Almond French Toast, Slow-cooked Lamb & Creme Bachique

 This mothering Sunday I decided to opt for the classic: French Toast. Is their anything better than a hunk of golden, buttery, eggy bread doused in maple syrup? No siree. Crispy bacon takes it up a notch. But I like to keep it simple with a sharp raspberry compote and a dollop of yoghurt. As I can't resist playing, I also dipped the bread in flaked almonds before frying so that they toasted while the bread caramelised in a nod to my mum's favourite Croissants aux Amandes. It worked really well and she loved it.

So did Amelie. She managed to jump paw-first into the action and ended up in prime toast-licking position. The little minx.

 Breakfast cleared away and my next task was lunch. I did our family’s no-recipe, easy peasy and incredibly melt-in-the-mouth shoulder of lamb.  The hardest part is remembering to put it in the oven as soon as you wake up (after a lazy Sunday lie in of course). Whilst the oven is heating to max, put a shoulder (or two) of lamb into a roasting tin, score the skin lightly and drape/drizzle the contents of two tins of anchovies over the lamb with lots of cracked pepper. Don’t worry if you hate fish as they merely act as a seasoning and  all fishy flavour is surrendered to the rich lamb-y juices. 

From this...

...to this

When the lamb has been in the oven for 20 minutes, spread the melting anchovies over all the skin and turn the oven down to low i.e somewhere between 80 – 100°C or at the bottom of an aga, and cook for anything between 4 – 8 hrs basting occasionally until it is almost falling off the bone. All this dish needs is, potatoes boulangere (with plenty of onion) and any seasonal green vegetables, perhaps coated in a white sauce if you are feeling greedy. I love adding a heavy hand of gremolata at the end.

Heavenly Creme Bachique

For dessert I made Diana Henry's Creme Bachique which is just SO GOOD. If it was an English dessert it would be called 'Wasted Custard' or 'Boozy Cream' due to its alcohol content - but Creme Bachique just sounds so much better. It is in fact a very elegant dessert, albeit one that takes half a bottle of dessert wine - the better the wine, the better the result as the flavour really shines through. I used Royal Tokaji 5 Puttonyos Aszu, a beautiful sweet wine from Hungary which somehow had survived Christmas untouched. Henry recommends a Sauternes.

Strangely I managed to make far more mix than could fill the 6 x 125ml moulds suggested and they didn’t completely set (see my sorry picture!) so I have contacted Diana to see what could have happened. She has very kindly agreed to investigate. Additionally she said she created this dish merely from reading about it in an old French cook book sans recipe - how clever is that? I love that there are still so many undiscovered recipes - and this one beats the creme caramel norm hands down. Anyway, imagining it is my mistake, here is her original recipe:

Creme Bachique by Diana Henry published in House & Garden April 2013

• First make the caramel by dissolving 115g Granulated Sugar with 3 tbsp Water over a low heat. Turn up the heat and boil until it turns to a dark caramel. Slowly add 100ml water (be careful, it splutters) and  leave to cool.
• To make the custard, preheat the oven to 130°c. Whisk 2 Eggs, 6 Egg Yolks, 100g Sugar & ½ Tsp Vanilla Extract in a large bowl.
• In two separate saucepans, heat 475ml Double Cream & 250ml Sweet White Wine until they begin to simmer.
• Slowly whisk the wine into the egg mixture, followed by the cream.
• Strain through a sieve into a jug and then pour into six buttered, metal, dariole-type moulds, sitting in a roasting tray.
• Pour boiling water up to halfway around the moulds and cook for 35 minutes until set with a slight wobble.
• Cool in the water and then chill for 4-6 hours.
• To unmould, run a knife around the edges and dip in boiling water. Spoon the caramel over each and enjoy.

With thanks to my dad'd delicious rum cocktail which helped write this post - after a
long stretch of inedible cocktails, he finally got his signature punch. So proud.