With the summer looming it’s time to get creative with salads and cold puddings. I love finding new ingredients, not necessarily new in the true sense but could be those that are new to me or those products from the past which may have fallen out of fashion. Orange blossom water is one of those ingredients that I remember using in top London restaurants about 10 years ago. We used to make a lovely orange blossom water sorbet which was refreshing and very fragrant.
We discovered Arabica Food and Spice at Borough market about two years ago and fell in love with the range of quality products that they sell. We got hooked on their spices Ras-el-Hanout and Wild Sumac, these are available elsewhere but nothing beats the quality from Arabica Food and Spice. Ever heard or used the phrase “you get what you pay for” well that is definitely so with these ingredients.
We met up with James Walters from Arabica Food and Spice and went for a “jamming session” in his kitchen. It was a fun day cooking on James’ house boat, we were perhaps slightly over ambitious attempting to do too many recipes and perhaps got a bit drawn into the chore of cooking and forget about the enjoyment factor. But all in all it was a fantastic day, the main aim was to use as many of Arabica Food and Spice’s ingredients and we certainly achieved that.
We used the wild sumac in the orange polenta shortbreads to compliment the citrus undertones from the orange, and we also sprinkled some sumac over the mango and orange salad inside the pudding. We made orange blossom air, by adding the orange blossom water to yoghurt and then dispensed it from a cream whipper which was charged with nitrous oxide. The gas injection expanded the volume of the orange blossom flavoured yoghurt and created the most delicious and fragrant mousse texture.
I wanted to use Alphonso mangoes for the pudding but unfortunately these were not available but they will be coming in season very soon so they would be a great substitute for the normal mangoes that I used. The added floral fragrance alongside the orange blossom air, transforms this delicious pudding into something rather spectacular.
Orange, Polenta and Wild Sumac Shortbread
- 125g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 55g caster sugar + extra for baking
- 100g plain flour
- 30g corn flour
- 50g polenta
- Zest or 2 oranges
- Wild sumac
Cream the butter, sugar and orange zest until pale and fluffy.
Add the polenta and cream the mixture for a further 1 minute.
Fold the flour and cornflour into the creamed butter mixture.
Transfer the dough onto clingfilm and form into a sausage shape about 3cm in diameter, refrigerate for 1 hour.
Unwrap the dough sausage, roll it in caster sugar and re-roll to the original thickness and shape. Refrigerate until hard, about 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 175°C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Cut shortbread disks into ½ cm thick slices, remove the clingfilm and roll each slice in caster sugar, and place on baking tray, sprinkle on sumac.
Bake for 12 minutes, dust with more sugar once it comes out of the oven.
Transfer the biscuits to a cooling rack and chill.
Makes about 22 - 24 biscuits
Orange Blossom Air
- 300g natural full fat yoghurt
- 100g double cream
- 50g caster sugar
- 2 leaves of gelatine, soaked
- 10ml Orange blossom water + extra to taste
Soak the gelatine in cold water until completely soft, squeeze to remove the excess water.
Place the cream, soaked gelatine and caster sugar in a metal bowl over a saucepan with simmering water, stir until the sugar and soaked gelatine dissolve. Remove the bowl from the heat and add the natural yoghurt, stir and add the orange blossom water to taste.
Pour the mixture into a clean 1/2 Liter cream whipper, secure the lid and charge the cream whipper with two gas charges. Shake vigorously and place the cream whipper in the fridge to chill. It will need about 2 hours to chill completely.
When you are ready to use the orange blossom air/ foam shake the cream whipper vigorously to loosen the mixture.
Mango Jelly
- 150g mango flesh
- 150ml mango or orange juice
- 80g sugar
- 3 leaves of gelatine, soaked
- 50ml double cream
Blend the mango, sugar, cream and juice until smooth in a blender or food processor.
Transfer the mixture to a small saucepan and bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the soaked gelatine, sir and pass the mixture through a fine sieve.
Pour the mango into serving glasses, carefully transfer them to the fridge and leave to set completely.
Thermomix Method:
Weigh the sugar into the TM bowl, grind on speed 0 for 20 seconds. Add the mango, cream and juice and blend on speed 10 for 1 minute, scrape the sides down.
Set the timer to 8 minutes, 100°C speed 4.
Add soaked gelatine and blend for 20 seconds speed 10.
Pour the mango jelly into serving glasses, carefully transfer them to the fridge and leave to set completely.
To Serve
- 2 oranges segments only
- 1 mango, diced
- Wild sumac
- Mango Jellies
- Orange Blossom Air
- Biscuits
- Chopped fresh thyme
Dice the mango and cut the orange segments into smaller pieces, add a pinch of sumac and divide the mixture between the glasses.
Shake the orange blossom air vigerously, if it's too firm dip the cream whipper in hot water for a few seconds to loosen the mixture.
Squirt the orange blossom air on top of the mango and orange salad and garnish the air with a pinch of sumac and chopped fresh thyme.
Serve the puddings with a few orange, polenta and wild sumac short breads.
Serves 6
