Suck it up – Worcester berry and marzipan crumble

Worcester berry and marzipan crumble

I remember being told as a young child, “sometimes we need to do things we don’t necessarily want to do”. Tough love. I think the next few months are going to fall under that heading. I’m just going to have to “suck it up”  (and comfort eat).

An ex-boyfriend once told me my food wasn’t “sexy”. Perhaps he was right but frankly I couldn’t care less, on a good day it is pretty darn tasty. This recipe is a perfect example of that; not sexy but great comfort food.

Worcester berries

I hadn’t come across Worcester berries before last Saturday when I spotted them at the farmer's market. If you are interested they are a cross between a red gooseberry and a blueberry and make excellent jam apparently. If you can’t find them most stone fruit such as plums or berries such as brambles would work well.

Worcester berry crumble filling

Worcester and marzipan crumble

Makes 4 pots

Oven set to 180 degrees c

For the topping –

100g plain flour

80g of butter at room temperature

20g demerara sugar

35g marzipan chopped into ½ cm cubes

For the filling -

600g Worcester berries, topped and tailed

80 - 100g approx of caster sugar

Add the filling ingredients to a pan over a moderate heat.

Maybe add a tiny splash of water if you think it will stick.

Cook for approx 5 minutes or until soft.

Have a taste you may need to add more sugar.

To make the topping add the flour and butter together by rubbing the mixture between your fingers until it resembles rough sand.

Stir in the sugar and half of the marzipan.

To assemble the crumble add some of the filling to a wee pot or ramekin if you are being posh.

You may want to add the fruit and just a little of juice as it would be a bit of a watery crumble if you add the whole of the filling mixture.

Scatter the remaining half of the marzipan onto the filling and then add the topping mix.

To make a crisp crumble make sure the top is completely covered and compress slightly.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until crisp and lovely.

Serve with cream, custard, yogurt or whatever you fancy. Personally I think some elderflower ice cream would be pretty amazing with this.

Enjoy.

Worcester berry and marzipan crumble - tucking in

Tip top saturday lunch - duck egg, asparagus and brown shrimp

Asparagus, duck eggs and brown shrimp

This week has been one for first time adventures. 

1 - I went to the wonderful Turkish restaurant Empires, for Z's birthday. I've been meaning to go for about 3 years. I’m always tardy.

2 - I've had my cooking filmed (just weird).

3 - I cracked my duck egg virginity. Pardon the pun, genuinely sorry, couldn’t resist. 

Duck egg with asparagus and brown shrimp

The filming was for a friend of a friend so I was happy to help out but gees was it weird. I’m so used to just being an idiot in the kitchen, dancing around, singing badly, somehow I didn’t feelcomfortable doing that with someone I had just met for the first time. I wonder if that is how Delia feels when the film crew is in her home? Does she also dance to 80s tunes in her bare feet? 

On to the duck eggs. Yep I've never had one before today. It took me 3 Stockbridge deli's before Mr Bower the butcher came up trumps with the eggy gold.  If you have never had them before, they really were lovely. The egg white was meant to be denser but to be honest I never noticed any difference. My only observations were that it is slightly larger than a large hen's egg, and the yolk was more rich and buttery. Yolk was all that was needed to dress this dish. Who needs a hollandaise when you have a runny duck egg yolk?

Fried duck eggs

Duck egg with asparagus and brown shrimp - serves 2 as a light lunch

The recipe was based on a dish in Mark Hix's "British Seasonal Food"

2 duck eggs

140g asparagus spears

60g cooked brown shrimp or potted shrimp

veg oil

seasoning

Boil the asparagus in a pan of salted water for 2-3 minutes depending on the thickness. 

In the mean time heat a frying pan on a medium to low heat with a little oil and add the eggs. 

Spoon over any excess oil over the eggs, to cook the top of them.

Add the shrimp to the eggs.

Drain the asparagus and add to the eggs.

Season.

Serve and enjoy.

Tip top saturday lunch - asparagus, duck egg and brown shrimp