Pick your own, make your own

There are certain childhood memories that are hold a mythical status in your mind - for me going to pick your own fruit is right up there. Rows upon rows of raspberries glistening in the sun, as much as you can eat straight from the branch... well that might not technically be the point of pick your own, but it was for me. It was like the Willy Wonka Factory but instead of chocolate there were raspberries, everywhere. Until I was quite possibly sick.

So sunny bank holiday weekend and I did my best child like pleading. 'Peeeeeeeeeete, please can we go pick your own pleeeeeeeeeeease. You prooooooomiiiiiiiised.' It worked. And off we piled in the car to Garsons in Esher - the very same pick your own farm as I went to as a kid. Oh it was too good to be true.

Now, many things that were immense as a child shrink under adult eyes. Cinema pick'n'mix tastes a little less sweet. Slides are so much shorter and lower. Swimming pool wave machines no longer house sharks, but are just bars at the end of the pool (is that just me?). But the pick your own farm was still as huge as I remembered.

'We need to get some punnets.' I informed the Boy as we drove past field upon field.

'I think we need to find something to pick first.' Good point, it turns our August isn't prime picking period, oops.

We stop at the corn fields first. I hate to admit but I'd never really knew that corn grew out the bottom of the erm, corn on the cob plants... but we selected two plump looking corns 'for starters'. But I was really here for the fruit. Some sad looking blackberry plants were either overpicked or under-ripe and a good 20 minutes of picking only yielded a handful of berries and some scratched wrists. Onward. Carrots, onions and marrows didn't really have the immediate hit (uhum, eat) appeal...

'Maybe if we got some apples we could make a crumble,' said the Boy. Good plan.

Apples were much more fun to pick, giving a satisfyingly weighty plop into your palm when you twisted them off the tree.

But apple picking wasn't what I was here for really. Back in the car in search of the sweet fruit. And just before we got to the exit: berry nirvana! Raspberries, strawberries, ripe and ready to go. I hadn't imagined how fun this was after all. Pick one, eat one, pick one...

Back home it was crumble time. One of my favourite quick-fire recipes is peach, raspberry and ginger crumble from Gordon Ramsay's Cooking for Friends. It's dead simple and won over the Boy's grandmother so it's a keeper. I'll give it to you whole before today's adaptation, becasue it is yum and the stem ginger is an amazing addition.

Peach, raspberry and ginger crumble

For the filling:
8 fimr but ripe peaches
250g raspberries
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp icing sugar
2 stem ginger in syrup, finely chopped

For the crumble:
50g plain flour
pinch of salt
40g diced butter
35g rolled oats
50g demerara sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
30g slivered almonds or crushed hazelnuts (or both!)

Heat the oven to 190. To make the filling: Cut the peaches into wedges and toss in a large bowl with the raspberries, lemon juice, icing sugar and stem ginger. Spread them evenly in a large butter baking dish.

To make the crumble: put the flour and salt in a bowl and add the diced butter. Rub the butter into the floru with your fingers until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in the oats, sugar, cinnamon and nuts and sprinkle over the filling. Bake for about 25-30 minutes until crumble is golden brown and then stand for 10 before serving with ice cream (of course!)

To turn this beauty into late summer fruits crumble: make the filling with one large sliced cooking apple, a handful of blackberries and a handful and a half of raspberries. Toss with the lemon juice, icing sugar but replace the ginger with a covering of ground cinnamon. Crumble and bake the same and voila, from field to bowl in one day.

You scream, I scream

Filo hits CNTraveller.com and eats a lot of ice cream in the process. More pics of the scientific treats at Chin Chin Labs. Is it novelty over substance? I don't think so, I don't really care. It was yum. (And fun)

http://www.cntraveller.com/recommended/uk/the-best-ice-cream-in-the-uk

Take a lick... uhum.

Beef it up: Mango, avocado and steak salad

Looking at me today eating, well, anything that doesn't still have a pulse, you'd never know how much of a fussy eater I once was. Bananas? No, funny texture. Apple crumble? Ew, hot fruit. Red meat? Yuck, chewy (my ten-year-old self had a bit of a thing about BSE). It caused many dinner time row and almost a whole primary school career of no lunchtime playtime as I was forced to stay behind in the dinner hall eating rice pudding grain by grain in protest until that bell rang. So fruit in a salad with red meat would have never passed my tight lipped seal of approval, but trust me it's a winner and the perfect summer combo.

I ripped Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's mango, avocado and beef salad out the Guardian Weekend back in February... the lush red, yellow and green photography almost had me stuffing the page in my mouth. Rolling it out again this week for the second time with the sun shining, it really hit its stride.

Mango, avocado and steak salad

(serves 4)

For the marinade

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1tbsp oyster sauce

1tbsp dry sherry

2tsp soy sauce

1tsp light muscovado sugar

1tsp grated frsh ginger

black pepper

For the salad

350g sirloin or filllet steak

1 large, ripe mango (or if you are a cheater like me, 2/3 a pre-prepped pack)

1 large, ripe avocado

2-3 hanfuls rocket leaves

1 small bunch coriander

For the dressing

2tbsp Thai fish sauce

1tbsp sesame oil

juice 1 lime

1tbsp soy sauce

1tsp light muscovado sugar

1 small chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, finely minced

salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients for the marinade, add steaks and rub it up and leave for 30mins to 1 hour.

Mix together the ingredients for the dressing, slice mango and avocado.

Heat a griddle pan til smoking (does anyone else hear Jim Carrey in the Mask when they see that in recipes?). Sear the steak 2-4minutes per side to taste and thickness, you can probably take it a bit rarer than usually as it make the salad more tender and light. You want it crispy, BBQ style on the outside and gorgeously pink on the inside. Leave to rest for 5 minutes while you arrange rocket, mango and avocado on plates. Top with beef, scatter with coriander and dress. Mmmmmm...

Ice Ice Baby: Freggo-go-go (home delivery ice cream!)

Sometimes (well to be honest a lot of the time), I just love my job. And especially when we get delivered tasty treats by PRs (hint, hint). Today, appropriately enough as the sun came out and I stepped out to get my lunch for the first time sans jacket, it was ice cream.

Spoons at the ready we opened the box.

Now it was a little bit confusing as although we had the whole menu, what we didn't have was what was actually in our box. So it was a bit of matching guesswork. The first curious spoon headed straight for the mystery purply one (bottom right).

'It looks like beetroot'

'You can't get beetroot ice cream'

'I had avocado ice cream once. Not good.'

'It definitely tastes like beetroot.'

'But beetroot isn't on the menu.'

'Hmm maybe it could be Malbec and berries.'

'Yes! It tastes like red wine.'

'It tastes like beetroot.'

'It tastes like a hangover.'

The others we worked out were: (top left across) strawberry sobert, dulce de leche, passionfruit sorbet, (bottom left) chocolate and almond and some sort of fruit and cream ice cream.

And the verdict:

A box like this is a hefty £10.95 delivered in London (free delivery in Zone 1 mind) using the Freggo-go-go scooter until 10pm. The original Freggo ice cream 'bar' (they are very insistant that they are not an ice cream palour) is open to a very clubbing-friendly 2am on Fridays and Saturdays. Fancy a Malbec ice cream instead of your usual glass of red come Friday night? I wonder if they can serve it in a wine glass...

Freggo
27-29 Swallow Street
London
W1B 4QR
http://www.freggo.co.uk