Crème à la mandarine et croquant aux amandes

Literally meant: Mandarin cream with crispy almond. Dish names in French almost always sounds better in French then English doesn't it? Have you tried naming Fois Gras in English? It'll be called duck or goose Liver Fat in direct translation!! Who wants to eat that??!? BTW, ever wondered how its made? Here's the link and frankly I find it barbaric. So does finning shark's fin. We are defined who we are by how we treat others, and that includes treating the animals that feeds us.

So personal ethics aside, got this recipes from my weekly supermarket newsletter, Coop. Tried it over the weekend and its super delicious!

Ingredients for 4 persons

Prep time: 20 mins

Cooling time: about 1 hour

Cream

6 or 8 Mandarin oranges OR clementine oranges, only for their juice; around 300ml

2 tbsp of lemon juice

80g of clear marzipan/almond paste, shredded

1 piece of vanilla pod, scrape of its grains

1 tbsp of corn starch
2 eggs
50g sugar

100ml of cream (double cream preferred)

Crispy Almonds
20g of almonds, chop into "matchsticks"

50g sugar

1/2 tsp of water

For the cream
Mix together all ingredients, including the sugar and simmer it on top of low heat while constantly stirring.

When the cream seems to have thicken in consistency, remove from heat source and continue to stir for about 2 minutes. You then strain the cream mixture, cover it and leave it aside until coll enough to pop it in the fridge for about 1 hour.

Crispy almond
Toast your almond sticks on medium heat and pour them onto baking paper. Then boil sugar and water together while stirring continuously on medium heat. Lower the heat when sugar has melted and let it simmer while "shaking" the saucepan occasionally until you get a caramel texture. Pour it over the almonds and let it cool for 15 minutes.Crack them and to decorate your cream. 



The main point here is to strain of the lumps.



Lovely lemony coloured!



Whip it!





An aunt gave a big bags of sliced almonds. Got to use it finally...

 

Its not so sweet but still a great quick desert.



BEFORE serving, whip your cream and gentilly fold them into your mandarin orange cream mixture. Then ENJOY!