Rainbow Fruit Kebabs

It's been a sunny weekend here and we have started thinking about Easter food; something that will be good for a barbecue if the weather's sunny over the upcoming Bank Holiday weekend.  Talking ideas through with Sous Chef J we decided that a fruit kebab, to balance out any chocolate egg-eating overload, would be a tempting and simple end to an Easter-time meal al fresco.

With sunny days in mind, we bought a selection of fruits which would look appealing and taste great. We also spotted some Easter Floral crockery in Sainsbury's that was decorated with bright, springlike flowers and decided a couple of pieces would be just the way to serve our kebabs.

Having bought pineapple, bananas, kiwi fruit, nectarines, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, mangoes and plums we started preparing the fruit for 'spearing' on bamboo skewers.

It was a lovely sunny day, so we decided to make the most of the weather and took everything we needed into the garden and began preparing the fruit...  this was a simple task of peeling (where necessary) and chopping into suitably sized pieces. 

Once the fruit was prepared and laid out in colour order, threading onto the bamboo skewers began. 

Choosing the order of strawberries, mango, nectarine, kiwi fruit or green grape, plums and blueberries... Sous Chef J worked through all the prepared fruit to get the Rainbow Fruit Kebabs ready.

Our Rainbow Fruit Kebabs were served just as prepared but they could be eaten with a melted chocolate (perhaps made from excess Easter eggs?) dip or, if barbecuing, a melted marshmallow drizzle.  YUM!

Summer Fruits Dessert

This recipe is something that's we've been making for years... the idea came from liking crème brûlée and spotting a similar recipe in a magazine 20 years or so ago... It's a simple recipe and, because the bulk of it can be prepared ahead of time with just the "brûlée" being completed at the last minute, it's a quick pud idea.

Ingredients we used are - strawberries (about 6 washed, hulled and sliced), nectarines (we used 2 which had their stone removed and were cut into small segments), one large pot of crème fraîche, some gluten free ratafia/amaretti bisuits and a liberal tablespoonful of demerara sugar (the amount used will depend on the size of dish and depth of 'crunch' you're aiming for).

We have an ovenproof ceramic casserole dish (with lid) for this.  First of all, the base of the dish was layered

with the nectarine slices before the strawberries were laid on top.

Next the biscuits were added and, finally, the crème fraîche was spooned on.


Once all the crème fraîche had been placed in the bowl and 'leveled out' with a spoon, a few sharp taps of the dish were required to allow it to seep through the layers beneath.  At this point Sous Chef J likes to look out for the escaping air

bubbles in the surface.

Next the dish was covered and placed in the fridge to chill. It can be kept there (overnight if required) until just before serving.






Having chilled the dish, the demerara sugar was sprinkled over the top.

Then the dish was placed under a hot grill until the sugar started to caramelise (you need to watch this as it can turn from golden to burnt quickly!)

As the sugar cools, it will solidify into a crispy, crackling caramel topping... don't wait too long to serve it though, it becomes soft fairly rapidly.

We served 6 portions from these ingredients so it's a good way to make soft, summer fruits 'go further'.

Simple Strawberry Meringues

As the weekend has been busy, we needed a quick pudding. Sous Chef J is a fan of meringues, so we grabbed the three 'ingredients' and made our speedy individual meringue cakes.

 What we used were some shop bought mini meringues, a few strawberries and a small amount of double cream.

 Sous Chef J hulled and sliced a few strawberries.

 He then whipped the cream.








Finally, two of the mini meringues were sandwiched together with a big blob of whipped cream, placed in a cake case and the sliced strawberries were placed on top.  You could use other fresh fruits such as slices of kiwi fruit, cherries or grapes... whatever takes your fancy. 

Scrumptious Strawberries

At the weekend we went to Millets Farm Centre and picked rather alot of strawberries... hence, we've been trying to think of ways to make use of them.  So far we have had strawberries and cream, Marvellous Meringue Mess and made strawberry granita (we'll post about this later).  Tonight, we decided to go 'up market' and attempted chocolate dipped strawberries.

 

So Sous Chef J's ingredient haul was - strawberries, dark choc chunks and white choc chunks.  We proceeded to melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.  Next the washed strawberries were 'enrobed' in the chocolate - or at least dunked in it.

 

These chocolate tipped strawberries were then laid out on a silicone sheet whilst we moved onto the melting of the white chocolate.

It seems the high cocoa butter content of white chocolate plays havoc with the melting.  So, having sought advice on twitter (thanks @Naaaade) about a tablespoon of double cream was added to the white chocolate and then combined to make a melted offering.

Finally this white chocolate mix was 'drizzled' (or perhaps that should be deluged) over the strawberries... and this is the result...

They were very tasty and, although we like our rustic presentation, need a few more attempts to get them looking more MasterChef like!