Some of our chef's secrets

Sweets

Sweets are not always as popular as they used to be because of this health thing now, so, of course we have to make them more interesting to tempt people .

Van der Hum and Strawberries

Clean the strawberries under cold water making sure to dry them carefully afterwards, heat the skillet pan add the van der hum liqueur reduce for about ten second’s and add the strawberries toss them in the pan until coated in the thickened liqueur, to serve just scatter around a ball or two of Amarula ice cream

Strawberries, van der hum liqueur, amarula ice cream.

Raspberry Romanoff

Wash the raspberries in cold water and dry carefully, place in a blender with the rum and brown sugar and blend for about two second’s, you still want the mixture to be slightly rough.

The natural yoghurt is something I buy locally and is probably one of the best I have tasted, half whip the cream with the castor sugar & cinzano vermouth, fold in the yoghurt.

Fresh or tinned raspberries, cream, natural yoghurt, castor sugar, cinzano vermouth, rum.

Using a glass layer the two mixtures so it finises up looking like a raspberry ripple.

Countreau and Chocolate Mousse

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave, of course if you do this in a microwave it has to be a good quality coverture chocolate otherwise it will split.

Whip the cream and egg white separately, add the semi whipped cream and chocolate together with the cointreau, egg yolks and orange juice , when the mixture has blended fold the egg whites in carefully so as not to knock out to much of the air

Pour into a glass and set in the fridge.

Coverture chocolate, cream, egg whites, egg yolks, cointreau, fresh orange juice,

Sylabub

Whip the cream, castor sugar, lemon juice & white wine together, separately whip the egg whites and fold in, again without knocking out to much of the air. Pour into a glass and set in the fridge.

Cream, egg whites, lemon juice, graca white wine, castor sugar.

The sweet can also be changed by using cointreau & orange juice

Caramel Pear Sandwich

Make a sweet shortbread mixture and bake in round shapes, set aside and allow to cool.

Poach the pears in a syrup and white wine until soft, sandwich between two slices of the shortbread’s with some semi whipped cream.

To make the lemon or lime caramel, slightly brown the castor sugar and when cooling add the citrus juices, pour this around the sandwich and serve.

Shortbread biscuit, fresh pears, white wine, sugar syrup, lemons or limes , cream castor sugar.

Tiramisu

Whip the eggs & castor sugar together until four times the volume, gradually add the cheese spoon by spoon using a paddle on the mixer whilst not knocking down the mixture, set aside.

Make some very strong coffee and add the brown sugar, allow to cool and add the vermouth & Madeira, place the first layer of biscuits in the bottom of the dish and soak with the coffee mixture, pour on a layer of cheese and allow to set in the fridge, in another tray lay out the same amount of biscuits and use the rest of the coffee mixture to soak them, place them on the set cheese mixture and pour on the rest of the cheese, set in the fridge for at least three hour’s and serve.

Mascarpone cheese, eggs, castor sugar, brown sugar, cinzano vermouth, Madeira, boudoir biscuits.

Please remember this sweet must be full of alcohol to get that real Italian flavour.