Passion fruit curd, lime, meringue & raspberry tart

So there I was with two jars of passion fruit curd in the fridge, both of them literally screaming into my gluttonous belly "eat me, eat me"! I had to do something with them to prevent me tucking in with a spoon so I decided to make a few little tarts. People are always a little bit nervous when it comes to pastry but honestly the key is to handle it as little as possible and to make sure everything is chilled. These ingredients make enough for four mini tart cases but feel free to double the quantities as this pastry will happily sit in your freezer and await it's baking adventure turn.

For the pastry cases;

125g plain flour
60g butter
50g icing sugar
Pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
1tbsp milk

Cream the butter, icing sugar and salt together.
Rub in the flour and egg yolk until it looks like breadcrumbs. I always use a fork at this stage.
Add in the milk gradually to form a dough.
Place dough onto a piece of clingfilm and roll into a sausage shape. Allow it to rest in the fridge for at least a hour.

For the meringue;

I always use Nigella's meringue recipe as it has yet to fail me. Meringue is possibly one of my favourite things to both make and eat and this one is foolproof!

2 egg whites
150g caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
1/2 tsp white wine vinegar

Whisk the egg whites in a spotlessly clean bowl until soft peaks form.
Add in the sugar a spoonful at a time and whisk till glossy.
Add in the cornflour and vinegar and give it one final whisk.
Spoon into piping bag.

Remove pastry from the fridge and cut into thin slivers. Place these into the tart cases and press down gently to join the edges, similar to a jigsaw puzzle. So much easier to do this than to roll it out. Bake blind in a 180 degree preheated oven for fifteen minutes or until golden at the edges.
Allow to cool.

Once the cases are cooled fill them up with passion fruit curd, use as little or as much as you like.
Pipe little noisettes of the meringue mixture onto half of the tart and place under grill until lightly browned. Keep a close eye as they can burn very quickly.
Take some fresh raspberries and add to one of the tart quarters and with the remaining section add some grated lime zest.
So there you have it, a very impressive looking tart that is super simple to achieve. The tang of the passion fruit curd, the sweetness of the meringue, the sharpness of the raspberries and the citrus flavour of the lime combine to make this a great taste sensation. I need to cook a dessert for Chef Derry Clarke in my upcoming Tesco Fresh Factor competition, do you think he would be impressed by this?

Passion Fruit Curd

I spotted some passion fruits last weekend on special offer and as per usual I couldn't resist a bargain. They are the kind of fruit that I am never sure what to do with, I have used them previously in smoothies and on top of pavlovas but I wanted to try something different this time. I love curd. I love it in tarts, on ice cream, on toast, in fact throw it on anything and I will eat it, so what better way to use up four neglected looking passion fruits in the bowl.

You will need;

125g butter
1/4 cup of caster sugar
2 tbsp of fresh lemon juice
4 passion fruit, entire contents
5 medium eggs

Melt the butter and sugar in a bowl that has been placed over some simmering water.
Lightly mix the eggs, lemon juice and the passion fruit and add to melted mixture.
Stir continuously over a low heat until mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon. This should take around fifteen minutes.
Set aside to cool before placing in sterilised jars.
So there you have it, sunshine on a day when the sun isn't necessarily shining!

One enchanted evening......#paulaskitchensupper

I was really looking forward to writing this blogpost about my supper party. I envisioned lovely pictures of my gorgeously laid table, happy diners and plates of delicious food. However it didn't quite turn out like that.........

Picture the scene. Paula running around the kitchen. Pork slowing roasting in the oven. Six hungry children. Figs awaiting a drizzle of local honey & walnuts. Twelve guests arriving imminently. Wine cooling in ice buckets. Candles lit. Peas to be puréed. Rubbish placed in bin. Palm cut with can. Blood. Mild panic. More panic. Major panic. Deep gash. Accident & emergency. Triage. Stitches. Tetanus. Drama. Should have been a disaster but not so!

I arrived home to find my supper club running very smoothly. Course one prepared and served up by my great pals and sister. Course two was at the cusp of being ready, just required a few instructions by me to get it right! I jest of course everything was well under control. Huge thanks to @tracyobr for fantastic mashing & purée skills, @fishahoy1 for exquisite fresh scallops, home smoked salmon and amazing help in the kitchen, @helenamoloney for top class pork pulling and @geoffboyle for taking charge of the vegetarian courses, that beetroot tarte tatin was fun to make!

Plenty of cocktails, laughs, good food and fantastic company made for a great night. I want to share with you the recipe for the slow roast pork shoulder as everyone raved about it. A pork shoulder is a really cheap cut of meat that with some tender loving care transforms into mouthwatering tender pork. I used Jamie Oliver's jerk pork recipe which added fantastic flavour! Smoky, zingy, fresh, citrusy and spicy all at once! I amended the recipe slightly but the original is to be found in Jamie's Great Britain.

You will need;

A pork shoulder with the bone in
Sea salt & black pepper
Pinch of rosemary and thyme
1 whole nutmeg
Rapeseed oil
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Preheat your oven as high as it will go.
Score the skin of the pork.
Rub in the salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme and grate over the nutmeg. Add a good drizzle of olive oil and massage into the cracks and all over the pork.
Place the pork into a large roasting tin, skin side up and pour the apple cider vinegar and enough water to cover the bottom of the roasting tin.
Put into the hot oven for thirty minutes then turn the heat down to 130 degrees.

I roasted the joint for ten hours covering with a double layer of foil half way through the cooking time.
Pull the crackling off, get rid of any fatty bits underneath and use two forks to pull the pork apart.

For the jerk salsa you will need;

2 red chillies
1 bunch of spring onions
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of ground cloves
1/2 tsp of all spice
Juice of three limes
Thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled
2 cloves of garlic
1-2 tbsp of honey
Rapeseed oil
Large bunch of coriander

Whizz all of the above ingredients until you have a salsa consistency.
Pour over the pulled pork and toss through.

I served this on a bed of creamy mashed root vegetables with some wilted spinach. Wish I had some pictures to share with you but unfortunately I don't, you will have to trust me when I say it was really good!

So the last of the visitors have just gone and so brings to the end a great weekend minus the "can incident"! Thanks to all for great fun, much merriment and plenty of jokes at my expense! There will have to be a repeat performance, going to treat last night as a bad rehearsal!

Thanks for taking the time to read!

Smoked trout, lemon & pea tagliatelle!

In a rare occurrence I am home alone today. I was really looking forward to having the place to myself, bringing the dog for a walk, making a nice lunch and putting my feet up. As I stood at the door waving goodbye at four of my favourite people in the world I felt a little pang and even more so when my little princess started blowing kisses at me! Talk about tugging at my heart strings. It's made me realise how lucky I am to have the opportunity to spend my days raising these little people, nothing can compare to sticky hands wrapped around my neck!

Well enough waffling on and onto my lunch! I wanted something quick & easy with not much cleaning up after and this is it! Excuse the vagueness of quantities but it's a throw together recipe!

You will need;

100g goatsbridge smoked trout, in strips
1/2 cup of creme fraiche
1 lemon, zest & juice
1 chilli, finely sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
Handful of frozen peas
Olive oil
Tagliatelle

Put the tagliatelle on to cook.
Heat the olive oil in a large pan and add the chilli and garlic. Fry gently.
Add the creme fraiche and stir well.
Add in the lemon zest and frozen peas.
Drain the pasta, reserving a little of the water. Add pasta with the reserved water to the creme fraiche mixture.
Take off the heat and stir in the smoked trout and the lemon juice.
Voila, lunch is served in less than ten minutes! That's my type of fast food.

Bon Appètit

Bon Appètit translates as "hope you enjoy your meal" and enjoy I most certainly did! Bon Appètit in the picturesque village of Malahide has been on my radar for a while so I was delighted to be included in a bloggers dinner last night. Housed in a beautiful Georgian terrace property there are a number of options to choose from, an exciting tapas menu on the ground floor, an extensive brasserie menu with a separate 24 page bovine menu downstairs and for those special occasions a Michelin starred dining room upstairs! We were lucky enough to have dishes from all of the menus and each dish was incredible. We started off in the tapas bar where we were treated to succulent prawns pil pil, manchego cheese croquettes and risotto balls. I love the tapas style of eating, little titbits & tastes of various dishes. I definitely want to go back for an evening there with my girlfriends and try some more of the lovely dishes on the menu. We then moved downstairs to the brasserie where we were seated at a large round table which for parties of more than four should be compulsory! Delicious white & brown breads were served and I am hoping to get the recipe for the brown as it was so delicious. It was hard to choose what to eat as everything sounded so enticing but eventually I settled on salted cod scotch egg and sole on the bone, both were excellent. I had never had a scotch egg before and always imagined that it was a hard boiled egg encased but not so, fantastic vibrant runny yellow yolk, the stuff of dreams really! In between these courses we had a dish from the Michelin menu which consisted of suckling pig confit and scallop and also a selection from the bovine menu, truly amazing wagyu beef, bone marrow fritters, pickled vegetable tempura and little kilner jars filled with mashed potato, onion gravy and topped with crispy beef. My mouth is watering even thinking about it.

I finished my meal with bitter lemon slice, thyme shortbread and citrus curds,some fantastic petit fours and a delicious cup of coffee. My only regret is not slipping a few of the petit fours into my handbag!

I am really looking forward to bringing my family back for Sunday lunch soon, for each adult a child eats for free which is amazing value. I already know what I am going to order. I was also delighted to see a baby changing table in the toilets which is something that can be overlooked in a lot of restaurants.

Huge thanks to Oliver & Graham who made us feel really welcome. There was a great buzz around the whole building which for a wet and rainy Wednesday evening was great to see!

Bon Appètit,
St James Terrace,
Malahide,
Co. Dublin.

Telephone: (01) 8450314

Here is a selection of photos, unfortunately daylight was gone so justice wasn't fully done but hopefully my words have conveyed more!

Spanish Stew!

"What's for dinner Mam?" is without a shadow of a doubt the most uttered sentence in our house. I might not have even poured the milk on their cereal or even have the faintest crispness on the rashers when the words leave their lips! It's hard to keep everyone pleased but one thing I know for sure is that anything of a stew or curry texture will be devoured.
Today the boys are at a summer camp and for certain, despite having a big lunch they will be famished when they come home. It's a bit of a dreary oul day in Offaly so I thought I would liven things up with a nice spicy stew. Quicker to make than a traditional Irish stew and something to add to the dinner repertoire! .

You will need;

5 boneless pork chops
225g chorizo, sliced
400g can chopped tomatoes
400g can plum tomatoes
400g can cannellini beans
1tsp smoked paprika
2 fat cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 a large onion, chopped

Fry off the pork chops until slightly browned.
Add the chorizo, onion, garlic & smoked paprika and fry until onions have softened.
Add the two cans of tomatoes and the drained cannellini beans.
Simmer for an hour.
Serve with some plain cous cous or whatever takes your fancy!

I can confirm after two* servings that it is truly delicious!

*may have been three

It's so easy to get stuck in a rut when you are feeding a family. Would love to hear what your families favourite dinner is. Thanks for reading!

Alexis Tweet Up!

Twitter is a funny old thing with the power to get things rolling from a simple 140 character or less tweet! At this stage ye all know I love food and adore eating out. Last night we (the twitterati) had the opportunity to have a fantastic meal in Alexis, Dun Laoghaire. If you haven't already been try and get there, gorgeous dining space and a great buzz makes for a very enjoyable evening. Our dining experience was very special as none of us knew what we would be getting on our plates although that choice was obviously in incredibly safe hands! Will let the pictures speak for themselves.....

Thank you to Patrick & Alan for making us so welcome. I enjoyed every morsel of food and the accompanying wines went down very well......

So who is on for the next tweet up? Guaranteed to be good fun!