Spoon 2 tablespoons of the coffee sauce on to each serving plate. Dab a bit of the tiramisu mixture on the base on each basket to prevent it moving around and put it on the coffee sauce. Fill the baskets with alternate layers of the cream and soaked biscuits, breaking up the biscuits to fit and finishing with a layer of the cream. Dust with cocoa powder before serving.
Real sherry trifle
‘Zuppa Inglese’ a base di sherry
This is no short-cut sherry trifle, but the real thing in all its great British glory, right down to the home-made fruit jelly and proper old-fashioned custard. Tony
Serves 6–8
6 sponge fingers or slices of sponge cake
8 macaroons
150ml/¼ pint sweet sherry
300ml/½ pint double cream
tablespoon icing sugar
tablespoons toasted flaked
almonds
For the fruit jelly:
500g/1lb 2 oz mixed strawberries and raspberries
175g/6 oz caster sugar
250ml/9fl oz water
300ml/½ pint fresh orange juice
6 gelatine leaves
For the custard:
200ml/7fl oz whipping cream
200ml/7fl oz milk
1 vanilla pod, split open lengthways
5 egg yolks 1 egg
3 tablespoons caster sugar
Arrange the sponge fingers and macaroons on the base of a 1.8 litre/3 pint trifle bowl. Pour over the sherry and leave to soak.
For the fruit jelly, set aside about 12 small strawberries and 15 raspberries. Place the remaining fruit in a large saucepan with the sugar, water and orange juice, bring gently to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes, until very soft. Pour through a sieve into a bowl, pushing gently with the back of a spoon to extract as much juice as possible. Return the juice to the saucepan, discarding the fruit pulp.
Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 minutes and then squeeze out the water. Add the gelatine to the warm fruit juice and whisk in well, until the gelatine has completely dissolved. Add the reserved strawberries and raspberries, then leave to cool. Pour the mixture over the soaked sponge fingers and macaroons and place in the fridge to set.
For the custard, put the whipping cream, milk and vanilla pod in a pan and bring almost to boiling point. Remove from the heat, cover and leave to infuse for about 20 minutes. Beat the egg yolks, egg and sugar together in a large bowl. Remove the vanilla pod from the cream mixture, pour the cream over the eggs and mix together. Pour back into the cream pan and cook very gently over a low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard has thickened. Be careful not to overcook. Remove from the heat, strain into a bowl and leave to cool, covering the surface of the custard with a circle of greaseproof paper to stop a skin forming. When the custard is cold, pour it over the set jelly and return to the fridge to chill.
Whip the double cream with the icing sugar until it just holds soft peaks. Pile on top of the custard and chill once more, until ready to eat. Serve scattered with the toasted almonds.
When you cast a line or a net, you might not catch anything. But when you do, it’s as if all your Christmases have come at once. Tony
tony
on fishing
I’ve been fishing since I was a kid and I still get excited by it. Before I started to sell fish I was a fish cook, and now I own a chain of fish restaurants around Britain. So on my day off, what do I do? Go fishing, of course.
The great thing about fishing is the unpredictability of the whole thing. When you cast a line or a net, or a fishing rod, you don’t know what’s under the water. You might not catch anything. But when you do, it’s as if all your Christmases have come at once.
When people ask me what I like best about fishing, they want to know if the exciting bit is watching the rod and seeing the bite, or actually feeling the fish on the line. The thrill is definitely about the take and the play of the rod when you’re game fishing for trout or salmon. But with beach casting, it’s different. You start off all relaxed and floating, without a care in the world, and then suddenly, from out of nowhere, you see that bite. That’s the best thing in the world.
giorgio
on fishing
I hate fishing. I’m not a big fisherman like Tony. I especially hate all that waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting. That’s why I’m not a very good pastry cook. I can’t stand putting something in the oven and then just waiting around for everything to happen. I’d be forever opening the oven door to find out how it’s going. ‘Is it ready yet?’ I like action, I like to move with my food.
So no, I am in too much of a hurry to be a fisherman. To be honest, I get more of a thrill out of finding a wild mushroom in the forest. Now that’s exciting.
I used to go fishing as a boy in Lake Maggiore, near where we lived in northern Italy. We used to go after gobbino, or sunfish, which are a good eating fish, a little smaller than perch. I remember going out with my grandfather one time and we found a buca. This is a hole on the bottom of the lake floor where the fish go to lie low during summer, to escape the heat. They just stay there all day, then come out at night to feed. All you had to do was put in your line and pull out a fish. Put in and pull out. Put in and pull out.
That’s the sort of fishing I like. No waiting.
tony
