Scottish Bramble Sorbet

Ok, so the second blog of this evening goes to dessert: Sorbet!

This was inspired by my better half's little brother who has made brilliant (if slightly alcoholic) sorbet in recent weeks which made me realise I totally discount it as a satisfying pud! I also reckoned if a 12 year old could make sorbet- so could I.

I started by mixing 170g of sugar with 1 pint of cold water in a saucepan and added the rind of a lemon. I brought this mix to the boil slowly, ensuring all sugar had dissolved prior to blasting it heavily with heat for 4 minutes.

The juice of the lemon was then squeezed into the pan, now off the heat, and the liquid mixture left to cool completely.  Whilst this was cooling, I removed all random leaves and twigs from the freshly picked brambles and washed them of all additional protein (creepy crawlies), blitzing them in a blender to await the cooled syrup.

Once the sugar syrup had cooled completely,  I mixed this with the bramble pulp and drained through a sieve in order to get a completely smooth sorbet. 

Leave in the freezer for around 6 hours and then meet your new best friend. Endless opportunities exist with sorbet to try this with alternative fruit - I think the perfect pal for this tonight would have been a crisp mint chocolate thin. The fresh sweet taste or the bramles were brought to life by the lemon yet could have been better showcased with a bitter dark chocolate play mate.  Bon, bon.

Salmon Fillet with Parmesan and Pesto Crust

Tonight I shall write two short blogs, on a very delicious but super simple 2 course meal. The first shall focus on the main- salmon and roasted veg.

This is a very typical dinner dish for us, it's easy, healthy and relatively quick however salmon can sometimes just be plain boring and tonight I fancied a change. So, I blitzed 1 slice of seeded batch bread in a blender and added around 20g of grated parmesan and 3 teaspoons of pesto in order to make a slightly moist breadcrumb mix. This tops the salmon fillets before heading into the oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.

To join the salmon I laced a baking tray with olive oil, salt and pepper then chopped white onion, yellow pepper, carrot, courgette and garlic - tossing them in the oil mix before heading onto a lower shelf for a similar time frame. You can pick any veg you like however this colour mix felt quite 'autumnal' and suits the weather we are having at the moment.

To serve, I placed the steaming hot salmon onto a bed of veg. The pesto and parmesan crust really complimented the garlicy veg but did not over power the gentle taste of the fish. This is definitely one to be played around with- I hope you find your own perfect combination and enjoy!