Hello, loyal readers! I can see that a reasonable number of people are still visiting me, and I am enormously pleased by this. 🙂 Even though I haven’t posted for 6 months, I still have readers! Thank you all.
So I have some food photography for you. Not as much as before, because of the ol’ lack of camera thing. But some.
The following dainties were provided for me on my birthday, by my mother. They were from Maison Blanc, Raymond Blanc’s little patisserie in Winchester. And they tasted a-MAY-zing.
This first one was an elderflower and pomegranate jelly, with a lightly flavoured mousse – I still think it was like jasmine, almost, but when I asked in the shop a few weeks ago, they had no idea… Not a good sign, if you ask me, but it tasted so fantastic that I’m willing to let it go. The jelly had tiny alpine strawberries in it, and a few aptils of pomegranate. There was a thin layer of moist, light, delicious sponge for it all to sit on, with a physalis on top.
The second dainty little morsel was a layer of sponge, one of mousse (blackcurrant flavoured), a second of mousse (more neutrally flavoured, and more there for the look than the taste), and then a top layer that was a sort of fine coulis of blackcurrant. Three blueberries and a’wing’ of white chocolate finished it off. The strength of blackcurrant in the mousse as fantastic, although it wasn’t the most epically blackcurranty thing I’ve ever had, that honour going to a coulis dressing on icecream that I had at the Mercure hotel in Exeter.
The third had a cunningly concealed WODGE of almost pure blackcurrant… mostly skins. And possibly pips. Do blackcurrants have pips? Anyway, this had been hidden away inside, as as unexpected treats go, it was a bit lacking. I like my treats to be genuinely covetable, not things that you eat as speedily as you can so that you can go back to the lovely mousse. Yes, another mousse. I get the feeling that Blanc likes his mousses. Since the whole experience is now about 4 months ago, I forget just how this one tasted, except I know it wasn’t as blackcurranty as you’d expect, given that it’s FULL OF BLACKCURRANTS. Or skins.
The last one was amazing. Lemony and passionfruity, once again moussy, but so flavoursome and rich that the half I had (we shared them all, half of each each) was exactly enough, despite the fact that it was also about as light as a small feather. Beautiful creation, very spiffily presented. Only problem with the whole venture is that Mum had to transport them home, and that led to a certain amount of, hm, movement in their little white box. No true disasters, but cracks in the surfaces that Blanc would have been most unimpressed with.
See? But also, look how sharply the passionfruit seeds stand out against the yellow coulis, and how the blackberry glistens juicily – no, wait, not glistens. Sit drily on top, failing to glisten. Oh well. As nitpicks go, that’s not too bad a one. After all, the blackberry had been sitting atop its mousse (yes, more mousse) for some hours, I think it can probably be forgiven for looking a bit tired. It tasted ok, but next time, I’d lay in a store of fresh blackberries to put on top instead.
And there we go. A Proper Food Post.
More after tomorrow evening’s dinner and canasta.
foodporn 