Apple and Blueberry Cobbler

I wonder if other people enjoy reading cookbooks as much as I do? I don’t always make everything that I see, but I can spend hours paging through each one. And sometimes, I even try to recreate the recipe (or worse… I adapt it based on my fridge/store cupboard ingredients).

Which is exactly how I managed to make this apple and blueberry cobbler, which is now a firm favourite in our household and has been repeated numerous times using different fruit!

The original recipe is a Peach Cobbler from Jamie Oliver which I had seen in Jamie’s America cookbook, but I changed the fruit portion and kept the cobbler recipe (almost) the same. It is a SURE winner and a definite “repeat” in our household.

Apple and Blueberry Cobbler

4 apples, peeled/cored & diced
1 cup of blueberries
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
juice from 1 lemon

100g self-raising flour
50g caster sugar
100g butter, chilled & cut into small cubes
pinch of salt

• Place the apples, cinnamon, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan and cook over a medium heat until the apples are soft.
• Remove from heat and place into an ovenproof dish along with the fresh blueberries
• To make the cobbler topping, place the flour/sugar/butter/salt into a food processor.
• Pulse until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs
• Add 2 Tablespoons of water & pulse again – the mixture will form a dough now
• Spoon this mixture over the fruit
• Bake at 180C for 20minutes

super simple Tomato Salad

When Jamie Oliver first became the super star of the kitchen in the late 90’s and early 00’s… I vaguely remember him preparing a salad of tomatoes on his *naked chef* cooking show.

yes – just a salad of tomatoes.

no lettuce

no cucumber

no olives… no feta… no onions….

nothing but tomatoes…

Now, don’t get me wrong – I LOVE tomatoes, but I was somewhat sceptical… until I actually made the salad.

It is a WINNER! Delicious and everything that tomatoes represent. Sun-kissed blushed tastes with a good glug (a “Jamie” word) of olive oil (good olive oil, mind you) and of course a decent seasoning of salt and some herbs.

The secret is that you need to mix a variety of tomatoes together – different shapes, colours and sizes…and the salting process! Don’t skimp on the salt – because this is what brings out the flavours!!

Tomato Salad

Variety of tomatoes

Salt

Olive oil

oregano

• slice and dice your tomatoes to approximately the same size
• 
• Season with salt and some herbs
• and pour a good glug of olive oil over everything
• SERVE

Could it get any simpler?

This is definitely going to be a recipe that will be repeated over and over again – for all the braai’s (aka BBQ’s) that I am planning for our new garden/terrace this summer 🙂

Cheesecake Heaven… Jamie style

I have mentioned Aunt Phil in a previous post… as she is well-remembered (for me) for 2 main reasons… her love of bubbles (oh bless her soul – how I appreciate this) and her amazing cheesecakes… in fact – a friend of her son’s once actually wrote an *ode to a cheesecake* based on the savouring of one of hers!! SERIOUSLY!

So as I mentioned… there was always an open bottle of bubbly in one of the double fridge doors (amongst a few unopened ones) and some cheesecake – baked; banana and caramel; strawberry; chocolate swirl, etc etc….

Strangely enough – I was never a big cheesecake fan until I met her! Which got me experimenting in the kitchen with a few cheesecake recipes… which lead me to believe that my favourite type to make (and eat) is the Baked Cheesecake version….

I have a few recipes now… some require being baked in a *water bath* (aka Bain-marie) while others are as easy peasy as the one below… no additional elbow grease is required… and even though I found this recipe originally in the *Cook with Jamie: My guide to making you a better cook*

and was called * Bloomin’ easy vanilla cheesecake* …I adapted it… left out the lemon and orange zest (it is beautiful enough without this added flavour… TRUST ME)… and I don’t make the cherry compote like he does (not because I am lazy… but because I think this cheesecake recipe is flavoursome without it! But you can make the choice… my adaption… or Jamie’s original which I might add is on the menu at Fifteen Trattoria… but hey… we all know who is queen of the kitchen, eh???)

Jamie Oliver Cheesecake

If it’s raining in brussels – whip up some Carbonara and Pea Pasta for a little ray of sunshine

It’s bizarre, but I truly believe that it rains for about 80% of the time in Brussels (I dare you to prove me wrong!!!) and sometimes the grey  and wet atmosphere requires a bit of a *pick me up* (and for once, I am not referring to La Piola or it’s Tiramisu :))…

Sometimes you need to survey the array of cookbooks (or mountain, in my case)….  and find something that is tasty, quick and most of all fulfilling… and you know what… tonight is PERFECT for this (it is also an excuse for me to rifle through all my cookbooks (again) and find something that says ” Max, EAT ME!” (as if this doesn’t happen throughout the day… pah)… and I found it!

Jamie Oliver (again)… but then you can’t actually blame me, because I own each and every one of his cookbooks! I think he uses too much oil and I was head over heels for him when he first started as the naked chef, while not so much now… BUT, looking through his recipes, I get idea’s… I find recipes (especially from his first few publications) that are heart warming, stomach filling and more importantly non-pretentious!! And the Farfalle with Carbonara and Spring Pea’s in Jamies Dinners is just one of these recipes!

 I am a lazy git (probably the reason I adore Nigella Lawson)… but I believe in working smarter and NOT harder! And cutting frozen bacon slices with a pair of scissors to me is FAR easier than trying to cut it with a knife when they are defrosted…. and having frozen peas in the freezer (an ABSOLUTE most for any household… perfect in stews, pies, pasta’s and risotto’s) – makes this recipe even more of a Godsend than I already thougth it was!!!

and in all Fairness… this particular cookbook (Jamie’s Dinners) really delivers in terms of recipes that appeal (well to me anyway) AND on taste… and not mention on easy-ness.

yes, yes… I claim to hold my own little domestic Goddess cr0wn, but in all reality, I really am human and I need to get the quick tips and easy techniques under control before I can create feasts (this is probably the reason why I adapt some recipes to become simpler… or in my own words *maxi-fied*)

and here it is….

thanks to the Jamie website 🙂

Carbonara & Spring Pea Pasta (ala Jamie Oliver)

(he says it serves 4 ppl…)

455g pasta (Jamie says Farfalle)

1 egg

100ml double cream (but i use normal cream)

salt and pepper

12 rasher of streaky bacon (or pancetta) roughly sliced

3 handfuls of frozen peas (hallelujah for convenience and frozen veggies, eh?)

2 springs of fresh mint

2 handfuls (or more) of grated Parmesan cheese

1. Boil (salted) water in a pot (for the pasta) and when it is bubbling nicely, add the pasta
2. In the meantime, fry your bacon (pancetta)… i like mine nice and crispy… mmmm

3. 

   frying the bacon and cooking the pea's.... hee hee.. easy peasy!

4. whisk egg and milk together with salt and pepper
5. when pasta is *nearly* cooked, add the pea’s (this is why i love this recipe… it saves on washing up!!) and cook for a minute or two
6. drain, saving a little of the cooking water
7. add pasta & pea’s to bacon and stir in the eggy/cream mixture and this is a dish best eaten straight from the pot!
   

   the finished product.... yum