I am usually very
enthusiastic about going out for dinner. Yesterday, however, the weather was
against us and the non-stop pouring rain and crazy wind made the alternative of
staying home and planning a cooking session quite attractive.
Since I spend most of
my time thinking about food and perusing cooking blogs in search of inspiring
recipes, I had plenty of inspiration for dinner.
For starters, I
prepared goat cheese and caramelised onions tartlets. I have a confession to make
though; I didn’t bake the puff pastry myself. It is one of these challenges I have
on my baking to-do list but it seems quite time-consuming and I would rather
save it for a quiet afternoon when I don’t have to think about presenting my
fiancé with a three-course meal. I have to say as well that you can find
fantastic store-bought ready-rolled pastries in Ireland (they actually taste
better, richer and more buttery than the ones in France, as much as it kills me
to admit it).
So, here is how I
proceeded. After cutting two small rectangular shapes in the pastry and poking
it with a fork, I brushed it with a mix of egg yolk and milk to give it that
nice golden colour. I then popped it in the pre-heated oven (180 fan oven) for
about 10 minutes just to make sure it wouldn’t get the dreaded soggy bottom and
layered it with caramelised onions and slices of goat cheese. It would go back
in the oven at the last minute long enough for the cheese to start melting and
gently colour on the top and then be served with cracked black pepper and a
drizzle of thick balsamic vinegar. Yum!! The combination of the buttery and
flaky puff pastry with the rich fondant cheese is such a simple but gratifying
treat and I never get tired of the contrast between the sweetness of the onions
and the saltiness of the balsamic.
A pasta dish followed
these easy starters. I had in the fridge some porcini and truffle ravioli that
looked incredible and were going to run out of date. I decided to serve them
with scattered pulled ham hock, a drizzle of truffle oil to enhance the
flavours of the ravioli and of course, some freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
This was the perfect option for a last-minute dinner and yet such refined and
enticing flavours. I am a sucker for truffles; I simply adore their potent and
intriguing taste and have been using a lot of my truffle oil recently, with
pasta, oven cooked Parmesan chips, Parma ham and wild mushrooms risotto etc. I
believe it can instantly transform an ordinary dish into something fabulous. I
apologise for the absence of pictures but the pasta smelled so ravishingly good
and looked so tantalising that we both had clean plates in the blink of an eye
and before I could remember to take any photos: whoops…
Finally, for dessert,
I had prepared the day before a vanilla cheesecake with a twist. I am not the
biggest fan of cheesecakes. I tend to find the oven baked ones quite heavy and
stodgy and the no-bake alternatives always seem to require a discouragingly
long list of ingredients and a very very long refrigeration time and yet
somehow never really set completely. Still, I love challenges and trying new
things, plus my fiancé kept begging me for a cheesecake so after reading about
a hundred different recipes on Pinterest (I officially am a Pinterest addict,
of the baking/cooking section anyway) I mixed three of them hoping for the best
and decided to create my dream version of a cheesecake: crushed shortbreads
base instead of the digestive one, vanilla filling made of cream cheese, heavy
whipped cream with some diluted gelatine (just for safety), and liquid vanilla
as well as roughly chopped shortbread biscuits and a lot of chocolate chips
because everything tastes better with chocolate! The result was surprisingly
good. The cheesecake was perfectly set (the combination of letting it to set
overnight in the fridge and adding gelatine to the cream cheese mix definitely
worked for me); it literally slipped out of my spring form pan. I had just
placed a sheet of baking paper at the bottom, letting large bands of paper come
out of the mould in order to easily transfer the cake to a plate and it did the
trick, none of that messy business I was dreading! I have to say I really enjoyed
the contrast of textures between the smooth creamy filling, the crunchy
chocolate chips and the fondant shortbreads bits. This experience convinced me
and I will be trying other cheesecake recipes, after all, the combinations are
infinite and you can use any of your favourite snacks, biscuits, chocolate bars
and even sweets if you have as a sweet tooth as I do!
