MOOR HALL

RESTAURANT WITH ROOMS

Celebrating strawberry season

With a sensational recipe

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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
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