My kitchen smells of strawberries, it's the most amazing smell on a lovely sunny day - breeze blowing in through the back door, tummies full of the lovely veggie surprise tart, fab company with a friend round for 80's DVDs (St Elmo's fire - I'm still humming the tune to myself now) and a catch up - and we have the lovely smell of fresh (well, purchased Saturday) farmers market strawberries all washed and chopped ready for my spectacular post-Wimbledon dessert.
Yesterday I mentioned I'm made meringues, so you might be able to guess what this evening's desert was - it's not a complicated recipe, but goodness me it was yummy!
I followed Delia's recipe - I'd bought her "How to cook" books in Hay-on-Wye when I visited a few weeks ago, but not really used them. To be honest I was looking for a Eaton Mess recipe - OK most people probably don't need a recipe for this, but I wasn't sure what all the individual ingredients were meant to be (I still don't), but after finding Delia's meringue recipe I didn't get much further. Her suggestion was a bit different to the last one I tried.
I needed two egg whites - and she'd included instructions of how you should break the egg white into a separate bowl and then add to the main mix, just in case you had a separating disaster - I've never had a disaster - until now! I managed to get some yolk into my white - but as it was such a small amount I thought I'd try anyway. The eggs whipped up beautifully, then I started to add the sugar, but either the yolk caused a delayed problem, or I added the sugar too quickly, but I ended up with a white gloop, rather than an meringue :/ Sadly I washed this down the sink and started again. This time with more care and attention to detail and was far more successful.
Delia has you using the electric whisk the whole time you're adding the sugar (110 grams, about half a tablespoon at a time), but in the past I've always folded in the sugar ( with a large metal spoon (apparently this is important, not sure of the reasons), but I though I'd go with this recipe, and really did end up with a lovely thick glossy mixture. For added effect, I dropped in some red food colouring, and whisked for a bit longer, but not to make them completely red, I was definitely going to the swirl effect.
I had the cooker heating up to gas mark 2, and then plopped the mixture onto the baking sheet, Delia suggested I should be able to get 8 out of the mix, but I managed 4 1/2, and I didn't think they were that big either.
As I was making nests, I used the back of the spoon to squash down the mix, and then had to develop a kind of flick to get the spoon off the mixture without pulling it all back up. I think I perfected the nest by the 4th one!
Pop them in the oven for 30 mins (immediately lowering the temp to gas mark 1), and then just turn the oven off and leave them to dry out. I have a double oven, and had planned my baking the wrong way round - I should have done the savoury stuff first, but I grilled the frittata in the top over/grill and then baked the tart - hopefully there wasn't too much heat passing down into the bottom oven, just enough to keep them drying out. To be honest, I left them in there overnight as well, just because I didn't have a spare box to store them in. However, I did have a snack on the 1/2 meringue! Quality control you know :)
I then made the meringues up into mini desserts, not really sure what to call them - but I had some strawberry and cream Lindor chocolates, which I chopped in half and popped into the nest, then a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, then piled on the freshly chopped strawberries, and finally poured over an Ambrosia vanilla sauce cream type thing (I didn't have any cream in the house). Finished result, lush!
Really the best meringues I've ever made - I think I pretty much decide this every time I make them, but the had that nice stepping on fresh crisp snow crunch as you put the spoon into them, and then so soft and gooey on the inside. Wow! I don't buy meringues any more, as I never find shop bought ones that I like, but these are perfect (for me, anyway)
So hot on the heels of my last post about my lunch boxes being made up of random left over vegetables, I've just spent the afternoon in the kitchen (while popping back for the Wimbledon Men's Finals) preparing another lunch box treat, and a another veggie surprise that I wanted to make for a friend that's coming round for tea.
So the first left-over veg surprise was a frittata, nothings special, just really yummy and keeps for a few days so fab for lunch boxes. In this one, I boiled up some potatoes (still with skin on - truly lazy today), then fried up some mushrooms, courgettes, an aubergine. I'd been making meringues earlier (a treat to go with tomorrow's tea), so had 4 spare egg yolks so I stuck these in with with 3 full eggs, then whisked up with a fork - adding some oregano and mixed herbs with it. While frying up the veg, I added some paprika too.
As the veg started to shrink down in size, I then added the egg and shook the frying pan to let the egg seep into all the corners. I'm lucky, as I have a really big deep drying pan - very useful for frittatas!
Then left it on a medium heat for about 5 mins while I grated up some cheese. Sprinkled this over the top and then popped it into the grill until it started to bubble and, well, smell beautiful!
While this was grilling, I then got some shortcrust pastry, smeared it in tomato puree, and then chopped up some more veg to go over the top. This time I added a mix of green and red peppers, red onion, courgettes, and then broke up some ham as well. Finally sprinkling with grated cheese and some more oregano. I folded the edges up to make this into an open tart, and baked for 20 mins, once the frittata was out of the oven.
Oncwe the frittata had cooled a bit, i did a double flip - from the frying pan onto a plate, and then from one plate to another so as to keep the cheese on top. Once it had cooled, I had a sice for my tea (yum yum!) and then cut it up for lunch box portions for the week. I'm not sure if these freezes to be honest, so I might be eating this for lunch and dinner for while! It's sitting in the fridge at the moment anyway.
The open tart was slid onto a baking tray for cooling, and also popped into the fridge. Am hoping to reheat it tomorrow, and have with some chips and salad - lets hope this sun lasts!
It's becoming a bit of a tradition that by the weekend I have a lot of veggies left to use up. I really do overstock on them - but there are a lot worse things I could be overstocking on :)
So generally, at the weekend (or in this case it was Tuesday) I do something creative with the veg that will fit into my lunch box for the week. It's usually a veggie plait, after I discovered a fab recipe - I think I saw one of Paul Hollywood's programme once, and got me hooked.
Anyway, this last week, I tried to be clever! I'd bought a pack of Gruyère cheese. I'd actually bought it for a purpose, but couldn't for the life of me remember what. I've just remembered the bit that made this funny (well, to me) I'd been to the gym on Tuesday, and then decided to do the baking when I got home while making my tea. I opened up the pack of cheese (having never had these cheese before) and immediately though - ooh I'd better have a shower I'm a bit smelly. Hmm, turns out it's slightly smelly cheese! :) Anyway, I get side-tracked. I grated up the cheese, but thought it looked a bit boring on it's own, so added in a tin of tuna chunks and then some basil.
Then roasted up some veg, peppers, mushrooms (actually, only one - it's very rare that I have mushrooms left over), and boiled up some potatoes that I then roasted as well. While doing this, I had the baking sheet in the oven heating up (I always do this, it seems to help with the soggy bottom), then once everything was ready, I got my pastry (not home-made - life is too short sometimes, it was shop bought puff pastry) on the baking paper, then straight onto the baking tray and started piling up the ingredients. When it came to folding in the plait, I realised my error - make the plait - THEN put it on the hot baking tray. The pastry was starting to cook and I couldn't shift it - oops!
So quick thinking, I just used the baking parchment and sort of "packed" the pasty into a roll shape and hoped it would hold in the oven.
25 ish mins later, and I have a very yummy looking bake. So tasty I ended up having this for tea, and it lasted me for the next 3 lunch boxes as well! Not the prettiest looking lunch, but very filling and yummy!
I always buy far too many strawberries at this time of year - it's only going to get worse because I'm trying (ok, not very successfully) to grow some.
Last weekend the local supermarket had an offer 2 for £3 on a big punnet of strawberries and raspberries. They sat in my fridge for a few days, and then I realised I really really had to use them or lose them. A quick recipe search online (after a rather lengthy one through my book collection gave me this fab idea - http://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/raspberry-and-strawberry-oaties.html
Sounds so easy, it didn't quite go to plan. I had the right size tin (hurrah) and made up the oaty mixture, split it in half, and then tried to pat it into the baking tray. I don't know if myhands were too warm, the mixture too soft, but it just wouldn't pat down nicely, and was far too squidgy in my hands. I ended up having to use some of the top mix to fill the bottom layer.
The strawberry and raspberry layer should be fine though, I had plenty of them! Chopped them up and started spreading them out, and still they didn't fil the whole tray. Either I'm being too generous or I just can't measure properly. I squished them down, but left them at 3/4 across the tray, I didn't want to skimp on the filling.
Finally, trying to put the top layer on over the juicy strawberries and raspberries just wasn't going to happen. I used far too much, and pretty much only made it half way across the tray, even scooping up the excess from the bottom layer just wasn't enough. Still, it smelt lovely, so I whacked it in the oven (and started on the next left over baking project....see next blog post).
So my conclusions! Ok, I think firstly I need to chill this dough, especially in warm weather! Secondly, although I greased the tray, I will use baking parchment and may be a smaller tray. Thirdly (or am I only fourthly now) I will attempt to roll the base, and may be even the top layer, and then drop it onto the tray and onto the berry mix. Finally, oooh I want to try this with lots of different berries, and may be wholemeal flour and brown sugar and .....well...lots of ideas from this one!
The pics probably don't make it look that appetising I realise, but it was very yummy. I've had it in my lunch box everyday, and only shared with one friend. She cooked me dinner, I brought pudding, and we topped the bowls (with a couple of slices in) with crème brûlée yoghurt! Wow!
