My Lemon, Coconut and Mascarpone Tart

Girls (or maybe just me) often have a very specific idea of what they expect from their Man as proofs of their love to them.
Flowers, surprise dinners, boxes of chocolate, secret love messages hidden in a drawer ...all of these are in the Universal Repertory of Proofs of Love.
As some boys don't seem to have been given a copy of the Repertory and are not so keen on following any rules but their own anyway, they don't do any of this and get regularly into trouble.

"We've been together for a year and you still haven't offered me flowers?!"

Until one day, out of nowhere and god knows why (probably thanks to some kind of divine intervention), girls realise that proofs of love are all around, just not where they look for them.

Does he always carry your grocery bags (and all your bags for that matter) for you?
Does he serve you breakfast in bed even though you know he's phobic of crumbs in bed?
Does he spend time repairing your broken bike without you even asking for it? 
Does he clean the mess you leave behind you at his place without ever even mentioning it?

Sometimes, you're actually happier and luckier than you think, you just have to look in the right direction.

Lemon, coconut and mascarpone Tart

This tart is very fresh and creamy. It is so easy to make, and so delicious. 
A great new take on lemon tart!

Ingredients: 
Finely grated zest and juice of 4 lemons
2 handfuls of dissacated coconut
4 eggs and 4 yolks (you can keep the whites to make a meringue)
200 g mascarpone
250 runny honey or maple syrup (I used honey)
1 shortcrust pastry ( I used lighter shortcrust pastry from Sainsbury's)
Unrifined sugar (or light muscovado sugar), for dusting

Make the lemon and coconut tart: 

1/ Take all the ingredients out of the fridge so they come to room temperature. 
 
2/ Preheat the oven to 150deg C

3/ Prepare your lemon zests and juices and place in a small bowl with the coconut. Leave to soak for 5min

4/ In a large bowl, beat the eggs and yolks with a whisk or an electric mixer until light and pale (this will take 3 to 5 mins)

5/ In a third bowl, beat the mascarpone until smooth and creamy. Add it to the eggs mixture, add the honey, mix, then add the lemon zests and juices and coconut, and mix until combined and smooth.

6/ Line a pie dish with the shortcrust pastry, and bake at 150deg C for 40-50 min. Leave to cool completely before removing from the tin. Ice with sugar and serve.

 

"You're so fine, and you're mine..."

Sensitive taste buds seeking curry - Indian Dhal & Roast pumpkin

One of my greatest culinary discoveries since I've been living in London is Indian Cuisine.

If Coronation chicken, the indian-inspired dish created for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, is anything to go by, British people have a real love affair with Indian food.

In France, we have "Pizza nights", here in the UK, people have "Curry nights"

When I started my curry education 4 years ago, I started from scratch. Not only did I know nothing about Indian food, but I also had baby taste buds that couldn't handle anything that would come near being called a spice.

My world was made of crème fraiche and melted cheese, with no pepper please.

Since then, I fell in love with curry nights, and my Curry Connoisseur Boyfriend takes me to Indian restaurants and teaches my taste buds the great pleasures of chilli powder.

And guess what? I'm going on holidays to India soon! More on that later ;-)

Easy Indian Dhal 

served in a roasted pumkin

In India, dhal means lentils. A dhal can be cooked in many different ways, depending on the lentils you use and the recipe you're following. 
You can also create your own recipe and include lots of different ingredients in a dhal: green peas, cauliflower, potatoes, Indian cheese, etc
Most of the times, a dhal would remain a vegetarian dish.
Here is a very simple recipe that I served in a roasted pumpkin, just because I love pumpkin. But of course, you can serve your dhal in a bowl!

Ingredients for 2 people: 

1 small glass (a little less than 1/2 pint) or red lentils
2 pints approx of vegetable stock
1 onion finely chopped
1garlic clove finely chopped
1 small thumb of fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 small handful of frozen peas
2 medium sized potatoes
2 to 3  tbsp of mixed spices: I crushed cumin seeds and coriander seeds, added turmeric and a pinch of cinnamon. Freestyle!

Make the dhal:  

1/ Sweat (don't grill) the onion, garlic in 1tbsp olive oil for 3 min. Add the ginger and the spices and cook for 2 more min. 

2/ Add the lentils, potatoes and the stock, and simmer for approx 15min. Mix from time to time, until the mix forms a croase porridgy texture. Add the peas and cook for 5 more min. 

3/ Add salt to taste, and serve with rice or in a small roast pumpkin with pitta breads and cottage cheese (we ate directly with spoons from the pumpkin, really good casual atmosphere!)

Make the roasted pumpkin: 

1 small pumpkin, seeds removed
1 tbsp olive oil

1/ Paint the inside of the pumpkin with the oil, place on a baking tray, cover with foil and cook in the oven for approx 30min at 190degC (the foil will ensure the pumpkin slowly roasts without burning).

2/ Take off the foil ans roast for a further 10min until the pumpkin is golden. Transfer to a serving dish and fill with the dhal. 

Options: of course, you can fill your pumpkin with other preparations, like for example a biryani, or a simple mix vegetable fried rice.

Some (amongst so many) places to try and enjoy Indian delicacies in London: 
Guglee, West  Hampstead & Swiss Cottage
Lahore, Whitechapel
Tayyabs, Whitechapel
If you have favourites to share, please leave a comment!

An afternoon in Greenwich

Last year at that time, I was in Greenwich for the Olympic Games, watching horseriding and having fun with bloggers from all over the world. 
Since then, I always have this sweet nostalgic feeling when I go to Greenwich, remembering that special time of my life.
Last Saturday, we cycled to Greenwich for the afternoon, to eat some great food from Greenwich market and take a nap in the Park. Greenwich has this special relaxed atmosphere to it, I love it.

View from the Observatory

What's this big pointy shiny herb at the back?  The Shard!

Cutty Sark

Fresh lemonade anyone?

Greenwich market

We love Greenwich Market

Citrus and Poppy Seeds Cake

I love coffee. 
Sometimes, I choose a restaurant just because I heard it has a proper espresso machine (which is pretty rare around here). 
My boyfriend, being British, has no idea how to make a good coffee (hellooo stereotype!)
No matter how strong I ask him to make my coffee, it's alway a slightly-black-coloured and tasteless concoction, that has nothing to do with coffee. (We call this "sock's juice" in French)
He is trying hard, but it's not his fault, he doesn't have the coffee gene.

Poor him, I had been teasing him for months...until I realised that I was apparently deprieved of the most important gene in this country: the tea gene. 

Does it matter if the tea brews for 3 or 5 minutes?
How much milk is a "dash of milk"?
What? How come I can't just add the milk when I want?
How am I supposed to judge if it's strong enough?

Slowly, we're learning each other's ways, and becoming caffeinely bi-cultural.
And I'm learning how to shut up from time to time ;-)

Citrus Poppy Seed Cake 

Let's be clear, poppy seeds don't bring any taste to the cake, but they make it pretty and they crunch under your teeth, which is quite a pleasurable eating experience. 
The yogurt makes the sponge very light and moist, and the mascaropone topping is a real delight. A crowd pleaser!

Ingredients for the cake: 

175g butter, softened
175g sugar
3 eggs, beaten
250g self raising flour
50g poppy seeds
grated rind of 2 oranges, and 2 lemons
4 rounded tbsp plain yogurt

For the topping:

250g mascarpone
grated rind and juice of 1 small orange or lemon
2 tbsp icing sugar

Make the cake: 

1/ Preheat oven to 150degC and butter a round cake tin

2/ Using a wooden spoon, beat together the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, poppy seeds, citrus rind and yogurt until smooth
Tip: my secret is to first beat the butter and sugar until the mix becomes light and fluffy before adding the other ingredients. This makes a real difference in making the cake light and moist!

3/ Spread the mixture in the mould and bake for 45-50min until just firm. Cool in the mould for 10min until turning out and cool completely on a wire rack. 

4/ In the meantime, beat the mascarpone with enough orange/lemon juice and the icing sugar to make it spreadable. Spread over the cake, and leave to set for 1 hour before decorating with additional orange rind and serving.

 

Baking for a Jedi: Fruit Summer Pudding

"You under-estimate my powers, my Master" says Anakin defiantly to Obi Wan Kenobi only 3 minutes before the latter cuts both his legs and one of his arms off with his laser, leaving him slowly almost burning to death on the side of a volcano. 
We all know what happened next to our dear Anakin Skywalker. 

I've been baking for 4 years now, and I often get tempted to improvise recipes myself. Adding a bit of this, swapping this with that...
When it works, it works really well, at least most of the time. I’ve done a few tricks over the years, and I now can swap ingredients or turn a cake into muffins by changing a few things here and there.
But every so often I am reminded by the God of Cake that I'm still a beginner, and that recipes often list specific steps for you to follow for a reason.

Baking is like training to be Jedi: while trying to cultivate one's creativity, one should never be tricked into over-confidence.

(Thankfully, I've messed up a few cakes but haven't turned into Darth Vador)

Summer Fruit Pudding

aka The Lovely Berry Bursting Pudding

So easy to make, this no-bake summer dessert is so delicious and so impressive that I don't understand how I could live for 4 years in the UK without it.

I was sceptical about the idea of making a pudding with bread, yet, it does give fantastic results. 

The traditional summer fruit pudding recipe calls for white loaf, but I wanted to experiment a funkier version of it using waffles (not too loud, I recognise that the bread version is even better!)


Ingredients: 
750g of mixed red fruits, frozen (it's cheaper than fresh!)
50g of caster sugar (more or less, to taste)
1 good quality white loaf, or little toasting waffles (I bought mine from Lidl)
1 tbsp of lemon juice

Make the pudding: 
1/ Grease the inside of a 1L pudding basin (with butter or oil spray) 

2/ Line the sides and bottom of the basin with thick slices of bread / waffles, taking care not to leave any gaps and covering all the sides. 

3/ From the fruits selection you have, put a handful aside (you'll leave these in the freezer) and put the rest in a pan with the sugar and lemon juice over a low heat. Leave to cook, mixing gently, for 10 to 15 min, until the fruits soften. They should release about half a pint of juice.

4/ With a sieve, drain the fruit mixture into a bowl and make sure you keep all the collected juice for later. Delicately put the sieved fruits into the basin, pressing down gently so they are well packed and come up to the top of the bread level. Then close what will be the base of the pudding with additional slices of bread. To ensure the pudding sets properly some pressure needs to be applied. So cover the base with foil and place a pan or a heavy bowl on top to act as a weight. The 'weight' will need to be roughly the same size as the base, so that the pressure is uniform. 

5/ Leave to set in the fridge over night. Before serving, pass a knife around the edges of the pudding and gently turn over on a deep plate. Pour the juice left aside all over the cake so it soaks it completely, especially where the bread or waffle is still white. Gently lift the bottom of the pudding so some juice goes under it and soaks the bottom as well.

6/ Decorate with the left over fruits (you can use them frozen, they will defreeze in few minutes), few leaves of fresh mint, and serve with cream.

This post is dedicated to Joan. Thank you for welcoming me in your home and making me discover the delights of the summer fruit pudding!