Paris baby

As my sister Chrissie is getting married next week, we took a weekend away to relax in gay paris. No cooking but lots of eating. I somehow managed to buy a hell of a lot of make up on the Champs Elysees even though I know I shouldn't. But bring on the big day. Cannot wait for the big day!! 

Portunguese style custard tarts

As I said in my previous post, I have been working pretty hard of late and so to treat myself, I got my nails done with Shellac. Seriously, why haven't I done this before? It's perfect for a girl who works in TV and loves to cook. Normally my nails get ruined all the time and now I might stand a chance of even growing them.

Firstly a small G and T to get me in the cooking mood.

Back to the matter in hand: Portuguese style custard tarts. I've chosen to cook these little tarts this week as I had one at work the other day and it was delicious and Billy has never had one. I researched the recipe a bit and realise there is such a huge difference between each chef's recipe. Some have one egg, some have 6. So it was a difficult one to embark upon. I made up my own recipe based on a combination of Jamie Oliver's very easy recipe from his 30 minute meals and Jon Torode's method as well as a bit of my own artistic license.

Put the oven on 180 degrees to heat up first. Then take the puff pastry sheet and sprinkle in cinnamon. Then roll the sheet up so that you have a long sausage shape of pastry.

Cut into 12 even pieces

Push the pastry into the moulds of a muffin tin and place in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. You cold cover each tartlet with greaseproof paper and lentils. I didn't do this.

Instead, I pushed the pastry back into the moulds.

In the meantime, put all of your other ingredients in a mixing jug and I blended with a hand blender until the mixture was smooth.

pour into the pastry moulds and bake for 20-25 minutes.

I think these were really nice and very easy to make. I would like to experiment a bit more...I'd like to know why every recipe I looked at was so different and see which one works best. Let me know what you think anyway :)

Ingredients (which should make 12 tarts):
Jus' Roll all butter puff pastry sheet
1 tablespoon corn flour
120g golden caster sugar
5 egg yolks
280ml double cream
orange zest- use your judgement
vanilla essence
cinnamon

Risotto Ball Disaster: How not to cook Risotto Balls

I finished work on PhoneShop this week and it has been quite a hectic month.  What with racing to and from Sutton for work, dealing with the dreadful ongoing cold weather and wind, hen dos and assault courses, I've been too knackered to cook. However, after having a few long lie ins this week, getting my hair cut and sorting out the house, I feel slightly more like a human being again. I'm trying to get back into the swing of cooking and have had varying success. I'm obviously a little rusty.

Sunday night  was OK. I cooked a nice Risotto stuffed pepper with Billy and Andrea. My Risotto was Artichoke, Pea and Parsley and it was tasty. So I saved the remaining risotto with the intention of making Risotto Balls.  I had Risotto Balls at Carluccios a few weeks ago on the hen do and loved them. And, I know they're pretty hip at the moment. They're a good starter or party food and I think they're classy!

Well...It started well. I formed the risotto into balls and covered in breadcrumbs. They looked good. Just one thing though. You need to dip them in egg, and I knew that. However, I didn't have any egg and couldn't be bothered to go to the shop and get some. So, I risked it.

As soon as I went to fry them they started to fall apart in front of me. I ended up with a partially fried Risotto mess. 

DISAAAASTER!!! 

EGG is the key here and I will use it next time!! And, when I do get it right I'll publish the recipe. Also, the moral of this story is to go with your gut instinct and not to ignore it because you can't be bothered to go to the shop!