The AVA brand has released a delicious strawberry dessert recipe for those looking for something sweet and fresh to put on the table at a dinner party. AVA strawberries offer the best in seasonal flavour, sweetness and quality, making you confident that you will be serving great tasting berries every time.
The AVA family includes AVA Star, AVA Blush, and AVA Rosa strawberries, Karaka Black Blackberries, and Lagorai and Vajolet raspberries, which are available now and can found in the premium lines of supermarkets across the UK.
Summer Berry Pimms Kelly by Chef Jacqueline O’Donnell
Ingredients
200g sugar
500ml water
Juice of 1 lemon
50g root ginger, grated and strain through a cloth (juice only)
300ml Pimms
200ml Edinburgh Raspberry Gin
8 gelatine leaves, soaked in cold water
1 punnet of AVA raspberries
1 bunch of basil and mint, finely shredded (keep the small top sprigs for garnish)
A handful of AVA blackberries and AVA™ strawberries
Cucumber Sorbet Ingredients:
6 cucumbers, peeled
400ml water
100g glucose
1 lemon, juiced
300g sugar
1 bunch basil
Method
1) Start by making the sorbet in a pan, bringing the sugar, water and glucose to the boil. Once boiling, add the lemon juice and mix in.
2) Remove from the heat and leave the sugar mixture to chill in an ice cream maker until it reaches the consistency of a sorbet.
3) Mix 6 cucumbers and the basil together in a juicer. Combine the juice with the chilled sorbet base and churn in an ice cream maker until it reaches the consistency of a sorbet. Once ready, store it in the freezer until needed.
4) Next one is the jelly. Bring the sugar and water to the boil and when it starts boiling add the lemon juice and grated ginger. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 5 minutes.
5) Pour the contents of the pan into a bowl and place in the fridge until chilled. Once chilled, add the Pimms and the Edinburgh Raspberry Gin.
6) Pour 200ml of the Pimms and Gin mixture into a pan and reheat gently over a low-medium heat. Dissolve the soaked gelatine sheets in the liquid and once dissolved pour back into the bowl containing the rest of the chilled Pimms and Gin mixture.
7) Strain the jelly mixture into a large jug and pour the Pimms mixture into your moulds and fill up to halfway (there will be liquid leftover which will be used in step 8). Leave to set in the fridge.
8) Once the jelly has set, remove from the fridge and place 3 raspberries and 3 blackberries and a few shredded leaves into each mould. Fill to the top with the remaining liquid and leave to set in the fridge.
9) To serve, un-mould the set jellies by dipping each of the moulds in just boiled water for 10 seconds. Invert onto plates and press together the mould and the plate. In one movement, give a firm shake to un-mould.
10) Garnish around the jelly with halved AVA raspberries, blackberries and strawberries, cucumber and springs of mint and basil. Finish with a scoop of cucumber sorbet in the centre of the jelly
