Free Nigella Bites by Nigella Lawson

supermarket around that doesn’t major in lemongrass – and indeed it’s far more familiar to us than the indigenous lemon balm – this recipe, which first found shape in an Observer article on cooking traditional British foods with new ‘fusion’ ingredients, is actually a good reminder that you can plunder the past without scorning the present.
    Serves 8–10.
    600ml water
    400g caster sugar
    50g lemongrass, 3–4 sticks, cut in half lengthways
    300g raspberries
    16 trifle sponges
    3–4 tablespoons vodka
    600ml single cream
    8 egg yolks
    500ml double cream
    medium glass bowl
    Make a syrup with the water and 325g of the caster sugar by bringing them to the boil in a saucepan and boiling for 5 minutes. Take the pan off the heat, add the lemongrass and let it infuse for about half an hour.
    Strain the syrup into a measuring jug, keeping the saucepan with the lemongrass to one side. Take out about 150–200ml of the syrup and put it into a pan with the raspberries. Bring it to a rolling boil and let it thicken slightly, mashing the fruit to make a jam-like consistency. Let it cool a little and then dunk the trifle sponges in the raspberry mixture and arrange them in the bottom of your bowl. Add the vodka and about 100ml of the lemongrass syrup depending on how much your sponges absorb, and reserve the rest.
    Meanwhile, to make the custard, heat the single cream in the syrup pan with the lemongrass until it is nearly boiling, take it off the heat and let it infuse for about 15 minutes. Whisk the yolks and the rest of the sugar together and pour the cream into the same bowl. Then whisk again and put the custard back on the heat in the cleaned-out pan. Stir until the custard thickens and then pour it over the trifle sponges. Let it cool.
    Whip the double cream until thick but not stiff, and cover the custard layer. Use about 250ml of the remaining sugar syrup to make a caramel by heating it in a saucepan until it turns a golden-brown. Drizzle the caramelised sugar syrup over the layer of cream to decorate.
    RAINY-DAY BISCUITS
    If you’ve got children, you’ll know all about the problems of keeping them occupied when the weather’s bad and outdoors uninviting – if only to you. Actually, I go further than that. I am singularly unathletic and rather dread extended bouts on the swings in the park even on sunny days. Cooking is thus, for me, the easiest childcare option. And even two-year-olds can be usefully entertained with a bit of dough and some biscuit cutters. Yes, the kitchen will be a mess, but the afternoon will be gone, and then there’s just bath – and bed-time to be got through – then peace: a small price, then.
    I wouldn’t go so far as to say I collect biscuit cutters, but I ask anyone who’s going abroad to buy any amusing form they find and seem to have acquired a stash of curious shapes. The ones that were used for the pictures below were from this disorganised jumble and seemed best suited to making biscuits to banish rainy-day blues.
    175g soft unsalted butter
    200g soft brown sugar
    2 eggs
    ¼ teaspoon almond extract
    350g plain flour (plus more if needed)
    50g ground almonds
    1 teaspoon baking powder
    1 teaspoon salt
    biscuit cutters
    2 non-stick baking sheets
    for the icing:
    approx. 300g icing sugar
    water to mix
    Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.
    Cream the butter and sugar together well until almost moussy, then beat in the eggs and almond extract.
    In another bowl, combine the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt. Gradually add these dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture and combine gently but surely. If you think the finished mixture is too sticky to be rolled out, add more flour, but do so sparingly as too much will make the dough tough.
    Halve the dough, form into fat discs, wrap each in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for at least an hour.
    Sprinkle a suitable surface with flour, place a disc of dough (not taking out the other half until you’ve finished with the