25 Jun 2021
Nothing says summer quite like a strawberry, and with Wimbledon kicking off on June 28th, we asked Chef Patron Mark Birchall to share a delicious recipe to best celebrate these little bursts of sunshine à la Moor Hall…
Mark Birchall’s strawberries, kernel mousse, almond and lemon verbena ice tea. Serves four.
Ingredients
300g strawberries
100g sugar
¼ lime juice
For the apricot kernel mousse:
12g apricot kernel oil
225g milk
150g egg yolk
80g caster sugar
150g honey
3 gelatine leaves
650g whipping cream
For the pumpkin seed crumb:
65g butter
50g sugar
50g demerara sugar
50g plain flour
50g ground almonds
25g oats
15g chopped pumpkin seeds
For the tea granita:
30g lemon verbena
160g sugar
700g water
1 whole lemon juice
8 x Darjeeling tea bags
Method
For the apricot kernel mousse:
- Heat the milk up in a pan to just under boiling. Remove from the heat and add the kernel oil
- To make the anglaise, strain the hot milk through a sieve into a saucepan then add the egg yolk, sugar and honey and cook on a low heat to 75°c or until the mixture thickens and leaves a clear path on the back of a spoon when a finger is drawn across (will take around 5 minutes, do not boil and stir constantly)
- Whilst cooking the anglaise put the gelatine leaves in a bowl with cold water to bloom
- Once cooked remove from the heat, drain the gelatine leaves and mix well with the anglaise. Put the mixture in a bowl and chill in the fridge
- Whisk the cream to soft peaks
- Fold one third of the whipped cream into the anglaise. Then add the rest of the cream making sure you don’t overmix
- Chill the mousse until serving (at least 2 hours)
For the pumpkin seed crumb:
- Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl
- Mix until all comes together into a ball
- Crumble the mixture onto a greaseproof lined baking tray so you have little clusters of crumble
- Bake at 160°c for 20 minutes or until golden brown
To make the tea granita:
- Boil the water then add lemon, sugar, verbena and Darjeeling tea
- Infuse for 4 minutes then pass through a sieve
- Allow to cool, place into a 1 litre container and freeze. You will need to do this 6 hours before you make the dish
To macerate the strawberries:
- Remove the green from the strawberries then slice into quarters half
- Put them in a large bowl and add the sugar and lime juice
- Gently roll the strawberries over with a spoon. Do this 10 minutes before serving the dish to allow the sugar to soften and sweeten the strawberries
To serve
- Start with a large dessert spoon of the kernel mousse in the middle of the plate
- Arrange the macerated strawberries around the front of the mousse
- Add the crumble mixture to the top of the mousse
- Then get a fork and scrape the top of the granita so it creates crushed ice
- Add a heaped tablespoon to the top of the dish just before serving
- Garnish with lemon verbena leaves