Creamy Strawberry Frozen Yoghurt

This is an absolutely gorgeous strawberry flavoured frozen yoghurt with a really creamy texture, thanks to the condensed milk. It only needs 4 ingredients and takes only five minutes to prepare and what's more, you don't need an ice cream maker or any other fancy equipment to prepare - just a bowl, a container, a tin opener and a spoon!

If you follow Slimming World like myself, I syn this at 6.5 syns for a small bowl (as pictured) as this amount makes up around 10 portions. You could reduce the syns by using light condensed milk too; but I love the creamy flavour and for an occasional treat it is well worth the syns! 

Creamy Strawberry Frozen Yoghurt

Here's how:

• 220g strawberries
• 400g fat free yoghurt 
• 1 tin condensed milk
• 1 heaped tbsp runny honey

In a large bowl place the yoghurt, condensed milk and honey.

Now wash the strawberries and gently dry with a clean tea towel or some kitchen paper. Cut off the stalks and place most of the strawberries into a blender or Nutribullet and blitz. Save 4-5 strawberries and roughly chop into small pieces and throw into the yoghurt mixture. 

Pour the pureed strawberries into the yoghurt mix and give a good stir.

Now pour into an old ice cream tub or into any plastic container or cake tin, then cover well with a lid or some tightly wrapped cling film and place into the freezer for at least 8 hours before serving. I like to serve with some fresh chopped strawberries too. Enjoy!

Pick-Your-Own & Sweet Gooseberry Pie

Ticehurst Fruit Picking

Living as I do in essex, but very much on the outskirts of East London, I'm not in what you could call a rural area. However with only a fifteen minute journey into the countryside and just 45 minutes away from central London via train I feel I can enjoy the best of both worlds.

I spent last weekend exploring various parts of East Sussex and discovered some real hidden gems and it is my latest aim to visit new parts of my own county, Essex.

I visited Bodiam, Rye and Hastings on Saturday and noticed you couldn't travel for more than a few miles without spotting a road-side seller offering local cherries and the like. I was intending to stop off at one of these on the way home on Sunday and get some soft fruit.

Happily on our return across the county towards Kent where we were planning on stopping off for some lunch, we came across an almost concealed sign in the village of Ticehurst announcing "Mill Hill Maynards Farm, Pick Your Own", and thought we don't mind if we do.

The sun was shining and my mum, brother and I grabbed a punnet each and hit the strawberry patch first. I think it's fair to say my mum, Vicky, actually ate more than she collected here. I couldn't blame her, the fruit was ripe, soft and deliciously juicy.

We also picked a colloshal of raspberries, some delicious cherries and a few gooseberries

It was a thoroughly enoyable couple of hours and once weighed we paid just over £6 for over 2kg of fruit, a mere fraction of what this would cost in a supermarket.

The fruit was enjoyed in various ways and I made a glorious gooesberry pie on the Monday for which the recipe can be found below.

Any fellow Essex-county people please do post and let me know of any 'pick-your'own' sites in the local area as I'm keen to do this again throughout the summer.

Sweet Gooseberry Pie

The sugar in this recipe offers a nice balance to the sharpness of the fruit, and the port makes for a deliciously boozy, syrupy filling.

125g Butter, salted
70g Icing Sugar
3 egg yolks
250g Plain Flour
450g Gooseberries, washed
115g Caster Sugar
2 Tbsp Port (could use a fruity red wine as an alternative)
1Tbsp Vanilla Extract
1 Clove
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon

Pre-heat oven to 180C.

Sweet Pastry

With a wooden spoon mix the butter and icing sugar together in a bowl and then add two of the egg yolks.

Sieve in the flour and use your hands to mix it all up until it resembles breadcrumbs (like a crumble mixture).

Add a drop of warm water in and keep mixing, adding water drop by drop till the pastry starts to come together.

Roll into a ball and wrap in clingfilm, then chill for 20-30 minutes in the fridge.

Filling

Put the fruit into a saucepan over a low heat with a tablespoon of water.

Simmer for a few minutes.

Crush the clove and add to the fruit with the cinammon for a little spice.

Add the sugar, Port or wine, and vanilla extract to the pan and cook until soft. Should take between 12-15 minutes.

Roll out the pastry and cover the base of a small pie plate, then remove the excess and cut a large enough lid for the pie.

Press the base into the dish and then pour over the fruit mixture.

Pop the lid on then press down all around using your thumbs.
With any excess pastry you can cut out shapes and decorate the pie lid.

Brush the pie with the remaining, whipped egg yolk and place in the oven for 25-30 minutes until your lid is nicely golden.

Remove from the oven and leave to stand for at least ten minutes to allow the fruit to cool a little.

I served this with some vanilla ice cream and it was a delicious summery pudding, enjoyed by the family.

Serves 4

Bistro du Vin Clerkenwell

I was recently invited to dine at Clerkenwell's relatively new Bistro du Vin courtesy of the lovely people at The Cullinary Guide. This is one of the newest members of the popular Hotel du Vin family so I was keen to see how it matched up and what it had to offer.

I took the boy again and as it was just over a week since we'd been to Les Deux Salons, I was slightly worried he wouldn't be keen on more French fare. I need not have worried though he'll try anything and luckilly he had a very enjoyable meal.

Like Les Deux Salons this place had the buzzing atmosphere that I think is essential to any French bistro-style venue in London. What I thought gave Bistro du Vin the edge was the fact it's slightly more compact therefore created a very intimate setting. Overhearing the chatter from the neighbouring tables does, for me, put me in mind of a French restaurant. It was very busy with a mixed bag of diners and there was just a genuinely good vibe about the place. Also the decor is very chic and stylish, I was suitably impressed.

The menu has a good selection, but not an overbearingly long list and it didn't take me long to opt for a fishy feast. I chose the potted crab to start and it was sublime. Simple but perfect. A delicious round of white, dressed crab meat topped with an amost paste-like brown crab meat and served with delicious, crispy, lightly grilled sourdough slices which tasted as though they had been rubbed all over with garlic, salt and pepper - it was lovely. A little large for one person perhaps, but this turned out to be a blessing.

The boy chose the lamb sweetbreads - like the snails the week before, this offal dish is something he'd never tried before. They were fantastic, well seasoned, cooked to tender perfection, full of delicious flavour in a sticky berry jus and topped with a little coriander. Once again this was a large portion for an entree, however for the boy with his larger appetite, this was not a problem.

For his main the boy went for a sirloin of steak cooked medium rare and I have to say it was truly cooked beautifully. Flavoured with a subtle hint of garlic and with an almost crust of salt on the outside it was melt-in-the-mouth gorgeous. He had some chips on the side, which were good, and which I naturally stole a few of.

My main course was, unfortunately, a bit of a let-down to an otherwise excellent meal. I'd ordered the Sole Veronique, which promised to be sole cooked in a creamy white wine sauce with mushrooms, clams and mussels. The sole was cooked well and did have a lovely fresh flavour, taking in all of the contributing flavours from the sauce and the shellfish and the sprigs of parsley that were plentiful. So far, so good. I'd ordered some new potatoes and a mixed leaf salad which were also good, the salad was dressed in a nice, simple oil.

The disappointment came when I first tried a clam. I'd had probably the best clams I've ever tasted a couple of weeks earlier at Fino, but these would probably have still been as good, as the flavours seemed fine, however as I took a bite, my mouth was filled with gritty bits of sand. Not good. I would have been willing to put this down as a bad one that had slipped through the net, but I tried another and once again my teeth came down on sand, very, very unpleasant. The realisation that these hadn't been cleaned properly didn't fill me with joy.

I tried to persevere as the sole really was very good, and after a few enjoyable mouthfuls I plucked up the courage to try one of the mussels. These were the same as the clams and unfortunately it was the final nail in the coffin for this dish for me. I was beyond put-off. Clearly you don't ever want to take a chance with shellfish anyway and I was suprised that a restaurant of this standing could fail in such a basic way.

At least I had room for pudding (every cloud and all that). To be frank the dessert I chose was alone worth visiting the restaurant for. It was gorgeous - a valrhona chocolate tart with honeycomb and a vanilla chantilly cream. The pastry was the best I've ever tasted in England by a mile sweet, light and delicate with a filling to die for. The chocolate was creamy, rich and almost velvetty - it literally had me making 'mmm' sounds out loud about three times. The cream and delicious, crunchy honeycomb were the perfect partners for this chocolate perfection.

The boy had a strawberry and cream affair which was nice, but not a patch on mine.

Aside from the main course of mine, we enjoyed a great meal and I can see Bistro du Vin's Clerkenwell joint going from strength to strength. They were bursting at the seams and as I mentioned they really had a great atmosphere.

The presentation wasn't amazing. It was good and all looked appetising, but as they say on their website they're not trying to be pretentious, merely provide wholesome, hearty food and I think they have achieved this well - with a few adjustments in the kitchen (especially where cleaning out clams and mussels are concerned) I think this will become a front-runner on the London restaurant scene.

What I think makes this superior from other bistro-style restaurants I've visited in London is the centre-point open plan kitchen with bar-style seating. Diners are able to take their dinner at the bar and enjoy the theatre of watching their dinner being cooked - wonderful.

Service on the whole was good throughout - the head waiter in particular took his time to welcome us. Also the wine waiter was very attentive and good at explaining what would make a good pairing to various parts of the meal, which I found impressive. Towards the end of the meal we did find we had to fight for attention a little bit and certainly we waited a while for our empty dessert plates to be taken away. But to be fair to the staff it was very busy in the restaurant at this time - I'd put this down as a teething problem.

Bistro du Vin's Soho sister is due to open shortly and I for one will definitely be booking a table to see how this matches up - although I may give shellfish dishes a miss!

For more information or to book a table please visit the website at:

http://www.bistroduvinandbar.com/