My Valentine's Day present to Alastair was a sweet treat of his choosing. He chose a Seventies-tastic recipe from our Seventies-tastic cook-book Supercookery (the illustrations are hilarious).
As well as looking, in my opinion, frankly dubious, it was a complicated beast to make. Stage one was the pastry case - a basic shortcrust baked blind.
No need for baking beans or anything else - just prick the pastry all over with a fork and it won't puff up.
Stage two was the custard. I made crème patissière - it's probably not economical in terms of either ingredients (five egg yolks!) or time, and you could substitue posh custard from the supermarket, the kind that comes in tubs, but for sheer Domestic Goddessery you can't beat making it yourself (and licking out the saucepan is akin to attaining Nirvana).
I used a Delia recipe - I always go to Delia for my basics, although I do have to say, in my humble opinion some of her recipes aren't all they're cracked up to be. Anyway, first I put a vanilla pod into a pint of milk and brought it to boil. One of the nicest sights in the kitchen -a pan of warm milk sprinkled with vanilla seeds.
Then I alchemised egg yolks, sugar and flour into this little slice of heaven:
Grapes on the top...
...and lemon-flavoured gelatin to glaze.
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