LEMON POSSET

We had dinner at a friend’s house one autumn evening last year and for dessert she served lemon posset, something I had never made or eaten before.  It was utterly divine and she served it in pretty little stemmed champagne coupes.  

She and her husband are renovating one of those drop dead gorgeous French houses known as a "maison du maître" with large airy rooms, tall, draughty windows and high ceilings.  They still have plenty of work to do!  But the previous owner left behind a vast quantity of old furniture, linens, china and glassware, including the coupes.  Some of it was not to her taste but much of it was real treasure.

This is in sharp contrast to the hideous furniture and other stuff that the owner of our first French house wanted to sell us.  We were mightily relieved to find it had all gone when we finally got the keys!  The difference is that our friend's house had been a well loved home whereas ours had been a holiday home for generations of a Parisian family who just descended on the place for six weeks every summer!

Anyway, at the first opportunity, the next time we had guests for lunch, I decided to make lemon posset myself.  I served it in a hotchpotch of china cups and glasses and it went down a treat.  I adapted a Mary Berry recipe which was a doddle to make and I shall add it to my repertoire of favourite desserts.  It was luscious yet light and very lemony!  It's also ideal for a dinner party as it can be made the day before.

Ingredients

600ml double cream

15og caster sugar

3 lemons, zest and juice

a handful of fresh raspberries for decoration

strips of lemon zest for decoration (optional)

Method

Put the cream, sugar and lemon zest into a wide saucepan.  Bring to the boil over low heat and simmer gently for 3 minutes, stirring all the time.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool until lukewarm.

Stir the lemon juice into the cooled cream mixture and pour into 8 small ramekins, cups or glasses.

Chill in the fridge for at least two hours until set or overnight.

Just before serving, decorate with the fresh raspberries and strips of lemon zest.

Serves 8 portions.

PARSNIP AND ARTICHOKE SOUP (soup maker recipe)

 

As we enjoyed the carrot and artichoke soup so much, I decided to make it again.  That's when I noticed the one large parsnip in the veg drawer and wondered how it would turn out if I used that instead of carrots.

In France there is a chain of greengrocer shops called "Terre Y Fruits".  They sell excellent seasonal fruit and veg, plus some meat and dairy products and other groceries, much of it local.  There I spotted some Jerusalem artichokes that were a much more user friendly shape to peel so I bought some.

It turned out to be a delicious combination.  The soup was a lovely creamy colour and the flavour more delicate than the carrot version.  I will definitely be making this again!

I served mine with some home made air fryer croutons, made from the previous day's baguette.  You can see the recipe/instructions for those in this post here.

Ingredients

1 large onion

1 stick celery 

sufficient Jerusalem artichokes and parsnips to fill the machine to the bottom line, about half and half of each

1 vegetable stock pot 

1 good squirt garlic paste or purée 

1 tblsp dry sherry

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg 

Method

Peel and roughly chop the onion.  Clean and roughly chop the celery.  Add both to the soup maker.

Peel and roughly chop the parsnips and artichokes and add enough to fill the soup maker to the bottom line.  You can vary the proportions depending on how many of each you have but I used half and half.

Add the stock pot, garlic paste and enough water to fill to the top line.  Season well with salt and pepper.

Cook on smooth.

When done, check the seasoning and stir in the sherry and nutmeg.

A tip for grating nutmeg: grate the amount you want onto a chopping board or plate then tip it into the soup. This saves having to go fishing in the soup for the nutmeg when you drop it!

Makes 4 generous servings.  Would serve 6 as a starter.