Blackcurrant, vanilla and lime verrine

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 6 glasses, you will need:

• 1 250 ml milk
• 2 ½ vanilla pod
• 3 50 g caster sugar
• 4 3 egg yolks
• 5 20 g cornflour
• 6 1 lime
• 7 4 drops food colouring
• 8 300 ml blackcurrant coulis
• 9 20 g caster sugar
• 10 2 g agar-agar
• 11 200 ml sugar syrup
• Total weight: 1,015 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
50 min.	25 min.	1 hour 9 min.

Step by step recipe

• 1: Prepare a confectioner's custard: pour 250 ml milk into a pan, add the ½ vanilla pod and bring to the boil.
  As soon as the milk boils, add the zest of 1 lime. Remove from the heat, cover and leave to infuse 10 minutes.
• 2: Prepare the custard by mixing together 50 g caster sugar and 3 egg yolks, then add 20 g cornflour and mix thoroughly.
  Pour the hot milk onto this mixture and stir constantly until thoroughly mixed. Then pour it back into the pan through a sieve to remove the vanilla and lime zest.
• 3: Cook as for a normal confectioner's custard, then stand the pan to cool in cold water, stirring occasionally to avoid a skin forming.
  When the custard is still warm, add the juice of 1 lime and 4 drops food colouring (green), and beat vigourously.
  Leave to cool completely, still with the pan in cold water.
• 4: Meanwhile, prepare or thaw 300 ml blackcurrant coulis, which should be completely smooth in texture.
• 5: Mix 20 g caster sugar with 2 g agar-agar. This is to help the agar-agar blend more easily with the syrup.
• 6: Bring 200 ml sugar syrup to a simmer and tip in the mixture of sugar and agar-agar while beating vigourously to mix.
• 7: Then pour the hot syrup into the blackcurrant coulis and mix well.
  You can use a hand-mixer briefly for this if you wish, to ensure thorough mixing.
• 8: Begin assembling the verrines by putting a layer of cold (or barely warm) confectioner's custard in bottom of each glass. Use a forcing bag if possible, as this makes the job much easier.
• 9: Pour a layer of blackcurrant coulis on top while this is still warm and sufficiently runny.
• 10: Finish with a layer of whipped cream (chantilly), which you can dust with a little matcha green tea powder.

Remarks

If you wish to prepare the dessert in advance, this is not a problem for the 2 layers of lime and blackcurrant, but it's wise to prepare the whipped cream at the last minute; it's always better.

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