I know, it's a bit cheesy...

After a couple of gloriously sunny days, the heavens opened yesterday and my backyard looked like an aquarium: loads of plants, all standing in 3 feet of water... I just needed to add the goldfish...

The temperature has dropped slightly and, with every drop of rain, the 'closeness' slowly dissipated. And so did my lethargy. When the temperature is too high I don't fancy eating or cooking/baking. As a matter of fact, I don't feel like doing much of anything until the temperature drops below 20ºC. And so, I had a crazy run of baking: wholemeal bread with rye flakes, rye flake buns, cheesy rye flake buns, chocolate chip cookies, mini fruit and walnut scones, fresh garlic bread... I think I might have gone a bit overboard...

As England was playing last night (gotta pretend that I am keeping up with the World Cup...) I was looking for a nice snack as the match started at 11 p.m. The night before we had 'kroketten' as Spain was trying to hold back The Netherlands (what a marvelous score, 1-5). So, for yesterday, I wanted something typically British but also something typically me. A cheese board is too simple, although tasty, and pasties are too heavy for this type of weather. What is a girl to do???

Eventually my brain started spouting out all kinds of typically British fare: crumpets (really??? as a snack???), Broccoli and Stilton soup (it's not that cold), Welsh Rarebit (not quite the kind of snack I had in mind). That was cheese twice... I love cheese, so does hubby. I might be onto something here... The UK has some lovely cheeses but 'plain and simple' cheddar does remain one of my favourites when it comes to snacks. Don't get me wrong, baked camembert with raw vegetables and boiled new potatoes to 'dip in' is good. So are breaded brie bites with jalapeño relish. But, sometimes, nothing beats 

Ooey-gooey baked cheddar cheese dip

Ingredients:

• 1 punnet grape or cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 340 gram cream cheese, I used plain but you could choose a flavoured version)
• 225 gram mozzarella, torn into little pieces or freshly grated
• 225 gram extra mature cheddar, grated
• 2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan cheese, plus extra for garnish
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped or grated
• 4 tablespoons freshly chopped basil
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped thyme leaves
• ½ tablespoon freshly chopped oregano leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried oregano)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC
2. Line a baking sheet with tin foil and spread the tomatoes in a single layer on the sheet
3. Sprinkle the olive oil, salt and pepper over the tomatoes and place in the oven to roast for 20-25 minutes
• the skins on the tomatoes will start to split
4. Whilst the tomatoes are roasting, mix the cream cheese with 200 grams of the cheddar and mozzarella and the parmesan
5. Add the herbs, garlic and the roasted tomatoes and mix well
6. Transfer the cheese mixture into an ovenproof dish and sprinkle the remaining cheddar and mozzarella on top
7. Bake the cheese for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden and bubbling

Serve with a little sprinkling of parmesan and crusty bread, fresh veggies, crackers, boiled new (or baby) potatoes, or whatever you fancy.

Perhaps I should have gone for cheddar and Wensleydale with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, or English mustard and ale: the Italians beat the Brits 1-2... Oops, my bad... Still, I can only tell you to...

Enjoy

Too good to be true

Every now and then you come across a recipe that is so good that you just cannot believe it. It is everything a recipe should be: easy to follow, easily available ingredients, perfect for when living on a budget and the result is so tasty that you just keep going back for more. The other day, I found just such a recipe.

I had bought two tins of apricots but hadn't really thought about what to do with them. In principle, all they are good for is serving them with some yoghurt but, for some reason, it made hubby think of upside-down cake. If I am honest, it is not my favourite cake and I was... hesitant... to use them in that way. But it did make me think about baked apricots, which is something I like to do with fresh apricots that aren't quite ripe enough to eat out of the hand. I just didn't have any almond paste... Or vanilla... What I did have was loads of cream... And walnuts...

And so I went looking for a recipe that could combine these three random ingredients: apricots, walnuts and cream. I didn't quite find what I was looking for so I 'adapted' an old French recipe for Apricot Clafoutis. Traditionally, a Clafoutis is a baked French dessert of black cherries (stones and all), arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter. Over the years, many different varieties of fruit have been used but the best fruit to use is 'stone' fruits such as cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, and so on. Technically, when you use a different variety of fruit the dish is not a Clafoutis but a Flaugnarde. But that just doesn't sound as nice...

Remember how I said that a good recipe is not only tasty but also contains easily available ingredients and can be made living on a budget? This entire dessert costs £1.50 for four to six people. And yes, I do realise that some of the ingredients, such as the vanilla, are not necessarily things that you would call 'cheap' but ...a little goes a long way; in most recipes you will only use about a teaspoon. Another option is to buy some fresh vanilla pods, use the seeds for one dish but stick the pods themselves into a jar of sugar: vanilla flavoured sugar that will last as long as you keep the pods in the jar, even if you add more sugar... This way you can use the sugar every time a recipe asks for vanilla...

But, like I said, I didn't have vanilla, nor did I have the desire to go out in the rain to get some. Instead, I decided to crush up some walnuts that I had lying around and use those to flavour the custard.

Apricot Clafoutis

Ingredients:

• 250 gram fresh, ripe, apricots (halved and pitted)  or 1 tin of apricot halves, drained
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 25 gram plain flour, sifted
• 50 gram caster sugar or 50 gram vanilla sugar (then don't use vanilla extract)
• 150 millilitre double cream
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract or 50 gram vanilla sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C and lightly grease a shallow, ovenproof, dish with a little butter. The dish should be large enough to fit the apricots in a single layer
2. Place the apricots cut-side down in a single layer in the dish (there should be a little space between them)
3. In a bowl, whisk the egg, egg yolk and the flour together
4. Whisk in the caster sugar (or vanilla sugar)
5. Add the cream (and vanilla extract if using) and whisk thoroughly to form a smooth custard
6. Pour the custard over the apricots so the tops of a few are just visible
7. Place the dish on the top shelf in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until puffed up and golden brown in places
8. Remove the dish from the oven and leave to cool for at least 15 minutes

Dust the cooled down Clafoutis with a little icing sugar and serve with a little lightly whipped cream or creme fraiche.

If you don't have apricots (or don't like them) try one of the options below:

• (black) Cherries and Kirsch
• Toss the (pitted) cherries with 3 tablespoons of Kirsch and 2 tablespoons of sugar and leave for 30 minutes. Strain the cherries and whisk the Kirsch in with the eggs. Place the cherries into a buttered dish and pour over the custard (you still want to see some of the cherries). Bake immediately for 30-35 minutes
• Plum and marzipan (or almond paste)
• Halve the plums and remove the stones. Place a dot of marzipan or almond paste into the hollow of each plum before placing them cut-side down into the dish. Pour over the custard and bake for 30-35 minutes
• I like to add little dots of almond paste on top of the custard, before it goes into the oven
• Plum and (plum) Brandy or Kirsch
• Halve the plums and remove the stones. Place the plums cut-side up in a single layer in a buttered and sugared dish, pour over the batter and sprinkle with 3 tablespoons of Brandy or Kirsch. Bake immediately for 30-35 minutes
• Fruit and ...
• If you don't want to use vanilla (or like me don't have any), try flavouring the custard with some nuts that are crushed very finely or some spices or ...
• Apricots and walnuts or almonds
• Cherries and macadamia nuts or hazelnuts
• Plums and pecans or almonds
• Cherries and cocoa powder and/or cinnamon
• Plums and ginger

You know what they say:

Bon Appetit

Or

Enjoy