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6 July, 2009 

Weekend rest

After much deserved rest I am feeling energized and ready to go again. The temperatures are going down which is perfect for cycling and the office is acceptable too. Not that I don’t like hot summer, I absolutely love it but only when I’m outside, by a pool, in a park, having dinner al fresco or chilling out in general. You get the picture.

The weekend was spent on reading Crimson Petal and the White, I can’t put it down.

Got my hair cut, Magda is a hairdressing genius. Now I only need to dye it and I will be presentable again.

Baking is one of my favorite ways to relax, this time it had to be something simple. I went to the farmers market to pick up some wonderful peppery salad leaves, new potatoes and asparagus and decided to make a tart.

Here is how it went. Start by making pastry: 200g plain flower to be rubbed with a generous pinch of salt and 100g of butter till you get coarse crumbs, bring it all together with a 3-4 spoons of ice cold water till the dough is soft. This is bit tricky as the dough cannot be overworked or too short. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 1h in a fridge.

After chilling roll the dough out into a pastry tin, it should overflow a bit as it will shrink, chill for further 30 min.

Preparing filling

While the pastry is chilling preheat the over to 180 degrees and start to make the filling. The filling can be anything you like, mine was new potatoes (I boiled them earlier), asparagus, chives and dill. Bit of cheese can work a treat. The general rule for the filling is 2 egg yolks, 1 egg, 150ml single cream, salt and pepper. I always come up with the herb/veg combo as I go.

After blind bake and filled

After the pasty has been chilled bake it blind for 10 minutes, take it out of the over fill it up with the veg and cream/egg mixture and bake for further 30 minutes or till the pastry is golden brown and the filling cooked. Serve with salad leaves with mustard dressing or whatever takes your fancy.

Ready

Mine was slightly overcooked but still very tasty.

24 June, 2009 

Cooking and baking weekend

On Sunday I really felt like baking and cooking all sorts of seasonal dishes. After a very long break I decided to give our farmers market another chance. As I mentioned earlier the Clapham farmers market went down hill and last time I went, it didn’t have any organic vegetables.

To my surprise there was a new stall selling all kinds of salad leaves, courgettes with the flowers on, cucumbers etc. There was also one supplier who only comes in the summer, they usually have summer fruit and veg, whatever is in season.

I got some peppery salad leaves, broad beans, new potatoes, black currants, gooseberries and strawberries – very very exciting for me, especially the gooseberries which are not a common sight in London.

On Sunday I made black currant upside down cakes which came out a little bit too buttery so this recipe is slightly revised.

125rg unsalted butter
115gr caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
200gr flour and 50gr ground almonds
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
a punnet of black currants – this can be replaced by any summer berries

Preheat the oven to 175C and grease the tins, you don’t need o do that to paper ones or silicone ones.

Cream the butter and sugar until smooth and pale yellow and beat in the eggs until smooth, add vanilla. Now my butter, sugar and egg mixture split but after adding the flour and almonds all was good. Sift the flour and baking soda together, add almonds and then fold into the batter.

Place the fruit at the bottom of the cups and bake for 20-25 min in an oven until golden brown.

Easy peasy and delicious! Pictures to follow soon.

Then it was onto the gooseberries, I stewed them with a bit of sugar, then let it chill. This was served first with a savory dish – smoked mackerel and new potatoes, it worked very well together. I used the rest of it on my porridge, I really like the heat of the porridge with cold tart topping. On this occasion I must mention my beloved fishmonger, Moxon’s. They have shops in East Dulwich, South Kensington and next to my house in Clapham South just next to the tube station. They sell the freshest and most amazing fish, be it fresh, coooked or smoked. Everything I had from them was absolutely stunning and it’s not too pricey either. My favorite is the whole smoked mackerel which is not salty unlike the filets sold in the supermarkets. They also do wonderful smoked salmon filets.

Broad beans are still to be eaten. I think these will end up in a summer risotto.

I also got very inspired by a sourdough bread making which I saw on River Cottage last week, am on day 5 of making my own starter. All it takes is equal amounts of water and strong bread flour, I use rye flour. I started with one cup of each and keep adding half cup of each every day. You’ve got to stir it well and keep it in a warm environment covered with a clean tea towel. We will see what comes off it on Saturday. More comprehensible discription of the process to be found here.