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Strawberry Fields. Forever
Strawberries are the stars in Liv's dish honoring an infamous Liverpudlian and a garden in the city belonging to a Salvation army children's home.
Strawberry Fields Forever is the name of my dish, and the inspiration is John Lennon and the Salvation Army.
Liv: "I'm going to have an edible almost garden. So I've got a woodruff pannacotta for the base. I've got a strawberry and champagne jelly. I'm going to recreate the grass with a sable biscuit and some basil that's been dehydrated. And then there's a ganache that's turned into a mousse, and it's going to be sprayed to look like a strawberry, essentially."
Later ...
Liv's making her panacotta, combining woodruff infused cream and sugar with vanilla.
Liv: "I add salt and a bit more vanilla in there."
Liv: "I'm just adding a little bit of champagne into some strawberries just to give it a bit more tartness, maybe to cut through the richness of all the creamy elements."
Liv: "I'm worried about the mousse. It's just not as moussy as I'd like it to be, so I'm gonna put it back in some chiller and, yeah, just keep on pushing on."
Later still ...
Liv's mousse, which will be shaped into the strawberry centerpiece, has finally set to her liking.
Liv adds a gel center into her strawberries before covering in more mousse and leaves the blast chiller to work its magic while she tempers white chocolate to cover the strawberries. She colors it with red cocoa butter.
Plating
Liv is next to serve. She dips the best of the mousse strawberries in the tempered red chocolate.
A sable biscuit crumb is added to the jelly topped panacotta while Liv gives the strawberries a last coat of chocolate.
The bowls are dusted with dehydrated basil and the mousse strawberries complete the garden scene. The macerated strawberries are served alongside.
Paul Ainsworth: "Right, Liv, let's start with the strawberry mousse in the jail. Happy with how that's turned out?"
Liv: "Yeah, I just think timing's tight, so it could have come out of the blast freezer a lot earlier, and it would have had a better texture.
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
"Oh, I thought that would be sweeter, maybe."
"The whole thing looks like it's much sweeter than it is."
Back in the judging room ...
Paul Ainsworth: "The woodruff and vanilla panna cotta. You're happy with a set on that?"
Liv: "No, the set on that is a little bit too hard for my liking."
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
"Maybe remove some of the setting agents in it. But apart from that, I think, you know, I like the crumb on it. It's a nice texture."
Back in the judging room ...
Paul Ainsworth: "Presentation wise. Is that what you were going for in terms of the size of that bowl?"
Liv: "The portion was, you know, a bit more generous, but I did like it."
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
"Very tasty bowl of strawberries."
"It's very strawberry and strawberries and cream"
Back in the judging room ...
Paul Ainsworth: "If you were to score this dish, what would you give yourself?
Liv: "A seven."
Final Judging
Paul Ainsworth: "Liv for your dish. Strawberry Fields Forever. That strawberry mousse was delicious. It was light, creamy and fresh. I thought the strawberry gel inside gave the dish a lovely acidity, but I wanted more of it in the middle. The strawberry itself was a little too big. It also could have been at more room temperature, so when you're putting your spoon through it just slides through nice and easily. I thought the white chocolate that was around the outside was a touch too thick, but you achieved that tempered crack really well. Unfortunately, the panna cotta was just set a bit too firm, but that flavor of woodruff and vanilla was beautiful. The strawberry sauce that you added on the side, I think if you'd practiced this dish a bit more, then you would have really got that spot on."
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