Apologies and a lovely Linzertorte!

My darling blog readers, what can I say? It's been 2 years and almost 3 months since my last entry. I know, I know - it sounds like a terrible confession! It has been too long and I am sorry.

Anyway, today I felt inspired to sit down and start typing again.  A quick summary of what I made today:

Breakfast crepes with lemon and sugar - at least 6 consumed by PB in as many minutes!!
Mushroom soup ready for our lunches this week
Trout en papillote with sauteed potatoes, home grown rocket and a herby crème fraîche dressing

And... a Linzertorte!

It did make me chuckle to make this tasty tart as it is surprisingly similar to a tart given to us on holiday by the lovely Italian lady who owned our villa.  At the time PB's eyed glittered with delight and he cut slice after slice until it was all gone.  It was a big hit.  As I looked outside my kitchen door whilst making the rich almond crust, the rain hammered down - what a contrast to the sunny Tuscan skies of July.

The main challenge of this recipe is the pastry - it's incredibly short making for a meltingly good texture, but very hard to make the lattice strips look clean and tidy.  I think that when I attempt this again, I will roll the strips a little thicker for better stability, but there we are!!

Ingredients:

125g plain flour
175g ground almonds
1/2 tspn cinnamon
1 pinch of cloves (I didn't have any 'ready ground' so I bashed up a whole clove with the end of my rolling pin - VERY cathartic!)
125g butter
100g caster sugar
Zest of one lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 egg yolk


125g caster sugar
375g raspberries (I'm afraid I used frozen raspberries - they were much cheaper than the fresh ones, and sadly I am finding the fresh raspberries a little watery at the moment. Of course either would be fine.)
1 egg white

Method:

Mix together the flour, almonds, cinnamon, cloves and a good pinch of salt.
In a separate bowl mix together the butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice, egg yolk - I found it best to use my hands here, but if you don't like the idea then a metal spoon would do a grand job too.
Combine the buttery mix with the floury mix until a rough dough is formed.
Rest the pastry in the fridge for as long as you can - I left it in as long as it took to make my jam, but I think longer would have been even better and would have made the pastry easier to handle.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
Put a pan on the hob with the caster sugar and raspberries and heat vigorously for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly.
The jam should be nice and glossy with a very mild set so that it doesn't run everywhere but not so that it is too stiff that it can't be easily poured into your pastry case.  You'll know when!

Roll out two thirds of the pastry on a floured surface (returning a third to your fridge) and line your 9 inch tart tin.  I would be surprised if you didn't have to patch a little bit, but this will not affect the overall appearance of your tart in the end.
Pour in your jam and spread evenly.
Roll out your final 3rd of pastry and cut 12 lots of 1cm strips.  Lay 6 of these over the jam, and then lay 6 more on a diagonal so as to make a pretty lattice pattern.
Quickly brush the pastry with the egg white you had saved from earlier and bake in the oven.
Check how it is cooking after 15 minutes - perhaps rotate it if your oven is a little bit angry on one side (!). Then turn the oven down to 170 degrees for a further 15 minutes until nicely golden.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool before slicing, otherwise your jam will ooze. Dust with icing sugar if you want that dreamy princess feel, but I like it simple. As it is. A little Viennese jam tart.


I hope you manage to give it a go - it's a truly delicious sweet treat.
(The picture below was PB "quality-controlling" my baking! Cheeky!!

Birthday Raspberry Cheesecake

Deliciously simple no-bake cheesecake!

I love cheesecake just as much as the next (wo)man, but PB's love of cheesecake is in another world. Another universe. If I made him cheesecake every day, he'd eat it. All of it. And he'd probably stay ridiculously skinny...

Anyway, I don't make cheesecake every day, and so, as a birthday treat, I made him my no-bake cheesecake.  What I love about not baking the mix is the lighter, fresher flavour...and a lot of saved time!  It is the simplest cheesecake you'll ever make.

Ingredients:

A couple of handfuls of raspberries

A tablespoon of icing sugar

200ml condensed milk

200ml double cream

150g butter

1 packed ginger nut biscuits (about 25)

Method:

Crush the ginger nuts in a blender, or, if you're like me, place them in a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin until they are a nice breadcrumb texture.  Don't fret if there are larger bits and smaller bits - that's all part of the fun.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the biscuits. Mix until really well coated in butter and flatten into a cake tin/flan tin. A loose-bottomed tin is best for serving, but not essential. Place in the fridge for at least an hour to harden up!

Place half of the raspberries into the same saucepan with the icing sugar onto a low heat.  Slowly reduce the fruit to a juice with small raspberry pieces. Leave to cool down completely.

Meanwhile whisk the double cream until very thick and volumised. Remember the cream will be thinned down with condensed milk and raspberry sauce and still has to be stiff enough to stand in the tin without support.

Slowly pour in the condensed milk, stirring all of the time, and then fold in the raspberry juice and fruit.  This does not need to be well mixed, as the 'raspberry ripple' effect is very pretty. Refrigerate until the base is hard enough and then scoop on top.

Decorate the top with any left over sauce and a gorgeously childish pattern or initial and give to someone you love.  I promise you it'll be appreciated.

Nigel Slater's Lamb, Beetroot and Bulgar Wheat Patties with Cous Cous and Raita

I absolutely adore the contrast of sweet lamb, dusty beetroot and sharp yoghurt in this delicious dish by Nigel Slater.  If you only ever try one of the recipes on my blog, I urge you to try this. It is simply genius, and just thinking of it makes my mouth water!

Ingredients for patties: Makes 12-14 patties

75g bulgar wheat

250g raw beetroot

1 x onion

400g minced lamb

2 cloves garlic

1 tblsp parsley

Oil for frying (any oil is fine - I used rapeseed oil)

Salt and pepper

Method: Patties

Put the bulgar wheat in a heat proof bowl and cover with boiling water and cling film, then leave it to absorb.

Peel the beetroot and onion and grate them coarsely into a large bowl before adding the minced lamb, chopped garlic, herbs and seasoning.

Squeeze any excess water from the wheat with your hands and add to the large bowl.

Mix well and then shape into patties. Cover well and place in the fridge for 1 hour +.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees then heat a non stick pan on the hob with some oil. Fry the patties until lightly browned on each side. Try not to move them  when they're cooking except to flip them, as they may fall apart.

Once sealed, place in a baking dish and into the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile make your accompaniments.

Ingredients for Raita and Cous Cous:

5 tblsp yoghurt

5 x spring onions

Half a cucumber (deseeded)

1 x tsp ground roasted cumin

Half tsp garam massala

Pinch ground chilli

Salt & Pepper

Cous Cous Tabouleh from prevoius recipe

Method:

Finely chop the spring onions and add to seasoned and spiced yoghurt.

Cut the cucumber into smallish chunks and mix in.

Serve with cous cous and well cooked patties.

I hope you enjoy this culinary masterpiece. It is really easy to make, it is just a bit time consuming. It's truly delicious though! You'll quickly see all your patties disappear!

Herb-roasted Sweet-Potato Salad with Feta and Spring Onions

This is the best dinner to make when you've had a long and tiring day and you just don't fancy cooking.  The longest bit of 'cooking' is the preparation of the sweet potatoes (peeling and chopping) and then you can sit back and relax whilst they roast in the oven. The result is a delicious mix of sugary sweet potatoes and sharp feta and spring onions. Add any salad leaves/radishes/cucumber slices if you like, but it stands alone, believe me!



Ingredients: (Enough for 1 portion)


1 x small sweet potato peeled and chopped into rough 1 inch squares
2 tblsp olive oil (this is quite liberal as it acts as a dressing once the potatoes are cooked)
200g feta gently crumbled
3 spring onions chopped into little rounds
1 x liberal handful of mixed dried herbs (any that you have in the cupboard)
Salt and Pepper




Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Peel and chop the sweet potatoes and place into a roasting dish.
Drizzle over the olive oil, all herbs and liberal seasoning. Mix well with a spoon so that all of the potato is coated in some oil.
Place into the oven for 40 minutes(you can put it in the oven whilst it is heating up and add on a few more minutes to your cooking time).
Meanwhile, roughly chop the feta and spring onions and then relax.


After 40 minutes or so, test the sweet potatoes are perfectly soft then add the feta and spring onions to the hot roasting tin.
Mix for a minute until the feta just begins to melt.
Place onto a plate of salad leaves and whatever salad additions you want and drizzle over any herby oil left in the roasting pan.





The flavours mix together so beautifully that, I assure you, this will become a mid-week staple with next to no effort.

Beautiful light supper of buttered leeks, serrano ham and perfectly poached egg

Last night I wanted something really tasty but light for dinner having enjoyed a rather large lunch earlier in the day. I was wracking my brains as to what could satisfy the taste buds whilst also not taking up my evening with preparations.  With the help of a little inspiration from Rachel Khoo's book The Little Paris Kitchen, I decided that some deliciously soft leeks, beautiful Serrano ham and a couple of meltingly gooey poached eggs were the perfect combination. The longest part of the meal to cook was the leeks, and with the lid on they only took about 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 x leek

4 x slices of Serrano/Parma ham

4 x free range/organic eggs

Knob of butter

Glug of cider vinegar (or any other vinegar except balsamic!)

Salt & Pepper

Method:

Trim the leeks and slit them down the middle with a knife and rinse thoroughly. Chop into rounds and place in the melted butter over a low heat - stirring occasionally.

After the leeks have been softening about 10 minutes, heat a pan of water with a glug of vinegar in so that the bubbles go really small. Once it is boiling, lower the heat to a simmer and whisk the water very fast in one direction. Slip the eggs in one by one. Remove from the water after 2 minutes of gentle simmering and drain thoroughly.

Lovingly drape two pieces of Serrano ham on a plate, followed by a large spoonful of buttery leeks. Finally position on both eggs, followed by some liberal grinds of pepper.

The way that the poached egg oozes over the ham and leeks creating a rich creaminess is just divine, and still leaves you feeling as though you've had a light dinner. 

Perfect!

TWITTER

So, I'm not so good at these technical things, but it'd be really great if you could follow me on twitter and get regular updates about foodie things and new recipes/cooking inspiration!

Here is the link to my twitter profile:

https://twitter.com/#!/kitchnstitch

Thanks everybody! xxx

Sweet Spiced Chicken with Cous Cous Tabouleh and Homegrown Salad

30 minute, no fuss dinner!

Apologies for the long delay since my last post - I have been lucky enough to have been on holiday in Verona. It was unbelievably glorious and scorchingly hot. I had so much incredible Italian food: fresh basil linguine, spinach gnocchi, tortelli di zucca (delicious spiced pumpkin stuffed tortellini from Mantua) as well as beautifully thin pizzas, gelati and Valpolicella wine. Have I been rubbing it in too much?!

Okay, okay, I will now show you my first dinner since getting back from Italy. When we were away, we had very little meat and so I really fancied something light but meaty for our first meal back as well as something far away from the classic Italian flavours, as tasty as they are.

Ingredients (serves 2): Sticky Chicken

2 x chicken thighs cut in half then scored with a sharp knife

Small glug of oil (not olive oil - I used rapeseed)

1 tblsp spicy mango chutney

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp ground corriander

A pinch of ginger

A pinch of cinnamon

A pinch of ground chilli

Salt and Pepper

Method: Sticky chicken

Place all the ingredients in a bowl for as long as you can up to 30 minutes before you want to eat. Make sure the marinade oozes really nicely into the scores you've made in the skin.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and then cook for 30 minutes. Check it's cooked then leave to rest with foil whilst you prepare the tabouleh.

Ingredients (serves 2): Cous Cous Tabouleh

2 x small handfuls cous cous

Boiling hot water

1/4 red onion very finely chopped

2 rosy tomatoes cut into cubes

Handful of parsley (*SHOW OFF ALERT* Mine was from my little herb basket)

Drizzle of olive oil

Salt and Pepper

Method: Cous Cous Tabouleh

Put the cous cous in a heat-proof bowl and cover with 1cm of boiling water. Place the lid on top and leave for a few minutes. 

Chop up the onion, tomatoes and parsley and add to the bowl once all the water has been absorbed.

'Fluff up' the cous cous with a fork and mix in the olive oil and seasoning.

Ingredients: Homegrown Salad

'Cut and come again lettuce'

Homegrown pink radishes

Cider vinegar

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

*SHOW OFF ALERT No. 2*

Here are some pictures of my little homegrown lettuce leaves and radishes which I dote on and speak to on most days. It is one of the most rewarding things to 'grow your own' and if I can do it with a tiny bit of window-sill space in my flat, then anyone can.

Classic Lemon Drizzle Loaf

Moist and sticky lemon drizzle cake - perfect with a nice cup of tea!

Sometimes you just need a piece of cake, don't you? What I love about this recipe is that the almonds and lemon make the cake really light - not stodgy - which basically means you can fit more slices into your tummy!

I also hate faffing around lining loaf tins with parchment paper, so by giving the tin a very light grease and a thin dusting of flour you save yourself a lot of time and effort!

Ingredients:

280g plain Flour

250g butter/cooking margarine

200g sugar (preferably light sugar)

4 eggs

2 lemons

1 tsp baking powder

50g ground almonds

150g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

OVEN on at GM4 or 190 Celsius

Method:

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then slowly - one by one - add in the eggs and mix thoroughly.

Add the vanilla, juice of 1 lemon and zest of 2 lemons and keep mixing.

Weigh together the flour, almonds, baking powder and salt and then fold the entire dry ingredients into the wet.

Spoon the mixture into a medium sized loaf tin and place the oven. Bake for 45 minutes and then check the loaf with a skewer. If it's done remove from the oven, and if not, pop it back in and check every 5 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack and wait until it is cool to ice/drizzle it!

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the juice of the remaining lemon and the icing sugar. Make tiny holes in the cooled cake with cocktail sticks and pour on the icing, making sure it drips into all the holes!

Serve with a lovely pot of tea and some friends to chat with!

Aubergine Involtini Stuffed with Goats Cheese, Raisins and Pine Nuts

This recipe does take a bit of time as there are many different parts needing to be prepared, but believe me it's worth the effort!

This meal was a bit of a treat, but with PB coming to my parent's home and my Dad finishing work late and wanting something tasty to nibble on before bed, I felt that making these aubergine parcels was definitely worth the time and careful attention! I know there is a long ingredients list, but most of them can be found in cupboards/vegetable & fruit baskets!

I always make my tomato sauce in the same way - it was the way my mother taught me as a child and I have never changed the recipe. The joy of it is, if you happen to run out of something it's not the end of the world, you just adapt - that is, except you've run out of tinned tomatoes!

Ingredients:

Tomato Sauce: 

1 x tin chopped tomatoes (you can also use passata - just use whatever you have)

2 x cloves of garlic diced finely

1 x small onion diced finely

Glug of olive oil

Glug of red wine

Fresh basil

2 x bay leaves

Any dried herbs you have in the cupboard

2 or 3 teaspoons of sugar

Salt & Pepper

Involtini:

2 x aubergines

2 x cloves garlic

1 tblsp olive oil

1 tblsp breadcrumbs

200g or so of soft goats cheese

Handful of fresh basil

Handful of fresh parsley

Zest of half a lemon (be careful not to over-lemon, as it is surprising how much the flavour comes through all the other lovely flavours!)

1 tblsp raisins soaked in hot water

1 egg to bind

Method:

Place the onion and garlic in the glug of olive oil on a low heat and leave to soften gently. Once soft, add the tinned tomatoes/passata and leave to bubble for a minute or so. At this point I add all of the other ingredients, mix well, and place in the bottom oven of the Aga (which is the equivalent of about 110 centigrade) so that the sauce richens, reduces and increases in flavour. You can leave this and forget about the sauce for up to 3 hours - it only gets better with time!

Meanwhile, slice the aubergines about half a centimetre thick, brush lightly in olive oil and fry on a griddle pan until soft. I love the criss-crossed pattern it makes in a griddle pan and they don't need very much oil - but baking the slices in the oven or frying them in a non stick frying pan can also do the trick - just vary the amount of oil you use. The aubergines take a couple of minutes each side, so whilst they are cooking, prepare your ingredients for the 'stuffing' of the involtini. The raisins add such a delicious 'ping' of sweetness and the herbs and lemon add a really delicious flavour. Before you add the egg, taste the mixture (it's really scrummy even when raw) and adjust the seasoning accordingly. Finally add the egg to bind, and you're ready to assemble your little parcels.

Add a couple of teaspoons of mixture into the centre of each length of aubergine. Fold up the two ends and then turn the parcel over so that the 'join' is underneath. Slot the stuffed aubergines into a roasting tin, and top with the tomato sauce which is already piping hot from the oven.

This can then be sprinkled with some parmesan or even some slices of mozzerella for a gloriously melty finish, or you can leave it topped with your delicious fresh tomato sauce - whatever you fancy.

25 minutes in the oven, and you have an absolutely stunning dinner - perfect for deserving house guests or loved ones alike. You can always try your own twists on this dish with varying the cheese stuffing or the herbs you use, or even making courgette involtini. I have to say, it was a real hit - let me know what YOU think!

Linguine with Courgettes, Pine Nuts and Balsamic Vinegar

A delicious weekday meal with only a few ingredients...

This week you will notice that my photos have not been taken in my little kitchen but instead are from my parents' home, formally my home. Cooking here reminds me of all the times I used to help stir the bechamel or grate the cheddar cheese for whatever dinner we were served as children and that fills me with a lot of warmth.

With the help of my Mama I made a pasta dish which we used to have as a family when I was growing up.  If you have the cupboard staples of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pine nuts, parmesan and garlic then the only ingredients left to buy are an onion and some courgettes - you then have a tasty midweek meal in under half an hour.

Ingredients:

3 courgettes

1 white onion

1 tblsp pine nuts

2 tblsp balsamic vinegar

Enough linguine for 3 people (Mum, Dad and me!)

A handful of fresh herbs - preferably basil

A handful of parmesan

Drizzle of olive oil

Method:

In a dry pan (no oil!) toast the pine nuts being careful not to let them burn. (The light browning of the kernels happens all of a sudden, so keep them moving around the pan so they don't catch).

Remove the pine nuts from the pan and add a drizzle of olive oil.  Soften the finely chopped onion and garlic keeping the heat low.

Add the matchsticks of courgette and stir. Make sure they don't stick and become brown - just let them soften.

After a few minutes add the lid to the pan so the courgettes cook through. Check every couple of minutes to ensure the mixture doesn't catch.

Heat a kettle and cook the pasta in well-salted water. When the linguine is nearly cooked, add the balsamic vinegar to the  courgette mixture, and keep the lid off the pan to boil off some of the acidity.

Add ripped herbs, pine nuts, the drained linguine, and mix well. Serve with a sprinkling of parmesan, and dinner is served!

Raspberry and White Chocolate Clafoutis

A delicious twist on this classic French dish

I have to say that I've really been inspired by Rachel Khoo's 'The Little Paris Kitchen', and PB believes it is his right to choose whatever he fancies from it for me to make him because he bought it me as a gift! Naturally I give in, as all of the recipes look so delicious.

The pictures of the soft fruit bleeding into crisp but moist, almondy batter were more than PB could resist, and he requested his own personal recipe. With raspberries and white chocolate bought from the market, I was ready to make PB's take on this traditional dessert.

Having buttered and floured my dish, I made neat little rows of raspberry and small chunks of white chocolate to ensure an even distribution in the final bake. The recipe specifies 350g of soft fruit/chocolate for the filling, however, with 250g of raspberries and 50g of chocolate, there was physically no more room left in my dish, and it certainly did not lack a fruity punch when we came to eat it last night!

After aligning my fruit in military fashion, I whisked up Rachel Khoo's recipe for the clafoutis batter which includes ground almonds for added lightness and creme fraiche for a little more 'tang'.

In a similar fashion to 'Toad in the Hole', the silky batter is poured over the fruit and chocolate mixture and placed straight into a preheated oven until golden and relatively firm to the touch, to ensure that the batter is cooked all the way through. Rachel Khoo suggests between 30 and 40 minutes in the oven, and, having checked at 30 minutes and found the top a little too gelatinous, I added 4 minutes to the timer, and it was perfect.  The batter had domed beautifully and I called PB up to take a look at my creation. He wanted to dive straight in, but I knew that it would taste all the better for a few minutes standing.

After about 10 minutes, the dome had deflated slightly and I served up two generous portions. With the raspberries being very early in the season they had a delicious sharpness which cut through the batter and sweetness of the white chocolate. The white chocolate had melted and gave bursts of sugary sweetness without overpowering the fruit flavour. I know that the purists amongst you will disapprove of the straying from tradition (including my mother, no doubt!) but, if you fancy something a little different why don't you give it a go? It's super easy to make and you can have fun thinking up your own take on this tasty treat.