Heston Blumenthal's Perfect Burger

Yay, it's finally BBQ season... It may look like I only cook chocolate delice and frangipane tarts, but hey, my kids like a burger as much as the next person.  Of course that wouldn't be a generic supermarket burger, and so finally the opportunity to try Heston's perfect burger recipe.  I'd seen this recipe on his How to Cook Like Heston show, but we didn't fire our BBQ at all last year, and so the itch grew and grew.

Eggs Benedict and Heston Blumenthal's Perfectly Poached Eggs

Hubby is mildy addicted to eggs Benedict - he frequently orders it for working breakfasts, and you can see from some of his comments that he has many, many criteria he applies to the dish.  Consequently I'm often reluctant to cook it at home - but hey, it's Christmas - the man deserves his favourite breakfast at Christmas surely?!

Heston Blumenthal's Macaroni Cheese

Whenever I get a little bored, or I'm sitting in the bath, I delve into my i-pad espisodes of How to Cook Like Heston...  I like the combination of science, technique and, ultimately, gastronomy - it always has my food brain working overtime... After a particularly late night hosting our annual Christmas quiz, I delved into the episodes again, and looking at my groaning cheese boards (yes, plural), thought I'd better get stuck into some of his cheese recipes.

Heston Blumenthal's Meat Fruit

I recently had dinner at Dinner, by Heston Blumenthal. For various reasons the Hubby and I weren't actually going to order "Meat Fruit", but the kitchen sent us one, and we were completely blown away by the texture of the parfait, and the contrasting acidity of the jelly.  The dish is light, but rich, moreish, very slightly palate cleansing - and yes - I accept that those are complete contradictions.  It's the mandarin jelly - it really does release something in the palate that allows the very rich parfait to not become overly cloying.

Heston Blumenthal's Lemon Tart [Thermomix]

Without doubt the best lemon tart I've had, light, just set and vibrant with citrus flavours.

I've actually made this recipe several times now, and have gradually refined the process so that now the 11yo actually makes it on her own! The first time I ignored all of the instructions about sticking it into the freezer, and I paid the price. Firstly the dough was far too soft to handle, and broke as I was transferring it to the case. Secondly it went golden far too quickly, and lastly it absolutely fell apart when I mis-handled the tin. Make sure you follow the instructions exactly, use an oven thermometer, your digital thermometer, and if you have one, your laser thermometer too!