Smy Rhubarb Curd & Lemon Curd Tart

 

I'm all about experimenting when I cook and I love to find new ways to use my homemade chutneys, jellies and jams...and curds!  It's exciting times in the studio as I am sharing space with some interesting and creative people as seen in the above video - Aimee, Lucia and Sam.  I mentioned to one of said interesting people, Aimee, that I really fancied making...and eating...a rhubarb tart.  It wasn't until later on in the evening that I realised I didn't have enough butter to make the pastry.  I think I need to stop right now and say that this NEVER happens as I adore and believe in butter.  This is mainly as I've been taking a bit of a break since Christmas and I always have kilos of butter in the fridge to satisfy lemon curd orders.  Back to tonight's tart, I was feeling a bit lazy and couldn't face popping to the shops when it occurred to me that I had a half pound kilner jar of lemon curd in the fridge and that essentially there was a lot of butter in there.  So I decided to make an alternative pastry with lemon curd binding it together rather than butter.  For the pastry I used:

100g of rice flour

50g of plain flour

50g of strong brown flour

100ml of lemon curd

4tbsp of water

I blended them all together and left it to sit and rest in the fridge for about half an hour.

 

I then lightly dusted the pastry, board and rolling pin and rolled the pastry to about a half a centimetre in thickness and placed in on a dish that I had lightly dusted with rice flour.  I like using rice flour in pastries as I think it gives it a lighter texture.  I then lightly pressed the pastry into place and used a fork to flute the pastry.

 

I put about four tablespoons of lemon curd and spread this over the pastry.  I then took four tablespoons of Smy rhubarb curd and gently layered that on top of the lemon curd.  I then repeated another layer of about four tablespoons of lemon curd and arranged rhubarb segments in the curd layers.

 

Then I popped the tart into an oven that had been preheated to 180℃ for half-an-hour and then I left it to cool.

 

 

The tart was light and tangy and proved a perfect Friday afternoon treat for the studio.  Rhubarb season is just about to kick off and it's one of my favourite ingredients and you can expect rhubarb chutney, rhubarb curd and rhubarb and ginger jam to all be back in stock shortly.  You can also expect more tasting videos this year and lots of new and exciting flavours and recipes.

and remember...

it's not your chutney...
it's Smy Chutney.


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Hollie's Raspberry and Lemon Curd Birthday Cake

Here are some photos of the lovely Hollie's birthday...which was 17th June... and they are lovely so I wanted to share them.  Hollie is a massive Smy Chutney fan as well as a really good friend.  Another dear friend Aimee made Hollie's beautiful birthday cake using Smy lemon curd and raspberries:

and remember...

it's not your chutney...
it's Smy Chutney.


please follow Smy Chutney on facebook and twitter...

White Chocolate Bread Pudding aka WCBP

The one recipe I have been asked for countless times is for White Chocolate Bread Pudding - WCBP. This is another New Orleans classic recipe and one that I picked up from when I worked at the Royal Cafe. I love all manner of bread and butter puddings and this makes a delicious end to a Sunday roast dinner. It is also ridiculously easy to make, inexpensive and most importantly, people love it!

Here's my recipe for white chocolate bread pudding:

Just as with any bread and butter pudding, thicker slices of slightly stale bread are best. I always stick half loaves of bread in the freezer to have emergency bread and butter pudding reserves. For this pudding we had a nice half loaf of Turkish bread that was ever so slightly sweet.


I always keep bars of good quality chocolate in the pantry, again - emergency pudding ingredients. Break a bar of good quality white/cooking chocolate and divide in half. Half of the chocolate will be used in the pudding and the remaining chocolate will be used later for the sauce. Chop the half into smaller size chunks. This pudding was using half a loaf of bread and will serve 4, if you are making a bigger pudding use a whole loaf of bread and two bars of chocolate, one whole bar for the pudding and one bar for the sauce.

Slice your bread in 2-3 cm slices. For this recipe I used a rectangular shallow dish, roughly 9 x 4. Any dish will do and depending on the size and shape of your bread slices you may want to test that your slices will fit your dish before the next step, cutting them into triangles or wedge them into place until you are happy that your bread and dish will work together and that the pudding will have at least two layers. Then butter both sides of the bread.


Arrange the slices in the dish trying not to leave gaps. Scatter white chocolate in between each layer.....


...and repeat until you have at least two layers and top with a scattering of white chocolate.


Take 250 ml of milk and about 50 ml or so of double cream, 50g of caster sugar, break in two eggs and whisk. If you are using a whole loaf of bread double the liquid sugar and add and egg. This pudding is quite sweet and stodgy so if you don't like sweet puddings you can halve the sugar or even leave it out, I have tried this and it still works.


Pour the mixture all over the bread, making sure that the mixture hits corners and crusts. Ideally the mixture will come right up to the edge but I then take a piece of baking paper and carefully press down to ensure that the mixture covers all the bread and that the slices are even for baking. Now put to side or refrigerate if you are not going to cook straight away, I always try to make it early and leave it a bit and let the liquid soak up.


Cook for 30 minutes at 200˚C or until browned, ideally you want it to be nice and stodgy with some crispier sections on top.


Just before the pudding is done, take another 100 ml of double cream and melt the remaining half of the chocolate on the hob or in a microwave if you are pushed for time. If you are doing a massive WCBP just up the liquids and use more chocolate.

Place portions of the WCBP in bowls and pour a nice amount of the hot mixture on top of the WCBP. I think the pudding is BEST when served with strawberries and I used some defrosted ones here as it's winter but winter berries work just as well to cut through the sweetness.


This is a great pudding if you are having a large dinner party and just want to get the pudding out of the way before hand. I also love it as an emergency pudding that works in summer or winter. It's a total crowd pleaser and one friend Chris famously ate a world record seven portions at one party. I'm not sure I would recommend that but I would recommend you try this recipe as I'm sure you'll love it, I know I do!

and remember...
it's not your chutney...
it's Smy Chutney.

Pineapple and Ella Bella Jelly Crostata

I was listening to the Angela Hartnett's Best Producer Meal on Food Programme of BBC Radio 4 on Sunday (6 days left to listen!) which featured Michelin starred chef Angela Hartnett preparing a meal for Sheila Dillon using ingredients from the Best Producer category of the 2010 BBC Food & Farming Awards. I was really inspired by the crostata that they made combining 2010 finalist, Tracklement Company's seasonal medlar jelly, with spiced poached pears. I knew right then that Sunday night's pudding would be a crostata, something I have never tackled before. It was quite an easy tart to make and I will definitely be making this again. Here is a recipe:225g plain flour
75g demerara sugar
75g butter
1 egg
1 egg yolk
the zest of 1 unwaxed lemon

After sifting the flour and mixing in the sugar, I grated the butter in so it's easier to mix.

Next, I added in the egg, egg yolk and lemon zest

I put the pastry to rest in the fridge for awhile, it can be made and left to rest overnight, and when you are ready to use it leave it out of the fridge for half an hour or so before you start to roll it out.

While the pastry had its feet up I started stewing some pineapple. I would much rather have made this with apples or pears but I had about half a pineapple left over from breakfast so thought it best to use that up. I put about 30ml of muscat dessert wine over the pineapple, popped in a star anise and left it on a really slow simmer for the half an hour that the pastry was resting.
Then it was time to roll out the pasty which I tried to get as thin as possible. I always think my pastry has been rolled out rather thin and then find out it hasn't so when I think it's thin enough I usually go over it a few more times.

I then placed it over my 12 in pie/quiche dish, trimmed off the edges and kept the remaining pastry for the topping.

I then took some of my beloved Ella Bella Jelly and heated it a bit and poured over the pastry. You can use any jam or jelly but apparently it's better to choose something that isn't overly sweet as the pastry is sweet enough. This is why I chose my Ella Bella Jelly which is a damson jelly made from my Auntie Chrissie's Ella Bella tree. It makes a truly wonderful jelly that is nice and tart. I really cherish it and if you've bought or received any of this from me consider yourself lucky. I am to Ella Bella Jelly as Gollum is to his Precious. I only serve it with special roast dinners but thought that it was the natural choice for this recipe.

I then took my stewed pineapple and arranged it on the jammy tart. I started to get creative and then realised that I didn't have enough pineapple to carry out my crostata vision so I just tried to evenly space them out.

I took my reserved pastry and rolled out some thin strips to lattice over the tart. As above, I then folded the edges over a bit, did a haphazard criss-cross pattern and topped it with a Smy Chutney brandied cherry.

I then popped it into the oven which I had preheated to 180 degrees C for 35 minutes. I let it cool for a few minutes and served with Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream. I was very happy with it but the sweetness of the pineapple meant it was a very sweet pudding. As I said, I would have preferred it with apples as I prefer my puddings to not be too overly sweet. But that's the beauty of the crostata - you can easily make a pudding with whatever you happen to have in the house. I've got some of Auntie Chrissie's blackberry jelly and I think my next crostata will use that with some kiwis or perhaps a Smy Chutney lemon curd crostata. Thanks to the Food Programme for the inspiration and for being one of my favourite programmes on Radio 4.

and remember...
it's not your chutney...
it's Smy Chutney.

Fresh Fruit Pavlova

I love pavlova and they are so easy to make. I make them all year round and top with seasonal fruit. I also freeze fruit throughout the year so that I always have something on hand to top a pavlova with. I use Delia's recipe and instructions for pavlova which is:

3 egg white
175g sugar

Whisk the egg whites until they are peaky and the bowl can be turned upside down without the mixture falling out. I then add the sugar in tablespoon by tablespoon and whisk until all the sugar is added and the mixture is very peaky and has a slightly glossy sheen to it. I like to make individual sized pavlovas or as in the above recipe I made one whopping big pavlova by spooning the mixture onto a sheet of baking paper and taking a skewer you give it some swirls and peaks. You then pop it into a preheated oven at 150 degrees Centigrade. As soon as it goes in you turn the heat down to 140 degrees and leave it in there for one hour. When the hour is up you turn the oven off and leave it to cool. Delia says preferably overnight and I do agree with her on this and so I usually make a pavlova in the evening and put a note on the oven so that it doesn't get accidentally turned on that night or in the morning. You can make pavlova and storing it properly they will last for a several weeks in an airtight tin. I did manage to take all the whizzz out of a hand-held blender this summer making pavlovas. Since then I have discovered that I believe my pavlovas taste better when whisked and beaten by hand than by blender...any thoughts on this?

For dressing my pavlova I take a tablespoon of Smy Chutney strawberry and pineapple jam and a handful of different frozen berries and blend them...for this I do use an electric blender! For the above I used frozen blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. I spread the pasted thinly over the base of the pavlova. Then I sliced fresh mango and strawberries and added them to the pavlova. I then whipped some cream, or regular cream will do, and added this. Lastly I topped with a few strawberries, dusted with icing sugar, sliced and served.

This year for Christmas I took individual sized pavs and topped with a mixture of cranberries, blackberries, red currants, brandied cherries and their accompanying brandy:

I put them together and heated gently with a bit of brown sugar, sugar and orange juice. I let the mixture cool overnight (with the pavs!) and the next day I topped the pavlovas with the fruit mix some fresh blackberries and a bit of cream. They were a big hit, so big that I forgot to take a photo, but I will definitely be recreating these.

and remember...
it's not your chutney...
it's Smy Chutney.