Lime, Chilli and Gin cured Salmon with pickled cucumber and radish, avocado and wasabi mousse, pea shoots and trout crisp

Well, I thought this was a pretty good competition entry, until I realised that it was entered by me, and I'm not a teachers pet so I had absolutely no chance whatsoever. Anyhow, I still thought it was good enough to share on here, as my family enjoyed it and i thought it was one of my nicer looking plates of food.

It may look difficult, and too chefy, but I promise you it's really easy. The salmon can be prepared ahead. And even though the pickled vegetables look complicated, there really simple. All you need is a really sharp knife and a peeler if you don't have a mandolin.

The avocado mousse is super delicious and creamy, just make sure you do it no more than an hour before, otherwise it will discolour. If your serving a lot of people it can easily be plated up before hand, if your luckier than me and have loads of bench space.
Its also be easily adaptable, swap out the salmon with sea trout if you can't find salmon. If your intolerant to dairy just take out the cream, it will be less creamier but otherwise the same. If you can't get hold of the cucumber or radishes both can easily be swapped with carrots or courgette both which could be sliced either way depending on the thickness, but since the radishes were in season i used those.

Ingredients 

For the trout:

X4 100g portions of trout

2 limes, zest

2 chillis, finely chopped

150g salt

150g sugar

150g Gin                                                           

For the pickle:

1 cucumber

100g radish

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

½ tsp sugar

¼ tsp salt

For the mousse:

1 avocado

2 tsp wasabi

1 tbsp extra thick double cream

Pea shoots

1.    Remove the skin from the trout and set aside. Thinly slice the trout.

2.    Dissolve the salt, sugar in the gin, before adding the lime and chilli. Lay the slices of trout on a tray before covering in the cure. Cover and leave to cure for 1hr (or until firm) in the fridge.

3.    Meanwhile, make the pickle by dissolving the sugar and salt in the vinegar. Finely slice the radishes and the cucumber lengthways before adding into the liquid. Leave to pickle for 1hr, stirring occasionally.

4.    When almost ready to serve, blend together the avocado and cream. Add wasabi to taste. Season.

5.    Pat the skin dry, before lightly oiling, season and place on a tray in a hot oven (190c), until golden and crisp.

6.    When ready to serve, wash the trout to remove the cure.

7.    To serve, smear the mousse on the plate, place the trout on top, roll up the cucumber and sprinkle over the radishes and pea shoots.

Passion fruit Granita

Told you I was having a thing with passion fruit. Don't worry there's more coming too!! The simplest and one of the best ways to eat it is spooned on top of plain Greek style yogurt, but sometimes it should be a hero without anything, just a little bit of sugar and help from the freezer, and you have a super tasty, but refreshing summer dessert.

Its super simple to make along with most of my other desserts, because who has that much time these days. Especially when its summer when all you want to do is be outside and socialising, reading or sunbathing. If your like me then have always wanted to make granita, but always thought you needed some fancy ice cream/sorbet maker, but you actually don't then i hope this recipe will tempt you into how easy it really is. 

To separate the most amount of juice from the seeds, i blitzed the pulp quickly before sieving. I served this as a "pre" dessert, as a small pallet cleanser in between the main and dessert but you could easily serve this as a main dessert, just enlarge the serving dish and portions.  

To serve as a palette cleanser i just popped a few tiny mint leaves on top, as i didn't want the extra passion fruit and coconut to over complicate the refreshing flavour. These coconut biscuits, pictured below are great served with it and my other passion fruit dessert, passion fruit posset (recipe for the biscuits is on its way!!). 

Serves 10 as dessert or 20+ as a small palate cleanser
Ingredients

460g caster sugar
500ml passion fruit pulp, strain to make 250ml juice (around 18-24) 
1250ml of water
2 tbsp lime juice
coconut milk, optional
pulp from 4 passion fruit, optional

1. Put the sugar and water together in a saucepan and stir over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. set aside to cool
2. Add the strained passion fruit juice and lime, stir to combine.
4. Pop in a shallow tray and into the freezer, for 2 hrs or until setting around the edges.
5. Using a fork rough up the crystals, and return to the freezer.
6. Repeat each hour, until its all frozen around 3 hrs.
7. Once frozen pop into containers, and keep in the freezer until needed.
8. to serve as a palette cleanser, top with tiny mint leaves. To serve as a dessert, spoon over the extra passion fruit and a little coconut milk. 

Passion Fruit Posset

With the sight of summer ever closer, the meals get lighter and fresher. The heavy casserole and soup recipes, gradually get pushed to the back of the recipe books. The salad recipes become more used, the desserts become less chocolate and sponge based, and more fresh fruit based. Its also the time i start using all the tropical fruit that i love: I could never tire of eating mango and passion fruit!!

If you had to pick a fancy dessert, that seemed really difficult, but isn't, then a posset would definitely be it. Having grown up watching my mum do a lemon version every time she invited people over, there was no doubt in my mind, that it was easy, and super delicious. With my recent craziness over passion fruit (you'll understand in a few posts), it seemed like an obvious choice to combine the two!! Plus, i had a dinner party that i was cooking for, so it was an obvious choice, as these can easily be made a day or two ahead.

Serve them in individual pots, topped of with extra passion fruit. Serve them with crisp coconut biscuits (recipe coming soon!!!). If you wanted to add another element, top with small cubes of mango, and sprigs of mint for extra colour.

Ingredients

600ml double cream

120g caster sugar

6 passion fruit

1 lime

coconut biscuits to serve, optional

1. Put the cream and sugar, into a saucepan. Gently heat up until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil, and reduce to a simmer for 3 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, scoop out the pulp from 5 passion fruit, and pass through a sieve. I prefer to blitz the pulp, for a couple of seconds, so the juice separates from the seeds better.

3. once the cream has simmered, take off the heat and stir in the passion fruit juice and lime juice.

4. allow to cool slightly, before pouring into ramekins. chill for 4-6 hrs or overnight

5.  to serve, spoon over the flesh from the leftover passion fruit. Serve with coconut biscuits, if wished.

Ginger, Lime and Coconut Crunch

Yes, I do realise that I've made something similar before, but the best recipes are the ones you keep going back to. This twist to a classic ginger crunch, is my new favourite. You could even go wild and combine my other recipe with a twist, to create the ultimate hybrid. Here's the first with added stem ginger, for an extra ginger hit.

If you didn't know already I love citrus, especially limes and lemons. I also love coconut, and have coconut milk on my porridge every morning, but I especially love it in baking, like Anzac biscuits or adding it to granola. So paring, some of my two favourite things, with ginger is obviously going to be super tasty, and I won't lie, the inspiration behind the pairing of the lime and ginger, is from ginger mojito( recipe coming soon!!). 

The icing I did to taste, but this is a rough guide, it will depend on the size of your limes, and strength of your ginger will also alter, depending on the freshness. Feel free to double the base mixture, if you prefer it a bit thicker and a 1:1 ratio, I like a slightly thinner base than icing, as its a bit easier to eat. If making this in advance, leave the base in the oven for a few extra minutes, for it can really crisp up like a biscuit, as it will soften slightly when you put the icing on top. 

Ingredients
for the base:
1 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 cup desiccated coconut 
1/2 cup sugar
125g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

for the icing:
150g butter
90g golden syrup
2 tbsp ground ginger
1 1/2 cup icing sugar
zest of 1 lime
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp ginger syrup

1. preheat the oven to 180c
2. for the base beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy 
3. add in the rest of the ingredients, and mix until evenly combined(it's a quite dry mixture)
4. press into a large tin, bake for 20 mins or until golden and firm to touch
5. leave to cool. meanwhile make the icing
6. melt the butter, both syrups and ginger until smooth, then add in the icing sugar and zest. add in the lime juice to taste. Adjust the lime and ginger to taste
7. pour over the base, and smooth to the edges.
8. sprinkle of extra lime zest if wished, and leave to set before slicing.

Ginger and Lime Drizzle Cake

 If you've been reading my blog for a while, then you know i love a drizzle cake, or any cake that contains some form of citrus fruit. Oh, and that I'm not very good at doing seasonal baking, but here you have a combination, with the freshness of the lime, and the warmth from the ginger, so is great if you want a light and fresher alternative to a Christmas cake or ginger cake, to serve at Christmas; handy if you have a warm weather Christmas. And as promised more Christmas food is coming super soon.

Fresh and citrus cakes always perk me up, and I love making them when the suns shining, but to be honest when its grey and miserable, and considering its the 1st of December, nothing has quote hit the spot, like my filo pastry mince pies and may, or may not, have had two yesterday(just eating my mums and sisters for them, since they can't, obviously). 

I personally love coconut, and thought it added something different, but if you don't like coconut, replace it with ground almond, or if your allergic just replace with more plain flour. I also had an extra lime, so added the zest the the drizzle mixture, as i think the speckles of green look pretty. If your serving it for someone special, top with chopped crystallised ginger for an extra ginger hit.

 Ingredients


200g butter
175g caster sugar
4 limes
3 large eggs
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 heaped tsp ground ginger
50g dessicated coconut
4 balls of stem ginger, chopped
2 tbsp milk
35g granulated sugar
3 tbsp stem ginger syrup

1. preheat the oven to 180°/gas 4, and line and grease a loaf tin 
2. beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
3. gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition.add in the zest of the limes
4. gently fold in the sifted flour, ginger and baking powder, along with the coconut and stem ginger.
5. add in the juice of 2 limes and the milk. spoon the mixture into a prepared tin (don't worry if the mixture looks slightly curdled mine did this and was absolutely fine).
6. bake for 1hr or until golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean
7. meanwhile mix the juice of the remaining 2 limes, granulated sugar and the ginger syrup
8. once the cake has cooked immediately spoon over the drizzle. cool fully in the tin

Blackberry, Lime and Elderflower drizzle slice

For me the harvest of blackberries, usually signals the end of summer. As the the blue skies disappear, and the grey skies filled with rain, arrive.To be really honest, all i really feel like doing is snuggling into bed, but when there is a break in the weather i try to make the most of not being at school, or now college(man that sounds so weird!), and create something summery, to at least convince my taste buds that its still summer.

 

This was sooooo delicious, that i ate 6 slices in one day, and i never normally eat that much cake in one day. Its an interesting alternative to lemon drizzle, and doesn't dry out, due to the water content in the blackberries. Its a great edition to a picnic, as the sugar on top glistens in the sun, and is a lot easier to transport than a normal sized cake.

This recipe uses polenta, which gives it an interesting texture, that is quite crumbly, but moist at the same time,and lets the blackberries evenly disperse through the sponge. The drizzle part is the best, and marries everything together with the early spring flavours, from the elderflower, and the autumnal flavours, with the blackberries.

Ingredients
225g self-raising flour
75g polenta
250g butter
250g caster sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 limes, zest and juice
2 tbsp milk
150g blackberries
100ml elderflower cordial
6 tbsp granulated sugar

1.beat butter and sugar together 
2.beat in eggs one at a time, adding in flour if it starts to curdle
3.fold in dry ingredients alternatively with the liquids.
4.place in a pre lined tin
5.scatter with blackberries
6.place in pre-heated oven at 180°, for 30mins
7.mix together the elderflower cordial, granulated sugar,and the zest of a lime and juice of half of lime. spoon over hot cake, cool in tin before serving.

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12211277/?claim=cyxzaz5gayc">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>