BERRY, BERRY NICE
Ripe, luscious berries star in these summer recipes by Emma Galloway
BERRIES CAN ONLY mean one thing: the warm weather has arrived! Or should I say, the hope of warmer weather has arrived, as we all know New Zealand can sometimes be cold right until January 1st. I’m writing this in advance, hoping that by the time you read it the strawberries in my garden will be pumping out juicy, red morsels and I’m walking around in shorts and a T-shirt. I love all berries, but hold a soft spot for the boysenberry, a Rubus hybrid berry believed to have arisen from a cross between loganberries, raspberries and blackberries in the 1920s in California. They’re a berry many Kiwis grew up eating, if not in the fresh form at least in the form of boysenberry-ripple ice cream. I’ve taken those flavours to create a gluten-free frozen version of a traditional chocolate roll, filled with boysenberry semifreddo. Should you be looking for something plant-based, I’ve got you covered with a lush roasted-strawberry and rose ‘cheesecake’ and there are also a couple of savoury berry numbers too.
VANILLA CREAM WITH STRAWBERRY & HOROPITO GRANITA SERVES 4 / PREPARATION 10 MINUTES PLUS AT LEAST 2 HOURS FREEZING TIME / COOKING 5 MINUTES
You can find dried ground horopito online or at selected specialty food stores, but if unavailable, omit and use finely ground black pepper instead.
STRAWBERRY & HOROPITO GRANITA
½ cup golden caster sugar
1½ teaspoons dried horopito (or use 1 teaspoon finely ground black pepper)
500g strawberries, hulled and cut in half
VANILLA CREAM
250g crème fraîche
1 cup cream
3-4 tablespoons golden icing sugar, sifted 3 teaspoons vanilla extract or paste edible flowers, to serve (optional; I used fresh
rosemary flowers) To make the granita, combine the caster sugar and dried horopito with 100ml cold water in a small saucepan, bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. When it comes to the boil, turn off the heat and set aside to infuse for at least 10 minutes or longer if you can, before straining through a fine sieve.
Place the strawberries and horopito sugar syrup into a blender and blend on high until smooth. Transfer to a shallow tray and place in the freezer. After 30 minutes, use a fork to scrape the ice crystals from around the edges of the tray, mixing them into the centre. Return to the freezer for another 30 minutes, then repeat the scraping. Do this twice more as it freezes (2 hours in total), then place in the freezer until serving.
For the vanilla cream, combine the crème fraîche, cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a bowl and use a large whisk to whip to soft peaks. Pipe or spoon the vanilla cream into 4 serving glasses, top with granita and edible flowers, if using, and serve immediately.
WHILE THESE LOOK FANCY, THEY’RE A CINCH TO MAKE AND THE ADDITION OF HOROPITO IN THE GRANITA ADDS A LOVELY PEPPERY, FLORAL HIT.
MAKES 24 / PREPARATION 15 MINUTES / COOKING 20 MINUTES These mini gluten-free tarts are the perfect nibbles to have with drinks. This buttery, flaky, gluten-free pastry is based on a recipe by Aran Goyoaga from her cookbook Cannelle et Vanille. ¾ cup brown rice flour
¼ cup potato flour (starch) ¼ cup tapioca flour ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt 110g cold butter, cubed 3-4 tablespoons ice-cold water
200g goat’s cheese, crumbled ¼ cup cream
BLUEBERRY SALSA
½ small red onion, finely diced juice of ½ lemon
¾ cup blueberries, cut into quarters
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil a small handful flat-leafed parsley, finely chopped Heat the oven to 180℃. Grease a 24-hole mini muffin tin with oil. Combine the brown rice flour, potato flour, tapioca flour and salt in a small food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse a couple of times until only a few small rice-sized pieces of butter remain. Add the ice-cold water, starting with 3 tablespoons and pulse until combined. Squeeze the mixture between your fingers and if it doesn’t come together, add 1 more tablespoon of water and pulse again. At this stage it will still look crumbly. Turn out onto a bench and briefly knead to form a smooth dough. Shape into a disc, pop into a lidded container and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Place the dough onto a sheet of baking paper, top with another sheet and roll out to approximately 4mm thick. Using a 7cm round cookie cutter, cut out pastry pieces and use to line the mini tart tins, patching up any tears that may appear with a little extra pastry. Trim the tops with a sharp knife and neaten the edges with your fingers. Re-roll the pastry until you have 24 tins lined. To blind bake, line each pastry case with a small square of baking paper and fill with a few baking beans or some rice to hold the pastry down as it cooks. Cook for 10 minutes, remove the baking paper and beans/ rice and return the pastry cases to the oven for a further 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and set aside for 10 minutes before gently removing the pastry cases from the tins and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Best eaten on the day of baking.
To make the salsa, combine the red onion and lemon juice, season with a little salt, mix well and set aside for 5 minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.
Combine the crumbled goat’s cheese and cream in a small food processor and pulse until smooth. Pipe into the cooled pastry cases, top with a spoonful of blueberry salsa and serve the tarts immediately.