Cheddar Strawberries!

Having previously moaned and bitched about how horribly disappointing eating out is, I've been in England for 5 days now, and I've eaten out 4 times, and not been dissatisfied with the food once.   There's very little pretension here, basically what's described on the menu is exactly what's served, without any of the frills or fancy names, a salad for example, is just that lettuce, cucumber, cress and tomatoes, but it's all really fresh, flavorful and delicious, with no unexpected surprises. The food served isn't drowned in sauce, or dwarfed by a mountain of rice or fries, the portions are smaller, but sweeter, and less really is more.

I get so excited when shopping for ingredients in England it's just so much fun, the fruit and vegetables, especially the locally grown produce are absolutely packed with flavor.

This weekend Mum and I drove to Cheddar, which is only a few miles from where my Mum lives, and it's the home of the best cheddar cheese, and strawberries in the world (in my opinion).  The cheddar is mouth-wateringly fabulous, the texture is smooth, and the taste scale's up from mild to extra strong, or vintage, so strong in-fact it can make your eyes water, which is exactly how I like it.

On the road as you leave Cheddar there's a little roadside stall selling locally grown fruit, this is where you will find the sweetest strawberries,  you can smell them as you step out of the car, and the flavor is so incredibly sweet, it almost makes you want to cry.  The perfection of these strawberries is the stuff dreams are made of.

We bought so many I decided I would make a desert,  I had enough to play around with. This is my twist on a summer pudding.

Daisy's Strawberry Stack

I loaf of Brioche
1 cup fresh raspberries
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp honey
2 cups strawberries, hulled (preferably small ones)
1 ripe mango, peeled and sliced

Put the raspberries, lemon juice and honey into a blender and whiz to liquify, strain the liquid through a sieve to remove all the seeds, and set the strained liquid aside.

Slice the Brioche into 1/2 inch slices, remove the crusts, and cut roughly into 1 1/2 inch circles.
Dip the circles of brioche into the raspberry liquid.
Using a 1 1/2 inch diameter deep round cutter, press the soaked brioche into the base of the cutter and layer with the mango and the strawberries.
Repeat this until you have 2 layers of fruit and 3 layers of Brioche. Finishing with a topping of strawberries.

Press down gently on the strawberries and carefully pull off the cutter, place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Serve with a dollop of creme fraiche, or clotted cream.

Enjoy :o)