Citrus Ginger Cranachan - Foodie Joust Sep 1

I am just not convinced by my entry for this month's foodie joust... But the pictures turned out nice so here it is.

Kittie won last month's seafood, sesame, cilantro challenge with an extra- ordinary trio of dishes and has set this month's challenge ingredients - whole grains, ginger and citrus.

In honour of Kittie being a Scot, and because I am going to Scotland next week, I decided to combine two of my favourite Scots-ish things to come up with something that would surpass them both. It didn't.

Favourite thing number 1 is cranachan (aka cream crowdie) - a luscious combination of cream, raspberries, toasted oats, whisky and honey. Favourite thing number 2 is whisky oranges with atholl brose cream - a luscious combination of cream, oranges, whisky and honey. I think you can probably see why I thought they would work well together...

So. I marinated segments of orange, lime and pink grapefruit in orange-blossom honey, slivered stem ginger and Jack Daniels (someone wouldn't let me use his single malt...) for the best part of a day. Poured off most of the juice (used it to make some fairly charming little grown-up jellies), whisked double cream with more honey and JD, folded through the drained segments with wholegrain porridge oats (caramelised with brown sugar) and topped the lot with some exceptionally pretty shreds of caramelised citrus peel. Chilled an hour and ate it.

And it tasted just the slightest bit too hand-knitted. I think I got my proportion of oats wrong. The cream, fruit and booze should dominate with the hit of toastiness from the caramelised oats as an undercurrent, and I just missed the mark.