Pancake Day 2017

Happy Pancake Day!!!

Here's a basic pancake recipe for you to use tonight.

Ingredients

100g Plain Flour
2 Large Eggs
300ml Milk
1 tbsp oil, plus a little extra for frying
Lemon Wedges, to serve (optional)
Caster Sugar, to serve (optional)

Method

1. 1.Put the flour, eggs, milk, 1 tbsp oil and a pinch of salt into a bowl or large jug, then whisk to a smooth batter. Set aside for 30 mins to rest if you have time, or start cooking straight away.
2. 2.Set a medium frying pan or crêpe pan over a medium heat and carefully wipe it with some oiled kitchen paper. When hot, cook your pancakes for 1 min on each side until golden, keeping them warm in a low oven as you go.
3. 3.Serve with lemon wedges and sugar, or your favourite filling. Once cold, you can layer the pancakes between baking parchment, then wrap in cling film and freeze for up to 2 months.
4. --BBC Good Food--

Cooked to perfection in a Crafond Casserole pan

Ratatouille

As envisioned by Smitten Kitchen

1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
1 cup tomato puree (such as Pomi)
2 tablespoons rapeseed oil, divided
1 small eggplant (my store sells these “Italian Eggplant” that are less than half the size of regular ones; it worked perfectly)
1 smallish zucchini
1 smallish yellow squash
1 longish red bell pepper
Few sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
Few tablespoons soft goat cheese, for serving

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Pour tomato puree into bottom of an oval baking dish, approximately 10 inches across the long way. Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in one tablespoon of the oil and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper.

Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. As carefully as you can, trim the ends off the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube.

On a mandoline, adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.

Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit.

Drizzle the remaining tablespoon oil over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs with your fingertips, running them down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the dish.

Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. (Tricky, I know, but the hardest thing about this.)

Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.

Serve with a dab of soft goat cheese on top, alone, or with some crusty French bread, atop polenta, couscous, or your choice of grain.

Recipe courtesy of: smittenkitchen.com

Spinach and Ricotta Tart 
Recipe 

3 x eggs

1 tub ricotta

1 bag spinach

Handful of parmesan

Ready roll pastry (of your choice)

Pinch of pepper

Mix the eggs and pepper together in a bowl.  

Line base of cocotte with pastry (ensure that the pan has been seasoned with rapeseed oil)

Add the egg mix to the spinach and mix adding the ricotta and parmesan ensuring all ingredients are coated. Add the pastry to your Crafond cocotte base and pour in the filling. Cover with your Crafond cocotte lid and cook on a medium heat for 20-35 minutes on the hob. 

Serve hot or cold....simple!! 

A light summer tea,

Once again sincere apologies, I have no idea where the time seems to be going. Its hard to believe that we are over half way through the year (sorry)! Well here is another beautiful dish which has me salivating and would be a lovely dish to take outside and enjoy on a warm summer evening (when we have them) to enjoy with friends and family.

Parma ham and red pepper with taglierini

Ingredients

• 1/2 red or white onion, peeled
• 1 red pepper, deseeded
• 90g slices Parma ham
• 1/4 of a fresh red chilli
• 1 large firm tomato
• 1/2 bunch of fresh flat-leave parsley, leaves picked
• 200g taglierini
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• rapeseed oil
• 1/2 an unwaxed lemon, the zest and juice of
• parmesan cheese, for grating

Method

Start by preparing your ingredients. Very finely slice the onion, pepper and half the parma ham. Finely slice the chilli. Quarter the tomato, cut out the seeds and finely dice the flesh. Finely chop the parsley leaves.

Put the finely sliced Parma ham into a large dry frying pan (Crafond Saute would be good) over a heat and cook for 5 minutes, or until crispy. Transfer to a double layer of kitchen paper to drain. Cook the taglierini in a large pan of boiling salted water until al dente. Meanwhile, return the frying pan to a medium-high heat with 3 tablespoons of oil. Add the onion, pepper and chilli and cook for a minute or so. Roughly slice the remaining Parma ham and add to the pan, stir in most of the parsley leaves and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Reserving some of the cooking water, drain the taglierini and add to the sauce. Add the lemon Juice, diced tomato and a good grating of parmesan. Toss well over the heat until lovely and glossy, adding a splash of the cooking water to loosed, if needed. Divide between your plates, sprinkle over the crispy Parma ham and add an extra grating of parmesan. Finish by sprinkling over the lemon zest and the rest of the chopped parsley. Alternatively, serve in a large bowl allowing guests/diners to help themselves.

Recipe and image taken from Jamie's Food Tube: The Pasta Book