Racine: dessert recipes from Henry Harris’s new restaurant

1. Mont Blanc

Like all fantastic dishes, there is tiny to this. A very simple meringue base – thin and just enough to keep a great dollop of crème chantilly. Then a tangle of extruded chestnut puree, dusted with icing sugar like snowy mountain peaks. Almost nothing else is desired, though I need to confess to a weak point for marrons glacés – on event it is alternatively awesome to include a single to the plate.

Mont Blanc

ROMAS FOORD FOR THE Periods Magazine

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
For the meringue
100g egg white (from about 3 medium eggs)
Pinch of salt
200g caster sugar
For the chestnut cream
400-500g simple chestnut puree (dependent on pack dimensions)
100g icing sugar, sifted
50ml Armagnac, Cognac or darkish rum

For the crème chantilly
250ml double cream
Vanilla seeds scraped from fifty percent a pod

To provide
Icing sugar
Marrons glacés (optional)

Process
1. Preheat the oven to 90C (110C non-supporter). Whip the egg whites with the salt to a stiff peak. Include a quarter of the sugar and keep on to whip right up until glossy and sleek. Repeat the system right up until all the sugar is included.

2. On non-adhere baking parchment, set up the meringue mixture into a significant oval or round condition. Bake in the oven for 1-1½ several hours. You are after a crisp exterior and a base with a very little gooeyness to the inside.

3. In the meantime, combine the chestnut cream elements until easy. Chill right up until essential.

4. To make the crème chantilly, chill all the elements including the whipping bowl and whisk. Combine the ingredients in the bowl and whisk to an just about agency peak. Return to the fridge.

5. To make your Mont Blanc, spot the meringue on a serving plate. Pile the crème chantilly onto the meringue. Applying a potato ricer, extrude a excellent volume of chestnut puree onto the whipped cream to protect it and create your mountain. At last, sift a minimal icing sugar about the top to produce your snow-capped peak.

6. Provide accompanied with marrons glacés if you wish.

2. Petit pot au chocolat

My first position as a youthful cook dinner was for Simon Hopkinson at Hilaire in 1984. This was just one of the initially puddings he showed me how to make. It is even now one particular of my favourite chocolate desserts: a dense custard with a gentle crust. I like it with a superior blob of crème fraîche on leading.

Petit pot au chocolat

ROMAS FOORD FOR THE Periods Journal

Serves 4

Substances
390ml double product
1 vanilla pod, split
50g caster sugar
175g 70 per cent chocolate, broken into compact items
140ml milk
2 egg yolks

Method
1. Preheat your oven to 120C (140C non-fan). In a saucepan heat the cream, vanilla and sugar, carry it to a mild boil, then eliminate from the heat. Idea in the chocolate items and stir with a spatula right until the chocolate has dissolved and the mixture is clean and shiny.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk with each other the milk and yolks. Whisk this combination into the chocolate mixture right up until put together, then pressure via a sieve into a clean up bowl.

3. Divide this mixture into modest pots or ramekins. Place them into a roasting pan crammed with very hot drinking water that reaches two thirds of the way up the pots. Transfer to the oven and bake for 40-60 minutes. Immediately after 30 minutes, keep an eye on the pots. The mixture demands to puff up slightly and look a minimal crusty.

4. Get rid of from the oven and carry the pots cautiously from the bain marie. Established apart to amazing, then chill for a good 6-8 several hours. Serve with a generous dollop of crème fraîche, preferably French, as it is the greatest.
Bouchon Racine, 66 Cowcross Road, London EC1 (bouchonracine.com)