Monthly Archives: June 2018

Baking, Room for improvement

Summer tart.

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I purchased a posh looking tart case in CoinCasa, an awesome home shop in Lucca. Last year I left 80 euro there, this year a bit less, could easily have ruined my credit card there!

The first tart from the case had to be summery one, with strawberries from my own patch in the garden, some raspberries, shortcrust pastry and creme pat. For the pastry I used 110 g of cold butter, 175 g of plain flour, 25 g of icing sugar, 1 egg yolk and a bit of water to bind it. Once in the case, I chilled it for 30 minutes then blind baked for 12 minutes, beans away for another 15 in about 180 degrees.  Tasty pastry, but so short, that handling it was quite difficult, might try a different ratio next time.

The creme pat was a disappointment, which is shocking, as I used Mary Berry’s method. Might be that I cocked it up! It tasted great, but was too runny even after a  night in the fridge.  I used 3 eggs, 70 g of vanilla sugar ( Mary’s recipe called for 90), 60 g of plain flour and whisked it up, while 400 ml of milk was heating up.  A splash of this milk helped loosen the egg mixture a bit. Hot milk got added slowly to the eggs, altogether returned to the pan and stirred for a few minutes until thickened- was the plan, but it didn’t thicken sufficiently. I also found it quite grainy, but not an issue a sieve couldn’t take care of.  Fresh fruit on top and then a strawberry jelly, half a portion, which I also hurried a bit and it resulted with half  of it messing up my fridge shelf.

So overall I had a good looking tart, at least until I sliced it! It tasted great, but will need more patience next time and a different ratio for the creme pat. Will be done again and improved.

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Italia 2018, the culinary highlights. :-)

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Back to Tuscany we went almost 2 weeks ago. Stayed in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana in a stunning villa, dined in new and old places, went back to Lucca to shop and eat, went to Forte dei Marmi to splash about at the beautiful beach.  Foodwise, tomatoes out of this world. I mean, my Mum’s tomatoes are fantastic, but they’re home grown, while In Italy it seems to be a standard- every packet in a supermarket I’ve bought was full of sweet, delicious and flavoursome tomatoes.

We went back to eat at Marco’s in Bagni di Lucca, the place is now called Keep Calm.  Simple menu, messy and a bit random place, great host. We sat by the river on the terrace and enjoyed 3 lovely meals there.  Marco brought out once something we’ve never tasted before, a farinatta; chunky fried polenta with chopped vegetables                          ( cauliflower), herbs, all well seasoned  and deep fried. I will have a go at it one day, I think. Very filling.

Iz particularly enjoyed tagliatelle al ragu.

Then, in Lucca I had some beautiful gnocchi with an ok gorgonzola sauce and then, a great place of spaghetti alle vongole.  Tasty, simple, lovely clam flavours.

Florek’s favourite pizza this time was at Ponte di Maddalena, best dough, he decided.

And finally, what does one find, when one picks a lemon at a supermarket? A lemon from Amalfi coast, no less. It smells and tastes truly luxurious.

Italia, ti amo! xx

Good Food

Best ever fishcakes.

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I still have a slight sting of chili on my palate after destroying 3 of them. I accidentally ordered a piece of smoked cod fillet, it was to be fresh. I had different idea as to what to make with it, but as it turned out to be smoked, I went with fishcakes.

I’ve not cooked anything special from Mary Berry’s cookbook I’ve bought a few weeks ago, but while looking through it I found that Mary recommends poaching fish for fishcakes (I normally pan fried it), in milk, no less, with a couple of bay leaves and peppercorns. I threw some shrimps in too, poached alongside the cod. Cooked and mashed the potatoes, added the flaked fish and chopped prawns, chucked in a good handful of fresh coriander, some chili, thinly sliced shallot and seasoned it all well.  After a few hours in the fridge I shaped the fishcakes, tossed them in flour, egg and then breadcrumbs, panfried and served with spicy mayo, green salad and a glass of cold pinot gris.  To the enjoyment of my meal added the third installment of Helen Fields’ crime thrillers, “Perfect Death”.  Perfect meal. Fab fishcakes, the smoky fish is the way to go.