The Small Things Of Summer

Oregano - aromatic when warm, whether by the sun on a hot day or by stringy mozzarella on a hot pizze
Oregano – aromatic when warm, whether by the sun on a hot day or by stringy mozzarella on a hot pizza

I can always tell when my young daughter has been playing in the Oregano bush in our garden.  She makes stories with her small collection of toy reptiles and insects amongst the leaves and when she comes back into the house, the fresh, green fragrance that is Oregano wafts in with her.  I found the first flower earlier this week which always makes me think back to when I was pregnant with her, my summer baby.

Courgette flowers
Summer squash or yellow courgettes – no matter what you call them, big, beautiful flowers and food on the same plant? It’s all win!

Someone once asked me why my favourite colour is yellow “because it’s the colour of sunshine, butter and cheese” I replied.  My summer squash is busy growing big, yellow squashes of loveliness but in the meantime it supplies huge, gorgeous, all to quickly gone flowers every morning.

 

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My Veggie Kitchen Heroes – Luscious Veggie Tart

It’s Friday, you’ve guests arriving in a couple of hours and you get a text saying one of your number is a vegetarian.  With the rose/cider/lager sorted and chilling in the fridge and the dips, chips and nibbles all ready to go, a small niggle of doubt rises from somewhere deep.  What on earth can you make at this short notice?

Summer food at it's best - we love eating out at this time of year and it's so easy to go meat free
Vegetarian summer food at it’s best – we love eating out at this time of year and it’s so easy to go meat free

Puff pastry is your friend even if it’s not exactly the most classy of ingredients.  It’s not sophisticated and if, like me, you attended one Tupperware party too many growing up in the 70s and 80s, you’ll shudder at the idea of chicken vol au vents.  Let’s call it an ingredient reborn shall we?

Firstly, some make their own puff pastry.  Life is too short and wine is too plentiful – so I buy mine, very often frozen because it’s cheaper that way.  You can also buy it fresh in blocks or ready rolled.  Do make sure that it’s vegetarian – check the ingredients (most are but a few more deli-style pastries might have animal fat in them, just for fun).

If you’ve bought frozen, defrost in a fridge for at least 12 hours.  If you choose to take it out of the fridge, to help it along, please remember to put it back in again and chill thoroughly before use (trying to roll out warm pastry is like trying to roll out mud).

Get it to about 3mm thick for a good, crispy texture when cooked.  You’ll get four decent 4-slice tarts out of a block and two 4-slices from a ready rolled sheet (and two slices is ample per person).

Then score the pastry 5mm from the edge all the way around – that way, the pastry will rise around the filling.

One I made earlier - you can trim the edges if you like but a bit of wonkiness won't affect the finished article.
One I made earlier – you can trim the edges if you like but a bit of wonkiness won’t affect the finished article.

This is the fun bit – getting creative with a few nourishing, flavoursome ingredients.  These are my ideas for toppings to make a tart with a little wow factor (and very little effort):

Tomato, feta and basil – this one is dead simple.  Place thinly sliced tomato over the base (leaving the edges so that they can rise) and then scatter feta over the top.  When the tart has finished cooking, rip a handful of basil leaves over the top and leave for a few minutes for them to wilt gently over the hot topping.  Delicious.

Gently caramelised tomatoes meet creamy, salty feta in this vegetarian tart - all finished with a little fragrant basil.  Perfect.
Gently caramelised tomatoes meet creamy, salty feta – finished with a little fragrant basil. A vegetarian classic.

This one is a leek (softened in a pan with a little butter first), goats cheese and walnut version – really earthy and satisfying.  Great with a few grinds of black pepper and a lovely fresh white wine.

Goats cheese, leek and walnut tart.  I love goats cheese and walnuts
Goats cheese, leek and walnut tart. I love goats cheese and walnuts

And this one is a simple favourite – tomato puree spread sparingly but evenly on the base with mixed chopped vegetables (in this case, courgette and red onion) and then lashings of cheddar.  Add a few Italian herbs too if you like, it makes it more like a pizza – my kids can’t get enough of it.

Pizza tart, always a winner and so simple to make (add pepperoni or chorizo for the meat eaters)
Pizza tart, always a winner and so simple to make (add pepperoni or chorizo for the meat eaters)

To cook: place on baking parchment on an oven tray and bake for around 20 minutes at 200c, gas mark 6.  Check after about 15 minutes to make sure nothing is burning.

To serve: green salad is great.  I also love this fragrant potato salad – boiled and cooled new potatoes (about 200g per person) tossed with a handful of finely sliced radishes, a finely chopped red onion, a handful of chopped fresh coriander, a glug of olive oil and the juice of a lime.  Season with a little salt and black pepper and let everyone dig in!

So simple to make but always a crowd pleaser (and fantastic from the fridge at night Nigella-style - if there's any left!)
So simple to make but always a crowd pleaser (and fantastic from the fridge at night Nigella-style – if there’s any left!)

So many toppings, so little time.  What’s your favourite?  I’d like to add more ideas to my recipe book, so  drop me a line and let me know.

Enjoyed this?  Then read my other posts in the series: Kitchen Heroes and Halloumi

And, of course, don’t forget to share (it’s nice to share – the buttons are at the top right) and sign up (also to the right in the menu) so you never miss a post.

 

 

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Spending a weekend in Falmouth

Going home has always been a restorative thing for me.  Driving over the Tamar, I take a huge breath of good Cornish air and then another as I circle above my home town of Penryn, where the new Combined Universities in Cornwall has sprung up on the grounds of what was Tremough Convent.  Glimpses of the river going out to Falmouth Bay never fail to catch my breath and bring back memories of walking the fields high on the hill with my mother as a child; ripping grass from the verges to feed the horses, fingers stained from blackberry picking.  There was less traffic then.

Falmouth harbour red flower Falmouth harbour

But my story is about Falmouth, where my parents now live.  The car park on Fish Strand Quay is one of the best places to see the historic waterfront and it’s one of the first places I head to when I’m home.  Half way along is the building that was the Royal British Legion – a building that my Dad has strong links to as did his father before him.  It’s now home to the Arwenack Club where my Step Mother is a key player behind the bar.  Yes I did spend much time in there with my family over the weekend.  Yes, I did drink much beer.  Yes I did sing karaoke on Sunday evening.  And the quality of music of the Rockabilly band Chrome Deville was matched only by the jivers on the dancefloor.  There’s something very special about watching the sunlight fade over the water as the lights of the docks come up – over a pint and some lively banter of course.

Wild garlic lane

This is where WordPress could do with a Smellovision plugin.  The lane heading down from where my Dad lives towards Swanpool beach is always vibrant with bluebells at this time of year but it’s the scent of the wild garlic that is overpowering.  An evening walk down to the beach with the kids and Buster often involves signet spotting on the pool and a hedgehog ice cream on the Swanpool café decking overlooking the sea.  (A hedgehog ice cream involves Cornish ice cream, clotted cream and toasted chopped hazelnuts by the way – it’s heaven’s heart attack in a cone!)

The rocks at Swanpool Beach
Swanpool beach – St Anthony lighthouse on the other side of the harbour is a pin prick in the distance

Swanpool Beach.  This place means much to me.  The small specks on the rocks are my son leading his little sister over the rocks – much like my brother used to do with me – and the path leading up on the cliffs towards Gyllingvase was where I used to walk with my Granddad when I was a child and where I sometimes run now.  This is also where I used to bring my son after school, many years ago – we’d have tea on the beach and he’d play in the shallows when the heat of the summer day had passed.

Clean, cool air came off the water as I sat and watched the guys fishing off the rocks and the smell of the barbeque their friends had just lit for them just up the beach from me wafted out to sea.

Swanpool Beach and flip flops
Swanpool beach looking out towards Stack Point

So I did what any girl would do when left alone on a beach in the evening sun – I slipped off my flip flops and buried my toes in the sand.

The next day we drove back.  ‘Til August it is then.

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