Sundried tomato and leek tart - with a little help from Boursin and Lisa Faulkner

Would I like to try some Boursin? But of course I would.

3 great flavours.  - Garlic & herb, black pepper, sun ripened tomato onion & chive.

Garlic & Herb Boursin is definitely a flavour from my childhood. I remember it being in the fridge, reserved mainly for my father. I expect there was an element of  "Too good for us children" going on, so there was a certain amount of excitment that greeted the arrival of this little package of goodies chez Recipe Junkie.
 

Anxious not to deprive my children in the way I was so clearly deprived (oh poor me - not allowed the Boursin), I let them have unfettered access to the Garlic & Herb one lunchtime. This is a decision I will live to regret as they pretty much devoured the lot, leaving the Husband and I barely a look in. Obviously my father was on to something. The black pepper flavour was less popular with the children, well, with Pink, anyway, but I loved it with the Husband's home grown cucumbers. 

I saved the sun-ripened tomato, onion and chive to make a tart inspired by the lovely Lisa Faulkner - there she is with her own pile of Boursin - the lucky thing. Lisa has created some recipes using Boursin, all of which you can find on the website. 

I failed to reproduce her tart exactly, in that I only had a round tin, not a rectangular one, and baby leeks were absent from the purveyors of vegetables I visited on the day I was looking for them. However, this went largely unnoticed, partly because no one knew there were supposed to be baby leeks decorating the top except me and I could live without them, and because stirring half a pack of the Boursin into the usual egg mixture to go in a quiche case over some leeks which I'd genetly softened in some butter, made a very delicious tart indeed, baby leeks or no.

This is what Lisa's version looks like. Alas, I lost my photos in a pre-holiday clear out of the camera.

I also lost the notes I made about what I actually put in my tart, so you can go on your own voyage of Boursin discovery and make it up as you go along, or just make Lisa's.

So thumbs up all round for Boursin in all its flavours and a lovely and straightforward summer supper which everyone enjoyed (even Pink, who is funny about quiche despite loving pastry, and eggs in all other forms, pronounced it delicious and said she would eat quiche like that again).

There are plenty more recipes to choose from too - I'm particularly keen to try the black pepper hotcakes - but this requires the Boursin to stay in the fridge long enough for me to cook with it...

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Grana Padano week at L'Anima

Sometimes in life, things happen, and it's tempting to spend valuable time wondering why. Not just bad things, but good things too.

I am so over that. You just have to go with what you get and make the best of it - usually no point dwelling on the whys and wherefores

And I am particularly not going to spend time wondering how on earth I was lucky enough to be invited to spend an afternoon/evening at L'Anima London, in the company of 2 brilliant chefs and a handful of food writers and other bloggers on a gloriously hot Tuesday in July. I'll leave you to ponder that one, as you surely will.

So the occasion was a cookery demonstration in honour of national Grana Padano Week 2013 which runs until tomorrow. The chefs were Francesco Mazzei, of L'Anima itself, and Davide Oldani, of D'O restaurant near Milan, cooking to showcase the 3 ages of Grana Padano cheese.

Francesco and Davide

We crammed into the kitchen, donned aprons and watched as Davide first produced a souffled gnocchi dish of such sublime lightness that I thought I was going to swoon (it was very hot in there and I was standing next to a lit grill). Gorgeous little gnocchi bearing no resemblance whatsoever to my previous attempts. So dainty he piped them into the water...  

The gnocchi were then fried off, and served with a Grana Padano sauce, some raisins soaked in syrup spiked with chilli, some fried lettuce, and some crispy fregola (like couscous). Having allowed us to sample the dish, Davide explained the philosophy behind his cooking which is to satisfy each section of the tongue - the bit which tastes sweet, those tasting salty, bitter etc, hence the dish satisfying all those areas

May from Eat Cook Explore tastes the raisins

Well, I had to take a picture of the cheese!

After a short break for a glass of prosecco (well, it would have been rude not to) and a taste of some delicious grana padano scopped out of a glorious wheel of cheese it was time to move on to Francesco's demo.

I don't think there can be many more divine dishes than the scallops he prepared with a salsa verde made with N'duja, a kind of spreadable salami which I had never heard of or come across before, but was completely heavenly. I have never really aspired to work in a professional kitchen, and the experience didn't change that but what I really appreciated more than ever was how skilled these chefs are at the top of their game. 
Watching Francesco pulping garlic cloves with the blade of a knife, chopping and smoothing, was truly a sight to behold.



I tried to make a note of everything that went in the sauce - garlic, gherkins, capers, anchovies, some bread soaked in white wine vinegar, egg white that had been cooked as an omelette, finely grated grana Padano - may be some marjoram? all chopped so finely, then mixed with some N'duja (that's the bad boy there at the back of this picture - a gorgeous spicy slab of the stuff...)

The scallops - beautiful. fresh, meaty, were pan fried on one side, then the salsa verde was spread over the top and finished off under a grill while Francesco deep fried (flash fried, really) some Senise peppers and sage leaves .

The finishing touches

I cannot tell you how utterly wonderful the dish tasted, and I got to have a second shot at it because it was one of the courses at the dinner that followed. But more about that later.

After the demo, there was time to chat to the other people there, 

drink some more prosecco, and try not to over consume some gorgeous and appropriately cheesey (I mean flavour) nibbles, all made with Grana Padano


Beautiful buns stuffed with Grana Padano and caramelised red onion....

 

Perect pastries filled with Grana Padano and spinach...

...and these heavenly things which came with the rather unheavenly name of 'cheese puffs', but which are so, so much more.

(and if you want the recipe for those, you can find it on Eat Like a Girl, because Niamh has helpfully posted it...)

I think I've probably used up all the superlatives I can think of already in this post. I mean, I know I don't get out much, but this really was an extraordinarily brilliant meal, and others I was with who are better qualified than me to say such things agreed that it was fabulous. From my point of view, it would be definitely in my top 5 meals of all time - a subject we discussed at the table, while we tucked in...

Home cured Hake with candied figs tomato emulsion,

 

Grana Padano Riserva crisps & tarragon 

M'pigliati with Grano Padano Riserva & figs mosto cotto 

The special Grana Padano menu is available at L'Anima until tomorrow (12th July) so if you have a the opportunity to go and experience the 3 ages of Grana Padano cooked this beautifully, grab it while you can. I was lucky enough to dine as a guest of Grana Padano, but I would certainly have paid and have promised my (very foodie) brother that when I bag a regular food column in a national publication, I will take him there for a meal. So there's a challenge for anyone reading...

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A non-vegetarian lasagna recipe with Basil and cheese (rajiv tiwari)

Ingredients for lasagna sauce:

* 1 tbsp olive oil
* pound chicken sausage, chopped
* Cup of chopped onions
* 1 large garlic cloves, chopped
* 1 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1/8 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
* 1 can of crushed tomatoes with added Puree
* 1 can of diced tomatoes with green peppers and onions with juice

Ingredients for lasagna filling:

* Cup of Basil fresh
* 7 ounces plus cup ricotta cheese
* cups shredded mozzarella cheese
* 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* large eggs
* teaspoon salt
* Ground black pepper to taste

Ingredients for lasagna:

* 6 no-boil lasagna noodles
* 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
* Cup of grated Parmesan cheese
* Nonstick olive oil spray

Instructions for lasagna sauce:

1. to make lasagna sauce, heat olive oil in heavy pot over a medium-high flame.

2. Add the sausage, onion, garlic, oregano and crushed red pepper and saut them all together until the sausage is cooked through.

3. Add the chopped tomatoes and diced tomatoes with juice to ensure lasagna sauce gets enough flavors.

4. take the lasagna sauce to boil and then lower the flame, simmering for about 5 minutes to blend flavors.

5. Add salt and pepper according to your taste for seasoning and mix lasagna sauce well.

6. Your lasagna sauce is ready to be used!

Instructions for lasagna filling:

1. finely chop the basil leaves and add to the food processor Bowl.

2. Add the ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, eggs and salt and pepper.

3. mix so that the mixture combined thoroughly, but still a little chunky for perfect Lasagna filling.

Instructions for the lasagna:

1. preheat the oven to 180 C.

2. spread a thin layer of lasagna sauce on the bottom of a baking dish lasagna. Arrange 2 of lasagna noodles on sauce. Drop some of the filling over noodles, and then evenly to cover. Sprinkle a good amount of mozzarella cheese and parmesan.

3. Repeat this procedure for layering lasagna sauce, noodles, stuffing and cheese until the last layer is the remaining 2 noodles.

4. Insert the remaining lasagna sauce on top of the noodles. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover dish lasagna with the foil to make sure it does not touch the cheese and sauce.

5. bake the lasagna about 30-40 minutes.

6. Carefully reveal. Bake until the noodles are tender, lasagna sauce bubbles and the edges of the lasagne is golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

7. cool it for about 15 minutes before cutting.

Rajiv Tiwari is an absolutely gourmet whose love of food has made him travel to all the top food destinations. In this bouquet of articles Rajiv discusses some quick tips on food recipes, and shows us how you can make people enchanted with the lipsmacking food recipes. Lasagna sauce, lasagna dish

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How now, Laughing Cow? a Review

Don't things always seem so much more glamorous in French? 

I was walking up to school the other day behind someone sporting a shopping bag - one of those sturdy, resuable supermarket ones -  with the motif "L'instant fraicheur" inscribed on it. So much better than "the fresh instant". Or "the instant of freshness". My French isn't bad, and in the past, it's been pretty good, and so I still sometimes decide to think in French, or do some idle translation in my head when the English isn't so appealing (I know, I know, the hours just fly by...).

So here's a thing. Whenever someone says The Laughing Cow to me, I hear "La Vache Qui Rit" - which, if you couldn't guess, is the French name for it. Those cheese triangles were present in the fridge of all the French families I have ever stayed with, and last year on our camper van trip to Normandy, in one of those awesome French hypermarkets, we found a pack of La Vache Qui Rit 'Apero-cubes' - individually wrapped 'aperitif' sized cubes of La Vache, with intriguing flavours - paprika, olive, blue cheese...

Frankly, being the huge francophile that I am, if it's good enough for the French...

I must admit that despite all this, I don't buy it (unless it's packaged in lurid yet strangely irresistible aperitif cube type things), but I was approached recently to see if I would like to review a new flavour of The Laughing Cow cheese triangles. La vache qui rit? Mais oui, bien sur...

Doesn't necessarily sit well with the 'cook it from scratch processed food be damned' image I like to portray. But don't judge me too harshly. You see, the other thing that enticed me was the new flavour - emmenthal.

I love a bit of emmenthal.

I was sold.

Sure enough, carefully packaged in a polystyrene box with its own cool pack, not one but 4 packs of La Vache turned up - 2 of emmenthal and 2 of blue cheese flavour.

We tested them extensively - mostly Blue who has a passion for blue cheese, and ate most of it in his sarnies.

Disappointingly, and as may be you'd guessed, though, they don't really taste of either emmenthal or blue cheese (respectively) although the blue cheese one does have a definite and recognisable tang. Pink wasn't keen on either flavour. Blue was positive, although this waned over time, and the Husband and I, well, if I'm honest, it's just not really our thing. They're not particularly unpleasant or anything, I'd rather just eat proper cheese. The real thing. Le vrai...

On the other hand, if you like Laughing Cow generally, you will probably like these. In their favour, they are only 25 calories a triangle, but don't really taste 'diet' so if you're on something like the 5:2 diet, which I am (currently rather half-heartedly) following, they could be a good thing.You know, spread on a tasty Ryvita or something...

So there you have it. Even as La Vache Qui Rit, I can't give them a rave review. But may be you will? And I'm nothing if not open minded (well, sometimes) so if I've judged them too harshly, do try and persuade me otherwise...

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Cheese Recipes, Meat and Potatoes - What Does Dad Want This Father's Day? (Twistson Snacks)

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Create Your Own Cheese Styles: Get Tips from CheeseLinks Website (BarbaraWilson)

Yoghurt is highly recommended by many dieticians. The goodness is the reason why more and more people are inculcating it in their daily diet. Yoghurt contains healthy bacterium that is very beneficial for the digestive system. It is extremely tasty. Moreover, you need not go out and buy it. Yes, yoghurt creation is very easy. There are many companies that teach you how to make yoghurt for your home. CheeseLinks is an Australian company that is very famous for its different types of yoghurt and cheese. Also, they offer yoghurt makers.

One such instrument which aids in the easy preparation of yoghurt is Easy Yoghurt Maker p124. With the maker, you can easily reduce on your expense of buying yoghurt from outside. Also you can eat yoghurt in the flavour of your choice. Also, there is no need to worry about the situations in which the yoghurt was prepared. Moreover, there is no tension regarding the ingredients used. This is because you will prepare it at your home with the milk and other ingredients that appeals to your marks of perfection. The milk you use can be either low fat milk or any other type that suits you.

The CheeseLinks is a company that is considered to be one of the cheese experts in the world. They have a wide variety of cheese that they sell. You will find some of the best tasting cheese in the world here. Some of the different varieties of cheese sold from the company outlet are hugely popular. If you are interested in preparing cheese at home then you can visit the company’s web site. They have given a detailed method of preparing homemade cheese. This way you can create your own cheese styles. Almost everything that is needed to prepare cheese is offered on the web site. Right from spores to bacterial cultures are sold there. Depending on the type of cheese you are preparing you can buy the ingredients. Calcium solution that is necessary for coagulation can be bought when you shop online with CheeseLinks.

If your wife is interested in making cheese at home or your mother wants to experiment with her skills, gift them cheese cooking packages. These packages include the necessary items used in the cheese preparation. It is entirely user friendly. And even a novice can make it easily. Get hold of the kit and start the preparation!

The CheeseLinks is a company that is considered to be one of the cheese experts in the world.Read more info about Yoghurt Creation here.

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The great big enormous ... PARSNIP!

This could be a post about the hunger gap - that time of the year where we've all but run out of stored food and nothing's growing (I'm talking veg here, not baked beans) yet, or about using up leftovers. It could also be a Samantha Barnes Google Recipe Challenge, and all because of a parsnip.

Despite the hunger gap, the atrociously cold weather and all that, we still have parsnips in the garden. Whether they are actually growing any more is debateable, but when they come out this size, does it really matter?

Anyway, size isn't everything, it's what you do with it. Thanks to the fact that we had people for dinner on Saturday night, I had a fridge full of leftovers looking at me when I opened it up  this evening, Left over bad stuff, like cheese and cream. I may be on a mission to reduce the circumference of my thighs and ensure that the only muffin tops around here are of the double chocolate variety, but I absolutely cannot see food going to waste, so the challenge was on. What to do with the enormous parsnip - and the leftovers?

Pink's not a fan, so parsnips usually get turned into some sort of soup for the Husband and I, or roasted as a side dish, ideal for her to pick out and be sniffy about (she'd refuse the soup point blank). This evening, though, she was out at a friend's so Blue and I got stuck in to some proper parsnip action.

A quick Google based on what I had in the fridge turned up 2 possibles - both gratins - one from Abel & Cole and one from a website called Epicurious - so we combined the two, in doing so using up the left over cream and Cashel Blue cheese from Saturday night, and raiding the garden for the only other things that are growing with any enthusiasm at the moment - sage and rosemary. 

I'm pleased to report that Blue got properly stuck in to the whole thing. Much as he'd hate to admit it, he's a bit lost when his little sister isn't around for hi-jinking or fighting, depending on the mood they are both in (actually, if we're being strictly honest, usually it depends on the mood Pink is in) and so it was good to get him involved while she was off giggling with her friend.

Mezzaluna baby!

 

The result was a delicious creamy (of course) warming dish, full of flavour - great food for a chilly winter Spring evening.

Parsnip & Bacon Gratin with leeks, hazelnuts & blue cheese

Serves 3-4 depending on appetite

60g hazelnuts
700g (peeled weight) parsnips, thinly sliced lengthways
200g (ditto) carrots, also thinly sliced
1 large leek, thinly sliced and washed
200g pancetta/bacon cut into pieces
250ml or so double cream & creme fraiche, thinned with a little milk if necessary
1 good tsp dijon mustard
2-3 sprigs of rosemary, needles only & a handful of sage leaves, finely chopped
80g or so* blue cheese (we had Cashel blue in the fridge), grated
salt & pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 200C

Put the parsnips and carrot into a large pan of salted water. Bring to the boil and cook for 3-4 minutes, then drain and leave to steam dry-ish.

While the veg is cooking, lightly toast the hazelnuts in a small frying pan, then when cool enough to handle roughly chip them and set aside.

Fry the bacon/pancetta till mostly cooked; drain off most of the fat (if a lot has been produced) then add the leek and cook for a few more minutes till the leek is softened.

Whisk together the cream, creme fraiche, mustard and milk if you need it, and then add in the herbs and salt and pepper.

To assemble, first put a layer of parsnip and carrot into your gratin dish, drizzle over about a third of the cream mixture and sprinkle with half the hazelnuts. Spread the leeks and bacon over this, then layer on the rest of the parsnips. Pour over the rest of the cream then sprnkle over the rest of the hazelnuts and the grated cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes of so till the parsnips are cooked, the sauce is bubbling and there's a delicious crunchy topping on your gratin.

If I'd had any salad in the fridge, I think it would have been good with it - something like watercress - but as it was we didn't, so we just ate it as it was. Delicious**.

I'm linking up to this month's Herbs on Saturday hosted by London Busy Body this month for Karen at Lavender & Lovage

 I'm also linking up the March Simple and in Season hosted by Louisa at Chez Foti

___________________________________________________________
* The chunk started off at 80g but Blue is very fond of blue cheese and I didn't keep an eye on how much was being grated and how much was being gobbled...

** I was quite surprised by how much Blue enjoyed this, regardless of the amount of effort he put into making it - those who read this regularly will know that I'm usually gnashing my teeth about how he doesn't like anything 'crunchy' like this gratin topping or the top of a cottage pie, and my efforts to get him to eat less sophisticated things with a cheese sauce - macaroni/cauliflower cheese have met so far with dismal failure. May be his tastes are changing - or may be it was the cream and blue cheese combo. Watch this space.

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Mrs W's Pear, Lancashire and Walnut Muffins

For various reasons, of which more another time, I haven't been doing much imaginative cooking or baking recently, apart from my Fairtrade Green Tea, Caradmon & Vanilla Cake yesterday. Still - who needs to when I have friends like Mrs W making the most DELICIOUS muffins. Honestly. She posted the recipe for these babies up on her Facebook and I asked if I could put them up here. 

 
Before I let you read her post, some more about Mrs W. She is down to earth, practical and a great laugh. She is the Senior Scout Wife and I count myself as very lucky to know her: she has saved my sanity on more than one occasion with wise words, and, on even more occasions, with gin.

I think  have long suspected that she is a blogger in the making. And I was not wrong. Here is her post for her gorgeous Pear, Lancashire and Walnut muffins:

"I like to bake, though I’m not quite in Recipe Junkie’s league (it’s always worth volunteering to babysit at the RJ household – just for access to the contents of Grandma’s cake tin) ...and have spawned a daughter who, though I hate to admit it, makes a much better lemon cake than I do... and some great chocolate cookies – which isn’t all bad (apart from my needing to run further) ... but every once in a while inspiration strikes – in this case due to lots of pears in my weekly veg box – and, combined with quite happily playing fast and loose with a recipe, these little marvels were the result.

After staying with my parents in a lovely, lovely B&B in the Lake District, which does the most amazing (you really won’t need lunch) breakfasts, I found they had their favourite muffin recipe on their website  - check it out: Lowthwaite B&B even better, go and stay (but don’t tell everyone or there won’t be space for me) – and I’ve been making these with whatever fruit I need to use up ever since ... and this was my starting point.

They were ok the first time, but too sweet – I’d left in the sugar and hadn’t used enough cheese -  but, I think I have it sorted now, this batch were pretty darn good:

200g plain flour

Going...

2tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarb
good pinch of salt
a good grinding of black pepper
75g melted butter
200ml buttermilk (or half and half milk/natural yoghurt)
1 egg
1 diced ripe pear
75g ish small diced cheese (I used tasty Lancashire - showing my northern roots)
50/75g or so chopped walnuts

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, mix together the wet ingredients and add to the dry...

Stir until roughly combined then put into muffin tin (I have a silicone muffin mould which is great for these as I don't need paper cases) – makes 12

Baked at 200degC for 20/25mins, or so - your oven may vary - when they should be golden brown and done.

Yum"

going...

So you see - a blogger in the making. I was lucky enough to receive one of these lovely little muffins and boy was it delicious. I think you should too. And leave a comment - we need to get Mrs W into the blogosphere!  

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