Time for Food

Raspberries "jam" & Frangipane Tart

noreply@blogger.com (Food and Me) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 17:46:00 +0000

It is snowing outside and I am at home cosy under the blanket enjoying my tea and a warm Raspberries & Frangipane tart. I know it’s been ages since I posted here something so I thought this would be a great opportunity because the tart is sooo delicious and so perfect for this snowy weather. I inspired myself by Gordon Ramsey and his Apricot and Frangipane Tart from his book Ultimate Cookery Course which I happen to have signed by Gordon himself! (Yes, I am very happy about that; it is my second signed book along my Two Greedy Italians book signed by Gennaro Contaldo). I added a little bit of a twist to mine though, just to make it a little bit different and a little bit mine J. You can practically make this with any fruits. Next time I am planning on pears. I hope you enjoy!

Raspberries "jam" & Frangipane Tart

500g sweet shortcrust pastry

Please see a recipe and process for the shortcrust pastry here. You can use a shop bought one too to make it all easier.

1. Prepare your shortcrust pastry. You can find the process here. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface - you want to have it about 3mm thick.

2. Lightly butter a 23cm tart ring, dust it with flour evenly and unroll the pastry across the ring. Use your fingers to press the pastry into the ring so that you achieve a smooth fit.

3. Prick the pastry with a fork and cover it with baking paper filled with dried beans. Put it into a 190°C preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes (first 10 minutes covered with the paper and the beans, 5 minutes uncovered) to cook the base. After this is done, reduce the oven temperature to 150°C.

For the frangipane and raspberries jam you will need:

125g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

125g caster sugar

25g plain flour

125g ground almonds

1 egg, beaten

150g frozen raspberries

1tbsp caster sugar

1. To prepare the frangipane, cream the butter, sugar, flour and almonds together, then slowly add the egg, mixing until fully incorporated. Allow the frangipane to rest for 5 minutes before smoothing it inside the pre-baked pastry.

2. Once poured over the pastry, put it into the 150°C preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until golden.

3. In the meantime, prepare your raspberries “jam”. Put the raspberries into a pan, add about 2 tablespoons water and 1 table spoon sugar (you can add less or more, just to your taste). Heat the raspberries until they’re nice warm and soft and then squash them to make a smooth mixture.

4. Pour the raspberries on the baked frangipane and leave in the oven for another 5 minutes.

5. Take it out from the oven, leave it to cool and sprinkle with some icing sugar. You can serve it with crème-fraiche and some mint leaves on the top.

Enjoy!

Clos Maggiore

noreply@blogger.com (Food and Me) — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 19:30:00 +0000

When you are after a fancy French dining experience in London, go to Clos Maggiore, a classy restaurant in Covent Garden. It is a very elegant and stylish restaurant with exquisite food which guarantees a truly memorable dining experience. Voted “London’s Most Romantic Restaurant” in Harden’s Restaurant Guide or “Sexiest Restaurant in the UK” in The Times 2012, it is a great choice for the perfect evening.

When my boyfriend’s mum was coming to London, I really wanted to take her to a restaurant that would enchant her and with Clos Maggiore I didn’t make a mistake. We booked a table for Friday night. And we loved it from the moment we entered. The restaurant has a very chic interior influenced by Provence and Tuscany which generates a warm and inviting feeling – there is a small cosy waiting room, a dining lounge at the front, a blossom-filled conservatory with a glass roof, open fire place and fairy lights at the back and a somewhat more divided dining space on the first floor.

The menu is mouth-watering and changes with seasons to ensure the best flavours. Some examples from this autumn menu include Foie Gras and Pigeon Terrine, Seared Wild Scallops or braised rabbit’s shoulder from the starters; Lobster, Scallop & Monkfish casserole, slow cooked veal belly or roasted fillet of lamb with roasted pistachio cromesquis from the mains and hot confit of apples with sweet biscuits and rum & raisin parfait, fig and almond tart or selection of cheeses from the dessert menu.

Apart from the delicious food, you will also be able to choose from a wide selection of beautiful wines as Clos Maggiore is known for the size and beauty of its wine cellars where a team of competent sommeliers will be able to assist you to get the perfect match with your food.

Clos Maggiore is a really fantastic place to eat and I would greatly recommend it to anyone looking for a special place for a special evening. Oh, and I forgot to add, Prince Harry and his ex-girlfriend Chelsy visited this restaurant too. :)

Image source: Clos Maggiore, The Glass Magazine, Square Meal,

Pumpkin Feast - Pumpkin Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Food and Me) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 20:15:00 +0000

Pumpkin soup is such a classic and delicious soup that I just cannot but put on my blog! So to continue with the pumpkin feast, below is my pumpkin soup recipe.

As I suggested in the post before, I’ve always made pumpkin soup with butternut squash instead of the “classic” Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin that is used for Halloween. Probably because it is more common in the shops and it's easier to carry home from the supermarket :). But since we bought it for our Halloween decorations, I wanted to see the difference of the taste of the soup when made with this type of pumpkin. And despite some comments I have read (not so flavoursome, too watery, not sweet enough, etc.), it was very tasty and delicious! Quite different from butternut squash soup but equally tasty indeed. I like my autumn/wintery soups to be warming and have a little nice kick so I made this one with a bit of chilli & garlic and crispy sage and roasted seeds on the top. Enjoy!

Pumpkin soup with chilli and sage: (serves 4)

Flesh from ½ mid-sized Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin

5 mid potatoes

1tsp dried chilli

1 white onion, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic + 1 for extra garlic oil, pressed in garlic press

2 leaves of sage + some more extra for frying

Olive oil

Handful of pumpkin seeds

1. Cut the pumpkin into a half and save the other half for some other use. Remove the seeds and the skin and cut it into cubes.

2. Prepare the potatoes by peeling the skin off and cutting them into cubes as well.

3. Heat a nice splash of oil in your pot, add the onion and allow to soften for 5 minutes. Add the pressed garlic and the chilli and fry for 1 minute.

4. Add the cubed pumpkin and cubed potatoes and sweat for about a minute or two.

5. Add hot water into the pot enough to cover the ingredients, season well with salt and pepper and allow to cook for about 15 minutes.

6. Add your sage leaves and cook for another 5 minutes or until the pumpkin and potatoes are cooked.

7. Blend the soup with your blender.

Tips:

I like to serve my soup with a few drops of chilli-garlic oil and fried sage leaves.

Some other tips for pumpkin dishes that I would recommend would be pumpkin risotto, pasta with creamy pumpkin sauce, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread or pumpkin curry. But I am sure I will write about some of these in the future. :)

Pumpkin Feast - Pumpkin cups with minced beef

noreply@blogger.com (Food and Me) — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 16:16:00 +0000

Autumn is in its best in England and pumpkins of all different sizes and shapes are back on the counters, ready to be used in all possible kinds of autumnal dishes. I love autumn and I love pumpkins. Their use in the kitchen is very versatile and you can make both sweet and savoury dishes with them or use them in breads, etc. There are many types of pumpkins and I have to say that I have been mostly cooking with butternut squash so far but with the Halloween coming up and with the beautiful choice in the supermarkets, I tried some other types as well this time.

I bought these mini pumpkins, also known as “Jack-Be-Little-Pumpkins” that are very cute and very nice for decoration and then later perfect for stuffing or for serving Halloween party drinks :). I wanted to stuff them with minced meat, the pumpkins’ flesh and sage (which is one of the herbs that goes beautifully with pumpkin; other herbs that go really nicely with pumpkins are thyme or rosemary). But as I soon found out, the walls of these pumpkins are very thin and most of the inside is the seeds and so there is not enough of the flesh. So I ended up adding some more ingredients. All in all, it was a perfect starter into our pumpkin feast. Enjoy!

Pumpkin cups with minced beef:

3 mini pumpkins

200g minced beef

1 white onion, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

½ cup of couscous

½ leek, chopped

½ tinned chopped tomatoes

3 leaves of fresh sage + 3 more for decoration

Cheese of your choice for decoration (goats cheese or Camembert goes very well with pumpkins)

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Prepare your pumpkin:
1. Cut the top of your pumpkins to create a lid (with the mini pumpkins about 1,5cm from the stalk).

2. Remove all the seeds and loose flesh from the inside of the pumpkin.

3. You can save the seeds for roasting if you want. Cut the flesh into small pieces so that it is ready for stir frying.

4. Put the hollowed out pumpkin into the oven for about 200°C for 20 minutes, season the inside with salt, drizzle with olive oil and bake them so that the remaining flesh inside is cooked and you can eat it with the mixture filling.

Prepare your meat filling:

1. Pour olive oil into a pan and wait until it’s hot. Add the chopped onion and allow it to soften for 5 minutes. Then add the pumpkin flesh and fry for another 5 minutes.

2. Add the garlic and after about 1 minute, add the minced beef and break it up with your wooden spoon. Fry for another 10 minutes or until the meet is brown. Then add the leek and the chopped tomatoes and sage (you can chop it or you can add whole leaves) and cook for another 10 minutes covered with a lid.

Couscous and finishing touches:

1. In the meantime, prepare your couscous. Put the couscous into a bowl, add some salt (not too much, you can always add some later) and pour hot water over it. Pour about as much so that the water is about 2cm above the couscous. Cover with a plate or kitchen foil and allow the couscous to absorb the water for about 5 minutes.

2. Now you’ve got everything ready so combine the couscous with the meat mixture and season according to taste.

3. Fill the pumpkins with the mixture, put the cheese on the top and put to the oven for another 3 minutes to allow the cheese to melt a bit.

4. Place the pumpkin lids on your pumpkin cup and serve.

Jamie's Italian

noreply@blogger.com (Food and Me) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 19:21:00 +0000

What else should I start my “Eating out in London” section than Jamie’s Italian. Jamie’s Italian is a special restaurant for me and that’s for several reasons. It is the first restaurant I visited in London, it is also a restaurant where I met wonderful people while I was working there and last but not least it is a restaurant where I learned a lot about food and where my passion for food was further developed.
I love Jamie Oliver for his enthusiasm and attitude to food and cooking. Jamie’s Italian, although a restaurant of a worldwide known chef, is not a posh restaurant as one would expect. It is a very relaxed restaurant with a rustic feel and dynamic atmosphere. The staff is trained to a great standard and they are ready to answer any of your questions. Do you want to know where the prawns come from? Do you want to know what the chicken was fed with? They will be ready to tell you! Something I was very impressed with.

As the title suggests, Jamie’s Italian serves Italian cuisine and you can get here the best of the best from Italian produce. The menu consists of before-meal-nibbles/breads, antipasti, pasta, mains, side dishes and desserts, i.e. the typical Italian menu, some of which change with seasons. I have eaten almost everything in this restaurant and my favourites are prawn linguine, feather steak, squid ink pasta with scallops and sausages with braised lentils and tomato salsa. From the desserts, it was then the lemon curd slice and the warm brownie with raspberries.

I always had a great time in Jamie’s Italian however, lately (I am not sure whether this is the impact of the fact that the chain grows so quickly), but I’m afraid, it’s not everywhere what it used to be. My personal tip in London would be Canary Wharf – this is the first Jamie’s Italian that was opened in London and I never left disappointed. Also, given the area, it is not that busy for dinners as, e.g. Covent Garden is and so you feel more comfortable and not so rushed there. I have been there many times and it’s been my favourite of all Jamie’s! And what about you? Have you been to Jamie’s? What did you like about it?

Image source: Jamie Oliver, Australian Design Review

Orange Tart with Vanilla Mascarpone

noreply@blogger.com (Food and Me) — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:44:00 +0000

I love desserts! I love sweets. You know how your eating habits are influenced by your family – well, I was influenced by my mum heavily in that sense that she loves to have something sweet after every proper meal, i.e. lunch and dinner, and I am the same. I love to have something sweet every day. I am not a very chocolate person, something that my friends can’t really understand but yeah, I’m not. I am not saying I don’t eat chocolate but it wouldn’t be my first choice. I love creamy desserts and biscuits.

Cheesecakes and lemon tarts but you can’t really eat them all the time and so I like to refresh the “repertoire” a little bit. I found this recipe in a book that I am currently reading about food and social behaviour but I spiced it up a little bit and also changed the proportion of ingredients and the title ..., so it is my cake in the end. Or actually my boyfriend’s as he was the one baking it! :) Enjoy!

The pastry:

175g plain flour

85g butter

70g sugar

1 egg (split into yolk and white that you whisk until foamy)

2 tablespoons milk

Pinch of salt

1. To make the pastry, put the flour, diced butter and sugar into a bowl and mix well. Add the egg yolk, milk, pinch of salt and gradually add the whisked egg white as well.

2. Wrap it in a cling film and allow to chill for about 30 minutes in the fridge.

1. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured cool work surface into a large 3-5mm thick circle and carefully unroll it across a 23cm tart ring. Use your fingers to press the pastry into the ring so that you achieve a smooth fit.

2. Put the pastry into a 190°C preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes. (Apply the tips suggested at the Quiche with Leeks, Bacon & Rosemary recipe in the past – pricking the pastry with a fork and baking it covered with a baking paper filled with dried beans for the first 10 minutes)

The filling:

300g mascarpone

150g sour cream

130g caster sugar

¼ teaspoon vanilla paste (or ½ a vanilla pod or 1 teaspoon vanilla essence)

Pinch of salt

Zest and juice of 2-3 oranges

3 eggs

1. Mix all the ingredients together and pour the filling over the pre-baked pastry. Reduce the over to 150°C and bake for 45 minutes or until just set.

You can make the tart look more beautiful by decorating it with fresh or candied pieces of orange, grated dark chocolate, vanilla and sugar infused sour cream, and so on and so forth.

Fish, Tomato and Spinach Stew on Rustic Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Food and Me) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:21:00 +0000

Those who know me know that I am a real foodie! (Btw. I am very proud of that :)). I cook every day, sometimes twice a day – I know crazy :) - but I just enjoy having a proper meal and eating diversely. So even when I decide to have a piece of bread for dinner, it is about to be accompanied by something more than a piece of cheese. Don’t take me wrong, I love bread and cheese but I usually add something to it to make it even more delicious :).
Like today. I had some left-over uncooked fish from last night and because there was not so much of it left, I thought it would be perfect for some kind of mixture topping on bread for dinner. And it was great, indeed! And ready in 25 minutes, preparation time included! Great as a light lunch or filling dinner – healthy, nutritious, quick and easy :). Enjoy!

Fish, Tomato and Spinach Stew:

100g white fish fillet (preferably fresh, tastes sooo much better!!); I used Icelandic Haddock

Canned peeled tomatoes

Fresh spinach leaves (I used about half 250g packet)

2 Garlic cloves

½ Onion

¼ tsp Chilli powder (this is optional, I like when a tomato sauce is a little bit spicy J )

Olive oil

Salt, pepper according to taste

1. Chop the onion and garlic. Put the onion into a pan and allow to sweat for few minutes. Add the garlic and chilli powder. After about 1 minute, add the canned tomatoes.

2. Add salt and pepper according to taste.

3. Add the spinach leaves and mix properly.

4. Season your fish and place the fish on the tomato sauce. Cover with a kitchen foil or lid and allow to cook for about 15 minutes.

5. Uncover the pan, split up the fish into pieces and serve on a piece of toasted bread.

Roast chicken drumsticks with garlic & lemon thyme on polenta

noreply@blogger.com (Food and Me) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Roast chicken – yum! Polenta – yum, yum, yum! This dish can’t disappoint you!

For some, polenta (cornmeal) is not a usual cooking ingredient and I have to say that until last year I wasn’t using it in my kitchen either. But ever since I discovered its taste, it became my favourite accompaniment dish and a great change from serving pasta, potatoes, rice, etc.

I first came across polenta when I was working in one of Jamie Oliver’s restaurants in London. In one of our tasting sessions, they put a spatchcocked chicken on polenta in front of me and I just loved it! It had a smooth and thick texture and a very specific, creamy taste. I immediately became a fan.

However, when I first made polenta at home, it was tasteless and lumpy and I didn’t like it at all. But that was only because I didn’t know how to cook it and didn’t really read anything about it. I put the cornmeal into a pot, poured water over it (first mistake) and added salt. However, if you want to achieve a nice creamy texture with a great taste, you first have to bring the water to boil, turn the heat down and then gradually pour the polenta into the simmering water, whisking it continuously. To finish the dish, you then need to add butter (for the creaminess), parmesan (however that is not necessary) and salt according to taste while still whisking. There are different types of cornmeal ranging from coarse to very fine and according to this you choose how long to cook it for. Some types of polenta you need to cook for up to 45 minutes but I use the very fine polenta which I cook for 5-10 minutes, making it a very quick mid-week meal :).

Polenta is a traditional northern Italian side dish and because it’s very filling, it used to be food for poor peasants. Nowadays, it is a very common dish in Italy, however it doesn’t really get that much worldwide recognition as for example pasta or pizza but it is on its way to a new audience. Polenta is very versatile and you can serve it with almost anything and in different forms – polenta as you can on the picture above, you can do polenta chips, polenta bread, polenta cake, and so on and so forth. Although my dish has quite a fancy title (I believe :) ), have a look at the picture below – that’s all what you need – very easy country meal that exceeds all expectations. Enjoy!

Roast chicken:

6 pcs of Chicken drumsticks

Lemon thyme

Garlic - 2 cloves

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper according to taste

Polenta:

Corn meal

Butter

Salt

1. Rub the chicken with salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon thyme and garlic and place in the oven. Roast for about 50 minutes (covered with a tinfoil for the first 30 minutes) or until golden and cooked properly.

2. Prepare polenta according to the instructions above. The ratio of polenta to water is about 1:4. I always measure it with cups and it is 1/2 a bigger cup of polenta for 2 cups of water for 2 people :)

Saturday Night Treat

noreply@blogger.com (Food and Me) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:54:00 +0000

Long time no post! I hope that everyone is doing well in the New Year and that it has been a good one for all of you so far! At the same time, I hope that not many of you are on the famous world-wide January diet because today I would like to give you a nice tip for a sweet treat.

I love sweets and I love having treats at home all the time. I very much enjoy when we bake over the weekend and can then pick up a piece every day during the week :). I am not really a chocolate type of person (lucky me, I guess) and much prefer fresh creamy desserts like cheesecakes, lemon tarts, etc. but I do love this chocolate cake that I made last night. It is a copy of a cake that you can get in a bakery in one of the supermarkets in the Czech republic and I call it “Albertka” – people from the Czech Republic will understand :). It is a very moist and juicy chocolate cake (I don’t like any dry cakes) infused with coconut condensed milk and apart from being a great calorie bomb it is also a perfect chocolate pleasure! I enjoyed it with raspberries, champagne and Mary Poppins on TV last night and what a great Saturday night it was!

Cake "Albertka"

Coconut part:

100g desiccated coconut

½ a can of condensed milk (about 200g)

1 egg

Chocolate part:

100g butter

100g dark chocolate

½ a cup sugar (the original recipe says a whole cup but I believe ½ is enough)

¾ a cup of plain flour

1/8 a cup of cocoa powder

½ a cup of milk

1 egg

1tsp baking powder

1tsp vanilla essence

1. For the coconut part, just mix all ingredients together.

2. For the chocolate part, first break the chocolate and melt it down together with butter in a water bath (place a bowl over a saucepan with simmering water in it - or use a bain-marie if you have one).

3. Mix the cocoa powder with warm milk.

4. Into the butter-chocolate melted mixture add: sugar (½ a cup), vanilla essence (1tsp), flour (¾ a cup), egg (1), the prepared cocoa milk (1/8 a cup of cocoa powder mixed with ½ a cup of warm milk) and at the end the baking powder and mix well together.

5. Grease a 23cm baking tin with butter, sprinkle a little flour around it and shake out excess flour. Pour (yes, it will be a little bit runny) the batter into the tin, make little balls from the coconut mixture and place them into the chocolate batter.

6. Put into a 200°C preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes. You can check the cake is done by poking a cocktail stick into the middle of the cake. If it's sticky, it needs a little bit longer.

TIPS FOR THE DISH:

When you have the coconut mixture ready, place it into a freezer for a bit so that it's thicker and not so soft. You will then be able to sink the coconut balls better into the chocolate batter and will not have brown coconut on the top.
When adding the flour into the chocolate-butter mixture, do it gradually so that you don't get lumps of flower in it.

Enjoy!

Sunday Pork Roast

noreply@blogger.com (Food and Me) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 17:21:00 +0000

Christmas is coming and I should really be posting some Christmassy recipes and kitchen ideas for some inspiration but I have been so busy recently that I will be doing all this only this coming week. But hopefully, I will still manage to give you at least one or two delicious recipes for this wonderful winter holidays. :)

I went Christmas shopping yesterday – Central London – and you can imagine that after a constant working my way through the crowds, I fancied some hearty, warm and easy to prepare meal for my dinner. In the supermarket, I saw this beautiful 5kg pork shoulder (that I have never done before) and decided to buy it. After a consultation with my grandma who is a pork specialist in our family (that’s probably why I never had the need to roast pork myself), I found out it’s really easy! Just make scores into the skin, season the hunk of meat and put in the oven. In my case, I split the meat into 2 parts freezing the other half for another weekend. :)

Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder

2-3kg pork shoulder with the skin on

Salt, pepper

Rosemary (preferably fresh, always tastes better :) )

5 bay leaves

Make scores through the skin (not too deep so that you don’t cut into the meat); rub the salt into the scores and all around the meat and season the meat with rosemary and bay leaves (I don’t only put the herbs on the top but try to stick them into the meat where possible)
Place your pork, skin-side up, into a preheated oven (220°C) and roast for about 30 minutes until the skin starts to puff up.
Then turn the temperature down to 190°C, cover the pork with a tinfoil and roast for further 4 hours. (You will appreciate the length of the roasting as the meat is then very tender, and almost flakes away)
After that, remove the tinfoil and roast until the skin is nice and crispy (around another hour).

And the outcome – beautiful!!!

As the side to this dish, I made roasted potatoes with onion, chilli, garlic and rosemary.

And the process is very easy.

Just use baby potatoes, leave the skin on, pre-cook them in salted water for about 10 minutes (the time depends on whether you cut them or not) then, them dress them up with olive oil, sprinkle rosemary, chilli, garlic and sliced onion, give it a nice mix and bake on a grill for about 45 minutes or until golden and crispy.

Enjoy!

Bonjour, Paris

noreply@blogger.com (Food and Me) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:36:00 +0000

I spent last weekend in Paris and I enjoyed it very very much. Not only is Paris a beautiful city with amazing sights and places to see but of course, it is also a true gourmand destination. I love French cuisine and I love the way French people think of and enjoy food.

The French take time for food; they don’t eat on the run and they eat for pleasure. They don’t look at the calories but they still keep their figures. And they are right, food is to enjoy!

What I loved about Paris are the small boulangeries, patisseries, cafés, charcuteries and other specialised shops everywhere. They induce such a lovely atmosphere and allure. Who would resist?

France is famous for food and everyone who gets there should try its gastronomic treats like foie gras, coq au vin, cheese and wine and not to forget the sweet treats like Crème Brûlée or Mousse au Chocolat. I personally also love quiche (even though its origins are said to be in Germany, nowadays it is considered to be a truly French dish) and whenever I want to bring a little bit of the French gastronomic spirit into my kitchen, I make different variants of this ‘open savoury cake’. Here is one of my favourite recipes:

Quiche with Leeks, Bacon & Rosemary

For the pastry you will need:

175g plain white flour

85g cold diced butter

2tbsp iced water

Pinch of salt

Put the flour (175g), a pinch of salt and the cold diced butter (85g) into a bowl.
Using your fingers, rub it all together until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Then add the water (2tbsp) and gather the dough together into a ball.
Wrap it in a cling film and allow to chill for about 30 minutes in the fridge.

      5.   Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured cool work surface into a large 3-5mm thick
            circle and carefully unroll it across a 23cm tart ring. Use your fingers to press the
            pastry into the ring so that you achieve a smooth fit.
      6. Put the pastry into a 190°C preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes.

TIPS FOR A PERFECT SHORTCRUST PASTRY

When making a pastry, make sure everything is as cold as possible - ice cold water and cold hands (I always put my hands into a bowl of cold water before making a pastry).
Before putting the pastry into the oven, prick it all over with a fork - this will prevent the pastry to inflate.
Also, for the first 10 minutes, bake the pastry covered with a baking paper filled with dried beans - this will also help us prevent the bubbles to occur in the pastry.

For the filling you will need:

2 whole eggs + 1 extra yolk
275ml double cream
Pinch of nutmeg
Little bit of salt and pepper
Fresh or dried rosemary (according to taste)

150g bacon
1,5 bigger leaks
100g grated cheese (Sort of Edam, Gruyere cheese)

Chop the bacon and fry until crisp. Add the leeks to the pan and allow to soften for 5 minutes.
Whisk the eggs (2 whole eggs + 1 yolk), double cream (275ml), nutmeg, little bit of salt and pepper together. Add the rosemary.
Scatter the bacon, the leeks and the cheese onto the pre-baked pastry and pour the liquid filling over the top.
Return to the oven and bake for another 45 minutes or until golden and set.

Enjoy!

Green Thai Chicken Curry

noreply@blogger.com (Food and Me) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:26:00 +0000

Hello and welcome to my blog – my diary of food adventures!

My first blog post ever and so I thought I would start with a simple, yet very delicious and maybe not so frequent dish for everyone. I want my posts to be a little bit more than just a simple recipe and so expect some kind of stories along with that :)

I come from Ostrava (3^rd biggest town in the Czech Republic) where the food culture is very different from what you can experience here in the UK. People prefer to eat at home rather than go out (a trend that is slowly changing nowadays, mostly among the young people) and the most common foreign cuisine restaurants are Italian or Mexican or some kind of mixture of everything – Italian pasta on one page and typical Czech dishes on the other. No wonder then that when I moved to London I was very excited about the vast array of all possible kinds of other cuisines – Indian, Turkish, Lebanese, Argentinean, Chinese, Thai, etc. and wanted to taste it all. Curry dishes became of one of my favourites and to my surprise they are not even difficult to make.

For the kick off of my blog, I decided to make it even simpler and used a shop-bought curry paste instead of doing it myself from different spices. Curry pastes are easy to get in any bigger supermarket.

For a Green Thai Chicken Curry you would need:

1tbsp OLIVE OIL

5tsp THAI GREEN CURRY PASTE (you can use more if you want a spicier sauce)

2 BONELESS CHICKEN BREASTS (cut into bite-sized pieces)

2tbsp THAI FISH SAUCE (NAM PLA)

400ml can of COCONUT MILK

6 SPRING ONIONS (trimmed – 4-5cm lengthways)

SALT and FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER (according to taste) and

CHOPPED CORIANDER to garnish

Heat the oil (1tbsp) in a large frying pan. Add the curry paste (5tsp) and stir. After a minute or so add the chicken and stir-fry for 4-5 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Pour in the fish sauce (2tbsp) and the coconut milk (400ml can) and bring to the boil. Lower the heat, stir in the trimmed spring onions, season with salt and pepper to taste and allow to cook for about 10-12 minutes or until the chicken is tender and cooked enough.
Garnish with coriander and serve hot, ideally with rice.

TIPS FOR THIS DISH:

You don’t have to use salt extra for the chicken. The chicken will get nice flavour from all the seasonings in the paste.

If you used too much of the paste and it’s too spicy, use more coconut milk when cooking. Alternatively if you don’t have more coconut milk, I usually use natural yoghurt on the plate which also adds a little bit of acidity – don’t allow the yoghurt to cook as it might get crumbly.

Enjoy.