporters of Brexit, Farage and then Boris Johnson - so much for these two being 'politicians of the people'!

You need:

-115 g butter

- 200 g sugar

- 2 eggs

- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

- 140  plain flour plus one tablespoon

- 2 teaspoons baking powder

- half a teaspoon salt

- 120 ml milk 

- 350 g blueberries

- three more tablespoons of sugar

Preheat the oven at 190 degrees (375 F for those of you in America)

Beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisker. Then add the eggs (one by one) and the vanilla while you keep beating. Combine the flour, baking poder and salt  - add half of it to the mixture, then add half the milk, then the rest of the flour and finally the rest of the milk. Sprinkle a tablespoon  of flour on the blueberries and add them to the mixture. 

Put the batter into a muffin tray lined with muffins' papers. Sprinkle the three tablespoons of sugar on top. And bake for 30 minutes.  

MINT AND STRAWBERRY ICE LOLLIES

I have been given a silicone ice lolly mould, which is such an improvement on the traditional hard plastic ones. There are countless combinations of fruit purees and yogurts that make nice lollies. One of my favourite ones is this:

- Make fresh mint tea by pouring boiling water over mint leaves (I use 'hierbabuena' which is slightly more delicate and floral than mint, simply because I grow it, which is easy because it grows abundantly and anywhere). Take out the leaves. Add a squeeze of honey and let it cool down.
- Separately mash the strawberries with a potato masher.
- Pour a bit of the strawberries on each lolly mould. Fill them in with the mint tea and let them freeze for 4-5 hours.

LEMON AND CONDENSED MILK CAKE

And yet another lemon cake, this one with condensed milk, which gives it a really nice texture, and it means it lasts easily for two or three days.
You need:
- a small can of condensed milk (397g)
- five eggs
- 250 g flour
- two teaspoons of baking powder
- half a teaspoon of salt
- a teaspoon of vanilla essence
- 140 g sugar
- zest of two and a half lemons
- two tablespoons of lemon juice
- 275 g butter (room temperature)

Preheat the oven at 170 degrees.
Grease and flour the tin (we use a bundt cake one, but it will work no matter the shape).
Beat together the sugar with the butter with an electric whisk. Then add the eggs (one by one). Add the condensed milk, followed by the vanilla essence, lemon zest and lemon juice.  Separately mix the flour, baking powder and salt  (it helps if you sift it, but again, no big deal if you don't). Mix the flour mixture with the rest of the ingredients (folding it). Bake for 50 minutes to an hour.

LEMON BISCUITS

Still having too many lemons - so here goes another simple and really delicious recipe with them. It takes no time at all  - I made these for some guests who were coming for coffee just forty minutes before they arrived and I still had spare time.

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees.

You need:

-210 g plain flour

- 115 g butter (room temperature)

- one egg

- zest of a lemon

- juice of half a lemon

- half a teaspoon of baking powder

- half a teaspoon of salt 

- one egg

- a teaspoon of vanilla essence

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Separately mix the butter and sugar, beat well, then add the egg, and then add the lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla essence. Add the flour mixture, mixing it all well. Put spoonfuls of the mixture on an oven tray covered with baking paper. Bake for 13-15 minutes.

If you want to make these even nicer make a simple glaze with 100 g of powdered sugar and around five tablespoons of lemon juice, just mixing it all well (it helps if you sift the powdered sugar, but don't bother if you are in a rush). Just pour the glazing with a spoon over the biscuits when they are cold (I cannot stand glazing, which is after all pure sugar, so I put as little as possible and don't bother about making them pretty - in fact the more uneven they are the more home-made they look) 

LEMON MOUSSE

We are on a lemon recipes roll. This one is incredibly simple.  You just need:
- a jar of lemon curd (either make it with our recipe http://www.mumandsons.com/2015_05_03_archive.html or buy a good quality one)
- 2 egg whites
- 200 ml double cream
- 100 gr sugar (I do not like this -or anything else- too sugary, but you can add more sugar if you have a sweet tooth)

Whip the egg whites. Add the sugar (one spoonful at a time) while you keep whipping so that you get a meringue like consistency.  Separately whip the cream to soft peaks.  Add one spoonful of egg whites to the lemon curd and mix well. Then fold in carefully the rest of the eggs whites. Finally fold in the whipped cream. Pour the mixture into individual glasses, cover with cling film and refrigerate for a couple of hours. Take it off the fridge for 20 minutes before you are going to eat it. You can decorate it with blueberries, raspberries, lemon zest or mint.

LEMON MUFFINS

And yet one more recipe with lemons. You need:
- 300 g plain flour
- a pinch of salt
- one and a half teaspoons of baking powder
- half a teaspoon of bicarb.
- 200 g sugar
- 2 eggs
- zest and juice of one and a half lemons
- 85 ml milk
- 115 gr butter (melted)

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients but the sugar (flour, salt, baking powder and bicarb). Then mix separately the sugar, eggs, zest and juice of lemons, butter and milk. Combine both sets of ingredients loosely with a fork (do not over mix them). Put the mixture into muffin cases (10 very big ones or 12 normal ones) and bake for 25 minutes.

LEMON CURD PAVLOVAS

Made this for Easter, partly because I have a surplus of lemons (a problem I never thought I would have!) and partly because they resemble eggs. They could not be easier to make:

For the mini pavlovas you need 

four egg whites
250 gr sugar
a pinch of salt
one tsp of cornflour
250 ml double cream

Whisk the egg whites with the salt for a few minutes (with an electric mixer or by hand) until they form hard peaks. Add the sugar - one spoonful at a time while you keep whisking. Sprinkle the cornflour on top and fold them carefully over the egg whites. Put dollops of this on a piece of baking paper. Bake them on a preheated over at 180 degrees. As soon as you put the egg whites in the oven turn it down to 150 degrees and leave them for 35 minutes. Then just open the door of the oven and let it cool down completely.

For the lemon curd follow our recipe here:http://www.mumandsons.com/2015_05_03_archive.html 

To assemble them: whip the cream until you get soft peaks. Put a spoonful of cream on top of each merengue and top it up with a teaspoonful of lemon curd.

PLUM TART

These are so simple, and yet so handy when you parents in law decide to come for tea unannounced and you have not bought any cake. All you need is:

- A sheet of puff pastry
- 3 plums
- 8 teaspoons of brown sugar
- one egg

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.
Cut the puff pastry in 8 squares. Cut two 'L's inside each square alongside the borders. Flip each 'cut border' to the other side . Beat an egg and paint the borders of the pastry. Cut the plums in slices and arrange them inside each square. Sprinkle a teaspoon of brown sugar on top of each tart. Bake for 20 minutes (watch them carefully as they burn easily... as you can see with one of them in the picture!)

RHUBARB JAM

I originally did this some years ago from a BBC recipe with real vanilla pods, but the recipe below is with frozen rhubarb (less than half the prize than fresh) and vanilla extract and it is just as good as the original one.

You need:
- 1 K of frozen rhubarb
- 1 K of jam sugar
- juice of 1.5 lemons
- 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
- and the essential ingredient for making jam without any stress: a jam thermometer (£8 in Lakeland - totally worth it)

Put the rhubarb, jam sugar, vanilla extract and the juice of a lemon in a big pan over medium heat. Let it simmer for a good 22-25 minutes until the rhubarb goes mushy. My children do not like big bits of fruit in the jam, so as soon as a rhubarb is soft I press it down a few times with a potato masher. Keep the heat on for another 10-14 minutes until the mixture reaches 105 degrees. Take the pan off the heat and add the juice of the half lemon. Let it rest for a few minutes and pour it into sterilised jars (just rinse the jars with water and microwave them for 2 minutes). You should get 5 jam pots from this. 

POACHED QUINCE

This is one of my regular Autumn 'dinner party desserts'. It has an Arabic feel and it never fails to please.  You need:

- 2 quinces (enough for 8 people)
- a tub of greek yogurt
- two tablespoons of honey
- 4 tablespoons of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of orange blossom water
- a handful of shelled (unsalted) pistachios (chopped)
- half a tablespoon of pink pepper
- 2 tablespoons of pomegranate seeds
- two tablespoons of lemon juice
- water

Peel and quarter the quinces, getting rid of the core. Put them and the lemon juice in a pan with water (just enough to cover them) over medium heat. Once the water is boiling let it all simmer for 40 minutes more or less until the quinces are soft. Take the quinces off the liquid and reserve them.

Separately put one glass and a half of the water where you have boiled the quinces on a sauce pan. Add the pepper, sugar and orange blossom water. Heat it and let it all simmer for 20-25 minutes until it reduces in volume by two thirds. Once it is ready put it aside and let it cool down.

When you are going to serve this dish just put a quarter of a quince in a bowl. Add a kernel of greek yogurt beside the quince. Drizzle two tablespoons of syrup and a teaspoon of honey on top of the quince and yogurt. And sprinkle the pistachios and pomegranate seeds on top. That is all.

RASPBERRY LEMONADE

If you are meant to make lemonade when life gives you lemons (a recommendation I thoroughly agree with) I promise I could have swamped you all with lemonade this year. This is a recipe I got in California this summer. A sort of 'citron presse' with crushed raspberries. Simple and yet delicious. Totally recommendable.

You need:
- 6 lemons
- 150 ml water
- 250 ml fizzy water
- 5 raspberries per person
- one table spoon of caster sugar per person

Juice the lemons. Add the water and sugar, mix it all well and strain it so that you do not get any pips. Put the raspberries into a tall glass. Crush them with the back of a spoon. Add the sweetened lemon juice. Top it up with the fizzy water. It could not be any simpler.

Like all lemonades (and like life itself)  this tastes better with plenty of sunny weather.

MELON GAZPACHO

Gazpacho is traditionally made with cucumber and tomatoes. Over the last few years it has become fashionable to make gazpacho with fruits such as strawberries and watermelon. I am not too keen, but this melon gazpacho builds on a classic seventies' combination of flavours, melon and serrano ham.  When I was a teenager there wasn't a Spanish wedding that did not feature this in the menu. Then came the melon with king prawns (a great recipe which I will give you later this Summer). Avocados did not manage to reach the Spain of the 70s, but prawn cocktails and pineapple with cheese on toothpicks were as popular there as in the UK.

You need;
- a canteloupe melon (or half a Spanish 'piel de sapo' melon)
- 1 cucumber
- a quarter green pepper
- a clove of garlic
- half a glass of good olive oil
- half a glass of water
- two tablespoons of vinegar
- salt
- 100 gr of good serrano ham (it would be better with Iberico ham; and, with the permission of my Italian friends, worse with parma ham) into very small cubes.

Blend the melon, cucumber, pepper, garlic and olive oil. Get this mixture through  a 'chino' colander so that you get a smooth soup. Add the water vinegar and salt and stir. Taste it as, if the melon is very sweet, you may need to add a bit more vinegar. Keep it in the fridge until you are going to serve it. Serve it in bowls with the ham sprinkled in the centre of the bowl.

STRAWBERRY CRUMBLE

A journalist friend (yes, they do exist, in fact many of them…but for some reason none in the Daily Mail!😉) has asked me to bake a Brexit crumble.  This particular recipe comes from the wonderful Nigella Lawson and calls for almonds and vanilla, but over the years we have cut down on the sugar, replaced the vanilla with lemon zest and the almond with hazelnuts (only because a year ago I went through a time when I compulsively added hazelnuts to almost everything - they are particularly good with mackerel and orange I must say) The crumble, just like Brexit, seems fine on the outside, though if you look attentively you can see that there is a mess bubbling up inside. And it will definitely fall apart when you serve it no matter how hard you try. Though to be perfectly honest, I am not sure the messiest of the crumbles does any justice to the mess we are all in.

You need:
- 300 g strawberries
- 100 g sugar
- 100 g hazelnuts (ground 30 g thinly and the remaining 70 g coarsely)
- 110 g plain flour
- zest of a lemon
- 75 gr cold butter
- a tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees

Cut the strawberries in half. Put them on a baking dish (you can also bake this in individual dishes) Sprinkle them with 30 g of sugar, the 30 g of thinly ground hazelnuts and the lemon zest.

Separately mix the flour and baking powder  with the cold butter (diced). Rub the butter with your fingers for 5 minutes. The add the remaining sugar and Hazelnuts. Tip this on top of the strawberries. Bake for 30 minutes (22 minutes if you bake this in individual dishes)

SAN FRANCICO

This is cocktail that we sometimes drank in Spain before we were allowed to drink alcohol. It feels a bit vintage, but it is still very nice. My younger children and their friends love it because though it is just a mixture of juices it looks as party time to them. You need ( for two or three people):

- the juice of an orange
- the juice of half a lemon
- a glass of pineapple juice (if you are in Spain, France or Italy use half a glass of pineapple and half a glass of peach juice, but for some weird reason peach juice is sometimes difficult to find in the UK)
- a quarter of a glass of grenadine
- a teaspoon of sugar
- 2 tablespoons of sugar for decorating the glasses
- ice (optional)
- a slice of orange and a paper umbrella for decoration

Mix the decorating sugar with a couple of teaspoons of grenadine on a flat plate. Dip the rim of the  glasses on it and rotate a little so that the rims get coated with the red sugar (you can replace the grenadine with any food colorant if you prefer other colours for the decoration)

Separately mix all the juices and the sugar. Pour the juice mixture on the glasses. Add the ice if using it. Then add the grenadine and mix a little but not thoroughly so that the colours do not mix completely and you get a bit of a 'degrade' effect. Decorate with the orange (just cut an indentation and put it on the side of the grass) and the umbrella.

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AGUA DE VALENCIA (VALENCIA'S WATER)

This is for you, not for your children. It is called Agua de Valencia and it is a very typical cocktail from the beautiful city of Valencia, made with the gorgeous oranges that they produce there ( if you have the chance try the oranges 'Lola' - outstanding!) and cava (i.e. a sort of champagne from Cataluna).

I was in Valencia a week ago to participate in an event to promote female conductors organised by Berkelee at the initiative of 'the one and only' Placido Domingo and the great British conductor Alice Farham. It was wonderful to see such an iconic man launching an initiative to promote and unlock female talent.  In the middle of the current backlash on women rights, here is a source optimism: the amount of men who are now speaking up for women and girls. You can see pictures of the event at our instagram miriamgonzalezdurantez

Agua de Valencia is what you drink on a Saturday night when you go out in Valencia. You have to be pretty careful as it is an alcoholic bomb. Last time I drank this at a party, a foreign friend was flabbergasted that she felt drunk when, according to herself, all she had drunk was orange juice!

You need:
- one part of fresh orange juice ( you can do this with normal orange juice if it is for a big party of course)
- one part of cava
- a quarter of a part of vodka
- a quarter of a part of gin
- a spoonful of sugar per bottle of cava

Just stir it all, add a couple of ice cubes and serve.

UPSIDE DOWN ORANGE CAKE

This is a really nice cake for for the Christmas holidays. Really simple to make and properly seasonal. We also make a version of this with pineapple when it isn't Christmas.
You need:

- one and a half oranges
- 2 handfuls of brown sugar
- 150 gr brown sugar
- 150 plain flour
- a teaspoon of baking powder
- 150 butter
- 2 eggs
- grated zest of and orange

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.

Take a round cake tin. Sprinkle the 2 handfuls of brown sugar over it. Slice the oranges thinly (the thickness of a pound coin or a bit less) and arrange them nicely over the sugared tin. Separately beat the sugar and batter, then add the zest and eggs and keep beating it. Finally add the flour and baking powdered and fold it into the mixture. Put this batter over the oranges - the batter is a bit thick to absorb the water of the oranges, so you may need to spread it a bit to cover the whole tin. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

When you take it out of the oven wait for 5-7 minutes, run a knife around the edges and then unmould it carefully. It  should come out easily. It is very nice with unsweetened greek yogurt.

WATERMELON ICE LOLLIES

This could not be simpler and is an easy way to get children to eat more fruit.
You need:
- half a watermelon (get rid of the pips)
We did this with a really sweet watermelon in Spain, so there was not need to add anything else. If the watermelon is not sweet you may want to add a couple of teaspoons of sugar and the juice of half a lemon.

Blend the watermelon. Pour the juice on the ice lollies moulds. Wait for 4 hours… and eat.

You can do this with orange juice, melon, peaches, strawberries, kiwis…you name it.

MEMBRILLO PASTRIES

I went to Spain last week to vote at the general election (well worth the effort, as we managed to stop the rise of populism there… about the only good effect of Brexit so far!) While in my village I found time to buy some membrillo, much in demand by my children now that we have long exhausted our home made supply - and much cheaper than in the Uk as well. These are really easy pastries that you can make with it.  I do not know anybody who does not like these.

You need: 

- a roll of shop-bought puff pastry

- membrillo (quince paste)

- a packet of grated medium cheddar

- one egg (beaten)

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. 

Cut the puff pastry into rectangles (4 cms width  and 8 cms length) Put a little square of membrillo on top of the lower part of the rectangle. Cover the membrillo with grated cheese.  Put the upper part of the rectangle on top of the membrillo and cheese so that you end up with a square. Use a fork to press down the sides so that the cheese does not 'escape' when you bake it. Paint the top of the squares with the beaten egg. Bake int the oven for around 22-25 mints until golden.  

PS - you can make membrillo yourself in the Autumn when quinces are in season. This is our recipe:  http://www.mumandsons.com/2011/10/quince-paste-membrillo.html

FILO ORANGE CAKE

We are on a  bit of a filo pastry theme (simply because I have bought too much) so we have tried a Greek orange cake called 'portokalopita'. I am afraid I simply could not swallow it as it is one of the sweetest desserts I have ever tasted (probably together with baklava, which I also dislike as I cannot stand honey) I nevertheless love the name and the smell that this leaves in the kitchen. The kids thought the taste was OK. And if you have a very sweet tooth this is definitely your dessert. We got the recipe from a website called 'my greek dish' but we cut down the amount of syrup (no offence to the Greeks but this cake will massive improve by not using any syrup at all and serving it with yogurt)

You need:
- a packet of filo pastry
- 300 ml orange juice
- 300 g sugar
- 300 ml sunflower or corn oil plus a bit more to grease the tray
- 200 gr greek yogurt
- zest of 1.5 oranges
- 4 teaspoons baking powder (this is not a typo, it really is four)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the syrup:
- 200 gr water
- 150 gr sugar
- zest of an orange

Open the  filo pastry and let it dry overnight ( or for an hours).
Preheat the oven at 175 degrees.
Mix the yogurt, oil, orange juice, zest, sugar  and vanilla extract. Then add the baking powered. Finally crumble the filo and add it to the mixture. Grease a baking tray with the oil and pour the mixture in. Bake for 45 minutes.

While it is baking make a syrup (if you are using it) by boiling the water, sugar and zest of the orange. Let it simmer for 10 minutes and then let it cool down.

As soon as you take the cake out of the oven pour the syrup on top.  Let it all cool down before eating it.