Serves 6
INGREDIENTS:
For the rough puff pastry:
500g plain flour, plus extra to dust
10g fine sea salt
500g ice-cold butter, cut into 1cm dice
250ml ice-cold water
200g icing sugar, to dust
For the elderflower and lemon custard:
300ml double cream
100ml elderflower cordial
4 large eggs
100g caster sugar
50ml lemon juice
For the strawberry champagne sorbet:
500g strawberries, hulled and halved
500ml champagne
100g liquid glucose
100g caster sugar
For the elderflower and strawberry syrup:
100g strawberries, hulled
100ml elderflower cordial
200g liquid glucose
For the strawberries
20 strawberries, hulled and halved
Method
To make the rough puff pastry:
Put the flour, salt and butter into a bowl and rub in the butter using your fingertips, until the pieces are roughly half the size. Add the water and mix to a dough. On a floured surface, roll the dough out to a neat rectangle, about 50 x 20cm. Fold the top third down, then the bottom third up over the top. Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Give the dough a quarter-turn, then roll out and fold as before, twice more. Now dust your work surface with icing sugar and roll out the pastry to the thickness of a £1 coin. Dust the pastry heavily with icing sugar and roll up, like a big sausage. Wrap in cling film and chill in the freezer.
To bake the pastry:
Preheat your oven to 200 °C/Fan 180 °C/Gas Mark 6. Line a baking sheet with a non-stick baking mat or silicone paper. Unwrap the pastry roll and cut into 6 slices, the thickness of a £1 coin. Lay these on the baking sheet. (Freeze the rest of the pastry roll for another day.) Bake the pastry discs for 8–10 minutes until crisp and golden. Carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool. Keep in an airtight container until ready to serve.
To make the custard:
Pour the cream and elderflower cordial into a pan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl. Pour on the hot cream mix, whisking as you do so, then add the lemon juice. Pour into a thermomix set at 90 °C and cook on full speed for 5 minutes. Or cook, stirring over a low heat, until the custard reaches 90°C. Immediately pour into 6 serving dishes. Let cool slightly and then place in the fridge to set; this will take 2 hours.
For the strawberry champagne sorbet:
Put all the ingredients into a pan and bring to a simmer over a medium heat. Cook for 15 minutes. Take off the heat and blitz the mixture with a hand blender, then pass through a sieve into a jug and leave to cool. Once cooled, churn in an ice-cream machine until firm, then transfer the sorbet to a suitable container and freeze until ready to serve.
To make the syrup:
Put the strawberries, elderflower cordial and glucose into a pan, bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool, then pass the syrup through a sieve into a jug. Set aside for serving.
To finish the dish:
Put the fresh strawberries into a bowl, add some of the syrup and toss carefully to dress. Remove the elderflower custards from the fridge and arrange the strawberries equally on top of them. Spoon a neat scoop of strawberry sorbet on top of each pile of strawberries and finish with a puff pastry disc. Serve immediately.
Extracted from Restaurant Nathan Outlaw by Nathan Outlaw (Bloomsbury Absolute, £40)