A heatwave and a Summer Berry Fool

It's been a scorching few days here the thermometer is my kitchen is reading a whopping 38.9c, OK, so that may not be considered hot at all in some places but here in the UK it's an official heatwave.

Hot!

In these temperatures there's no way I'm going to have the oven on or do anything too intense in the kitchen, it's hot enough already! What I needed was something cool and summery, something that requires minimal cooking but still tastes great.

It was time to make a fool, not of myself you understand although that's not hard to do, but from summer berries. A fool is a very simple dessert made from whipped cream, fruits and sometimes -as in this case- custard too. The fruit is stewed, the cream is whipped, the custard is made and the whole lot is stirred together and served well chilled, simple as that.I like to stir the fruit in last thing so I can leave it not quite fully Incorporated in to the cream mixture, it just looks good that way! I served mine with crushed shortbread scattered over the top for some added crunch, it would work really well with nuts too.

There is no recipe as such for this but here are the steps.

• Stew some fruit with a little sugar, any summer berries are good so is rhubarb. Use whatever you like or whatever you have. Chill the mixture while you prepare the cream.
  
• Whip some double/heavy cream to the soft peak stage, you don't want stiff peaks.
• Make some custard or buy some, as long as it's good quality. You need about the same quantity as the whipped cream.
• Stir the custard into the cream, make sure the berries are completely cold and stir them in too.
• Serve well chilled scattered with crushed shortbread or nuts.
  

Panzanella - Italian bread salad

There has been a noticeable change in the vegetables I've been getting in my organic box recently. Now the weather is warmer and the days are longer it's goodbye to swedes, turnips, Brussels sprouts and winter cabbages, hello to tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and asparagus.

This week I got some fantastic sweet peppers and a bunch of beautiful tomatoes on the vine, the perfect ingredients for making Panzanella.Panzanella is an Italian summer salad which can contain all manner of ingredients but always contains tomatoes, basil, olive oil, vinegar and most importantly bread. Panzanella was originally a peasant dish designed to use up leftover bread, -isn't it funny how peasant dishes are almost always the most delicious?- to make this salad chunks of old bread are torn up and tossed with the other ingredients where it absorbs all the delicious juices and takes on a fantastic flavour.I don't think it's possible to find an 'authentic' recipe for this, by it's very nature it's made from whatever people had to hand at the time. My version uses tomatoes, peppers, olives, capers and mixed salad leaves. I also added some flaked trout fillets to make it more substantial, you could add salmon or chicken to equally good effect or just leave it out altogether.

the bread I used was an Italian ciabatta but any firm textured bread will do, just don't use anything too light and airy.

Roasting peppers gives them an amazing flavour

Panzanella recipe: (Serves one as a light meal, two as a side dish)

Ingredients:

• One large red or yellow sweet pepper roasted (see method)
  
• Two large tomatoes chopped into eight moon shaped wedges.
• A handful of olives, green or black.
• A tablespoon of chopped capers.
• Sea salt, extra virgin olive oil and white wine vinegar (or lemon juice).
  
• Mixed baby salad leaves, I used spinach, rocket and watercress.
• As much leftover bread as you want to eat torn into chunks.
• Flaked trout or salmon - optional.

Method:

• First up you need to roast you pepper, you can do this either in the oven, under the grill or if you have a gas hob like I do you can use that. Basically you need to char the skin, and I mean really char it, it should be black.
  
• What I do is stab the pepper onto a fork and hold it above the flame on my gas hob so the skin crackles and blackens, do this all over. I f you using an oven or grill the same rule applies, it needs to be black.
• Once your pepper is blackened all over place it inside a plastic bag and leave it while you prepare everything else, when you come back to it the skin will slip right off and the pepper will taste amazing.
• Next put the tomatoes, olives, capers, into a large bowl. Add as much oil. vinegar and salt as you like, personally I like mine quite sharp but it's entirely down to personal taste. The salt is really important here as it's the salt that draws the juices out of the tomatoes and peppers, this is the juice that will soak into your bread.
• Now to the peppers, remove them from the plastic bag and pull the skin away, it should be really easy. Slice the pepper open, tip any juice that has collected inside into the bowl with the tomatoes then chop the flesh and add that to the bowl too.
• Leave the salad to stand for at least 15 minutes, preferably longer so that the juices can be drawn out and the flavours can meld together.
• Just before you want to serve toss in the bread and salad leaves, mix everything well, check the seasoning and the oil/vinegar is perfectly balanced then serve. Top with flaked trout or salmon if you'd like.
  

Homegrown Rocket (arugula) pasta with fresh tomatoes and bacon

I've always enjoyed growing my own veg, I find it incredibly satisfying to start with a tiny insignificant seed and nurture it into something I can cook and eat. I love watching my plants develop and look forward to the day I can finally reap what I have sown. It is not possible to get fresher ingredients than those I have grown myself and I know exactly what's on them, so there's no nasty chemicals on my plants!!

Unfortunately when we moved house a few years ago we lost our garden, our new house has a tiny garden, this means that a big veg patch is out of the question. I still try though and have managed to grow this beautiful tub of Rocket (I think it's the same thing as arugula) there are also a few carrots growing in tubs and one lonely bean plant!
I wanted to make the most out of my rocket so I came up with a pasta dish in which it featured as the star ingredient. As tomatoes are perfectly in season at the moment (they're really tasty and very cheap) I wanted to use them as well, I also used bacon, Parmesan and a touch of cream to make this dish.

It was delicious, the peppery Rocket really stood out and brought the whole thing alive, I think this is definitely going to be a regular meal at my house although it's only worth making in the summer with the fantastic vegetables that are abundant at this time of year.

At last I made a Cheese Souffle!

There are some recipes that scare me, usually they are recipes that seem far too complicated, or I have heard horror stories of it all going horrendously wrong. One such recipe was Choux pastry, even though I really wanted to try it, I could see myself making a complete mess and throwing it all in the bin!! But I overcame that and found it to be really easy.
Another recipe that has me shaking with fear is Souffle, I can just see it collapsing the second I open the oven door, or simply not rising at all.
Well after thinking "I really should try it" for over a year I finally got the courage to give it a go. The recipe I used is by Keith Floyd for a cheese Souffle, I served it with Jersey Royal potatoes and a salad.Contrary to popular belief souffle is very simple to make, it comprises a simple bechamel sauce into which egg yolks and the flavour of choice is added, to this fold in stiffly beaten egg whites and bake in the oven. For a sweet souffle it is exactly the same except a sweet custard base is used.
I am pleased to report that my souffle was a success, while it didn't rise quite as much as I hoped, it did rise and tasted really good, next time I might add chopped bacon and some leeks or mushrooms for more flavour. This makes an excellent light summer meal.

The recipe can be found here: Cheese souffle
Note: it is crucial that you eat this as soon as it is cooked as it starts to collapse immediately!

Strawberry and Blueberry tart

I don't know about you but I am bored of winter food, and winter in general come to think of it. Last night we were out for a bring and share dinner, and this gave me a good oppurtunity to make something a bit more "summery", I decided to make a pudding. As we had some pastry at home I decided I would make a fruit tart. The filling is a mixture of cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla and gelatine (to make sure it set). For the fruit topping I went to Leicester market to see what looked good and found some nice strawberries and blueberries.

So I set to work, first I rolled out the pastry and lined a pastry tart dish, I then blind baked it, left it to cool, spread a thin layer of dark chocolate across the bottom and poured in my filling. When everything had set I decorated it with halved strawberries and blueberries and drizzled it with more chocolate.

As you can see from the picture it looks really good which is exactly what I was aiming for, I wanted something that would stand out and get noticed! The red and blue certainly does that.
This dessert was another success, I seem to have had a string of them lately! it tasted as good as it looks, the addition of a chocolate layer certainly added another dimension that I would add again, as well as helping keep the pastry crisp.

The Recipe

To make your own fruit tart you will need: (Measurements are very rough, I just judged what looked right)

• Shortcrust pastry (I cheated and used ready made, but it would be even better with home made sweet pastry)
  
• 350g Cream cheese


• 1/2 cup icing sugar, (sifted)


• Vanilla extract


• 1 Sachet of gelatine powder


• 60-70g Dark chocolate


• Fruits of your choice

First line you tart dish with pastry, (I used a 10 inch dish) cover with tin foil then baking beans or weights and bake at Gas mark 4 for 15mins after this time remove the foil and beans and bake until golden brown (about 10 mins more. Set aside to cool.

While the pastry cools melt around 50g of the dark chocolate, (this can be done in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, or very carefully in the microwave) spread the chocolate over the base and leave to set, this won't take long at all.

Now make you filling by beating the sifted icing sugar and cream cheese together, add a few drops of vanilla, and pour in the gelatine made up according to packet instructions. Make sure everything is well mixed.
Pour the filling into the pastry case and put it in the fridge to set, this should take about 20mins.

Now prepare your fruit if it needs it wash and chop as you like it and arrange it on top, be creative! finally melt the rest of your chocolate and drizzle ove the top.

Done! Now you can look smug and show off your finished dessert.