Whilst in between houses sits we stayed at my Mum & Dads in the granny flat down at the Gold Coast.
This is beneficial for 2 reasons. One, Dad cooks good food & two, I get to make use of the large kitchen.
Mum’s away at the moment in WA, walking the Cape to Cape. A 140km walk from Cape Leeuwin, Augusta to Cape Naturaliste, Dunsborough. She’s been sending me videos and it looks absolutely spectacular and really challenging. She’s with 6 friends she went to school with who also did the Cape to Coast with her a few years back.
Anyway, there was an abundance of mandarins on the kitchen counter counter Dad doesn’t particularly like fruit all that much so I thought I’d use them up in this recipe, which I’d seen in a Gourmet Traveller Magazine.
It was super simple and I’d never even made custard from scratch before so that’s saying something.
Ingredients
- 220 gm (1 cup) caster sugar
- 6 mandarins, peeled and halved horizontally (I only used 4 mandas cause there was only 3 of us eating)
- Thinly peeled rind of 1 mandarin and juice of 2 mandarins
- Thinly peeled rind and juice of 1 lemon
- Crushed ginger snap biscuits, to serve
- 2 tbsp water
For the Ginger Custard
- 2 egg yolks
- 40 gm caster sugar
- 150 ml milk
- 150 ml pouring cream
- 1 tbsp finely grated ginger
Method
- Preheat oven to 220°C. Scatter sugar in a roasting pan. Press cut sides of mandarins into sugar and stand until sugar dissolves and forms a thick crust (5 minutes). Turn mandarins cut-side up. Combine citrus rind and juices and 2 tbsp water in a jug, pour around mandarin, then roast, turning and basting occasionally with pan juices, until juicy and beginning to caramelise (20-22 minutes).
- Meanwhile, for ginger custard, whisk egg yolks and half the sugar in a bowl until pale and thick (2-3 minutes). Bring milk, cream, ginger and remaining sugar to a simmer in a saucepan over medium-high heat, whisking occasionally to dissolve sugar. Pour hot cream mixture over yolk mixture, whisking continuously, then return to pan. Cook, stirring continuously, over medium heat until mixture thinly coats the back of the spoon (2-3 minutes). Strain into a serving jug.
- Serve roasted mandarin drizzled with custard and scattered with crushed ginger snaps.
I made the custard earlier on and heated it up to save a bit of time but it’s a super easy recipe and wonderfully tasty. Roasting the mandarins really brings out their sweetness which is offset by the ginger custard and the ginger snap biscuits give the dish that much need crunch.
A real delight!
chloe weekes 