Saturday, November 12th, 2011
The classic French fruit tart has to be one of my favourite deserts. The combination of the sweet, crumbly pastry, the vanilla spiked crème pâtissière and the sharp fruit tick all the boxes for me. I know it’s more of a Summer dish, but I got hold of some late season British raspberries the other day, and decided to make it as part of a ‘welcome home’ lunch at my folk’s house.
The other great thing about this recipe is that once all the elements are made, it’s an assembly job. So you can make everything in advance, then throw it all together a the last minute and lap up the applause like it ain’t no thang. NB. As with most pastry, it’s good to let the pâte sucrée rest in a fridge for at least a few hours, both after making it and after lining the tart mold as this should stop the case shrinking when it’s being baked off.
Ingredients (makes 27cm tart / 8 slices)
For the pâte sucrée
145g All purpose flour
60g Icing sugar
65g Unsalted butter
50g Egg yolks
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Tags: Bake, case, Classic, crème pâtissière, Custard, Desert, French, Pastry, pâte sucrée, Raspberries, Sweet, Tart, Tarte aux framboises, tin, Vanilla
Posted in Recipes, Sweet Stuff | 2 Comments »
Monday, August 15th, 2011
A
couple of weeks ago, towards the end of the traditional cake section of our course, we made wedding cakes. I have to say, I never thought I’d be making wedding cakes. In fact, they are usually my least favourite part of a wedding, which is why we had brownies at ours.
But there’s gold in them there wedding cake shaped hills, so I manned up and took on the challenge. We made two cakes, one traditional with all that white butter cream, pipe work and hand made fondant flowers (see below), but for the other we had more of a free reign.
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Tags: 8 Bit, 80s, Arcade Game, Blue, Classic, Fondant, Ghosts, Mr & Mrs PACMAN, PACMAN, Wedding Cake, Yellow
Posted in Sweet Stuff, Travel | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
The other day the missus suggested that I should tackle some indigenous recipes on Hand To Mouth. The kind of food that, for better or worse, the good ol’ US of A is known for. So this is the first of these American Classics, Southern Fried Chicken.
I’m no food snob. I love a bit of fried chicken. A KFC or Junior Spesh after a night out is one of life’s pleasures. But there’s nothing wrong with elevating it a couple of notches either. I use thighs for this recipe, as to my taste they’ve got the right skin to flesh ratio, and of course that tasty dark meat. I also use a good dose of not very traditional herbs and spices in the coating.
Buttermilk isn’t that easy to get in the UK, so if you can’t get it, some live yhogurt will do just as well. Lets get cookin’.
Ingredients (serves 2)
6 chicken thighs
For the ‘marinade’
1 pint (600ml) buttermilk
1 clove of garlic
1/2 an medium onion
Sprig of rosemary
Sprig of time
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Tags: American, Buttermilk, Classic, Crispy, Egg, French Beans, Fried Chicken, Garlic, Lemon, Mashed Potato, Melinda's Hot Sauce, Onion, Recipe, Rosemary, SFC, Smoked Paprika, Southern, Thighs, thyme
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes | No Comments »
