Lemon and Rosemary Posset

I'm in a bit of a manic cycle of shopping, supperclubbing, travelling, packing, unpacking, washing up, shopping, supperclubbing... You get the picture. It's very challenging, particularly as I'm hosting suppers three weeks in a row... but also beautiful and fun. The Farne Islands was the latest challenge, this weekend just gone, a much more unusual dining location than Lindisfarne, but really stunning. The sun shone, looking back over the calm hazy sea to Bamburgh guests had drinks and watched puffins hop around, it was just beautiful... A minke whale was spotted passing just hours earlier... Each time I'm only envious I'm not joining in with them; but someone has to be in charge of the kitchen chaos...

Running the gauntlet through the diving arctic terns with plates of food was interesting, either getting pecked, or worse... the other end. Luckily they just missed the food each time, splatting only us, a camera lens, the dining table and the floor... the baby terns kept on making a run for our dining room determined to see what was going on in there... But there weren't many sand eels on the menu so they eventually lost interest...

 

I have served this Lemon and Rosemary Posset for pudding at both Lindisfarne and the Farnes so far, it's one of my new favourites... I love a lemon pudding but the addition of rosemary is really special. It's basically just cream, sugar, lemon and rosemary and pretty simple to make.

These amounts will make 8 little puddings or 4 large ones. Peel off two big bits of lemon rind and take two big sprigs of rosemary, add them to a pan and give them a bit of a bash to get their oils out. Add 300ml of double cream and heat till it is steaming, don't let it boil. Then leave to infuse, anything from half an hour to overnight.

 

Remove the rosemary and lemon from the cream and put the cream back on the heat, adding 110g of caster sugar, bring it slowly to the boil and simmer for two minutes, then remove it from the heat and add the juice of 2 lemons, about 60ml. Add to glasses, cups or bowls, however you want to serve it and pop it in the fridge to set for a few hours or overnight. It is so delicious and creamy, very lemony and sweet but also dusky with rosemary... It's gone down very well so far, I've been serving it with almond meringues and clotted cream, even more delicious...