Raspberry and mint cream jelly

560g/1/1/4lb raspberries

225g/8oz sugar

290ml/1/2pint water

3 sprigs furry mint (common mint is ok too)

Juice of half a lemon

1 tablespoon of gelatine or 6 leaves of gelatine

For the Mint Cream

Juice from the other half of the lemon

3 more sprigs of mint

190ml/1/3 pt double cream

2 x teaspoons of caster sugar

The jelly is best made the day before to allow time to set

Bring the sugar, water and mint to boil and simmer for a couple of minutes. Remove the mint. Cool and add the lemon juice and gelatine according to the instructions. Add the raspberries. Either spoon into wine glasses or into one big glass bowl and refrigerate. I you feel brave, oil the bowl and attempt to turn it out in front of your guests on the night. This will either be a smug party piece or a slightly drunken flop. Either way it all adds to the evening’s entertainment.

Some hours before you want to eat make the cream. Crush the mint leaves with the lemon juice and stir in the sugar and cream. Either put a blob onto the individual jellies or allow guests to serve themselves. If I have time I make little lemon biscuits to ‘push with’. Failing this, buy something similar.

Scallop and Rocket Salad

Serves 6

Allow five scallops per person. I usually buy three bags of Canadian scallops from the supermarket if I can’t buy fresh.

About three handfuls of rocket if you grow your own or two bags if you have to buy it.

Balsamic vinegar

Olive oil and butter

Salt and black pepper

A little flour

You can fry the scallops from frozen but I prefer to defrost them first and dry them off in kitchen paper. Put a handful of flour in a plastic bag with a teaspoon of salt and plenty of fresh ground black pepper and give them a shake. Pour a glug of oil with a good chunk of butter into a frying pan. If you have two pans so much the better. While you are waiting for the oil to heat up, spread out six plates and make a nest of rocket on each. When the butter is foaming and the oil is hot but not burning place the scallops round the pan in diminishing circles (or pans) as if you were numbering a clock starting at the top. Leave for a minute then turn the first one over. When it looks nicely toasted start to turn them all over and brown on the other side. If you doubt that they are cooked, break one open. It should be white in the middle rather than opaque. Scoop them onto their rocket nests, swirl some balsamic vinegar round the pans and drizzle this over. Serve pronto with enough fluffy bread to mop up the juices.

Millys Menus. 2010