Late summer TART

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Somewhere around three years ago I got myself a camera. I had no freaking idea about photography. All I knew was that this small black box that was going to turn up in the post had lots of weird buttons and somehow I had to figure it out and learn how to take decent photos. You see, I’m quite a sentimental gal, the first thing I’d take if my house was on fire would be the box filled with the pictures of all my favourite moments I collected over the years. (By the way, I do keep this box next to the bed in case of the fire!) So now that I lived so far away from my family home I wanted to make sure these precious moments we spent together were nicely captured.  That was my mission.

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Little did I know at the time that I was just about to start one of the most emotional journeys that was going to change my entire life.  Photography has totally shifted the way I see the world. Totally! It makes me jump out of bed in the morning, it excites me, make me curious to learn new things and scares the sh** out of me at the same time. It challenges and pushes me out of my comfort zone, makes me do things I’m so frightened of and turns me into the person I’ve always wanted to become. It gives me freedom and makes me feel alive.

But the best part of this journey, without a doubt, are all the amazing human beings I connected with along the way. People who make this planet such a unique place. Who prove that creativity has no limits. Whose work makes my heart beat faster. Who make me fall in love with the world every single day.
So here is a delicious tart for you guys!For making this journey so special! For inspiring me!For all your support! For being here! Thank youuuuuuuuuuu!

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The base of this tart is one of my favourite recipes to make. It’s easy, effortless and can me used in lots of different ways.You can turn it into these cups,  use it for a cheesecake base,crumble on the top of the porridge, not to mention it makes amazing cookies that can be then dipped in dark chocolate!

INGREDIENTS:

for the base

100g wholegrain flour
100g desiccated coconut
100g unsalted butter, melted
60g coconut sugar or 40g unrefined cane sugar

for the filling

300ml double cream(cold) + 2-4 tablespoons
250g mascarpone cheese
icing sugar/maple syrup or any of your favourite sweetener to taste

top with:

fig slices, blueberries, blackberries
cinnamon
maple syrup

PREPARATION:

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Mix the ingredients for the base and line the bottom of the 35cmx12cm tart tin using your fingertips.

Bake for around 20  minutes. The tart will ‚swell’ a little bit so take it out and press the pastry back to it’s shape with the back of the spoon and put back it the oven for extra 5 minutes.

Take it out the oven and let it cool down.

In the meantime, whip the cream until it’s thick and creamy, add mascarpone cream and icing sugar to taste (you can also leave it unsweetened or add couple of spoonfuls maple syrup or any of your favourite sweetener). Add extra double cream in case it’s to thick and might feel difficult to spread.

Spread the mascarpone mixture over the base and decorate with fruit. Pour over the maple syrup and sprinkle with cinnamon just before serving.

Enjoy xxx

 

Lemon TART

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“What can one person do?” whizzed pass me, displayed on the side of the local bus, next to the picture of smiling Nelson Mandela. I have heard these words many times before but they suddenly seemed more powerful now than ever before.

I have been struggling to write anything lately.A craftsmanship of turning thoughts into words is something I always admired. It has never really been a skill I’ve owned  but it became even harder to tell stories about food while what is happening around the world makes me so sad.

How can you talk about baking while at the same time you dread to put the morning news on and while the recent events make you feel so terribly helpless?

So what can one person do when life gives you more and more lemons and the world is turning into a sour place?

Make a lemon tart.And pass a slice to everyone around you. One person, in fact, can’t fix the world overnight, but what one person can do is to spread more kindness and maybe change another person’s life.And who knows, maybe that person will spread the love even further and changes someone else’s life too. Good deeds are contagious you know and I believe (although it might seem a little naive) we’ll wake up in a better place one day, filled with tolerance, a place where things like your gender, colour of your skin, what language you speak, who you love and who you are won’t matter.Because they simply DON’T.This is the world I’m going to fight for.

Let’s be the change that we want to see in the world. That’s what we all can do.

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LEMON TART

Ingredients for the pastry:

  • 250 g plain flour
  • 125 g butter, cold
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tablespoons icing sugar
  • vanilla beans, removed from 1 vanilla pot (optional)
  • 1-2 tablespoons of cold water (or more necessary)

Sift the flour, add the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the dough will resemble coarse crumbles. Add the egg yolk, sugar, vanilla beans, water  and quickly knead. If it feels too dry, add some more water, if it’s too sticky, add a little bit more flour. Form the dough into a ball, flatten into a disc using palm of your hand (it will roll out easier), wrap in cling film and cool in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 160C

Removing the dough from the fridge roll it out and line a 24 cm round tray. Prick the pastry with the fork and place in the fridge for additional 30 minutes. After that time take it out the fridge, place baking paper on the top of the pastry followed by baking beans to keep it in place while in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Then remove the paper and bake an additional 15 minutes until lightly browned.

Ingredients for the lemon filling:

  • 5 eggs
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 1-2 tablespoons honey (optional)
  • 150 ml double cream
  • 100 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • grated zest of 2 lemons

Place all the ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well until smooth.

Transfer the lemon filling onto the pastry. Bake 30-35 minutes until the top of the tart has set. Leave to cool, serve at room temperature or chilled.

Serve with icing sugar, fruit or ice cream or even better – all three 🙂

Spread the love,

Bea
xxx

 

Bea’s favourite pasta with tons of green pesto!

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The past few weeks were like a whirlwind in my usually calm life.

Me and my husband went to London for two amazing events,Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year and UK Blog awards. Both the same week (!). We met fantastic people, made great memories, drank too much prosecco and danced on Trafalgar Square. OK. Only I danced as Darek watched my crazy moves and couldn’t stop laughing! No. it wasn’t my typical shy bop with moving from one leg to another, slowly swinging my arms on the sides. It was the kind of wild dance I do in the kitchen when no one is looking! Probably even wilder than I thought, because the police(!!!) went up to my husband asking him who I was!!! Can you really get arrested for expressing your happiness in public? Let’s just hope there is no video floating around the internet, otherwise I’ll have to leave the country!

But don’t you just love London? Trafalgar Square. Tuesday night. DJ and a dancing group of happy people. (Pretty obvious who the dancing queen was!) This city has a vibe!

It was brilliant and I’m over the moon that my photograph of Polish pierogi came second in Food Bloggers Category in Pin Lady Food Photographer of the Year and that Bea’s cookbook was Highly Commended at the UK BLOG AWARDS.

…..However the hangover wasn’t so exciting at all!!!…..

Talking about whirlwind…there is something else too….we’ve had a puppy!!!

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She is the sweetest and most charming thing in the whole world…..that turns into tornado within a split second.
She loves gardening. I dig the plants in, she digs them out and madly wags her tail like it it’s the best game ever.
She loves to play hide and seek. She hides socks everywhere abound the house (I found a few in the garden too!) and you have to look for them, which might not be so funny if you are in a rush and you end up leaving the house wearing not matching pair.
Ohhh and she is really into food too! Literally. Her mouth lands in the food, the second you leave the plate unattended. Not to mention that she drank all the beer from the slug traps!!! (Have you ever heard of those traps? Us neither! But we trying every internet hack to get rid of them before they eat the whole garden! Any tips welcome!)

And really, she makes us roll on the floor with laugher and I just love the way she expresses her happiness with the whole body. (Just like me when I was dancing on Trafalgar Square!)

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Right, let’s talk about food a little bit. It’s a food blog at the end of the day, not a blog about cute dogs nor about my dancing skills 😉

So here is my favourite comfort food recipe. Pasta with tons of green pesto! Hell yeah! I’m totally addicted to it!

When it comes to pesto I am a masochist. I get out the sharpest knife and chop…. Chop…. Chop. …Chop…. It’s like a therapy. Plus it’s much cheaper J Of course you can use food processor too. No judgment! I use it from time to time too 😉

I’ve tried all different ingredients in this dish, whatever I had in the fridge but I always go back to those few, simple ones I love here the most: courgettes, olives, macadamia and pine nuts and super juicy yellow tomatoes. It tastes A M A Z I N G !

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RECIPE:

Serves 4 big portions:

For basil pesto:

1 large bunch of basil
1 clove of garlic
40g pine nuts
30g Parmesan, finely grated
freshly ground black pepper
a small pinch of freshly grounded sea salt or any of your favourite salt
50-60ml of good quality extra virgin olive oil

Chop basil and pine nuts finely and place them in a medium bowl along with parmesan. Bash the garlic with the wide, blunt part of the knife and then chop it finely and add to the rest of the ingredients. Add black pepper, salt and olive oil. Mix with a spoon.

When I use a food processor I prefer the texture of the pesto much more when I place the basil, garlic, pine nuts and grated Parmesan in a bowl first. Whizz the ingredients until fine and then I add the rest of the ingredients : grated Parmesan, salt, pepper and olive oil and mix them all together with a spoon.

For the dish:

350g fresh pasta
4 courgettes
200g green olives
200g  yellow tomatoes
100g macadamia nuts
a handful or two of pine nuts
good quality olive oil
a handful of grated parmesan
fresh basil leaves

Boil the pasta in slightly salted water with a spoonful of olive oil. Drain, pour some cold water through it and place back in the pan. Add the pesto and mix it in well so it covers the whole pasta.

Pour some oil in a pan, heat it up and add sliced courgettes, cook until soft.( I like mine with a little bit of crunch). Add them to the pasta and heat it up slightly. Take it off the heat again and add the rest of the ingredient: olives, halved tomatoes, macadamia and pine nuts. Sprinkle with some grated Parmesan and fresh basil leaves and ENJOY!!!

Bea xxx