Berried Treasure
My first recipe with the berries was an entry for Ryvita’s Royal competition – Kate Middl-Eton Mess – the Ryvita Fruit Crunch crispbread tasted surprisingly good combined with Spanish blueberries and raspberries, layered with cream cheese and mascarpone. You can read the full recipe here. I’ll definitely be topping my Ryvita with berries for a easy healthy snack now!
And now for the fussy eater… I really struggle to get Ryland to eat fresh fruit and most of what I offer ends up on the floor. But recently I’ve taken a new approach and have tried to make the food look appealing (a lesson I learnt from jojoebi.blogspot.com): berries definitely lend themselves to this! I chop them up and present them on his highchair tray in tiny silicone cupcake cases with a little dish of Greek yogurt, and he seems much more enthusiastic about dipping and eating them.
Yesterday I remembered the Made for Mums recipe competition, where you upload your baby, toddler or family recipes and can win a Samsung camera or camcorder. I decided to make some mini yogurt cheesecakes for Ry’s dessert, using Spanish blackberries and strawberries. Hopefully my recipe will be online soon, it’s a simple base made from baby biscuits and butter, with a cream cheese and greek yogurt berry topping – they went down a treat, so I’ll definitely be making some more!
I wish I had time this week to make my all-time favourite dessert – trifle! It’s a fabulous combination of British and Spanish influences – sherry, sponge, almonds, custard, cream – and I use fresh raspberries and blackberries rather than the hideously old-fashioned fruit in jelly from the eighties. My preferred recipe is this one from Antony Worrall Thompson – be warned though, it makes a giant trifle and is pretty alcoholic. You can see how impressed my parents were when I made one for them last summer… a couple of hours later we were doing the conga round the block!
Instead, I decided to use up my berries with a simple quick dessert to celebrate the Royal Wedding – using a meringue nest for the base, topped with syllabub (double cream, sherry, lemon juice and sugar) and a selection of yummy Spanish berries to make my Union Jack topping. A perfect pud to enjoy whilst watching the happy couple tie the knot (or in my case, watching Barcelona beat Real Madrid in the Champions League Semi Final!) – and hopefully there might be a competition or two I can use it for, I’ve already found one at Good To Know. If you want something a bit healthier, you could always have your berries with some greek yogurt, Ryland-style – the Glen Lyon raspberries I bought are surprisingly sweet!
We’re actually off to Barcelona on Sunday for our first family holiday, and I can’t wait – we’ll certainly be snacking on berries while we’re there… If you want to find out more about berries and other imported Spanish fruits then do check out the Foods from Spain website – and keep an eye on their blog for some fab competitions!
