Summer tart.

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.

Italia 2018, the culinary highlights. :-)

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

Best ever fishcakes.

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.

Chicken ceasar’s salad.

Florek being away, I dined on what I fancied without looking back at  what his fowl preferences were. 🙂   I shared my roast chicken thighs with Dustin, that was all. The thighs were from Waitrose, the dressing consisted of 2 anchovies fillets mashed with a garlic clove, a splash of olive oil, a good handful of parmesan. A tsp of mayo and half that of mustard, lots of black pepper. A squeeze of lemon juice.

Croutons were made 2 hours before, romaine lettuce roughly chopped. Chicken added, well tossed with the dressing. Extra parmesan on top, shaved.

During my short working period at Ramsay’s Plane Food I served a lot of these, I remember having to ask people how they felt about anchovies. Having made my own dressing this evening I can’t imagine not having them in. So much rich and delicious flavour!

Destroyed the lot with a glass of Chilean cab sav. Splendid. 🙂

Chicken, leek and bacon pie.

I had some leeks in the fridge, so briefly checked goodfood.com for inspiration. Found it quite quickly, but made it mine right away by replacing my least favourite part of the chicken- breast- with 3 roasted thighs, that came from Ocado this morning. The other three will be a part of chicken ceasar’s tomorrow, I’ve been craving it for weeks.

A leek chopped thinly and fried up with a little bacon left from the long weekend. The thighs, chopped, added, a touch of chicken stock, then lots of black pepper, finally some cream+flour to make the sauce. Creamy mash piped on top, baked in 190 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Served with buttered greens.

Success in many ways; my husband Florek, truly awesome in many ways is a fussy and seasonal chicken fan. How can one not like a roasted chicken thigh with crispy skin is beyond me, he is capable of leaving half of the meat on the plate. Today was not the case, he finished the whole thing. So did Izzie. Dustin too got some chicken meat, so everyone was left sated.  More pies to follow. 🙂

Light chocolate nutty cake.

On Dorota’s blog it’s called “brownie for kids”. It’s nothing like a brownie, but it’s very quick and easy to make, it’s light, delicious and I was able to recycle one of 2 remaining  chocolate Easter bunnies. Not much mess in the kitchen either, even though a 4 year old enthusiastic helper was involved in the making of it.

110 g of butter, melted, 110 g of chocolate added to it, I used 80 g of milk bunny and 20 g of dark chocolate., nicely combined till a thick, silky sauce appeared. 2 whole eggs gently whipped by hand with 90 g of sugar ( 110 in original recipe). Butter and choc mix added. 110 g of plain flour with 0,5 tsp baking powder added.  100 g of chopped walnuts. Into a lined tray, sprinkled with flaked almonds and into the oven. 170 degrees, 25 minutes.  Will be fab with black coffee. 🙂

Custard slice.

Life is treating us so well lately, that at the end of the day, when the Child retires upstairs, one simply wants a mug of steaming tea and a slice of a fabulous cake.  Custard slice delivers. It’s not particularly challenging, it was the first time I’ve made custard with gelatine though. One thing- it’s quite difficult and messy to eat. Puff pastry looks great, but without a serrated knife one curses like a trucker.

Shop bought block of puff pastry, about 500 g, ready rolled out, divided in two, both sprinkled with icing sugar and flaked almonds- the almonds are a great idea, baked, they tasted great. They need to  be pressed gently into the pastry, then secured with baking paper, a heavy tray on top and into the oven for about 30 mins, 200 degrees, best to keep an eye on the edges, easy to burn.

In the meantime, the custard. I soaked 1,5 gelatine leaf, gently whipped 3 egg yolks and then added them to a mixture of 750 ml of milk, 250 ml of double cream, some vanilla paste, 100 g of corn flour, 25 g of custard powder( a first for me again, never bought it before), 100 g of sugar. All this, plus the yolks gently heated up, stirring all the time until nice and thick. Off the heat, gelatine in.

The baked pastry needed to be trimmed a little in order to fit in the tray nicely, custard onto it, pastry on top. Chilled for about 4 hours and was ready to eat.

I have to say that the custard when tasted still warm did not wow me. Not sure if it was that powder that made it taste artificial and cheap, but those hours in the fridge changed the taste for the better.  Nice one from goodfood.com. 🙂

Rhubarb and almond cake.

First harvest of rhubarb from my garden this afternoon, as I craved a cake. Quickly looked through Dorota’s ideas, found what I needed, dug up some raspberries from the freezer and was ready to go. Relatively quick and very tasty cake to go with tea.

I used about 200 g of rhubarb, did not peel it, as fresh and young, chopped in small pieces. 100 g frozen raspberries, crumbled, no need to defrost.

For the cake- 1 whole egg and 1 yolk whipped up with 4 tbsps of sugar until pale and fluffy.  2 tbsps of ground almond and 3/4 glass of plain flour, a sprinkle of baking powder, some vanilla extract and then 60 g of melted and slightly cooled butter all added in and briefly combined. Onto the small tray with baking paper, flattened, fruit generously on top. And then a delicious crumble made of 90 g of ground almonds, 50 g of melted butter, 50 g of sugar, some if which was vanilla sugar. I ended up adding a sprinkle of flour to make it more crumbly.

Baked in 175 degrees for about 30-35 minutes, kitchen smelled like heaven.

This is the kind of baking I love- when Florek comes home, sticks a knife through the cake even before dinner and after dinner picks up that knife again. It will not last very long. Yum. 🙂

Onion rings.

There were burgers on the menu this evening, not a single onion ring in the freezer though. Good Food website had a few suggestions. I picked a simple recipe with 2 ingredients, 150 g of self raising flour and 180 ml of sparkling water.  The comments were very useful in this case, somebody suggested using lager instead of water and lots of seasoning. I had the last bottle of Birra Morretti in the fridge from last weekend, which came useful.  Simple recipe that worked a treat. Lovely, crispy rings, I think I’ll cut them thicker next time though.

Spinach and strawberry tartlettes.

My lovely child has just turned 4, so a cake has been baked according to her very brief brief- the cake is to be green, end of.  I bought some matcha and was going to make a matcha sponge with some kind of strawberry topping. And then Dorotka published her latest entry in the blog and that was that. Matcha stayed in the jar, I purchased fresh baby spinach and got to work. From the whole portion in Dorota’s recipe I baked 2 separate sponges, used them both, but one was a bit too high, so I took 1cm off the top, cut 4 small bases with rings and I’m glad I did, cause my photos of the birthday cake were rubbish, while the mini ones I’m happy to show off.

So, for the 4 layer cake( 2 sponges and 2 mousses) I used 5 whole eggs, separated, whipped the whites with 6 tbsps of sugar, yolks in., one by one.  A puree of 120 g of baby spinach and 150 ml of sunflower oil was made, I pushed it though the sieve too, as it was not fine enough. Added into the airy egg mixture. 260 g of plain flour, 1 tsp of baking powder. Into the oven, 35 minutes in 160 degrees.

When baked and sliced, some lime juice was used to moisten the cakes.

650 g of fresh strawberries quickly cooked with 2 tbsps of sugar, blitzed into puree. A strawberry jelly in. All cooled till it begun to set and then 450 ml of cream got whipped and the strawberry mixture added.

Fun to bake, fun to assemble. Finished off with chopped pistachios and crumbs from the green cake.  The Child enjoyed the mousse the most, left the green base behind, unaware of the spinach content.  Not a piece was wasted by our guests. 🙂

On the joys of cooking and eating