Hommage to Delia!!!!

Summer has arrived,and o cozinheiro promises to bring you plenty of ways to cook your way through it, and here for starters, or rather dessert is a spectacular summer pudding to accompany the Wimbledon final, perhaps.
Ooh all that foam!!!!

With everyone banging on about terrines and pate this week, I thought this quite appropriate. A proper use of a terrine. I don´t normally attempt this sort of pudding but I made it for a garden lunch earlier this year and was amazed by the result. Classic Delia at her best, and the recipe worked too!!! Strawberries are plentiful here from late March but nearly over now. However Portugal is not the greatest producer of summer berries, at least here in the south, so I had to substitute with a bag of frozen fruits of the forest. I will give Delias original specification for those of you lucky enough to have berries abounding.



A Summer fruit Terrine
You will need 2 x 900g loaf tins 19 x 12 x 9 cms deep

425 ml sparkling rose wine
( if you cant find this, I successfully substituted 125ml sparkling mineral water to 300ml of rose wine)
22g gelatine granules or leaf equivalent
50g caster sugar
1 tbsp fresh lime juice

FOR THE FRUIT

500g strawberries
225g raspberries
110g each of blackcurrants,redcurrants and blue berries, or a combination of your own choice

Remove the stalks from the fruit and halve any strawberry that is larger than a quail s egg.
carefully mix all the fruit together in a large bowl. In a small saucepan heat half the wine till it begins to simmer, then whisk the sugar and gelatine into it. Make sure that everything has dissolved completely before adding the remaining wine and lime juice.
Pour the liquid into a jug and allow to cool. Lay the fruit in the loaf tin with the smallest prettiest fruit first as this will be the top of the pudding when the terrine is turned out. Pour in all but 150ml of the liquid over the fruit. Lay a sheet of clingfilm over the tin. Place the other terrine on top then put two unopened tins as weights into the terrine and put in the fridge for one hour or until it has set. warm up the remaining 150ml wine mixture and pour it over the surface of the terrine. Re-cover with clingfilm and return to the fridge overnight to set firm.

TO SERVE
Turn out the terrine by dipping it very briefly in hot water and inverting it on to a plate.
Use a very sharp knife (also dipped in hot water ) to cut it into slices.
This recipe can also be made in small individual ramekins if you are catering for large numbers.
Quantities can be doubled in the same proportions.