LEMON CUSTARD TART WITH SWEET PASTRY CRUST

Tart au Citroen

This is outstandingly good, sharp, sweet, creamy zesty lemon custard encased in a light melt in the mouth sweet buttery pastry, just divine when served at room temperature with clotted cream.

Level Easy / Time 45 minutes / Baking time 55 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 8-12)

Citroen Filling

275ml lemon juice 
3 lemons zested
190ml double cream
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
275g caster sugar

Sweet Pastry

350g plain flour
150g butter
2 eggs beaten
100g icing sugar
1 small pinch salt

To make the pastry, take the flour and salt and place on a worktop, make a well in the centre, place the soft butter in the well and with a pecking action soften the butter further gradually incorporate the sugar into the butter and mix together, add the eggs and mix together.  Now gradually incorporate the flour by flicking it onto the mixture and then chopping through it until you have a rough dough.  Bring together with your hands & knead a couple of times till a smooth dough, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.  

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees.

Roll out the pastry into a circle and line your loose bottom tart tin.  Place bake in the fridge for another 10 minutes.  Place some parchment paper in the bottom with some baking beans and blind bake for  10 minutes, remove the parchment & beans and bake for a further 3-5 minutes, keeping the pastry pale.

Turn the oven down to 150 degrees.

Make the filling, whisk the eggs, egg yolks & sugar together until light and fluffy, add the cream gently whisking to incorporate, then whisk in the lemon juice and zest.  Place the tart tin on a oven tray and fill the tart 90% full with the lemon custard, transfer to the oven and pour in the remainder of the tart filling to the very top of the pastry.  Cook for approx 35-40 minutes until the filling has just set, you want a little wobble in the custard, leave to cool completely before serving, best eaten at room temperature with cream or clotted cream, if there is any leftovers, doubtful, store in the fridge.

BEEF CHEEKS SLOW BRAISED IN BURGUNDY

This is such a comforting winter dish, deep in flavour and definitely spoon eating food especially when served wit glorious buttery mashed potatoes and extra braising gravy.

Super easy one pot cooking

Prep time 20 minutes / Slow cooking time 3-4 hours

Ingredients

(serves 4)

25g butter

2 tbsp olive oil

2 kg beef cheeks or chuck steak as 1 or 4 steaks

100g pancetta diced

1 onion cut in to wedges

6 carrots peeled and roughly chopped

1 bottle burgundy

1 ltr beef stock (bone marrow)

3 sprigs thyme

1 sprig rosemary

Perfect Mashed Potatoes 

1 kg Albert rooster potatoes peeled and halved

250g butter

1 tsp Himalayan sea salt 

1/2 tsp white pepper

1 tsp white wine vinegar 

In a Dutch oven add the olive oil and butter on a medium heat, add the chuck steak and sear both sides browning the steaks for a couple minutes, remove and reserve to one side, in the same pan add the pancetta and sear, remove and reserve with the chuck.  Next sear the onions and carrots until lightly caramelised, add the wine to the pan and deglaze scrapping off all the lovely caramelised flavour off the bottom of the pan, add the stock then add back all the reserved ingredients along with the thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper.  Bring to a almost gentle simmer for 2-3 hours on the stove top or pop in the oven at 170 C / 338 F until the meat will easily pull apart with a spoon.,

30 minutes before your pot roast is ready, place the potatoes in a large pan of seasoned cold water and bring to a good simmer for approx 25 minutes until fork tender, drain and leave the potatoes to steam dry for 5 minutes, season the potatoes with salt and pepper, add the butter to the saucepan and place back on a low heat until melted, add the potatoes and vinegar, mash to your desired consistency, I like smooth my husband likes lumpy!  

To serve place a generous portion of the mashed potatoes piled high in the centre of your bowl, place the pot roast on top with some carrots and onions then spoon over a generous amount of the stock gravy, serve lots of seasonal vegetables on the side and enjoy.

QUAILS EGGS HOW TO COOK PERFECTLY

Gorgeous little creamy quails eggs are a beautiful delight when cooked perfectly, the yolk to white albume ratio is the reverse of a chickens egg, you get a real burst of creamy rich buttery soft yolk and a little of the soft boiled white, I like to sprinkle a little celery salt on my quails eggs and enjoy them in their wonderfulness.  I also like to use quails eggs when making scotch eggs as I enjoy a smaller meat to egg ratio and they are so darn cute too.

I like my boiled eggs to be mollet which means that the are soft boiled with a just starting to set yolk, the yolk will run but slowly

Bring a pan of salted water to a gentle boil, lower the quails eggs in gently, simmer for 

1 minute 40 seconds for mollet

1 minute 30 seconds for for a runny yolk and just set white

2 minutes for set yolk hard boiled

Enjoy sprinkled with celery salt and eat whole so that you can burst the runny yolk for that intense creamy flavour hit.

JUICY LUCY LUCIFER CHUCK STEAK BURGERS

I like to use three cuts of grass feed steak to make the best burgers ever, a good level of fat to steak ratio is crucial for a really tasty and juicy burger, I like a 80 / 20 ratio but sometimes I do go as far as 70 / 30 on occasion!  My favourite cuts of beef are short ribs, ribeye and whole chuck steak which I mince in equal quantities.  I always mince my steak twice and with fresh or pickled jalapeños sprinkled in on the second mincing and sometimes I also run crispy sweetcure bacon and soften onions through the mince too!  For these Juicy Lucy’s well Lucifer’s I stuff a great burger melting cheese in the centre along with a generous amount of my favourite hot hot pain habanero sauce!

WARNING:  THE CHEESE IN THE CENTRE CAN BE EXTREMELY HOT !

Serve these juicy Lucy’s in a toasted buttered brioche bun with your choice of fixings, I like more cheese on top of my burger along with crispy iceberg lettuce, red onion, sliced tomatoes, more buffalo hot sauce maybe some mayonnaise and crispy fried onion strings.

Super Easy 

Prep time 15 minutes / Grilling time 7 minutes / Resting 5 minutes

Ingredients 

(makes 6 burgers)

The Burgers

500g diced chuck steak

500g diced fore rib

500g short ribs off the bone

Optional

6 rashers of sweetcure streaky bacon chopped

3 fresh or 1 cup pickled jalapeños rough diced

1 Spanish onion sliced and lightly fried

1 tsp Himalayan sea salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

6 slices of melting cheese for stuffing

1/2 bottle of habanero buffalo hot sauce

Fixings 

6 slices of melting cheese

3 large tomatoes sliced

1/2 iceberg lettuce sliced

1 red onion sliced

1/2 bottle of buffalo hot sauce

1 bottle mayonnaise

2 cups crispy fried onions

6 brioche buns

1 stick butter

Light your BBQ coals 30 minutes before your ready to cook or a griddle in the kitchen 5 minutes before.

Mince your steak twice and on the second mincing run the jalapeños through and if using the bacon and softened onions run through with the jalapeños, season with salt and pepper and mix throughly, divide the minced steak in to 6 and form in to balls, press your thumb down in the centre to make a well, fill the well half with hot sauce then place the cheese slice, fold or squish the cheese slices so they are the compact enough to fit in the centre of the pattie, bring up the sides of the pattie and mould over the top of the cheese, press slightly flat so the pattie in a even thickness.

Grill, griddle to your likin, I like just medium so I grill for 2-3 minutes on each side turning only once, a great tip is to move the patties once cooked to the warm area of the grill to rest for 5 minutes this will ensure that cheese centre is fully melted and a rested juicy burger.  Again Warning: The Cheese Centre Can Be Burning Hot this I can greedily confirm!  

I had a anaphylactic shock to wheat last year!  So for me I have to stuff my burgers in a iceberg wrap, still great but I do miss the days when I did have a toasted buttered brioche bun! 

PREPPED FILLED BALL MASON JARS WITH DRY INGREDIENTS FOR CAKES PANCAKES BISCUITS PIZZAS AND BREADS

PREP LIKE A HERO...READY TO GO IN A MOMENTS NOTICE

Just a super hint of organsiation for a when ever day can produce a easy impromptu feast with no effort...

When friends or family rock up unexpectedly then its time for a impromptu feast,  suddenly I have been able to serve hot fresh scones coming from the oven, goregous flatbreads to stuff or bake as pizza’s, divine crispy onion pakoras with a curry spiced mayo dip, a batch of buttery short bread biscuits baking for later...A beautiful lunch that appears from nowhere with out any drama and no planning ahead and no one noticed I made it all while we chatted and caught up!

The secrets in the pantry!

  I always keep some mason jars loaded with dry pre weighed ingredients ready to go in a moments notice just by adding the wet ingredients that are written on the mason jar label, this ensures gorgeous food with no need to think or look up recipes.

This can be with any recipe you like, muffins, your favourite dinner bread rolls, biscuits, pancakes, waffles, you get the idea...I always re fill the jars once used ensuring that they are all primmed ready to go so that I can enjoy my family and friends time and still give gorgeous food at a moments notice.

The wonderful bonus for my family is that we have a abundance of food straight from the garden all year round so there is always fresh eggs from our hens, garden salad a mix of salad leaves, spinach, rhubarb chard and various kales, vegetables to saute, zoodle or stuff and my pride and joy our canning pantry of preserved roasted beetroot chutney, Asian pickled cauliflower florets and juilened carrots along with sweet and sour chutneys among a abundance of other branston pickles, salsas and passattas from the years harvest.

DECEDENT MOLTEN LAVA CHOCOLATE CAKE

FILL YOUR JAR WITH

(makes 4)

50g self raising flour

100g dark 70% chocolate wrapped

ON THE LABEL

100g salted butter

150g light brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract paste

3 eggs

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS ON THE LABEL

In a double boiler gently melt the butter and chocolate, beat the sugar then beat the eggs in one at a time, add the vanilla extract and the chocolate butter, gently fold in the flour until just combined.  Grease four small pudding moulds, line the bottom with a circle of grease proof paper, 3/4 fill each mould.  Bake at 180 C for 10-12 minutes until the top of the cake edges is baked but the top centre is soft and squishy.

GORGEOUS BUTTERY SHORT BREAD BISCUITS

FILL YOUR JARS WITH

8oz plain flour

5oz sugar golden light

ON THE LABEL

175g chilled diced butter

2 tbsp water if needed 

2 tbsp sugar for dusting

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS ON THE LABEL

Combine, bring together, roll, cut out biscuits, sprinkle with sugar, bake 160 C around 8 mins, no colour. 

STICKY TOFFEE PANCAKES

FILL YOUR JAR WITH

125g self rising flour sieved

100g soft brown sugar

ON THE LABEL

(add these ingredients to the jar)

2 eggs

1/2 pint gold top milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

FROM THE LARDER

Sticky Toffee Filling and Sauce

220ml double cream

4 tbsp black treacle

2 tbsp golden syrup

110g butter

110g soft dark brown sugar

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS ON THE LABEL

To make the pancake batter, whisk the eggs and milk together, whisk in the sugar and vanilla extract then whisk in the flour until just incorporated.  Next make the sticky toffee sauce, place all the ingredients in a saucepan simmer for a couple of minutes, then remove off the heat.  and reserve to one side.  To cook add a tiny dash of oil to the hot pan and pour in one large ladle of the pancake batter, cook one minute each side.  Spread the sticky toffee sauce all over the pancake.

BEST EVER DOUGH FOR FLATBREADS AND PIZZAS 

FILL IN YOUR JAR

500g 00 flour (blue caputo)

15g yeast

10g Himalayan sea salt 

ON THE LABEL

50g olive oil

320g water

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS ON THE LABEL

Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl knead with a dough hook for seven minutes, cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave in a warm area to prove for 1-2 hours

 Take tennis ball piece of dough, dust your work top with a little 00 flour, roll out a large circle, heat a pan to a hot heat, place the flat bread in the pan and cook for one and a half minutes on each side.  For pizzas place on a baking stone top and bake 200 C for 10-15 minutes.

BEST CHEESE SCONES EVER

FILL YOUR JAR WITH

400g supreme light flour

30g sugar

40g baking powder

ON THE LABEL

160g cold salted butter

200g double cream

220g full cream milk

350g aged cheddar (Montgomery) grated

1 egg beaten for wash

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE LABEL 

Pre heat your oven 220 C / 440 F.  In a large bowl rub the butter in to the flour, stir in the sugar and baking powder, mix in 80% of the cheese reserving the rest to sprinkle on top of the scones, add the liquids and stir gently to combine.  Press out the dough to approximately 2” thick and cut out the scones, place your scones on a baking sheet, brush the tops with egg wash and a sprinkling of cheese, bake for 15-20 minutes until light golden brown and a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.

FABULOUS SPICY INDIAN ONION PAKORAS

FILL YOUR JAR WITH...

250g chickpea flour (gram flour)

50g self raising flour

1.5 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tspcorinader

1/2 tsp cumin

ON THE LABEL

250ml water

300g grated potato

300g sliced onions

100g fresh spinach

1 fresh chilli diced

1 ltr nut oil for frying

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS ON THE LABEL

Add all the wet to the dry and mix well, heat the oil to 180 C and spoon in generous dollops of your pakora mix, fry for around one and a half minutes each side, drain and enjoy fresh and hot.

FABULOUS BUTTERY LAYERED PUFFED PARATHAS 

FILL YOUR JAR WITH

125g wholemeal flour

125 g plain white flour

1/2 tsp sea salt

ON THE LABEL

2 tbsp melted ghee or butter

140 ml water

4 tbsp melted ghee for painting

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS ON THE LABEL

Mix the wet with the dry and form in to a soft dough, knead for a couple of minutes and leave to rest for 20 minutes.  Divide the dough in to 6 balls.  Roll each ball out to a thin disk, paint the disk with some of the melted ghee and dust with a little wholewheat flour, only a dusting, fold in half, paint with the ghee again and fold in half again, now paint one more time, fold in half and then roll out until half as thick, I don't worry about the shape as the flavour and flakey melt in your mouth texture is all you can focus on when you tear, dip and eat...To cook heat a skillet medium hot and cook each side for around 1.5 minutes on each side, you want a little charring and you want to see a lovely puffed up flakey layers on the side of the parathas to finish paint each paratha with more melted ghee, the decadence of sumptuous.

Fill your jars with what ever you want and have fun knowing you can be a super hero in the kitchen, your family will be amazed at how you whip up pancakes, waffles, muffins etc with out any effort, this prep like a hero also moves on to the fridge, see my prep like a hero for the fridge post all it takes is an hour once a week to set your fridge up for super speedy fresh cooking dinners all at a moments notice.

PUMPKIN SQUASH HARVEST

I love this time of the year, it’s a busy time harvesting, canning and preserving for the winter months ahead, but I have a glowing sense of satisfaction every time I walk through my kitchen that is now loaded with wooden crates of stored pumpkins, butternut squashes and gourds.

The harvest garden

Stored squashes and pumpkins for gorgeous eating.

This years yield.

My Son’s American Giant Pumpkin.

Squashes







These are a joy to grow with their pop of colour in the garden through summer and their Jurassic plant like leaves and a couple of plants give a great family yield.