Such a Tart!

How to make a tart:

Make shortcrust pastry: I make mine via Gordon Ramsay's recipe but you can use whatever recipe you prefer or buy it from the chilled or frozen part of the supermarket-you can even buy it in sheets these days!

Once you've made your pastry and left it to rest (or opened up the packet...remember, if using frozen or chilled, let it come to room temperature first) then get ready to roll it out, using a rolling pin and a sprinkling of flour.   I like my tarts a bit rough and ready so I use my tart tin to cut out the size of pastry I need and then give it another wee roll out to make it fit but you can use a saucer, a plate or anything round!   I then butter my tart tins...any kind of tart, pie or cake tin will do...and lay the pastry onto it, pressing down and into the tin ensuring that there will be no air bubble underneath. 

You can par bake the pastry, I usually do but only for five minutes; either pour some baking beans (specific beans for baking from good cake supply shops), rice or the easy option, a wee bit of tin foil in the middle of the pastry, where the filling will go.   Bung it into a medium oven for five minutes and then bring out to cool slightly, removing the beans/foil/rice first.

Ingredients of choice: I always fill my tarts with the same mix; a beaten egg, approx. 5 tablespoons double cream, a good handful of Parmesan and plenty of seasoning-these are all mixed together to be poured on to whatever topping you prefer.

Red onions, chopped finely and sauted in a pan with some butter and olive oil.   After a few minutes, add some crushed and chopped garlic to taste.   Cook slowly until soft but not too browned.   Let it cool and add to pastry.

Add some chopped, sliced or crumbled goats cheese (or feta, or cheddar....) and place on top of onion mix.

Add dollops of pesto and either smooth out neatly or leave in lumps....whatever way you prefer.

 Pour in the creamy eggy batter til almost full but not too full because remember, it'll rise....and add some slices or halves of baby tomatoes, a basil leaf, a grating of Parmesan and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.   I add a tiny squeeze of lemon juice too!

 Bake in oven until golden brown and puffy and remove to cool slightly.   Can be eaten hot or cold.

 

I like a shallow tart sometimes so that there is lots of crust; this one was made in a large pie tin with artichokes instead of pesto and some rocket and basil.   It was sliced into 8 and ate at random whenever anyone was hungry.

Mmmm....curry!

I decided not to plan a menu this week and therefore took no list with me on my food shopping trip; I wanted to stay within the budget and see what I could make with the ingredients I found.   A leg of lamb, reduced to approx. £4-£5 per kilo was tossed into the basket as was braising beef at £6 for 4 huge steaks.   A few trays of free range chicken breasts were added too, along with fresh coriander, chillies, ginger, potatoes, pasta, yoghurt and other substance and sundries.

The chicken was made into a tasty Green, Creamy Chicken Curry which I served to my friends on Thursday night with some home made flaky pan bread.   I was rather pleased with how it had turned out; a good bit of spice but not too hot, the coriander and lime juice coming through the creamy sauce and mixing pleasantly with the rice.   I had had a very busy day baking cupcakes for a launch night which I attended with Anne before our other friends arrived at my house; add to that, making the curry as well as painting decorations for the school fair and, in my rush, I forgot to have dinner.   On arriving home, the curry, which was meant for a late supper was instead heated right away, the rice cooked and the bread re-warmed in the pan and served with no photograph as my stomach couldn't stand to wait.   We all enjoyed it.

We had leftovers tonight along with a quickly prepared lamb curry using the leftover leg of lamb we had on Sunday, rice and pan bread.

 Slow roast leg of lamb...

rubbed with a paste made from garlic cloves, fresh thyme, olive oil, soft butter, ground cumin, sea salt, black pepper and smoked paprika.   Rub all over lamb.  Put oven to 180 degrees, gas mark 3.5 for 20 minutes, then turned down to150 degrees for 2.5 - 3 hours; at this point, pour a cupful of stock and white wine into roasting dish.   Check every hour to ensure stock/wine gravy doesn't burn away.   Add some water if needed.   Throw in potatoes, carrots and a quartered onion as well as garlic cloves in the skin for the last 45 minutes-hour.   Let the meat rest for at least 20 minutes.  If veg not ready, turn up oven and keep cooking during the rest period.

Served with peas cooked in stock and leftover mash.

 Green, Creamy Chicken Curry

 Ok, so one thing you should always, always do when you are making up a recipe is take notes.   Me, I like to think my brain is the size of a planet when actually a pea is more accurate so the retention of information will stay with me until I get to a computer, right?   Wrong.   I remember all the ingredients but since I tend to work in 'dods', especially the first time, all these measurements are approximate.   Stick with the basic guidelines, and ye cannae go wrong!

Ingredients:
 For the chicken:
8 chicken breasts....half the amount or use whatever is required
Marinade the chicken in the following mix:
Small tub creamy yoghurt
2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 teaspoons curry powder
Lemon juice (toss the lemon in there too, once juice extracted)
Sprinkling of turmeric
Grinding of black pepper

Once marinated...overnight or at least 4 hours....place onto a baking tray and bake in oven, 180 degrees (medium) for 20 minutes.   No need to turn.   Remove from oven and add to sauce when ready.

For the sauce:
1 25g packets/ 2 large handfuls coriander...if you dinnae like the green stuff, ye'll no' like this curry!!
Juice of 2 limes and zest from 1 lime
2 garlic cloves
Approx. teaspoon of cumin, half teaspoon coriander,quarter teaspoon fenugreek seeds, 2 cardamom pods, half cinammon stick, 1 clove, a few black pepper corns, ground turmeric all ground together in a pestle and mortar
Big dod of ginger....i.e. approx. 3 inches
2 green chillies, deseeded plus one whole chilli, slit a little down the middle
Small tub double cream
Thick Greek style yoghurt, approx. same amount as double cream
3 tablespoons coconut milk
2 good handfuls ground almonds
1 red chilli, deseeded and very thinly sliced into strips

Blend together: the ginger, garlic, chillies (not the whole one) and coriander.   Add the spices, blend and then the lime juice.   This should make a nice paste.

Melt some ghee or a mix of butter and oil in a deep pan over a medium heat.   Add the paste and cook for 10 minutes, making sure it doesn't burn.  You may want to turn the heat down after the first five minutes and add a few drops of water if necessary to stop the mix catching.

Add the cream and stir into the mix.   Then add the yoghurt and the coconut milk.   Add the whole chilli.   If you want the sauce a bit thinner, add a little stock.   A teaspoon of sugar and a good sprinkling of salt should be added although you could omit this.   Leave the sauce to simmer with a lid partially on.   Add the chicken when ready.   Thrown in the thinly sliced red chilli and the almonds.

Simmer gently together with the chicken for at least 20 minutes; the chicken should be cooked through (obviously) and will be tender.   Add the juice from a lime or lemon if you prefer and another good handful or two of finely chopped coriander.   Taste, season if necessary and serve.

Boiled rice, lamb and potato curry, green, creamy chicken curry and quick pan bread

 Curry close up!

The Lemon Madeira Cupcakes for the new product launch were frosted with a mix of pale pink and pink vanilla butter icing and topped with flowers, leaves and butterflies.   They tasted yummy.

Ingredients:

250g softened unsalted butter

200g caster sugar

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

3 large eggs

210g self-raising flour

90g plain flour

Cream together the butter and sugar until pale, light and fluffy.

Grate the lemon zest into the bowl.

I made a double batch so I grated the first lemon and used a zester for the second to give longer strips.

Add a tablespoon of flour with one egg and mix together; repeat until all eggs are incorporated and add the remaining flour.

Add the lemon juice and mix until combined.

Place paper cases into a cake or muffin tray.

Add approx. a large tablespoon of cake batter to each paper case.

Bake in oven 170, gas mark 3 for approx. 20-25 minutes or until golden; use a skewer inserted into a cake to check they are cooked; it should come out clean.

Make frosting by mixing sieved icing sugar with soft butter, a little at a time until fully incorporated and creamy, adding colour of choice and vanilla to taste....a few drops at a time!

Frost cakes and decorate.

Enjoy.

I made thai fishcakes;
Disaster!
The Thai green sauce was delicious but I totally mucked up the cake; it tasted nice but not great, far too greasy and in need of much simplification.   Back to the drawing board; I'll keep you updated.

Aww...except look at the expression on Lucy's face.....*shiver*

The Very Merry Month of May

I have a trip planned to France and London in May; holidays for me are like buses, none for ages then they all come along at the same time, causing chaos.   May is also home to husband's birthday, a concert, 5 school holidays, 6 birthday parties, the school disco and parent's day.   Top that with friends donning the Bermuda shorts to fling caution to the wind/snow/thunder and lightning by dragging out the dusty BBQ and you've got a pretty hectic month.   It's got nothing on June though..........

None of this is complaining, you understand; au contraire, I am veree 'appy, mademoiselles.   It's just a wee bit "aaaargh" and a wee bit "when-do-I-do-the-laundry".   

But since it's still only April, we shall sit back and smell the roses/smoked brioche puffs/mince and tatties.   I have a few days until the madness and fun begins.

I was remiss in my homely duties today because shopping, despite being on the list was forgotten; instead, I went to yoga....wonderful, tiring.....then met Shona for coffee and lunch....lovely.... and straight to the school to draw and paint circus decorations....strange.   I made macaroni cheese when I got home, explaining to Kelly along the way what 'necessity is the mother of invention' means; she asked why the cheese sauce tasted even more delicious och, she's a flatterer that 'un than normal although I did get "um...it needs some more pepper, mum"...there's always a critic....and I explained that I only had a little drop of milk left so I used cream for the rest of the white sauce before adding the cheddar cheese.   Hence my use of the phrase regarding mothers and necessities.

This week, we've had................

Chicken and Olive Stew with dumplings

Curried Parsnip Soup with Quick Pan Bread

Spaghetti Sugo (Spag Bog by any other name)

Lucy's favourite!

 

 Happy kids

Potato and Butternut Squash Soup

Lemon Roast Chicken stuffed with Savoury Rice

Plus roasted carrots, potatoes, onions, butternut squash, 

steamed broccolli and green beans and baby boiled tatties.

I shall make a new shopping list up tonight, do the trip tomorrow and add it this week, along with one or two recipes.   Have a wonderful week, bloggy peeps.

Heroes

I had been invited to join the Loose Blogger Consortium no, not for those of loose morals, you guttersnipers...although I've not got to know them all yet... by Conrad of www.levintel.com. Each week, a new topic is posed in the form of one word and we all post our thoughts on it at the same time. I of course missed last week's due to technical difficulties net down/hangover/children; delete as appropriate and am pleased to post my first attempt. Check out the blogs of the other members:

• A Creative Writer in Progress
• Change of Heart Stress Solutions
• gaelikaa's Diary
• Grannymar
• I truly am dumber than Einstein
• Magpie 11
• Ramana's Musings
• The Silver Fox Whispers

Sing it with me..."I'm holding out for a hero til the morning light....". The second I hear the word hero, I think of that line from that song and immediately, I 'm transported back to 1984 with Bonnie Tyler and the entire cast of Footloose. Ah, those were the days...dancing in the streets, spiral perms, Ms. Selfridges, iced champink lipstick and lace gloves.

I had a fresh pack of Luckies and a mint called Sen-Sen....my old man's Trojans and his Old Spice after shave....no...wait...that was Billy Joel in 1983. I'm so confused.....


During different times in my life, when I've attended courses, work seminars and lectures, I've been asked, along with everyone else, to name my heroes. I always groaned at this question, thinking it pointless because I'd just be making up the answer. I didn't know any heroes, I couldn't even conjure up a pretend one from the recesses of my brain and to me, a hero would have to be someone you know. I would inwardly snort at the people who said "my mother/father is a hero to me", arrogant, snotty little witch that I was or roll my eyes at the people who said "Richard Branson". There were a lot of people who said Richard Branson.

It's not that I thought that mums and dads couldn't be heroic at times it was more to do with their lack of imagination or that Richard Branson didn't have merit; it just wasn't my definition of a hero. Good parents or successful entrepreneurs like Sir Richard could be inspirations, they could be mentors but they certainly were not cape wielding super people who could fly with the ability to right the wrongs in the world. Actually, come to think of it, Sir Richard most certainly can fly, has been known to don the cape and has helped out the world on occasion...but I digress.

The dictionary meaning of hero is 'a man wait, what? A man?? Who knew dictionaries were sexist... of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities or a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability'; you know, like Clint Eastwood can't help it, the man is a God. Or Superman. It is unlikely unless your name is Lois, that any of us have had the pleasure of Superman's company or even Clint for that matter so the question is less literal; who, in our opinion, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act. In that context, Richard has some merits and mentioning your parents isn't so far fetched for those that have led the hallowed life.

With that in mind, I realised that the hero is like Santa at the mall during tea break; he may look like Santa and sound like Santa and keep the kids happy but when that beard comes off and he is smoking his fag, swearing to the elves like a trooper, then he is less Santa and more a dyslexic anagram of himself that's Satan, for those of you not on the same weird wavelength. Does that make him any less a Santa to the happy kids, clutching their gifts? The man or woman who saves the child from the burning building is a hero; does that make him or her a good person? To the child and the child's mother, of course it does but if he goes home and kicks his cat, does that make him any less the saviour of the child?

In those younger years, I expected the hero to be heroic at all times; I didn't know anyone except Clint who was like that, personally or in the wider world. As I got older, I realised that even though the superhero didn't exist, it didn't mean the plain old hero wasn't around; the guy who steals paper supplies from his work yet gives away money to the poor, the lady who works every weekend for The Salvation Army but shouts at the kids in her street, the rude mum at the school gates who will look after anyone's children if they need her to...they commit heroic acts every day but remain human: no super powers here. Despite their human failings, I realised the small acts of heroism, kindness and love shown by them and many like them everyday makes them guilty of being heroes. To me anyway.

The long weekend

It has been an extraordinary weekend. Not because anything extraordinary happened but because of how I felt about it. I shall elaborate. Noooo, I hear you cry, we don't need to know, you nutter. Leave us alone! Well tough, it's my blog and I'm tellin' ya, right?

On Thursday evening, Anne and Karen came over. On Friday, I had some visitors for coffee; I was to go out that evening but couldn't go although I'd got organised, just incase. Too boring a story, I'm sleeping even think zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

On Saturday, I had lots of children over in the afternoon, kids were also coming and going to their friends and therefore, being picked up and dropped off by parents and that evening, I had my friends Ricky and Irene round for dinner they tasted like chicken. On Sunday, Kelly was once again picked up, gallivanting round Glasgow with her chums whilst I got organised for a soiree with Ann (without an e) and Val coming over for drinks, canapes and chat.

This seems like a lot, I know it does, it does to me too, reading it. But...and this is the extraordinary thing...it didn't to me at the time. I was totally fine. I looked forward to each and every one of the plans I'd made, didn't get even an iota of stressed about it and I had a great time.

The tidying and cleaning, I did as normal and didn't worry about the fact that my bathroom is in drastic need of a rehaul or that the hall table always has a pile of various items, ranging from clean washing about to be ironed to legwarmers...sorry, one legwarmer on it and a monster type creature growling at me from a box. Or that the conservatory is freezing and is that a cobweb up there?

I let Fraser pick the music...Norah Jones on Thursday and Sunday, The Eagles on Saturday ok son, next time, maybe I'll ask Lucy....lit some candles, put out the canapes, chilled the wine and sat back to enjoy the conversation. Isn't that something? It's like a veil has been lifted, a maturity, like growing...it happens so slowly you never notice it and all of a sudden, you go to sleep and wake up a good three inches taller.

A chilled out, friend-filled wonderful weekend.
_______________________________

Fraser was off sick today; I knew he was sick when he creeped into my bed and spent the entire night kicking me in the face, sniffing like an addict and sitting bolt upright with fever, talking to some imaginary foe. "Shush" I said "mummy's here, I've killed him and he's dead...mummies rule". "Mummies rule" he murmured as he fell into yet another fitful kickboxing session.

He awoke to find me staring at the ceiling, wondering if I'd ever get a full night's sleep ever again. I was unusually chipper, considering and sent Kelly and Lucy off with Lyn and cuddled the lad up on the couch. After a morning of rest, we played an escape game on the computer who owns the fish? You'll either get that or you won't, don't ask me to explain, I wouldn't know where to start...ok ask, if you must but only if you then go find out who owns the fish; it's a pre-requisite of asking, read a book and watched a film called The Secondhand Lion which we both loved.

Lyn dropped the kids off and stayed for coffee so we caught up on what she got up to on the Friday night.....gutted to have missed it....whilst the kids munched French Toast or eggy bread, depending on where you come from.
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It's recipe time! This is a simple recipe for toasted almonds which everyone always seems to absolutely love. It's a no brainer and is a good snack for munching with a cold beer or glass of wine.
Toasted spicy almonds
A packet of blanched almonds
A good pinch of dried chillies (bird's eye is the best but any will do)
A good few pinches of sea salt
A teaspoon of olive oil

Place in a hot pan all of the above. Shake every 30 seconds or so until the almonds start to toast. Keep shaking until the almonds are properly coated and a mix of white and brown; don't let them burn. Sprinkle over some more sea salt and place in a dish. Sprinkle over yet more sea salt and leave to cool.

Not being one to eschew a food simply because of nutritional value, I do prefer that foods have a certain amount of goodness. We are what we eat to a certain extent so tasty food can be good for you too, right? Right?? So, ignoring all that salt for a moment......

Almonds are high in fat so can they be good for your health? You betcha. Almonds are high in monounsaturated fats, the same type of health-promoting fats as are found in olive oil, which have been associated with reduced risk of heart disease. They also contain large amounts of vitamin E and a lot of magnesium, around a quarter of your daily allowance plus potassium. All those are good for the heart and help keep it healthy. A true story.

Enough of me waxing lyrical about potential health benefits, I'll need to go eat some chocolate and lie down.