#56 Soaking up the sunshine

Things I rate:

• Phoning a good friend

• Walking…

• Combined friend phoning and walking.

• Dinners alfresco (breakfast and lunch too)

• Sunshine (obvs!!)

• Eating bread and pasta and ice cream… on repeat

• The look and sound of this book by Sophie Minchilli… Italy, finding pleasure in every day… I’m sold! (it’s on my book shopping list)

• Nights like these:

  

Things I don’t recommend:

• Wearing a white top when you choose to eat slurpy tomato mascarpone pasta.

• Thinking you can cut your own hair (fringe), and subsequently getting bored halfway through… result? carnage… lucky I don’t get out much!

• Putting anything you can lay your hands on in an ice cream machine ‘just to see if it churns to make ice cream’… spoiler, some things don’t churn!

THE FOOD

I’m worried that you’ll all hate me this week because the recipes I’m sharing with you are a bit… boring? They are a few personal faves (one was part of an idea that used a lot of brain power and ended up a bit of a flop, more on that later), and I’m concerned that my preferences aren’t shared by everyone… but 1. I like them and 2. I have very little else to report so if I don’t share them, this page would be blank.

First off there’s another cracker recipe (by cracker I don’t mean ‘great’, although it is quite great, what I mean, is a biscuit cracker); the name ‘cracker’ does them a disservice, it makes them sound dry, they’re actually a very addictive savoury snack that is perfect dipped into an equally addictive dip. Next up is a retro pasta dish that I can’t get enough of; it vividly reminds me of my youth and really is a hug in a bowl! Finally, you have an apple compote, the outcome of this weeks’ failed apple pie attempt. Whilst the apple pie itself disappointingly didn’t make the grade, the compote is really good and should be stirred through everything from now on! Meanwhile, over on TCC+ you can enjoy yet ANOTHER squishy roll recipe, this one is a bit different, it’s loaded with wholegrains, floral with honey, and enriched with rapeseed oil for a rich buttery flavour. ENJOY!

Spelt & Sesame crackers.

I first baked these during lockdown and remembered them on Tuesday so obv had to make them again. I realise I’m slightly obsessed with crackers and that they may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I like them a lot (so you have to hear about them), they happened this week, AND (I’m desperately trying to sell them to you, can you tell?) they are EXCELLENT for dipping (hey there hummus, guac, sour cream and chive!).
I REALLY recommend you use white spelt flour for a fabulous hint of nuttiness, but if you don’t have any, plain flour will work too, and you can switch up the seeds too if you like!

Makes ~ 30 crackers

Ingredients

1 tbsp (10g) sesame seeds
100g White spelt flour (I used Shipton mill)
¼ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp baking powder
25g Unsalted butter cold, cubed
30-35g cold water

Flaky sea salt to sprinkle

Method

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan until nutty and golden (shake the pan a little as they toast to ensure an even colour). Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely.

Meanwhile, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor. Add the cooled sesame seeds and pulse to combine. Next add the butter and pulse until the mixture is sandy. Finally trickle in the water and pulse until the mixture just starts to clump a little. Dump into a piece of clingfilm and use to bring the mixture together into a cohesive dough. Refrigerate until firm – I give it around 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan. Remove the dough from the fridge, dust the work surface with flour, and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to a rectangle approx. 24x28cm. Carefully transfer to a piece of parchment placed on a large baking sheet, and pop in the freezer for 5 minutes to firm up again.

Using a sharp knife/pasta or pizza roller, trim the dough into a 22.5x27cm rectangle and carefully tear away the uneven edge pieces of dough. (You can still bake these off as scraps so don’t chuck them). Again, using the sharp knife/pasta or pizza roller, score* the dough into 4.5cm squares (*don’t press quite as hard into the dough this time). Dock each square 3 times with a fork. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Remove the chilled dough sheet form the fridge, brush the surface with a little olive oil and sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden (Don’t forget to do the same with your scraps, just keep an eye on them as they may bake a little quicker). Remove from the oven snap along the scored lines and transfer to a cooling rack to crisp up further.

Tomato & Mascarpone pasta sauce.

Not sure if it’s a 90’s kid thing or whether it’s just me who would eat shop bought pasta and Tomato & mascarpone sauce on repeat as a kid? (slight lie, I sometimes switched it up and had ‘carbonara sauce’ or one that Sainsbury’s did which I SO wish I could still find called ‘Florentina’ sauce - creamy spinach - EPIC). Anyway, I had a real craving for it this week so tried to recreate it… I also felt particularly thrifty because I had an annoyingly small amount of mascarpone left over from last week that needed using. This TOTALLY hit the spot, it’s light enough to eat in this warm weather but still FULL of comfort.

For the sauce, I used a different type of tinned tomatoes that I found in Waitrose - they are still ‘Mutti’ but are called, ‘Polpa baby romana’… I was sold by the slogan, ‘naturally sweet’ (WHICH THEY REALLY ARE); omg what a game-changer, I could eat them (and did a bit) straight from the tin. Unfortunately, they only come in 300g tins so you will need two for this recipe (I just froze the leftover for something else), but if you can find them, I really recommend them!

Serves ~ 4

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large shallot finely chopped
100g peeled and diced carrot
1 fat garlic clove crushed
2 tsp tomato paste
400g Sweet tinned tomatoes
~75ml water
30g Mascarpone
30g Grated parmesan
Flaky sea salt + ground black pepper to taste

*If your tomatoes aren’t that sweet, I recommend adding ½ tsp honey or brown sugar

Method

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Add the shallot and carrot and cook for 10 minutes or until softened. Add the crushed garlic clove, and tomato paste and cook for a further minute. Add the tinned tomatoes and around 75ml water. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Use an immersion blender (or high-speed mixer) and blitz to a smooth, thick sauce. Keep over a low heat whilst you add the mascarpone and parmesan, stir until melted into the sauce, season with salt & pepper to taste. Add a lid to the saucepan and cook for a further 5 minutes or until reduced a little.

Stir through homemade pasta (use a little pasta cooking water to help loosen the sauce a little if necessary).

Apple compôte

Ok, there’s a story behind this one, brace yourselves! Despite the glorious weather, I decided at the weekend that it was time for something autumnal and apple-y, I then fell down an apple pie related HOLE. This often happens when an idea pops into my head, the idea quickly becomes an all-consuming obsession. Sometimes the obsession yields a reasonable outcome… other times, not so much. This scenario tends towards the latter, although in defence of myself it wasn’t a complete car crash.

First off, I went down the route of a ‘galette’ - a round, flat, free-form, flaky pastry dough filled/topped with apple. The outcome was ‘ok’ but I’ll be honest, I can never really get on board with galette’s or any form of pastry that isn’t blind baked in some capacity prior to the wet stuff being added (I like my pastry almost biscuity crisp and baked all the way through, any HINT of soggage or even just a little softness and I’m not that impressed).

So, I went back to the drawing board and decided in that annoyingly chef-y way, to deconstruct my pie idea: bake the pastry, prepare an apple compote and make some creamy custard/ice cream situation - then the eater (aka you) could make your own little apple pie sandwich by topping the crisp pastry with apple compote and your choice of creamy stuff. This is the point where things get a little sketchy, why? Because I lost my nerve. Pastry has always freaked me out, I can’t cope with the mixed messages:

‘Gently work the ingredients together’…
‘A bit more than that Steph, the ingredients have to be combined’…
‘woah, not that much!!!’

Way too much imprecision for my brain!!! Nevertheless, I donned my big girl pastry pants and prepared one of my favourite pastry doughs, which includes sour cream making it ultra-tender & flaky …I subsequently baked it off in small rectangles. The plus was that it tasted amazing… but it looked UGLY (see pic), and so I got cold feet about sharing what I did. Similarly, I was too indecisive about whether I wanted custard, cream, or ice cream with it and subsequently faffed about endlessly with ideas. Eventually I ended up making a crème légère (pastry cream with whipped cream folded through) and, in a moment of madness, put it into the new ice cream machine (I told you I’ve been adding anything I can get my hands on to it, and I mean it!!!). All I can confirm from this, is that it was a major error or judgement - it froze solid to the bottom of the ice cream machine, and I spent a good 30 minutes trying to chisel it out.

I know you’re all falling asleep reading this but we’re nearly there I promise because… after 3 days of chaotic testing…. the apple compote came through and saved the day. This rather unsightly mush of seasonal apple cooked down with butter, sugar, vanilla and a touch of lemon is overwhelmingly soothing; it’s full of apple flavour, not too sweet, warm with vanilla, and buttery rich. It’s so good served warm and dolloped onto yoghurt, porridge etc and in case you were wondering, it does work incredibly well smeared onto a shard of cooked flaky pastry and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

L: Pastry squares, R: Cute flake, less cute aesthetic

Ingredients

200g Bramley apple (about 1 large) prepared weight once peeled and cored and chopped into small chunks
25g Butter
25g Light brown sugar
10ml lemon juice + pinch of lemon zest
½ tsp Vanilla bean paste
Pinch of salt

Method

Place the butter and sugar together in a saucepan and heat until melted. Add the apples, lemon zest and juice, salt and vanilla and cook until softened and reduced – about 15-20 minutes. For a super smooth compôte, transfer to a blender and blitz until smooth, otherwise, simply transfer to a dish, cover, and refrigerate once cooled.

*Uses:
- as a porridge/yoghurt/granola topper
- at the base of an autumnal frangipane (instead of jam)
- served hot with ice cream and a shard of flaky pastry

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Love and hugs as always,

Steph X X X