Random Recipe Challenge ~ Basil, Mascarpone and Ricotta Tart

We had friends around for dinner last night, one is a veggie, the other is a 'freedom' eater (vegetarian although he eats meat as and when he chooses, which usually tends to strikearound about the time we are at the German Christmas Market and he's had a few gluhweins!) and then there are the fussy eating habits of Hubby and I.  No pressure when planning the menu there then!

Fearing this challenge wasn't fraught with enough danger already I also decided to up the ante by taking part in Dom's  Random Recipe Challenge, and find a recipe for our main meal from one of my neglected and seldom appreciated cookbooks.  Dom's idea is to randomly selected one of your books and then randomly select a recipe from the index which you then need to make, if you've made it before then you should turn to the recipe on the next page and make that instead. 

Forgive me Dom but I cheated!  While the book was randomly selected, it was actually shortlisted from a whole host of books that I've had in my collection but either haven't used at all or I've used quite sparingly.  Then given the constraints of my dinner guests I selected a recipe from the index that was not only vegetarian but would also suit the carnivores.  But I figure the point of the challenge is to encourage everyone to use books that are often neglected and to try recipes that maybe wouldn't be considered normally, in which case I didn't cheat at all ... at least that's my excuse and I am sticking to it ;0)

Basil, Mascarpone and Ricotta Tart

1 pre-baked 26cm tart shell (another cheat!  I used store bought shortcrust to make the tart shell as I was short on time)
Filling
250g mascarpone
350g creme fraiche
370g ricotta
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
3 big handfuls of basil leaves (or 3-4 tbsp pesto if stuck for fresh basil)
80g freshly grated parmesan

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Make the tart shell!

Then pile all the ingredients for the filling in to a food processor and whiz them until they're thoroughly mixed together, stopping to scrape down the sides once as you go.  Don't over mix or the texture can turn grainy.  Taste to see how strong the basil is and add more if required.

Pour the filling into the prepared tart shell and bake for 40-50 mins, or until the filling is wobbly set and a bit puffed.  Remove the tart from the oven and leave it to settle in the tin for a few mins.

When you are ready to serve, carefully remove the tart from the tin and slide it onto a serving plate.  Its best served warm rather than hot.

Serves 6-8
Belinda Jeffery's Tried and True Recipes

I confess to being slightly disappointed with this tart.  It was a bit luck luster really ... but now I've typed the recipe out I realise that I forgot to put the parmesan in!  Doh!  It did create some lively conversation around the dinner table though once I had stated that it seemed to be missing something.  The freedom eater thought maybe blue cheese would do the trick , I wondered if maybe parmesan would add the missing sparkle (20:20 hindsight!) ... possibly the addition of a very finely chopped semi dried tomato or two?  At lunch time I even tried it with a dollop of caramelised onion chutney, which was delicious but totally overpowered the basil in the tart.  Well ... now I know what was missing ... we'll just keep that one between us ;0)

Lemonade Scones - CBC 3

Ever have one of those days in the kitchen where everything you attempt turns into a complete mess? That's how my attempts to make scones always end up ... so you can imagine my horror when my brother-in-law requested some scones and jam for afternoon tea yesterday. Eek!

Tomorrow is my Mother-In-Laws birthday. She got given some bad news by the hospital last week when her test results from before Christmas finally got delivered so the whole family pulled out all the stops to help her celebrate yesterday. My brother-in-law flew up from London for the weekend and all the grand kids and their girlfriends turned up for a surprise lunch and she was given a present of a trip to Dublin at Easter, she has always wanted to visit Dublin but never managed to get there. She had a good day ;0)

After lunch we all went back to Sis-In-Laws house for dessert / afternoon tea. I was mortified when she told everyone that I was 'pastry chef' for the day. The scones were lopsided and didn't look at all scone like, the brownies burnt (while I was faffing about with the rotten scones!) and the birthday cake dried up! Grrrrr. At least there was still some jam in the fridge and the Passionfruit Curd didn't curdle!

I thought I would try a 'foolproof' recipe for the scones and kill two birds with the one stone, the recipe came from Belinda Jeffery cook book Hubby gave me for Christmas and has now officially become my Cook Book Challenge number 3. Don't get me wrong, the scones tasted just fine, everyone seemed to like them and the boys didn't leave very many spare out of two batches.

Lemonade Scones

375g SR flour

160g stone ground wholemeal SR flour

75g caster sugar

1/2 tsp salt

100g dried currants or natural sultanas

250ml cream

250ml lemonade

Plain flour or milk, for topping

Jam or curd and clotted cream to serve

Preheat your oven to 200C. Line a baking tray with two layers of baking paper and set it aside.

Put both of the flours, the sugar and salt into a large bowl and whisk them with a balloon whisk so they're really well mixed together. Tip in the currants and toss them about so they're well coated in the flour. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the cream and lemonade. Stir everything together with a wooden spoon until it gets a bit too awkward and sticky to stir, then forget about the spoon and use your hands to bring the dough together. Although you have to make sure the dough is mixed, try not to overdo this as scones are better for a light touch (some cooks are such show offs!)

Tip the dough out onto a chopping board and just bring it together. Put it out into a 5cm thick rectangle - no less if you want good high scones. Dip a scone cutter or tumbler into some flour then stamp out the scones, dipping the cutter into the flour between each one.

Sit the scones fairly closely together on the prepared tray. You'll have some scraps of dough left, so gently knead them together, pat them out, and cut out more scones from this. When they're all done, either dust the tops lightly with flour or brush them with a little milk.

Bake for 20 mins or until the scones are golden. When the scones are ready, cool them briefly on a wire rack then bundle them up in a basket lined with a clean tea towel.

Makes about 18

Taken from Belinda Jeffery's 'Mix and Bake'

I found the dough to be very wet and difficult to work with. I made the first batch with sultanas and then decided to make a second batch without, the second time I dumped quite bit more flour into the mix but the end result was still very sticky and uncooperative. I didn't have any wholemeal SR flour to hand so I made both batches with ordinary SR flour. Not sure if that contributed to the difficulties or not. I will have to try this recipe again I guess ... but it will be in a little while once my self esteem has recovered lol.