Smooth little tarts which lend themselves to snacking with a glass of white wine in summer time
This is all about the classic combination of chicken and thyme let loose in a custard base so that the flavours really can shine through. I like to use spring onions too as their delicate flavour is just perfect here plus the splash of colour I like too.
when life gives you cherry pits….
Half a glass of the cherry stone wine, a healthy slurp of prosecco, ice and orange slices. Delish! This is way nicer than Sangria.
I’ve read John McEnroe’s autobiography “Serious” and in it he details the simple pleasure of chopping up breakfast fruit for his kids. I like to think he would welcome the simple frugality of this seasonal wine cooler and pour it over fresh fruit and sup it in the commentary box and shout out instead “This is the pits”…in a good way. Because if JM can mellow there is hope for all of us. When temperatures head towards 40C its time to drink sensibly ie things with prosecco and a lot of ice and soda in. This clever cooler has a tangy astringency because of the cherry leaves that you macerate in the wine mix. Here is how this came into being…
Firstly there was a lot of sour cherry jam making going on…
which meant a surfeit of cherry stones…or pits if you is American. That bothered me. I don’t like throwing food away. Then the ladies told me about Romanian pickles flavoured with cherry leaves. Then I thought about how the stones of apricots and cherries left in liqueurs and jams permeate them with soft mellow flavours. And so this little concoction was born.
Here is how to make your own version…but follow your instincts and what you have in your spice cupboard to personalise your own summer wine cooler.
A big jar. A dose of patience – about a week. uffff
3 litres of quite dodgy red wine. Those semi sweet bottles that you were given as a gift and cant bring yourself to throw away are just perfect.
A slug of vodka
a couple of spoonfuls of sugar unless using the really very dodgy wine as above
quite a few red peppercorns
a big handful of cherry stones/ pits
quite a few cherry leaves (washed)
Mix all ingredients together and leave for a week
Drink within the next 2-4 weeks, with a lot of ice and a slice or two of orange.
a great pie that doesn’t need Easter as an excuse to be made
This is my take on the Italian Easter pie “torta pasqualina”. It involves that holy trinity of ingredients: Spinach, cheese and eggs and when they combine in a goodly (Godly?) ratio the result is divine indeed. The secret to any spinach recipe is to flavour it well (here nutmeg, fresh thyme, garlic and onions) else the result tastes like grass cuttings. If the truth be told this particular pie used up a load of leftovers and I added and combined until I liked the texture of the filling. After messing around with the eggs “popping” out of their little indents and a surfeit of egg white which then needed to be scooped off and combined with the rest of the mixture (tedious), I have “re-engineered” and come up with what i think is a faster and more idiot proof method that also guarantees a lighter fluffier filling.
For those of you who are still pastry averse fear not – Just buy filo pastry and let it flop over the edges, brush with a little olive oil between layers and tuck the overhang over the pie (to be continued…)
Traditionally the pie has a pastry lid and then lattice work but i have just put lattice pastry over the filling that i topped with cheese as its a little lighter. Continue reading ““Torta Pasqualina” – Italian Easter Egg & Spinach Tart”
