Darek and Beata came over for a week. I love having them here, have been thinking about what to cook for them for a while and this evening decided to make tarte tatin, but with plums. Taste – wise, yes. When it comes to texture, shit. The plums released so much juice that the puff pastry stood no chance. It baked, but it had nothing of the delicious crunchiness on the edges. We ate it with vanilla ice cream, regardless. Maybe different kind of plums next time, me thinks.
We went to South Cerney this evening to see Jimbo and Louise. They rented out a nice house right by the lake with a lovely kitchen, that I wouldn’t mind at all. With 2 little Blackhams now, Louise has rather little time to cook and entertain, so I made starters and a dessert and the boys cooked (!!!!) the steaks on a gas BBQ. I’ve taken no photos of steaks, as they turned out to be super well done, but the meat was good quality, so we ate them all regardless, plus some nice sausages and lovely white bread.
For the starter I’ve made a classic roquefort, pear and walnut salad with my own addition of parma ham, to make it a bit more substantial. I used rocket salad, rather than poncy frissee, like Janet Street-Porter in Masterchef. The walnuts, when slightly toasted have another flavour dimention and the dressing was Raymond Blanc’s, minus measuring stuff, haha. Some roquefort mashed with olive oil, chardonnay vinegar and black pepper. Parmesan shavings on top.Done. Liked it a lot, might make it for the upcoming Weekend Of The Year.
For dessert I’ve made a wild cheesecake, again, with no scales or other equipment in sight. Made the base out of crushed biscuits, amaretti and butter and flash-baked it, then melted most of a white chocolate bar in some double cream with vanilla paste and 3 gelatine leaves, added that to a tub of ricotta cheese and blizted, sweetened to taste and threw lots of fresh raspberries in. All that went onto the base, fresh raspberries on top, a touch of raspberry coulis and into the fridge to set. Right before serving I sprinkled some toasted flaked almonds on top. Was enjoyed.
The book “The Art of Pastry”, which Nikosia gave me a few years ago has been used today. I forgot what a great book it was, the recipes from it just work!
This tart was supposed to wait until dessert time, but has been sliced and tasted and I am very pleased indeed.
So, the pastry base, with walnuts, lovely flavours and texture. Made of 175 g of flour, 2tbsp if icing sugar, 115 g of butter, 75 g of walnuts, 1 egg yolk and 2tbsp of cold water. Kitchen Aid made it into a nice pastry, which I chilled for 30 minutes and then blind baked for 10 minutes in 200 degrees, then another 10 without the baking beans.
While it baked, I made the custard out of 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks, 50 g of sugar. 300 ml of single cream and 150 ml of milk got infused with vanilla paste and about 50 ml of strong coffee and added slowly to the egg and sugar mixture. I’ve done a decent job straining it, as it baked evenly and left no shitty foamy residue, like most of my creme brulees. It took about 45 minutes in 180 degrees ( I lowered it, as the pastry started to smell a bit too intense). Finished off with icing sugar and a touch of nutmeg.
Clap, clap, clap. 🙂
From the recently discovered foodnetwork.uk. Not that I actually followed the recipe, that called for Frangelico, for instance. I didn’t have any and didn’t fancy spending 18 quid for a bottle, but I had some excellent Polish Soplica Orzechowa vodka,excellent for cocktails, , which I mixed with espresso( tiramisu without coffee is not a tiramisu, so I used some). Also, the biscuits were slightly different, it made the dessert look like a cake rather than a layered dessert, but I’m pleased with the result.
The cream, dietetic, as I do nearly always, prawda, whipped cream with sugar and cinnamon; mascarpone, just slightly beaten into submission and then mixed into the cream. Bottom layer- biscuits saked in coffee and hazelnut vodka, the cream, scattered with chopped hazelnuts. Second layer was soaked in a lemon syrup, just juice of half a lemon, some water and sugar boiled for about 2 minutes and cooled. Then the cream again, hazelnuts and cocoa. Chilled in the fridge for the afternoon, 4-5 hours. Pleasant.
It’s not often that I applaud myself in the kitchen and call myself a fecking talent, but today, when I released the cakes from their rings, I did. 🙂
I had some ricotta in the fridge, had some strawberries, so I baked the bases with mostly digestive biscuits, but also amaretti and melted butter. I made some flakes of white chocolate bar, before melting the rest with some cream, 2 gelatine leaves and milk. I whipped about 150 ml of cream, added most of the ricotta tub, still whipping, added the melted chocolate and flavoured the whole thing with vanilla paste and icing sugar. Then threw some quite finely chopped strawberries and filled the rings with chilled biscuit base. They lounged in the fridge for about 4 hours and right before serving I topped them with chocolate flakes and a strawberry, plus a bit of coulis on the side. Standing ovation. 🙂
I’ve put a meal on the table this evening, that consisted of 2 local ingredients. On the way back from The Forest of Dean we stopped at the Over Farm Shop, just outside of Gloucester. I only wanted some eggs, but left with a bunch of asparagus grown on that farm and some strawberries, advertised as ” travelled from less than a mile away”. Those strawberries were nibbled on even on the way home and we immediately regretted not having bought more.
Main course this evening, fishcakes, made with salmon and haddock, with chilli, shallots, sweet potatoes, healthy amount of coriander and seasoned with a drop of sesame oil. On the top of green salad I threw some of that asparagus, with just a touch of salt, olive oil and good balsamic. I think it might have been the best asparagus I’ve ever tasted. Fresh, slightly sweet and almost juicy. Yum. The fishcakes were excellent, but can’t decide which was the star of the show.
For dessert, something that came to my mind on the way home. I could just serve those lovely strawberries with cream and sugar and not bother, but instead I quickly baked a simple sponge with green tea powder. It looked right, but can’t really taste much of the green tea, should maybe infuse it first, before adding to the sponge. I then cut the rings out of it, layered with whipped cream and berries, quickly whizzed up some coulis and poured it over the top layer. Very pleasing to the eye and the palate. Have a few left, for tomorrow and I’m thinking- white chocolate.
I managed to convince myself for a long time, that I can’t make custard. I think I’m retarded. Of course I can make custard. I’ve made perfect custard this evening, haven’t measured a thing and succeeded. Still had some energy in spite of waking up at 6.30 this morning ( the bastards behind the wall get up early and think everybody else has to as well). I’ve made chicken and leeks pie and then pear crumble. Pear was not an amazing choice, bramley apples would have done better, but, as Florek said, the custard made up for it. All it took was 2 egg yolks, whipped with some sugar and – a tip!!- a touch of cornflour beaten through to help stabilise them- while an equal amount of milk and cream was warming up with a generous amount of vanilla bean paste. I LOVE vanilla bean paste as much as I love Catena chardonnay. As I love salmon sashimi. As I love coriander.
Yeah. Errrm, when the milk/ cream combo was nearly boiling, I started pouring it into the eggs slowly, while whisking, then returned it all to the pan and stirred till thickened. Utter success.
My only complaint would be the fact that I’m not able to take a good photo of a custard. 2 glasses of Dog Point might have something to do with it. 🙂
The idea came from Jana, whose colleague brought one of those to work and then revealed the recipe. Which very recipe was then forwarded to me by Jana, but I found it a bit too unnecessarily complicated and calling for margarine, a very Polish thing, my Mum tends to abuse it as well. I’m with the French on that, I’m all for butter.
I googled the Raffaello cake and found a nice, simple, BUTTERY recipe, which I tried and I’m very pleased with it. It is even better the day after, when the biscuits soaked up the cream and the coconut flavour.
For the cream I used one vanilla budyn, 250 ml of milk, half of which I brought to the boil, in the other half I mixed in the budyn with 3 tbsp of sugar and cooked together until nice and thick.Left it to cool and then, with the help of my lovely Kitchen Aid, I whizzed it with half a 125 g of soft butter and 100g of desiccated coconut. Then I used the same technique like with the trifle, I lined a narrow baking tray with a cling film, generously spread some coconut on the bottom, some cream and then the biscuits. I used Swedish Anna’s cappucino ones. And layer the whole thing up a couple of times. Then cuddled it tightly with the cling film and left in the fridge until the evening. Like I mentioned, even better the next day.
In every place I work there is at least one dish that I take with me. Even in shitty ones, like Francesco’s, where I learned to make meatballs with fresh mint and make them this way ever since. Current place lacks a bit in terms of excitement, but profiteroles are on the menu and today Oluta has made profiteroles. I used the recipe from GF website, I found it easy and enjoyable.
For the choux pastry I used 50 g of butter, 2 tsp of sugar, which I melted with 150 ml of water and then took off the heat and added 75 g of strong flour, mixing vigorously. When it was getting off the sides of the pan easily, I transferred it to the kitchen aid and made it do the further work, slowly adding 2 beaten eggs. And when ready, with the help of a piping bag I got them ready to bake in 220 degrees for about 18-20 minutes.
When cooled, I filled them with whipped cream, done in my usual way, with some vanilla paste, icing sugar and a touch of lemon juice.
The chocolate sauce- 35 g of cocoa powder sifted into a bowl, about 100 ml of water with 100 g of sugar, when melted and boiling I added it to the cocoa and returned to the pan, mixing until smooth. I added a bit of butter, just to balance the cholesterol with the cream( ha!) and a touch of Kahlua, for coffee flavour.
Very pleased with the result. Tasty, not sickly sweet. Will be done again.
Took me ages to do this, I’ve been moving around the GF magazine all over the place, open on this recipe, yesterday, finally, I made it. I made two, one went to Ewa’s and in spite of having suffered a small incident in the car, it got there in one piece and was enjoyed.
Lots of work, lots of patience, lots of chilling in between the layers. I started by making the thin sponge, the recipe said to use the shop bought madeira, I thought I’d make my own. From the same recipe as always. When it was out of the fridge and cooling, I prepared the tins, lined them with cling film, generously, as smooth as I could, it later makes the whole thing look pretty and makes it easy to release from the tin holding its shape.
The cream layer: 200 ml of double cream heated up with 3tbsp of icing sugar and 3 tbsp of sherry or cherry liquer, in my case. When hot, 2 gelatine leaves go in and 100g of mascarpone, all this whipped together and poured into the tin to chill in the fridge.
The custard layer took 3 tbsp of custard powder, 2 tbsp of icing sugar and 400 ml of milk, with 2 gelatine leaves added at the end. Onto the set cream layer. In the meantime the one that takes the longest to set- the raspberry jelly was prepared according to packet instructions and left to cool.
On the custard layer I placed some defrosted raspberries and jelly on that. Long time later, the sponge went on top and I tightened the whole thing with overflowing cling film on both sides. And left to cool overnight.
Before serving, I whipped yet more cream with some lemon juice and icing sugar, used a piping bag to finish the dessert off, after flipping it upside down and releasing from the cling film. The very final touch is some popping candy.
It’s sweet, rich and yummy. Looked like that…
