The Silver Spoon

Peas with Ricotta and Mint

I wish I could say that I have a love affair with vegetables.  I desperately want to love them, each and every one.  But, alas, I don’t.  I have been trying to enjoy the most revered of all vegetables, the aubergine or eggplant, for the past year with no luck.  I hate it and that’s that.  Peppers also make me uneasy so that mixed grill vegetable plate is kinda out for me.  That said I have also been known to say that I hate peas; mostly because I find them annoying.  They remind me of that little song/poem: “I eat my peas with honey/ I’ve done it all my life/ I eat my peas with honey/ It keeps them on the knife.”  For me, that about sums up peas: evasive little fellows that are hard to eat.   Then I moved to England and was introduced to mushy peas, which enlightened me to the fact that I did not have a problem with the taste of peas just the format.   

Enter Rob.  In preparation for a weekend in Cornwall of 20 people, he has ordered all the groceries and planned out the menus. (PS These are the types of people with whom I like to go on holiday. If you are one of them, please feel free to contact me) I have one task; the peas.   Imagine my dismay.  I have to make a dish that I don’t eat!  Not so.  This will be peas, ricotta and mint. A salad inspired by the likes of Bocca di Lupo (an apparently great London Italian, I embarrassingly have not been to yet.)  The result was amazing and has changed my view on peas. 

Ingredients:

Serves a lot

1 bag frozen peas (1.2 kilos)

1.5 tubs of ricotta (roughly 375 grams)

Mint

Lemon

Salt

Step 1: Boil the frozen peas for 3 minutes.

Step 2: Mix in ricotta so that the peas are bound together.  Remember its peas with ricotta not the other way around. 

Step 3: Squeeze in a lemon, salt to taste, add some shredded mint. Mix and serve. 

Negozio Classica

Negozio Classica

283 Westbourne Grove

Notting Hill

London, W11 2QA

Background: Living (and eating) in Notting Hill can be exhausting (and fattening).  We also tend to frequent the same restaurants over and over again.  Come Sunday there is often no food in the house and Pascal and I debate if we should just go back to the usual or try something new.  Negozio Classica was recommended to us by two trusted sources, Skye (who also recommended the Ottolenghi cookbook for which I am forever grateful) and Melissa, my Pilates instructor (read great body and healthy) so it seemed appropriate for a light Sunday night bite.  Negozio Classica is on the corner of Westbourne Grove and Portobello Road, a corner with uber people watching possibilities (although probably not recommended on a Saturday)and is basically a wine shop with a couple of tables.  Negozio means shop in Italian so that would make sense to anyone who speaks Italian; I do not so I looked it up.  This also means that if you order wine then you pay a shop price and not a restaurant price which is great news. 

 

The Meal:  Most of the dishes are basically starters with the possible exception of the beef filet, so we started off with the Mozzarella di bufala, avocado and cherry tomatoes and the Parma Ham and Mozzarella with figs (PS the menu items were obviously in Italian but I didn’t grab a menu and am not that clever).  The Parma ham and figs was very nice, the ham was lovely, although, having eaten a lot of Parma ham I wasn’t so sure it was the genuine article.  We asked the waiter he assured me it was and they get it special delivery blah blah.  I believe him and either way it was really nice and the figs were great. 

 

The mozzarella dish, however, was a bit disappointing.  Given the limited and simple nature of the menu you would really expect each dish to be spot on, but while the mozzarella was good it was not exceptional and the avocado was unripe to the point of being inedible.  Fair enough if you are attempting to make this dish in an igloo in Greenland and your shipment of avocados was late or not ripe enough, but inexcusable if you are a restaurant in London ON Portobello Road where they sell ripe avocados 6 days a week.  Granted, Sunday is not one of those six days but still, you do not serve a tennis ball to your diners and hope they won’t notice it’s not avocado. Same same.

 

 

Next up we had the beef carpacio and the fillet of steak.  The Capacio was nicely seasoned and the salad was well put together. The steak was also good but nothing to write home about.  It seems that the lesson with this meal is that you aren’t supposed to treat Negozio like a proper restaurant where you order a starter and a main, etc.  This was our mistake. Instead the approach should have been to order the selection of cured meats and the cheese plate and maybe something else like the Pappa al pomodoro, which is thick yummy bread soaked with tomatoes.

 

 

 

Dessert:  This part of the meal should never have happened.  We didn’t need desserts, we weren’t still hungry but somehow we managed to order not one but two sweet treats; the Chocolate Fondant and the Pannacotta.  This was where the restaurant really fell down, literally in the case of the Pannacotta which looked more like a puddle and tasted like tapioca pudding (luckily for them, I really like tapioca).  The chocolate fondant was also not what it advertised but instead was more of mushy brownie, tasted ok too. But in both cases I felt a little bit duped and figured they were using some sort of store bought desserts of the Gϋ variety.

 

Closing Thoughts: All in all the experience as ok,  I would definitely change my style of ordering for the next time, skip dessert and concentrate more on the wine than anything else. The ambience is nice and a table outside is always welcome.  The service is a bit slow but nothing worth complaining about.  In truth, great for a glass of wine and some nibbles, not the other way around.

 

 

Silverware: Modern and thin

 

Silverspoons: 5.5 / 10

 

Damage: £40 / person (pricey we thought given the wine is retail priced)

ManSchool #1

 

It's no secret - an inordinately high proportion of the world's best chefs are men.  Joël Robuchon, Gordon Ramsay, Paul Bocuse, Tetsuya Wakuda, Alain Ducasse.  Let's leave aside all questions of right, wrong, equality, yay, nay or otherwise, because that's for another time.  What actually puzzles us most about the high number of haute cuisine male chefs is the lack of a corollary - if the creme de la creme is mostly male, then why are most mortal men utterly hopeless in the kitchen?

 

Summer is here, of sorts, and short dresses have lured the heterosexual male from the sofa to the beer garden, in pursuit of love and lust.  (Yes, this is primarily directed at straight men. ManSchool's gay friends just don't need as much help in this area.)  So you've met a nice lass at the pub, got her number, and are poised to call her up to ask her on a date.  ManSchool suggests that you don't take her to a white tablecloth overpriced restaurant.

 

Cook her dinner instead.

 

Go on.  We dare you.  Cooking a dinner party for a dozen food critics with a myriad of courses is difficult, and takes practice.  Cooking for two is just ... well ... not.  Try the following recipes for an amazing dinner which will take an hour from start to eat time, leaving you plenty of time to chat while you prep.  The dishes genuinely require the culinary skills of a monkey.  But the most important ManSchool lesson for the day: the end result of the food is immaterial; it's all about the effort.

 

 

ManSchool's Prosciutto Salmon with Roast Garlic Butternut Squash and Asparagus, followed by Balsamic Strawberries

 

We love the simplicity of this dish, and the summer flavours which come through.  The roasted garlic and the saltiness of the ham with the freshness of the fish combine to create a great summer evening dish.  Follow the main course with the sweetness of strawbs with the tang of balsamic, and you can't fail to impress.

 

Shopping List

• 2 salmon steaks
• 4 slices prosciutto or parma ham
• 1 small half butternut squash
• 1 bunch asparagus
• a couple of cloves garlic
• butter
• 1 lemon
• 1 punnet strawberries
• balsamic vinegar
• sugar

The Plan

0 minute mark: Turn the oven on, and set it at 180C.  Take the half squash and scoop out the seeds.  Into the cavity place a knob of butter and the garlic - the cloves don't even need to be peeled.  Stick it in the oven on a piece of foil or a baking tray, and bake for an hour.

10 minute mark: Take the prosciutto or parma ham out and wrap two slices around each salmon steak.  The natural stickiness of the ham will mean it sticks to the fish.  Put in a baking dish or on foil and set aside.

20 minute mark: Time to get pudding ready.  Take the strawberries' tops off with a knife, cut them in half and place in a serving bowl.  Sprinkle them with a couple of spoonfuls of sugar and then scatter about a shot glass worth of balsamic vinegar over the top.  Mix it all up with a spoon and set aside - it's finished.

40 minute mark: Put the fish in the oven - same temperature, leave the squash where it is.

45 minute mark: Chop the non-pointy ends of the asparagus off and put the remaining spears in a glass, or lay them flat in a dish.  Cover with boiling water for 5 minutes, then remove, drain and chop into roughly 2-inch lengths.  Set aside.

60 minute mark: Take the fish and the squash out of the oven - they will both be ready.  Cut the squash in half length ways, and put half on each plate parallel to a salmon steak - the melted butter will spill out and the garlic will be soft.  "Sprinkle" the asparagus on top.  Try to get as much butter or pan juice on top.  The final touch - cut the lemon in quarters, and just squeeze one quarter over the top of each plate.  Put a remaining quarter as garnish on the plate.  You're done!  And pudding can follow whenever you're ready.  Add ice cream if you like, but strawberries are so good in summer you won't need it.

 

Food tip

Asparagus should actually be broken at the end "where it gives" rather than chopped - but maybe next time, when you have more time.  It should be crunchy and never soggy like tinned asparagus - all the flavour and goodness is lost when that happens.  Also, when you're serving your food, two things.  Height is good - avoid taking up the whole plate by spreading stuff around - concentrate it in the centre and build up vertically.  Second - don't be frightened to wipe around the rim of the plate with paper towel to clean drips and spills.  This is what restaurants do and it just makes everything look a bit nicer.

 

Grog tip

You don't need French champagne at this stage.  Buy a bottle of Cava.  It's inexpensive, bubbly and a great way to start the evening.

 

Table tip

Big long candles are old-fashioned and intimidating and can convey the wrong idea.  Buy some tealights and put a couple in a bowl or on a plate, or even in a brown paper bag.  Candlelight is candlelight for a reason - it works, and it's so simple.

 

Bon courage!

 

ManSchool

 

Proud to be an American

 

Weird things happen when American ex-pats living in London get together en masse.  For starters a lot of England bashing goes down (light-hearted of course) but strange yearnings for the products of home arise.   This is pretty much how July 4^th manifested itself for me this year.  I confessed to bringing Ziplock and Force Flex garbage bags, Bounce fabric softener and mini white (only multi-coloured exist in England, don't ask me why) marshmallows back with me from trips to the states.  My friend Ann, who is returning to NY, offered me a couple bottles of Tide laundry detergent and some Windex and tears came to my eyes.  It was, therefore no surprise that I would rush home to Notting Hill bang down the doors of Mr Christians (literally), which has recently been stocking American items a la Partridges, and buy not one but two packages of probably the most abhorrent product on the US market.

On American soil, it is seriously unlikely that I would ever resort to Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, even if I was trying to re-enact my college days, in that case I would go for the organic version and namesake, Annie's.  But somehow on the 4th of July it seemed right.   Pascal enjoyed it as well but then again he didn’t see the colour of the “cheese” mixture before it was combined with the pasta.  It did, however, occur to me that many people, especially men, eat food out the package regularly and for no other reason then they are afraid of cooking.

Therefore, I will take this opportunity to introduce a guest piece, ManSchool, that will appear every now and again aimed at trying to teach our male readers, but really anyone who is intimidated by cooking, that it is not that tricky and can be fun.   Stay tuned for the first addition later this week.

Al Pont de Ferr: Milan

Al Pont de Ferr

Ripa di Porta Ticinese 55

Milan

02-8940-6277

 

It has been two years and two days since I first drove from France to London to start a new life.  Add to that 10 months for an MBA and it’s been nearly three years since I left my hometown of New York City.  I am often asked about how the cities are different and what do I miss from NY. My list, which I will save for another time, is often long and nostalgic.  At the top of that list, however, are my family and friends so when my best friend/ex-roommate/partner–in-crime, Michal, said she was moving to Europe I was elated.  By American standards she is not exactly close.  Geographically, Milan and London are about as close as New York and Atlanta (I had to Google this, took me four tries) but psychologically they are basically neighbours.  All I had to do was make sure that she actually went through with it and stayed. 

So in the middle of June I trundled off to Milan into 88˚F (31˚C) heat to look for apartments.  I may have just described a modern day nightmare for some but for me, this is my bag.  I love hot weather and am obsessed with real estate.  So what if I am on my own and don’t speak Italian while Michal is lost in some suburb trying to sort out her visa.    

At the end of day one, we are discouraged.  I fear that I am going to lose her back to the comforts of the United States and air conditioning.  We had been scouring our little guide book for some where to eat and figured we would hit up a new neighbourhood since we had already memorized 75% of the city.  We wanted to eat in the Navigli, the south of Milan where the canals are.  We mentioned this to a friend who gave us a disgusted look like we were patchouli-wearing backpackers but then proceeded to call her friend and book us a table. 

Al Pont de Ferr is not an unknown locale.  It graces way too many guide books to be considered a local find but surprisingly we were the only two customers speaking English. The dishes are simple, delicious and well priced.  One stand-out, however, was the squid.  I had read recently in the New York Times that said “THERE'S an old chestnut about squid: Cook it either for just two minutes, or leave it on the stove for at least 30.”  Whether this was the former or the latter I have no idea but am inclined toward the latter, it was the best squid, hands down, that I have ever had.  Let it be known that I am not a squid novice. I have been around the block once or twice when it comes to squid so I do not utter these words lightly. 

The setting is not something to be scoffed at either as the canals are beautiful.  You do get the feeling that you might have your handbag stolen at any given moment and I was bitten than no fewer than a large colony of mosquitoes, nonetheless, it was a beautiful night.  There is nothing like some good food and wine to get someone to warm up to a city.  Welcome to the Continent, Michal. 

Eastside Inn

Eastside Inn

38-42 St. John Street

Clerkenwell

London, EC1M 4AY

 

Background:  One of the perks of writing about food and restaurants is that you end up meeting other people who are similarly impassioned about the same topic. Hence how I met Charlie McVeigh of the Le Café Anglais and The Westbridge (I highly recommend both). We got a talking about cheese, wine, restaurants and the like and planned to have lunch.  Eating with a restaurateur is a little daunting.  He made the reservation at Eastside Inn (through the PR office at Le Café Anglais!), a newcomer to Farringdon around Smithfield market, in the previous home of Vic Naylor’s, opened by Bjorn van der Horst, formerly with Gordon Ramsey Holdings. 

When I hear the word “Inn” I immediately think of Jesus, for no other reason than he was born in the stable of an inn or so they say.  After Jesus comes small country get-aways in Connecticut or the Cotswolds.  This place was not very “inn-like” according to my standards but I am not in the habit of setting them so take them with a grain of salt.  The interior is modern and minimalist, a little too well-lit for my taste, and is divided into two sections; the restaurants and the bistro.  There is also a little lounge area where there is supposed to be jazz (apparently not lunchtime) but struck me as a little awkward.

Lunch is often the toughest time for most restaurants, new restaurants especially, thus the place was rather sparsely populated when we arrived. Thankfully we opted for the less formal option, the bistro, and to eat at the bar of the open kitchen which to my great pleasure was not pre-set with Easter egg coloured chargers like the restaurant. 

The Starters:  I have a bit of a habit of asking the waiter what he or she likes the best of the menu.  It comes out automatically without my having much control over it.  So I did.  Sometimes you can tell that they are completely sincere and love the item they are suggesting and sometimes you just know that they are trying to move a dish.  In this case it was the former.  A good thing, you might be thinking.  In theory, yes, but you forget my rather complex eating habits these days.  So he earnestly recommends the Bone marrow and oxtail marmalade: Horseradish and orange zest which sounds absolutely amazing.  I have a thing for bone marrow and a completely separate thing for oxtail anything, so this is pretty much heaven except for one thing.  I cannot fathom being that much of a glutton that I can eat bone marrow not on bread, just with a spoon.  It seems just too Edwardian.  So I instead order the Baby squid à la Basquaise.  Charlie goes for the Organic Egg: Frisée, walnuts and blue cheese.   

  

The squid dish is rather wrongly named as its more A la Basquaise with Squid. In case you are unaware (as I was); à la Basquaise means it is a dish whose ingredients will include mostly tomatoes and sweet peppers. This could be great except that I am not a fan of peppers and my culinary ignorance has gotten me into a pickle once again.  But wait, I really enjoyed it.  I thought the squid was too sparing and a little tough but I absolutely loved the Basquaise bit.  Charlie’s egg was, well, an egg but a beautiful and delicious orange-yoked egg and damned right at £10 (please excuse the "before and after" pictures but the yolk colour must be documented it).

The Mains: For the mains, I went with the Monkfish bourride: Fennel and clams and Charlie chose the Plats du jour which was a skate wing with a side of ratatouille.  This was pretty daring on my part as I consider myself a fish novice and rarely order it in a restaurant for a) fear of being disappointed, b) offending the restaurant, c) embarrassing my dining companion or d) all of the above.  As a fish Charlie’s skate looked pretty scary (to me, not a normal person), but it was apparently very good and the ratatouille excellent. My decision, however, was genius.  “Wow” was the first word out of my mouth and (sorry Mom) I hadn’t even finished chewing yet.  The monkfish was adequately rested and tender and the clams were juicy and flavourful but it was the sauce that tipped the balance for this dish.  Since the bread embargo prevented me from sopping it up I was forced to use a spoon.

Closing thoughts:  The décor wasn’t exactly my taste but I loved eating at the bar and watching the chefs cook. That being said it can get a little awkward when one of the sous chefs or line cooks (I can’t tell, definitely need to brush up on kitchen hierarchy) gets yelled at or burns himself (both happened while we were there). We didn’t take dessert but were offered a beautifully presented ball of sorbet on a block of ice.  Hopefully the traffic gets a little heavier and the place fills up, but it should as the food is really very good.  One last thing, maybe it was the star-studded cast (Charlie, not me) or the fact that we were almost alone in the dining room but I felt a little stalked by the wait staff; a little bit eager to please.

Silverware: Standard issue.  Nice and sturdy.

Silverspoons: 7.5 / 10

Damage: £40 per person (no wine)

Carrot and Walnut Cake

 

I am not sure why, maybe it’s some sort of masochism, but I have been going all out on the dessert front recently.  I am still on a food lock-down and can’t even try the recipe as I go along but I have been committed to making cakes, tarts and desserts of any kind.  And, in turn, I am sharing them with you.  This is, of course, completely out of character as I don’t even have a sweet tooth and I have embraced a healthy lifestyle of reduced sugar consumption.  But still the urge to bake haunts me.  Perhaps it’s that I never really had the time to whip up a cake on a Wednesday afternoon and that this freedom has encouraged me into creating a dinner menu from start to finish.  I do cheat on hors d’oeuvres and buy cheese and crackers and the like but I have even entertained the idea making my own crackers. 

Another logical conclusion is that I recently bought the Ottolenghi cookbook and have become obsessed.  I am blessed to be within 5 minutes walking distance to my nearest Ottolenghi and my most frequent lunch companion, Gaby, has one in spitting distance (no kidding, and you don’t even have to be a master spitter) from her house.  Thus we walk in and survey what’s on offer quite regularly, carefully choosing among the delicacies and blocking out the beautiful pastries and cakes that loom in the corner of your eye.  You have to; otherwise a trip to Ottolenghi would not just be detrimental to your waistline but also your wallet.  I am, however, a devotee as you might have noticed.  I had heard raves about this book, particularly from a vegetarian friend with a non-vegetarian husband (Skye and Paul) who plan weekends around cooking from this cookbook, “a versatile book with so many options, they say.” I had to have it. 

So when planning out my menu for a recent dinner party I was going to cook from the Ottolenghi cookbook alone and it was wonderful.  One of the highlights of my musings was when I asked Pascal whether I should bake a chocolate or carrot cake for dessert, “EVERYONE bakes chocolate cake, you should do carrot,” he replied.  Now I think that the young man might be getting a little bit spoiled because certainly not EVERYONE is baking chocolate cakes for a Wednesday night dinner, either way I got the point. 

As usual, I subbed out the refined sugar and flour with unrefined brown sugar and whole wheat flour, but the result (or so I am told) was great. Doesn’t it just kill you that I can’t even try one bite! I was unable to find an unrefined version of icing sugar so if you know of a good one please pass it on. 

Ingredients

Cake

160g whole wheat flour (sifted twice)

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

1 egg

1 egg yolk

200g sunflower oil

270g brown caster sugar

50g walnuts (chopped)

50g desiccated coconut

135g carrots (peeled and grated)

2 egg whites

Pinch of salt

 

Icing

175g cream cheese

70g unsalted butter

35g icing sugar

25g honey

30g walnuts (chopped and toasted)

 

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 170˚C and grease a 24 cm springform cake tin and line with parchment paper.  The best way to do this is take the tin apart and use the side of the tin to draw a circle on the parchment to cut out so it fits the base, then put it back together with the base lined and then line the sides.

 

Step 2: Sift together the flour (twice for the flour), baking powder, baking soda and spices and put aside.  In a small bowl whisk together 1 egg and an egg yolk.  With an electric mixer, cream together the oil and sugar until smooth and slowly add in the egg mixture.  Mix in the walnuts coconut and carrot.  Then incorporate the dry mixture.  Use a light hand and don’t over mix.

 

Step 3: In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they form peaks and gently fold into the carrot mixture in 3 steps.  Do not over mix. Some white streaks are ok.

 

Step 4:  Pour into the cake tin and bake for about 40 minutes (poke with a toothpick to check for doneness, if it’s clean it’s done).  If you use a smaller tin, say 20 cm, then cook for about 1 hour. Let the cake cook for an hour before removing from the tin.

 

Step 5: For the icing, beat the cream cheese until creamy and light.  I used light cream cheese, mostly because that is all I could find, but it is also spreadable from the get go. Then cream the sugar, butter and honey together.  Fold the two together and ice the cake, then sprinkle the walnuts.  For the walnuts, it’s easier to toast then chop than the other way around.   

 

Note:  When combining the oil and sugar in step 2 make sure the cookbook (if you buy it, which you should) is far away from the bowl and the oil has a tendency to spit.  

Grilled Vegetable Salad

 

The last couple of days in London have provided me with more summer than I had previously experienced over two full summers.   There is a lot of skin to be seen, on both women and men, for better or for worse.   For some reason 75˚F (I still operate in Fahrenheit but it’s 26˚C for those of you who don’t want to whip out the calculator) in London feels like 90˚ anywhere else.  Workers have wet wash clothes draped over their forehead, Good Samaritans are handing out bottled water in the Tube and pretty much every woman on the street has pulled out a summer dress (albeit usually ill-fitting as she hasn’t had the opportunity to wear it in over 2 years).  Although it appears my summer might end tomorrow (it says it’ll still be sunny but cooler), I wanted to impart one of my favourite and easiest (and healthiest) summer dishes.  The luxury of hot weather when cooking is that your guests (or just you) don’t mind side dishes and the like to be room temperature.  This salad simply made up of zucchini (courgettes), summer squash (oddly, yellow courgettes), scallions (spring onions) and sugar snap peas (same name on both sides of the pond I believe) requires little prep and it a great hit for barbeques as well as for dinner.

Ingredients

2 zucchini

2 summer squash

2 bunches scallions

1 box (or generous handful) sugar snap peas

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

Seasoning

 

Step 1: Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C.  Slice the zucchini and summer squash into strips, remove the growing bits (squiggles at the end of the bulb) and excess green of the scallions and lay them all in a roasting dish. Bathe in olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper and any other one that suits you, I used Old Bay.  Pop into the oven for 10 minutes.

 

Step 2: Remove any stems from the sugar snap peas, slice in half on the bias (diagonally) for looks and throw into a bowl.  When the other vegetables are ready, cut them into bite sized pieces and add to the sugar snap peas.  Toss the salad and serve whenever; hot or cold.  Freshen with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. 

 

Note: You can blanch the sugar snap peas if you feel like it (plunge into boiling water for about 2 minutes) but I didn’t and I love the crunch of them raw.   You can also use eggplant (aubergine) it’ll cook the same way. I love orange by the way.  My sister gave me that bowl.   

Lemon Tart

 

 

Considering I have devoted considerable time and effort to writing about food and then going so far as to post it on the internet for all to see, it might seem logical that I am comfortable in the kitchen and like throwing dinner parties.  Yes, for all intents and purposes, this is true.  That also means that the pressure to perform and put together something special is that much greater.  So last week, I found myself looking down the barrel of another dinner party and I went into a bit of a panic.  Not only was I feeling uninspired but my guests were to be my brother and sister-in-law, Lopo and Sandrine, and my father, Bruce, flown in especially from New York (not really but he does live in NY).  Family can and should be easy dinner guests but it was also the inaugural visit to the new flat and sometimes they can be the harshest critics (or so it seems but in my case it’s mostly self-inflicted, they are nothing but supportive). But I also felt tapped out.   I had exhausted all the really wowing dishes at previous dinner parties and I have avowed to not eat anything that is remotely tasty (see Detox days 2 – 7, I am sticking with it for a little while longer). 

So in the end, I chose to make a simple and healthy dinner followed by a kick-ass dessert.  This is where I pigeon-holed myself.  I had just bought a brand new tart tin and I had to use it.  I am the type of person who can hardly wait to get home before wearing newly bought clothes. I have even been known to wear them out of the store which is usually awkward for everyone as the sales clerk gingerly tries to remove the tag without cutting off all my hair or stabbing me in the neck. 

Have I mentioned that I am really good at the internet?  To solve the problem of what tart to bake in my new tart tin, I attacked the internet with reckless abandon and came up with a lemon tart from Delicious Magazine by Raymond Blanc.  I have swapped out some ingredients for their less processed cousins but the result is still greedy and delicious and as my brother said as he was finishing up his piece, “it makes me feel better knowing that the pastry crust is whole wheat.”

Ingredients

Pastry Crust

120g unsalted butter

80g icing sugar, sifted

250g whole wheat flour, sifted

2 egg yokes      

1 additional egg

Filling

5 Medium eggs

150g caster sugar (brown)

140ml double cream

Zest of 3 lemons

Juice of 4 lemons

Step 1:  For the pastry crust, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth, then beat in the egg yolks. For best results, the butter can be slightly softened. Add the sifted flour and incorporate it into the mixture until crumbly.  Use you fingers to do this so as to get all the flour and butter mashed together.  (Tip: Buy a 20-pack of disposable rubber gloves makes this task and a lot of others much easier and less messy).  Mix in 1 or 2 tsps of ice water and press to form a ball.

Step 2:  Spread some plastic wrap on the counter and flatten the dough out onto it to form a disk.  Chill for 30 minutes.  When chilled, roll out with a rolling pin on a flour-dusted surface until it’s about 3mm thick.  My pan was 24 cm diameter and 2.5cm deep.   Since whole wheat crusts have a tendency to fall apart more easily than their white flour counterparts there is not really easy way to get the dough into the tin besides “try your best!”  My technique involved two spatulas and some cursing. Either way, the crust will end up in the tin.  Smooth it around the bottom with a baggie full of extra dough, patch up the necessary holes and trim the top.  Chill for a further 30 minutes.

Step 3:  Put a baking sheet in the oven and preheat the oven to 180˚C.  Line the pastry case with parchment paper and fill it with something heavy that will keep the pastry from puffing up.  (I used untoasted muesli, it worked just fine and in the end I had toasted muesli, bonus. But you can use rice or beans or something that won’t burn or cook.)  Bake on the sheet for 10-15 minutes.  Remove the paper and weight and bake for a further 5 minutes.  (At this point it is supposed to start looking golden but given its already brown colour that might be difficult to determine.) Brush the pastry with 1 beaten egg and return to the oven for one more minute.  Let to cool. 

Step 4: Turn the oven up to 190˚C and make the filling.  Whisk the eggs and sugar together (remember how to make castor sugar from normal sugar, if not click here).  Whisk in the cream, lemon juice and zest until just combined and pour into the case.  Cook for 20-25 minutes, allow to cool for an hour. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Note:   This looks like a lot of long steps but it’s not that daunting once you get started.  You can also make twice the amount of pastry dough and freeze it so that you can skip those steps next time. Also, the filling is really soupy so getting it into the oven without spilling is tricky.  I pulled out the rack so that it was flat and ladled the filling into the case.  You might be of surer hand than I, so do whatever works for you.  Also the original recipes calls for you to remove the case from tin before the final bake, given the fragility of the whole wheat crust I would keep it on and remove once cooled. 

 

Rainy Days at the Lake

 

Every year I try to get home for Memorial Day Weekend or the End of May Bank Holiday.  It marks the wedding anniversary of my father and step-mother, but more officially the beginning of summer.  It used to be a rather hit or miss weekend in New England; a scorcher or snowing.  Nowadays, given the glories of global warming, it’s usually pretty nice.  This year there were some blemishes on the forecast but all in all we were in for a good summer weekend.  That was until the wrath of the heavens unleashed upon us a tempestuous downpour of magnificent proportions.   Enough of the Shakespearean language, you are probably saying!  Well let me give you some background.  The house in Connecticut is a converted children’s camp complete with a theatre and corrugated tin roof.  It is the roof that makes for the flowery language.  When it rains the noise is deafening and downright frightening.  That said; there is also not much to do at a lake house when it rains except well, bake.  And so we did.   No one had planned on baking or anything less than hours upon hours of uninterrupted sunshine so we had to make due with what we had.  Banana bread was the target and it came out pretty well.  We had to figure out what to do during the hour it was meant to bake but when we came back the sun was setting over the lake as the mist rose and the kitchen was filled with the smell of banana bread.  Not a bad afternoon after all.

Ingredients

 

5 Bananas

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ¼ baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

 

Step 1: Pre-heat the oven to 350 F / 170 C and grease a loaf pan.

 

Step 2:  Mash the bananas and then combine with the other ingredients until smooth.  (You may want to sift the flour and baking soda/powder).

 

Step 3: Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for about an hour.

 

Note:  We used Sugar in the Raw or brown granulated sugar (in packets to be more specific) and we didn’t have any Baking Powder so had to use a substitute.  The recommendation is that you use baking soda (the alkali) and cream of tartar (the acid) to sub in, but the likelihood of you (or me) having cream of tartar on hand if you don’t have baking powder is unlikely. We used baking soda and lemon juice it worked just fine in bread such as this.