Over the last two weeks I have made a tomato curry, took my first (self-taught) lesson in sugar craft, made more soup (roasted tomato and pepper with tarragon) and made up a claire original butternut squash tart. So here goes…

Tomato Curry – it turned out ok but definitely needed more sauce to it..

I made the curry on a Friday night & I will add the recipe when I can lay my hands on it. It was tasty just a bit too dry.

Cake Art – this is something I hope to play with more over the coming months. I’d really like to be a able to bake and decorate some really nice cakes. Anyway this was my first attempt at icing sugar paste and making flowers…

And the final product… (they did taste good!)

Next on my list of accomplishments is another soup (sorry if I’m getting boring here, but it’s that time of year).

This time it was Slow-roasted tomato and red pepper soup – it was really tasty & we have 2 servings in the freezer…

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 4 Red Peppers, halved lengthways & deseeded
• 3 tbspn extra virgin olive oil
• 1kg vine tomatoes
• 2 garlic bulbs – halved horizontally
• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 400ml vegetable stock, hot
• 1 tbspn sundried tomato paste
• 1 tbspn chopped fresh tarragon

Serving suggestion – toasted baguette with a slightly melted topping of Crottin de Chavignol AOC (Goats Cheese)

How to Do It

1. Preheat oven to 200 °c
2. Put peppers in a roasting tin & drizzle with 1 tbspn oil
3. Put tomatoes and garlic in another roasting tin, drizzle 1 tbspn oil & season
4. Put peppers on top shelf of oven with tomatoes & garlic underneath – roast for 30 minutes
5. Transfer the peppers to a plastic bag, seal & leave for a few minutes to allow the skins to peel off
6. Heat remaining oil in a large pan, add onion and gently fry for 5 minutes
7. Squeeze in the roasted garlic and add the tomatoes
8. Discard the pepper skins & add the flesh to the pan
9. Add the stock, sundried tomato paste and tarragon – bring to the boil & then reduce the heat

We served with crusty bread & butter.

The tarragon added a creamy sort of taste – it really was very nice. Possibly one of my favourite tomato soups.

Lastly we have my original Butternut Squash Tart… based on Simon Rimmers Feta & Spinach Free-form pie in Septembers Delicious Magazine. I made it to use up the left over butternut squash from the soup the other day.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 1/2 packet of filo pastry
• 3 tbspn melted butter
• 1 butternut squash
• 1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped
• 1 tbspn olive oil
• 100g feta
• 5 shallots, cut into quarters
• 3 tbsn balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar

How to Do It

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °c
2. Cut the butternut squash into about 8 large chunks (spooning out the seeds)
3. Place the pieces of squash on a baking tray, drizzle with the oil & sprinkle over the rosemary + a pinch of salt
4. Roast the squash for 45 minutes then take it out & leave it to cool down
5. Once cool, scoop of the flesh & cut into smaller sized chunks
6. Mix the butternut squash with 2/3 feta cheese, season with pepper
7. Meanwhile 1tbspn melt the butter in a small saucepan & add the shallots
8. Once the shallots are glossy and starting to warm through add the sugar
9. Leave for 2 minutes but keep an eye on them and mix them about
10. Throw in 2 tbspn of balsamic & keep the shallot pieces moving until the balsamic has thickened to a glossy coating
11. Put the shallot pieces in with the main mixture & add the last tbspn of balsamic vinegar. Put to one side.
12. Heat up 2 tbspn butter
13. Using a loose bottom cake tin – firstly brush the tin with melted butter, then add a layer of filo pastry brushing on butter in between each layer
14. Add the butternut squash mixture & crumble the remaining feta over the top.
15. Lift the overhanging pastry on top of the tart & scrunch it up
16. Cook for 20-25 minutes

Upon the puff pastry base I put some feta, little drops of pesto, a small amount of shallot, sliced tomatoes and a little more feta with a drizzle of olive oil.
Baked for 20 minutes on 200° then garnished with some olives & basil and a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Tasty but the pesto did run so quite a lot of the taste was taken over by it.

After 30 mins…
After 3 hours…
And finally they were set free…

I had also invited my mum & dad around for dinner so this morning, before we left for the balloon race, I made a passion fruit & lemon brulee tart. Now I haven’t made pastry since I was a child, nor have I ever attempted a brulee. The pastry was supposed to be made using a food processor – which we don’t have. I was tempted to use the hand mixer with the dough hooks but then decided my hands were just as good! The pastry was surprisingly easy to make into a dough & roll out. My difficulty came in transferring the dough into the dish. The first attempt collapsed dreadfully so I re-kneaded & rolled out again. The second time I managed to get most of the base in, in one piece & some of the sides so I decided to patchwork the rest together.

After baking blind & egg-whiting it the case looked ok…

I then prepared the creme brulee centre & the passion fruit smelled so delicious, I couldn’t wait to try some.

It went in the oven at 100° for 45 mins. The recipe said it should be set but still a little wobbly in the centre. I pulled the shelf out & a tidal wave of filling nearly escaped the pastry case. Set my @*se! As we had the balloons to get to I gave it another 10 mins & then had to leave. It was still very much liquid & I was quite annoyed after spending all morning working on it. I left it in the oven, with the door slightly ajar (after my steaming escapade earlier in the week).

After stopping at Sainsbury’s and buying a vanilla NY cheesecake on the way back, we got home to find one set filling… Surprise!

After eating our main course of lemon marinated chicken with greek yoghurt accompaniment (with spring onion, cucumber, chilli, garlic, coriander & mint) I got round to sprinkling it with icing sugar & starting up my new chefs blowtorch…

It was delicious, tangy & sweet, crunchy but gooey. Very very nice, I have to say!