tarts | Ramblingrose

Welcome to my blog/journal/whatever

This is the real guts of this website. The old website and its archived posts is still available at its old url. Newcomers might like to dip into it every now and then.

Welcome to you all. Amazingly I still don't seem to be running out of ideas on what to write - well occasionally - but I have my writer's block strategies to turn to - see the text on the right. Check this page for the latest posts and if something interests you just click on it. It's easy to leave a comment and I love to read them. And now you can subscribe to the blog and get emailed notifications of new posts. And sorry I just don't understand Facebook.

"We are not here for long. So let's at least make ourselves something good to eat."

Nigel Slater

"I was born hungry, not a cook."

Julia Child

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well"

Virginia Woolf

Writer's block

Every now and then I can't think of a suitable topic and so I have devised a few strategies to get around this.

Lucky dip

The first strategy I devised is to go to one of my three cook book bookshelves, close my eyes and pick a book. Close my eyes again and pick a page. It's really quite an enlightening method of getting over writer's block.

'A word from'

My second strategy is to devote a post to the thoughts of one of my favourite cooks. Hopefully it will introduce them to you

Or

I shall choose a picture I have come across and extemporise on that.

A second kind of lucky dip

I have been thinking about first recipes in cook books - so I shall choose a book not quite randomly and then look at the first recipe for inspiration.

Comments I love reading your comments. Just add a name - any name - it needn't be yours, add an email, ditto, type in your comment and hit the Comment button. Done. Wix sends me an email to tell me what you said, so I can respond if needed. Mostly I just read and enjoy. If you would like to subscribe to this blog and get notifications of new posts then click here. It's free - just a way of knowing what I wrote about today.

enjoy

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A recipe years in the making

"pushing the boundaries of Italian cuisine, to highlight the power food, drink and travel has on memory" Rob Hobart/Peroni Nastro Azzurro I started out today researching piña colada inspired desserts - it was a topic in my Ideas list. Somehow or other during those rambles around a couple of Google pages, I came across this Cherry and strawberry crostata with black sesame praline a dish that Ixta Belfrage had presented in her Substack newsletter, telling us that it was a re

3 days ago

Beetroot mezze - well small things?

"For me, a mezze dish has to be completely self-contained - fully flavoured and ready to go without needing anything else to make sense." Yotam Ottolenghi Ok - this is not really a small thing. It's Beetroot and red onion tarte tatin by Elena Silcock on the BBC Good Food website and I'm in the process of making it - or something like it now. Why? Well it's our last local book group meeting tonight, for which we all bring a plate. I'm hosting, and my particular challeng

4 days ago

A kataifi template or two

"a bit like shredded wheat, only 10 times tastier" Yotam Ottolenghi Today's Guardian Feast newsletter featured this Kataifi pie with feta. tomatoes and warm oregano honey from Alice Zaslavsky. I was a bit taken by it, thinking that this might be the next thing I will make for a vegetarian. I mean it looks wonderful, has all the trendy things like the drizzled honey thing, pistachios and feta and all things I like inside - tomatoes, cheese, onions. And no chilli. But se

Nov 28

Some party time recipes

I've spent the morning, no - most of yesterday afternoon as well, making marmalade from a gift of home-grown mandarins, from friends, and a whole lot of lemons that I had in the fridge - 12 assorted jars seen here being the result. It's very satisfying when you get to this point, although there's always the worry it won't set, although this time I think I marginally worry about the opposite - too set. Anyway it's left me feeling lazy, so I thought I would just provide a few

Nov 17

Tomato and corn pies (and tarts)

"The problem more often than not is a basic one: tomatoes are very wet and tart crusts need to stay fairly dry" Deb Perelman/Smitten Kitchen I needed something that wasn't going to take long because I had already used up half of the day on reading a book group book and trying to speak Italian in my Italian class. Very depressing. So I decided I would pick a recipe - and then just ramble - and this was it - Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen's Tomato and corn pie I'm not exactl

Nov 11

Homity pie

" quiche mistranslated by a rugged, carb-addicted farmhand. " Jimi Famerewa/The Guardian In this week's Guardian Feast Newsletter, appeared this - to my potato freak eyes - a glorious concoction. It turns out it was Marmite and leek homity pie from a guy called Jimi Famurewa who had been messing with (the marmite) a supposedly much-loved British pie of potatoes, leeks and cheese. But I had never heard of it, so my interest was piqued - maybe that was just a marketing plo

Nov 8

A lot of fuss - but maybe worth it

"as I'm a pastry cook at heart, I've been making all sorts of herb-laden tarts, including this lovely tomato one. It's very simple." ...

Aug 21

Nuggets

" nugget - a small piece or lump, especially of gold in its natural state" or "something small but valuable or excellent" Cambridge...

Aug 5

Fusion or confusion? - two dinners

"a twisted kind of sense" Jay Rayner This is last night's dinner - simply called Fried beef kerala from my other The Food of ... series...

Jul 27

Deep dish pizza

After the first slice you are full, and you should be. You’ve eaten roughly three pounds of food that is baked on top of a crispy,...

Jul 2

Filo tarts

"I think of filo pastry as edible wrapping paper. Something in which to hide fragile fillings, such as feta cheese and thyme leaves,...

Jun 7

Granules

"granule - a small piece like a grain of something" Cambridge English Dictionary "a small particle; especially : one of numerous...

May 12

Black bottom oatmeal pie

"Women judge a pie by its crust, men by its filling." Sue Hubbell/The New Yorker To be honest I'm on the verge of abandoning this post,...

Apr 4

Nigel's leeks

"The leek is the onion's refined sister, brought here by the Romans, for the times you want the latter's silken texture but less of its...

Mar 4

Wisps

"a small thin or twisted bunch, piece, or amount of something." Oxford Languages "something frail, slight, or fleeting" Merriam-Webster...

Feb 18

A disagreement with Nigel

"Don't put peas in a quiche. They may go nicely with a ham or crab filling, but they make the custard fall apart. Not to mention the...

Jan 15

Sundries

"various items not important enough to be mentioned individually." Oxford Languages Christmas approaches and begins to dominate, so life...

Dec 21, 2024

A dessert problem - vegan

First problem - what picture to choose to attract you to read? I shall be mostly talking about vegan desserts and the difficulties...

Nov 12, 2024

A new pastry trick

"This is a revelation and one for which I will be forever grateful!" Creative Cooking in the Time of the Corona This is a lucky dip post...

Sep 9, 2024

Nubbins

"something (such as an ear of corn) that is small for its kind, stunted, undeveloped, or imperfect; a small usually projecting part or...

Aug 23, 2024

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RAMBLINGS

daily musings on food