Remembering

Remembering a special Valentine celebration.

The cost of this Valentine Heart

Price of Gritti cooking school for two, a splendid room at the five-star Gritti...you get the idea

Here is my Valentine gift to you

White Chocolate Heart with Passion Fruit Jelly

Executive Chef  Celestino Giacomello of the Hotel Gritti Palace, Venice, Italy 

White chocolate Bavarian Cream

250 g milk

100 g egg yolks

50 g sugar

10 g fish gelatine

250 g white chocolate

600 g whipping cream

Passion Fruit Jelly

200 g passion fruit pulp

60 g sugar

2 leaves fish gelatine

Biscuit

100 g egg yolks

50 g sugar

100 g plain flour

100 g potato starch

meringue (150 g egg whites and 75 g sugar)

Preparation time:  50 minutes

Difficulty:  Medium

1.  Prepare the Bavarian cream.  Bring milk to the boil.  Beat egg yolks with sugar until smooth then add the milk gradually, the gelatine previously soaked in cold water and squeezed, and lastly, the white chocolate cut up into small pieces.

Once the mixture has cooled down, fold in the whipping cream.

2.  Meanwhile prepare the jelly.  Soak the gelatine in cold water and squeeze it, dissolve it in a double-boiler, add sugar and the pulp of the passion fruits.

3.  Then prepare the biscuit.  Beat egg yolks with sugar (50 g), add the sieved flour and potato starch.  Lighten the mixture by adding meringue (made with the egg whites and 75 g of sugar).  Spread this mixture in a 1/2 cm thick layer on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.  Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes.

4.  Line the bottom of a heart-shaped mould with the biscuit base.  Fill the mould to mid-height with the Bavarian cream and add a layer of passion fruit jelly.  Place the mould in the freezer for 15 minutes and then top with the remaining Bavarian cream.  Smooth the surface and leave the rest in the refrigerator for a few hours. 

Unmould to serve and decorate.

It was divine

Happy Valentine's Day to you, 
my dear friends. 

Gina 

Valentine's Day and Mother's Day coming soon

What to give to a special Friend? 

Maybe a fine, hand made Lace Handkerchief 

in perfect vintage condition.

One more beautiful than the next.

All available in my Etsy shop.

They all come in their individual little cotton gift bags.

 Keep one around for when you need a special gift.

A reminder of gentler times. 

Forgotten patterns of hand made Lace.

This may be the prettiest of them all.
Why not keep it for yourself.

in my Etsy shop.

Gina

What to give your Valentine

"Stories from a time when food, love and music were the essential parts of life ..." (Foreword Keith Floyd)

A rich collection of scandalous stories of love and passion

by

Carol Payne

"Doreen dreamt she lay in the Brassicas with her Gypsy Lover..."

"But today she was excited for she was meeting Bertie Floyd and they were going for a walk down by the Tidefork river.  He was going to show her how to tickle a trout..."

"Shortly after this event Betty was packed off to London to stay with her aunt..."

"Queenie grew up to be a smashing looking girl, a bit wild like her mother, a lover of life and men..."

"She came from a poor Cornish family, so poor that Amy was made to wear underwear made out of flour sacks, which were printed with red, bold letters 'THE FINEST FLOUR'..."

"She was a proud plump woman, well respected in the village..."

Note:

I leave this charming little book in our guest cottage but each time our guests leave I have to check...it fits so easily into their luggage

Book available at Amazon

Gina