Finally i ve got it. My clementine creation.

As i ve mentioned already a couple of blog publishing ago – i think i find the very best of Mallorca… which is the local mandarin. Of course the -spanish- orange is nice (but mainly coming from the mainland) especially in the town of Soller… however u can not compare to the very local and very fresh little sister.

(footnote: i beg your pardon but i am having a little confusion in my dictionary about naming this fruit: clementine is a variety of mandarin orange, some place uses this, other calls that,,,, so i am gonna use both of the names meaning the same little citrus fruit.)

Thinkin’ about a jelly, sorbet, sponge…. but finally i sticked with one of my big favorite, a ‘kindof’ custard tart… As u ve seen already my incredible PX sherry dessert – this recipe is just working all the time with tiny bit of changes.

I wanted to make a special base which is crunchy and soft in the same time – so i choose polenta as my main ingredient thinking that the corn is sweet enough to balance the acidic clementine and pick up a bunch of fresh thyme what is perfect flavour pairing of the mandarin ,,, so poured some stuff together in a bowl, mix and bake half way (almond butter, egg, sugar, ground almond and fresh thyme).

With a lots of patience peel some clementines and get rid of the thin skin as much as u can – to end up with nice clean segments (no problem if the little fruit body breaks cause we gonna spread on the top of the corn cake anyway using a bit of the juice as well which is going to help to cook and steam the polenta in the same time).

Nothing left but the cream-filing using the same ratio as i did before. Mix the double cream, clementine juice (zest if u saved some), sugar and whole eggs (i used a bit of vanilla as well – everything is better with some vanilla!!! no?) and start to cook it in a low heat – till it reaches the “custard” stage. Let it go thru a fine sieve and ready to fill your polenta base covered with little citrus segments – dont worry if they start to float on the top, looks pretty sexy. Back to the oven and wait till the top still a tiny bit wobbly – gonna be set with perfection in your fridge in the next couple of hours. PATIENCE!

I served my piece of cake with sweet popcorn ganache and salted popcorn&thyme caramel brittle… careful, dont burn yourself!!! U gonna have a perfectly balanced dish which is salty, sweet and acidic in the same time having all the textures u would wish – soft, wet, creamy, dry, crunchy…. :) dig in!

Mandarin custard:

• 300ml double cream
• 300ml fresh mandarin juice
• 6 whole eggs
• sugar as u wish (100-200g)
• vanilla, liquor, salt