Wednesday 24 April 2013

Summer Fruit Tart


As promised, here is the finale to my dinner party. This is the easiest thing, but if you want a really really quick fix, you can use shop bought pastry instead. I just like to make this one because you get that lemon zesty flavour. 


Sweet Pastry
330g plain flour
100g icing sugar
zest 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp salt
180g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons  cold water

Mascarpone Filling (from Ottolenghi, The Cookbook)
110g mascarpone
110ml Crème fraiche
Flavouring (either ¼ teaspoon vanilla essence, or, as I did 1 tablespoon of crèmede figue

Filling
Fruit of your choice (I like strawberries and raspberries)
2 tablespoons of icing sugar for dusting


Method:Put the flour, sugar, salt and zest into the bowl of your food processor or a large mixing bowl. Pulse once or twice to combine or mix with a whisk to combine.

Add the butter and either rub into the flour mixture or pulse in the processor until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Add the egg yolk and water and mix/pulse until the mixture just starts to come together. If you clump some in your fist the dough should stay together. If it is still too crumbly add another tablespoon of water and mix again.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a few seconds just until you have a uniform dough. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or freeze for up to a month.

Brush your tart case with melted butter and refrigerate. Roll the dough until about 3mm thick. Cut out a rounds of dough then line your refrigerated case with it. 

Cream filling: Place the case in the freezer for 15-30 mins. Line the tart case with the pastry in it with parchment or foil and fill with baking beans or rice and bake in a oven preheated to 150C/300F. Bake for about 25 mins or until golden brown. If not browned after 25 mins remove the beans and parchment and bake for another 5 minutes until browned. Leave in the mold to cool.

Put the mascarpone in a mixing bowl and loosen it up with a whisk. Add the rest of the ingredients and continue whisking until the cream thickens up again. It should be able to hold its shape when lifted.  Chill until ready to use.

Assembling the tart: spread out your cream onto the cooled pastry base or, if you are feeling particularly perfectionist, pipe it for a neater effect. Arrange your fruit on top, sprinkle with icing sugar and serve.


Monday 22 April 2013

Pulled pommegranate and isot-spiced lamb



This dinner party main is great for a work night, if you only have an hour or 2 before you have to serve. You can do a lot of the work in the two evenings coming up to it and feel like you’ve got the meat in the bag.
Isot, otherwise known as Urfa Biber, is a Turkish spice made from drying out dark purple chillis in the sun, giving them a raisiney flavour. you can get it in specialist spice shops and it is a bit different but if you can't be bothered, normal dried chili will do

Pulled pommegrante and isot spiced lamb

Hot honey glazed carrots and parsnip with chili, fennel seeds, basil, and sesame yoghurt

Spiced mixed rice with apricot and pine nuts

yes, I have posted this recipe before but it is scrumptious with the lamb!




The Lamb (serves 4-5)
1.3kg bone-in lamb shoulder joint
4 shallots rough diced
1l carton pomegranate juice
2 tablespoons clear honey
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses (you can do an extra tablespoon of honey instead if you don't have any)

For the marinade
1 table spoon ras el hanout
1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp of pepper and 1 of salt
1 tablespoon isot

1 tablespoon tomato purée
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

To Garnish
1/2 a pomegranate


The Rice (serves 4-5)

200g of brown basmati mixed in a  3:1 ratio with red rice (Waitrose 'love life' do a mixed version which I used)
3 shallots, finely diced
8 dried apricots, finely diced
1 tablespoon of oil (or fat from the lamb)
1 tablespoon of tad el hanoit
1/2 tsp salt
400ml chicken stock (using a good quality stock cube is fine)
To Garnish
2 tablespoons of pine nuts
The leaves of a small bunch of flat leafed parsley


 
The Carrots and Parsnips (serves 4-5)
700 kg of baby carrots
2 parsnips
1 tablespoon of fennel seeds
1 tablespoon of dried chilli flakes
½ tsp salt
Oil for cooking
1 tablespoon of sesame oil and 1 tablespoon of honey for frying, later

1 1/2 tablespoons of sesame seeds

½ a pot of yoghurt
A tablespoon of toasted sesame oil
A tablespoon of honey
Salt to taste

A handful of basil

Method

2 days in advance: Combine your marinade ingredients and massage them into the lamb, cover and refrigerate the next day.


1 day in advance: Remove the lamb from the fridge 1 hour before cooking. Preheat oven to 150C/130C fan/ gas 3.

Put your shallots in your baking dish - I used a porcelain one since it tends not to burn things as easily. Place your lamb on top of the onions and pour in the pomegranate juice (if it doesn't all fit in your pan without being dangerously deep then just enjoy a glass yourself)

Cover tightly with foil and cook for 4 hours.

Allow to cool and then strain your cooking liquid into a bowl and place the onions back in the dish with the lamb. Allow both to cool, and refrigerate overnight, tightly covered with foil/cling film.

On the day, 2 hours before serving:
Now there should be a thick layer of solidified fat above your cooking liquid. Remove this and save for cooking - I roasted my carrots in it instead of oil, and used it to cook the onions for my rice.

Heat the liquid in a saucepan and add the honey and molasses - let it reduce on a high heat until it is syrupy - this means it has to reduce a lot and could take up to 30 minutes. When done, pour the liquid back in with your lamb.

Preheat the oven to 220C / 200fan

Meanwhile, prepare your carrots by peeling and halving them lengthways. Peel and dice your parsnip into pieces around 1cm x 1cm x 0.5cm. This takes a while with the little, fiddly carrots.

Heat up the oil (or a tablespoon of your lamb fat) in a baking dish in the preheated oven.

After 3-5 minute place the parsnips and carrots in it with the salt, chilli and fennel seeds. Mix them around so they all get a covering.

Remember to check on your sauce.

Roast for 30 minutes so they are cooked (test the parsnip) but the carrots are still crunchy.

While they are in the oven toast the sesame seeds in a frying pan until slightly bronze (only takes a minute or two and very easy to burn so don’t leave the hob while doing it).

Next mix the yoghurt dressing and add salt to taste.

Once the vegetables have had their 30 minutes stir around with a drizzle of sesame oil and a tablespoon of honey.

Serve when needed at room temperature. Toss with the sesame seeds and serve with the plucked basil leaves scattered around the root vegetables and spoons of the yoghurt dressing placed around it.

1 hour 20 minutes before serving: Turn the oven down to 160C / 140Cfan.

Now wash your rice by placing it in a large bowl full of cold water. Rub the grains together with your hands until the water becomes cloudy then strain. Repeat this process two more times then leave to drain in a sieve for 10 minutes.

1 hour 10 minutes before serving: Put the lamb, tightly covered with foil in the oven

Dice your shallot and apricots.

Fry your diced shallots in oil / lamb fat for 3-4 minutes until soft, add the apricots, spice and seasoning and stir for a minute. Pour in the rice and the stock and bring to the boil.

Once bubbling, turn the heat down and cover tightly with foil and a lid and cook on a low heat for 25 minutes, do not open the lid!
While the rice is cooking toast your pine nuts in a pan with a drop of oil, stirring the whole time until they are gently bronzed. Put aside when done and take the leaves off the parsley, discarding the stalks.

De-seed your ½ pomegranate.

Once the 25 minutes is up leave it to rest, lid on for 10-30 minutes.

To serve transfer it into a bowl and mix in the pine nuts, place the parsley on top.

10 minutes before serving: Take the lamb out of the oven and shred / carve all the meat of the bone and mix in with the sauce. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and serve

I followed this up with a fruit tart which will be posted soon…



Monday 15 April 2013

Thailand continued... so then we chartered a yacht

Please excuse me if this post is a hyperbolic, excitable mish-mash - I can't help myself. Our yacht charter with Nick on his very own floating home: C-Turtle is probably the best thing I've ever done, ever will do... ever will look forward to doing again (we will definitely be going back if he'll have us). I'm addicted. 

I did warn you.


We started out from Phuket and worked our way to Phi Phi via Koh Racha Nai, Koh Racha Yai, two other jungle mounds rising out of azure sea and Koh Phi Phi itself. You can pretty much set the itinerary yourself as long as Nick is free to take you and you can get to where you want to in good time. On the first day, we arrived on our boat, ran around deck gleefully imagining ourselves tugging on ropes, hoisting sails and catching our dinner before lying back and watching our expert hosts get to it. Well someone had to mix the cocktails and keep an eye out for pirates!



Our first night, we moored by an island without another soul in sight, ate a beautiful fish dinner cooked by the extraordinarily talented Pa - resident sea chef extraudinare, and fell asleep in our gently rocking bunker by ten o' clock. The next morning, the sunlight on the water lapping at our windows woke us up and we emerged to see the sun rise over the ocean in a pastel haze. One day into rising and sleeping in time with the sun and we felt so much healthier and energetic than we had in years. 
 

Our first full day on the boat was spent meandering from snorkelling spot to snorkelling spot, each time overcoming my terror of sea beasts faster than the last. We'd swim up to rocky outlets, taking comfort in the fact that Nick was spear fishing nearby. 



A not so giant squ

We saw (of the things I can name or have since looked up): stone fish, lion fish, crocodile nosed needle fish, blue needlefish, giant starfish in all colours: pink, green, yellow neons, moray eels. Sadly you'll have to take my word for it as this is usually an above water blog, so I don't yet have an underwater camera.



Dinner! (well part of it anyway)
Pa making sure we were anchored.

Lunches were light and delicious - a diverting interval from cocktail hours (multiple), reading and swimming. A boat holiday is the perfect antidote to hotel-holiday routine where relaxation swiftly turns to boredom and days become punctuated by the next meal time. On the boat, each hour brought something different, we were never waiting around, sunbathing for the sake of it or anticipating being fed. Life moved at a different pace; both slower, and more enjoyable. That week, I swore to never go to a hotel again. Of course, we immediately did but that had always been part of the plan and was the perfect way to end the trip - watch this space for details. 



Nick caught fish, lobster and squid during the afternoons, which Pa turned into incredible Thai dishes that we washed down with white wine and vodka cocktails after sun down. 



Before setting sail, we filled out a preference form which your team (skipper and chef) prepare a rough meal plan around so you can be sure to love whatever's on the menu. You can request for drinks to be already on-board when you arrive, but the distinct lack of good quality wine across Thailand meant that we preferred to buy all ours in England duty free. 

Sunsets were spent sipping champagne and sitting on the boat edge, revelling in feeling tiny and alone against an unpopulated Renaissance canvass. One evening the sunset went on for well over an hour, turning from a sacharine whipped cream advert to an angry red line across the sky. It was so breathtaking that neither of us said a word. Our photos don't do it justice.





As we neared the end of our time at sea and started mentally preparing for the shock of being land locked once more (I'm sooo seahardy now...), we made the most of being able to explore the coastline both in and out of the water. The volcanic formations, covered in jungles beckoned with ice-white beaches which we swam out to. Every new rock formation on a cliff edge plummeted into the ocean, metres and metres beneath sea level, making for impressive (and terrifying) snorkelling - especially after listening to tales of shark sightings nearby. 



On our last day, we arrived at Phi Phi, where we had to stay one night before taking the ferry over to Koh Lanta. Nick brought us to Monkey Bay - a popular tourist beach which becomes a proper thoroughfare later in the day. We rocked up at about 9am before the other boats came in. 
I had made the mistake of not bringing my sunglasses to shore, and was genuinely blinded by the white sand, which was as fine as icing sugar between our toes. Robbie was feeling sun-weary and stuck to the shade, so I donned his over-sized Raybans to explore. It was such a treat to get to see this beach before the tourists arrived - I'd definitely recommend getting a longtail there in the early morning, if you are staying on another bit of Phi Phi ever. 


Half an hour later, Nick was back to pick us up and drive us round to the other side of the island where we would be sleeping that night. We said a fond farewell to our homely cabin and came into shore.



It was a little effort to get to this arrangement, Nick and C-Turtle aren't very internet friendly. Lucky you lot can get all the details straight from me so you're laughing. We discovered Nick through his agent Ulli, who also works for these guys: http://phuket-boatcharter.com. We started emailing him about wanting to 'spend a little time at sea, maybe as part of a group charter' which soon turned into more time at sea and a private charter with our lovely skipper Nick and our lovely chef Pa as our only company (apart from the fishes) - as you do. Email Ulli to talk more or ask me any questions you want. I'm not vulgar enough to put the price here but you should know it's a serious lot cheaper than doing the same thing in Europe and worth every penny.
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