Lovely Food with Lovely Friends

Some of our loveliest friends, who we don't get to see so often because they moved from London to Leeds a couple of years ago, came to stay this weekend with their beautiful baby girl. I wanted to treat them to some lovely food so that they could relaxed for once...

I spied a really interesting canape recipe on The Passionate Cook's blog a couple of weeks ago and it was just the ticket for an informal help-yourself-to-how-much-you-fancy (or the-boys-eat-the-most-and-we-all-fight-over-the-last-few) starter - Mini-Corncakes with Avocado & Lime Salsa. Super simple to make and I really liked them. They'd go down just as well at a swanky canape and champers evening as they would at an afternoon in watching the footie with some mates.

(my picture isn't the best...but then we had been in the pub all afternoon before I even started cooking...!)

Our main course - Chilli and Rosemary Aubergine Parcels with Smokey Mash- was a recipe from the latest addition to my recipe book shelf - The Modern Vegetarian by Maria Elia (who used to be Head Chef at Delfina in Bermondsey, London). It's my second favourite vegetarian cook book ever (Paradiso Seasons by Denis Cotter currently wins hands down...) and I've been slowly cooking my way through it for the past couple of weeks since I bought it. I mostly cook my own vegetarian creations, but every once in a while I find a cook book which inspires me to follow the recipe to the letter, and this is one. This recipe is inventive, different and, above all, it works perfectly. I'm not sure if I can publish the recipe here (I've tried to contact Maria Elia to ask her permission but so far no luck) so for now here's a photo of the finished dish to wet your tastebuds...

I know what you're thinking...how do you top a starter and main course like that...???!!! Well here's how - with my much perfected lemon tart...

Lemon Tart

On a rainy day on holiday in France during the Rugby World Cup a couple of years ago I did a lot of cooking and baking. We got through over 5 packs of butter between two of us in less than 2 weeks... Needless to say I couldn't get into any of my work clothes on my first day back in the office after the holiday!

One recipe that I had time to perfect (and share with the lovely couple who we rented our holiday home from) was my lemon tart. Lemon tart is probably my most favourite dessert (apart from Mum's Pear and Rum Flan which one day I know she'll make for me again when she finds the recipe...), but whilst it can be glorious - sweet crisp pastry filled with with smooth, tangy, lemony goodness - it can also fall far short of the mark. Having time to perfect my recipe with good rugby on the TV meant I didn't mind so much that it was raining outside...

Ingredients

Sweet Pastry
150g unsalted butter
100g icing sugar
350g plain flour
2 eggs

Filling
275g caster sugar
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
190ml double cream
juice of 2 lemons (or 3 if they're not so juicy)
zest of 2 lemons

Method

Make the pastry by combining all of the ingredients - I do this in my food processor but the 'traditional way' is to rub the butter and flour until it looks like fine breadcrumbs and then add the sugar followed by the eggs and mix until the pastry comes together. Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill in the fridge. Roll the pastry and line a loose bottomed fluted tart tin and put that back in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

In a clean bowl, mix the eggs, egg yolks and sugar. Then add the cream, lemon and zest.

Preheat the oven to around 190C and bake the pastry case with greaseproof paper and baking beads for about 10 minutes. Remove the paper and beads and bake for another 5 minutes or so. Reduce the oven to 150C and pour the filling mixture into the pastry case. Bake for 35-40 minutes until set.