Ingredients
5 tomatoes
red onion
red pepper
salt
pepper
chili (optional!)
fresh coriander/coriander seeds
Skin the tomatoes: by putting them in a bowl of boiling water for about 5 mins - put a few spikes in them with a knife, this helps the skins to come away easily.
Take the tomatoes out and peel the skin off (quite satisfying!) and put them in a blender, along with the red onion chopped in quarters, and the red pepper, optional chilli, some salt and pepper and coriander. If you are using coriander seeds, crush these with a pestle and mortar - if you don't have one, get one because they are so useful (and look great on your worksurface). In the meantime, you can crush the seeds with the side of a bread knife.
Whiz all these ingredients in a blender, and voila - fresh salsa! Served best with tortilla chips - which by the way you can make yourself and are really good: Fresh Tortilla Chips: buy some flour tortillas ( the ones you use for fajitas), and cut them into triangles-fry in sunflower oil!
On the topic of salsa, I love to salsa dance: a great place to take salsa classes in London is Bar Salsa, at Cambridge Circus (Charing Cross Road) http://www.bar-salsa.com/ or for after work in the city: The Cuban, just near Moorgate Tube http://www.thecuban.co.uk/.
Tip of the Day: How to roll out perfect pastry
My weekends spent at home with my family always have an emphasis on gastronomic delights, and yesterday my sister was making a tarte aux pommes, and taught me such a clever way to roll out pastry perfectly and put it in the tin without it breaking, I felt compelled to share this.
When you roll the pastry out (ideal for shortcrust pastry: pastry described as 'short' has a high fat content, and falls apart easily), put a piece of clingfilm on the work surface where you are rolling it out, followed by putting the pastry on top, followed by another piece of clingfilm on top of the pastry. Then proceed to roll the pastry out - see the photo above - this is foolproof even for the novice (a novice my sister is not, though, I hasten to add!)
And now for a cake that I baked the other day, a new one from Cake Days, the latest book from The Hummingbird Bakery. This is not tricky to make at all - and so delicious and moist: the cake has a honey syrup that is poured over it when it comes out of the oven - just like a Lemon Drizzle Cake.
Honey and Walnut Loaf
190g unsalted butter
190g plain flour
190g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
25 g plain yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp honey
60g chopped walnuts
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C, and grease the loaf tin with butter and dust with flour.
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Break in the eggs one at a time, whisking well.
In a separate bowl sift the flour, baking powder and salt, and add these dry ingredients to the better in two stages, and mix until just incorporated. Mix in the yoghurt. vanilla essence and 1 tbsp of the honey, and then stir in the walnuts. Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake for 50-60 minutes (I found it took 60 minutes). You know it's done when you put a knife in and it comes out clean.
Whilst the cake is cooking - make the syrup: put the other 1tbsp of the honey in a small saucepan with 50ml of water and bring to the boil, and allow to reduce by half. I'd advise you watch this carefully - it all happens quickly and its easy to burn it away! When the cake comes out the oven, out the knife into the top of the cake a few times to make some holes for the syrup to go into - and pour the syrup over the cake. Allow it to cool in the tin and then turn it out onto a wire rack - or just eat it warm! Enjoy!
And finally, here is a photo of the home made pizza I ate for dinner tonight, baked in the pizza oven in the garden, made by my Dad!
