Fire fire!

Had a lovely day out with great friend Fi, who very generously treated me to a cookery demo day with lunch, as an early birthday present. It is she (after all) who has suffered most at my ineptitude in the kitchen over the decades. And she who's obviously decided I need to brush up my culinary skills to complement my kitchen!

This morning's demo was by Jonray and Peter Sanchez-Inglesias from Casa Mia in Bristol (yeah but no but yeah but not no never) who were excellent (once we stopped tittering at their brizzle accent). This afternoon (equally brilliant but quite different) was Valentine Warner who apparently has a new TV series starting on Sunday. He was less than impressed when I said his restaurant - Tacorreah - sounded like something he should see an STD clinic about. But I'd had two glasses of wine by then so can't be held responsible for escaping comments (or wit as I like to call it).

This is the moment that the dry ice was poured over the strawberries on turf.

And here's the recipe:

Strawberries with the smell of a summer's day

Strawberry marinade:
1 tbs black peppercorns
2 star anise cloves
150g cassis
small bunch tarragon
50g vanilla extract
1 amalfi lemon

Strawberry jelly:
850g strawberry juice
150g sugar
1g citric acid
4 gelatine sheets

Vanilla ice cream;
1000g milk
47g cream
200g caster sugar
200g egg yolks
4 vanilla pods
60g procream
6g xantham gum

Smell of a summer's day
Hot tea
Oils / extracts:
Turf from garden centre
Fresh cut grass (cold infusion)
Flowers (cold infusion)
Honey and Fresh mint (cold infusion)

Dry ice to serve!

If anyone's interested in the method, let me know and I'll scan the words and send them to you as I'll get RSI if I attempt to type them!