Showing posts with label Roding Rd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roding Rd. Show all posts

Friday, 22 July 2011

Chard lyf


Sarah vs Nature. Blood-Crimson colour coordination.


Rhubarb Chard, pizza-look alike tart.
Recipe courtesy of Jane Baxter. We reduced the quantity of butternut squash (less is more). We increased the amount of Blue Stilton (live like no tomorrow). We used walnuts as pecans evade our cornershop. More tabasco always welcomed. I would have made it 30 sage leaves rather than 20. Such is life.


Swiss chard, Squash & Blue Cheese Tart

  • 175g plain flour
  • 1 tsp caster sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 125g cold unsalted butter, diced
  • 3 tbsp very cold water
  • 75g pecan nuts
  • 1 pinch cayenne
  • A dash of Tabasco
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 butternut squash
  • Olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 2 small onions, sliced
  • 300g Swiss chard (or spinach)
  • 200g blue cheese, chopped (I use Devon Blue)
  • 50g grated parmesan
  • 20 sage leaves
  • 1 tbsp butter

Briefly process the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor, add the butter, pulse until it resembles fine breadcrumbs, tip into a bowl and stir in enough water to make a dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for half an hour. On a floured surface, roll into a rough circle, lay on a greased baking sheet, prick with a fork and chill for 15 minutes. In a 200C/400F/gas mark 6 oven, bake the pastry for 10–15 minutes, until golden brown.
Mix the pecans, cayenne, Tabasco and salt on an oven tray and bake for five minutes, until lightly toasted.
Halve, deseed and peel the squash, and chop into 2cm cubes. Place on an oven tray, toss in oil, season and bake for 30 minutes, until tender. Sprinkle over the garlic, bake for five minutes, then set aside to cool.
Gently sweat the onions in oil for 20 minutes until soft but not brown, and set aside. Separate the chard stalks and leaves. Chop the stalks into 1cm pieces, blanch in boiling, salted water for four minutes, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. In the same water, cook the leaves for a minute, remove, refresh under cold water and squeeze out any excess. Add the stalks and leaves to the onions, mix well and season.
In a bowl, combine the pecans, squash, chard and cheese. Use this to cover the pastry base, sprinkle parmesan on top and bake for 10 minutes. Fry the sage in butter until crisp and use to garnish the tart.

Wednesday, 20 April 2011

Great meal moments with non-great meal images (I) Circa 2008–2010

The Birdcage — Free supper, Sour Wine, Snimky, Tatiana.


Bow — Such days, 12:30pm, GG


Lower Clapton — First non-vegetarian meal, Adrian & Sara



Evelyn House — No one
makes Sticky Toffee Pudding
like Sarah does.
No-bo-dy
(recipe stolen from Nigel Slater)
-
For the pudding
150g dates, stones removed, chopped
250ml hot water
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
60g butter, softened
60g caster sugar
2 free-range eggs
150g self-raising flour
-
For the toffee sauce
200g butter
400g brown sugar
vanilla pod, split
250ml double cream
-
Preheat the oven to 180C. Mix the dates, bicarbonate of soda and the water together in a bowl and leave to soak for ten minutes. In a clean bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
(we are lazy and do it with the electrical whisk, you have to keep going until it has almost turned white - a bit of patience is needed) Still stirring the butter mixture, gradually add the eggs, making sure they are well mixed in. Still stirring (yup lots of stirring), gradually add the flour, then add the date mixture. Pour the mixture into a 20cm/8in square cake tin. Place into the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until cooked through
(handy trick: you can stick a match in the cake, if it comes out covered in dough it needs to cook for a bit longer).
-
To make the sauce, melt the butter in a thick bottomed pan over a medium heat.
Add the brown sugar, vanilla pod and cream and stir well. Simmer for five minutes.
(In our experience there's N E V E R enough sticky toffee sauce, we are considering making double next time)
To serve, spoon out a portion of the pudding onto a plate and pour over the hot toffee sauce. E A T !



Kingsland Rd — Aftermath Village Fete,
Pre-moving London, Household, Yuri.



Lansdowne Drive — Cake & Death, Sarah



Roding Rd — Sugarless walnut brownies



Roding Rd — D E N M A R K





BN1 — Nothing to declare




Roding Rd — Meal itself erased from memory,
but it appears to be the first ever dinner at Roding Rd.
Memorable



A post like these should to be followed by mores posts like these. And recipes to great meals. With great photos.