tartelette au citron...pining for Paris

I've got a few days off from work...the sun is shining...the flowers are blooming...jackets are optional...and I am pining for Paris.  I've been addictively watching Raymond Blanc's most recent cooking show on TV dreaming off all things French.  To ease my pain I whipped up a small batch of lemon curd this morning and made these tartelettes au citron.  I just happened to have some pastry leftover from making the quiche on Tuesday. There is something about the delicate small pastries that are so prominetly and gracefully displayed in the windows of the patisseries of Paris.  While not bite-sized...these THREE bite (lady-like bites) lemon tarts lifted my spirits today!

Pastry making and Quiche...

Yesterday I finished work early so thought I would challenge myself at dinner time...take the time and try something totally new for me...Pastry! You might not believe me, but it is true...I have never really made (at least sucessfully) pastry...sweet or savoury! I knew I was finishing work early, so I was able to PLAN ahead and at least I knew in my head that I was going to attempt pastry and a quiche for supper...

After rushing around collecting bits and bobs for supper and the week from the grocery store (and having to go back for the flour, butter and lard)...I finally made it home and got down to pastry making! Well...for some flipping reason yesterday was the day that my kitchen decided to be hotter than you wold imagine! It has been cool verging on FREEZING for the last 4 months...and now...the day I want to make pastry...it is steaming!! PLUS my hands were hot!! GAHHHHHH!! Surprisingly, the pastry came together quite well, and it rolled out easily...blindbaked easily and in the end, was pretty satisfying!

The filling was a bit of a mash-up.  I took the wet proportions from a Raymond Blanc Quiche Lorraine recipe...5 EGGS/200ML HEAVY CREAM but added sauteed leeks and mushrooms to the cooked bacon lardons and sprinkled with Gouda cheese.  The egg seeped over the edge a bit (I wobbled a bit lifting it into the oven) making some of the pastry a bit spongey...but the majority of the pastry was WONDERFUL!

I am really proud of my first attempt at this easy meal and am already planning my next pastry adventure!!

Slow Cooked Oxtail for Easter

I know traditional Easter feasts usually include some spring lamb...images of baby animals, little bunnies and of course chocolate eggs...you know getting ready for the beginning of the new growing season...but the weather has just been so so so miserable recently and I have been working like NON STOP all I wanted was a rich, dark slow cooked stew...proper comfort and properly warming. 

A couple of weeks ago I borrowed from the library A Year in My Kitchen by Skye Gyngell (head chef at Petersham Nurseries in Richmond) and just knew her recipe for Braised Oxtail with ginger, five spice and garlic was going to be the perfect mix of comforting English Stew mixed with the heat from South East Asia.  Surprisingly the recipe only calls for 2 hours total cooking time (on the stove top)...I didn't really feel that it was going to be "stew-y" enough for me by the time 1 1/2 hours were up so I transferred the dish into the oven and cooked for a further 2 hours...the meat was falling off the bone and it was (in my opinion) perfect!

Because I cooked the stew for so long the flavours from the ginger, garlic, chillies and chinese five spice definetly were different from if I had followed Skye's recipe timings...I think her's is meant to taste more South East Asain inspired...but the heat from the chillies and ginger was lovely with the ox tail.  I served the stew just over some mashed potatoes. I think if the Asian flavours had been stronger I would have served rice or sweet potato mash (as suggested in Skye's book).  Regardless...so so so yummy...either way!

Most of Skye Gyngell's recipes include a combination of flavours to achieve Agra-dolce...a balance and harmony from contrasting tastes like salty (or savoury) with sweet...totally complimenting eachother.  So into the oxtail stew I added (in the last 20 mins of cooking) fish sauce, soy sauce and maple syrup...salty, sticky and sweet all together! Seriously different, and seriously yummy!

Lentils coming out my ears!!

Work work work...so much work...I totally loved the shepherds pie I made at the beginning of the week so I thought that I would try my hand at another lentil dish for Friday night's dinner.  We sort of celebrated Good Friday on Thursday with a totally yummy fish n chip supper so Friday night's dinner wasn't much of a Easter Celebration...

Vegetarian Lentil Burgers wrapped in lettuce leaves.  I found a recipe for lentil burgers on 101 Cookbooks and adapted it slightly with my own ideas from lentil burgers I have had before.  The base of the burgers was Puy Lentils, but brown or black lentils would be just as nice (they hold their shape really well).  To that I added chopped onion, chopped red chili, chopped parsley and grated carrot,  along with fresh bread crubs and a couple of eggs.  The mixture was way to wet in my opinion so I stirred through about a 1/4 cup of white flour just to bind it all a bit better.  I simply pan fried them and wrapped them in a lettuce leaf...iceburg for crunch...they were so so so yummy and the mixture made lots!! So...lunch tomorrow at work will be able to help me through the day!

A trio of Lemon Sables with white chocolate

A couple of weeks ago I was at a friend's house and she served some amazing lemon butter cookies dipped in white chocolate.  She had bought them at a TO DIE FOR eatery in Pimlico, London called Daylesford Organics...anyway, the cookies were so so so nice ( I had to stop myself from eating the whole packet) and I thought...hey! I could totally make these! So I did!  I used this recipe from AlpineBerry and was pretty pleased with the results...Although next time I am going to add more lemon zest and some lemon juice...they just weren't lemony enough.

You can have the plain, or dipped in chocolate (like the original inspiration)

Or sandwiched together (like a whoopiepie) with melted white chocolate

All wrapped up ready for an adult easter treat!

Happy Easter!!  xo

A Lentil Based Shepherds Pie (to make up for the miserable meatless monday)

Tuesday the weather let up and bit, and so did my mood, allowing me a small window of time to wander into town and buy some supplies for the week (you know bread for sandwiches and other lunch stuff...)  Not only did I have time to wander into town but I also had time to tackle the "batch cooking" I needed to get used to doing.  My first proper attempt at batch cooking...now that i am a working housewife...and I thought that I would make a big batch of Shepherds Pie...but with LENTILS!

I used this recipe from the BBC good food website. It took about an hour to actually cook the filling because I used dried lentils, but you could just as easily use canned green lentils.  This recipe made an unbelievable amount of filling...enough for two casserole dishes for 4 people AND my two ramekins...so 10 servings in all (3 meals for us plus left overs for lunches for me!) I decided to top Tuesday's pie with sweetpotato mash (a nice change) and topped the other with regular mashed potatoes (to freeze).  The flavour was actually really close to my idea of cottage pie or shepherds pie..the texture is obviously different but really nice in my opinion. 

David really enjoyed it.  And then...after dinner...when we were watching tv....Sophie Dahl made Lentil Shepherds Pie on her new cooking show The Delicious Miss Dahl!

AWARD! to lift the weather blues!

Thank you so much to the wonderful Jenny at Be Delicious for this gorgeous and totally awesome award! It has totally lifted my spirits!! Thanks Jenny! :)

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