Here’s another simple concoction.

This Peach and Apple Tart is so simple I’m not even going to write a full recipe.

First off, see what you have in the cupboard. As well as a block of puff pastry we had some frozen cooking apple and a big jar of peaches in brandy. But you could use almost any fruit (or roast(?) veg if you want a savoury version).

By now you know how to make a pastry case and blind bake it. If not, see this BBC Food video; it works for shortcrust and puff pastry. I prefer to use bought puff pastry – as I did in this case – but I will make shortcrust (see here). I don’t worry about my results looking as pristine as in the video – this is neither a restaurant nor a competition!

When I’d got my blind-baked pastry case, I put a layer of apple in the bottom and topped it with the peach halves. There was some of the light syrup left from the peaches, so I drizzled a couple of teaspoons of this on the apple in the gaps between the peaches. I finished off with a few fragments of walnut and glazed the edges of the pastry with some more of the syrup.

This was then baked for about 30 minutes, covered with foil for the last 15 minutes to stop the pastry over browning. When removed from the oven I immediately glazed the peaches and pastry again with the syrup, and left it too cool before removing from the tin.

Had I had any I would have used either glacé cherries or candied peel instead of the walnuts. But the idea here is to use what you happen to have – and if necessary be able to rustle something up quickly.

Here’s another experiment from last weekend. And one which turned out as brilliantly as I had hoped.

Superior Cheese Scones

Makes about 12 small or 6 large
Prep Time: about 15 minutes
Cooking Time: about 25 minutes

Ingredients

280g Self-Raising Flour
50g Butter
150g Cheddar Cheese, grated; plus a bit extra for topping
160ml Milk
1 tsp Baking Powder (yes as well as the SR flour)
Pinch or two of Salt (not too much as the cheese is salty)
1 tbsp fresh ground Black Pepper
2 tbsp Tomato Paste
1 tbsp Garlic Paste
1 Egg, beaten (for glazing)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200/fan 180/gas 5, and line a baking tray with parchment.
2. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl, with the salt.
3. Add the butter and rub in to combine to breadcrumb consistency.
4. Add the cheese and black pepper and mix thoroughly.
5. Add the tomato paste and garlic paste, followed by the milk a little at a time, to get a soft, pliable but not sticky dough. Go carefully with the milk as you may not need it all; or you may need a splash more.
6. On a floured surface roll out the dough to about 1″ (2.5cm) thick.
7. Use a pastry cutter to cut out circles and place them on the baking sheet, being sure to leave a gap between each one.
   Carefully reform any trimmings as they’ll likely make 1 or 2 more scones.
8. Brush the scones with the egg, and top with a sprinkle of cheese.
9. Bake for about 25 minutes, until risen and golden.
10. Allow to cool on a wire rack (if they last that long!).

Notes

1. When cut the scones should be light and moist; and they’ll be a golden orange colour from the tomato.
2. Enjoy them with butter, or cheese, or … <well your choice>.
3. We used Applewood cheese, which came through really well and gave the scones a lovely slightly smoked flavour, with a subtle background of tomato and garlic.
4. If you double up the mixture, you’ll still only need one egg.
5. I might try this with some olives instead of the tomato and garlic.

We love asparagus. But we don’t like having things flown halfway round the world if avoidable. So we normally only have British asparagus when it’s in season from April to June. And anyway British asparagus is far superior in terms of flavour, although it needs to be used as fresh as possible. Here are three tips.

Size. Don’t be afraid to buy thin asparagus spears – often called sprue. They’re going to be more tender, and often better flavoured, than the more ubiquitous tree trunks.

Trimming. You need to remove the bottom part of the asparagus spear as it will be relatively woody. Don’t use a knife and guess where to cut. Hold the spear at the bottom and about two-thirds of the way up and bend it sharply towards you. The bottom quarter or third will break off naturally leaving the most luscious top to eat. If you’re making vegetable stock, throw the woody base of the spears in that; otherwise compost them.

Cooking. This is a tip I recently spotted in a food magazine. So you’re cooking a pasta dish and want asparagus to go in it. The easiest way to cook the asparagus is to cut into 2-3cm lengths and add it to the cooking pasta about 2 minutes before the pasta is done. Then when the pasta is cooked you can spoon pasta and asparagus straight into the sauce (along with that all important spoonful of pasta water).

Last week we had a surplus of small, soft, tomatoes and a couple of older peppers. So I used them with some onion and garlic to make what amounted to vegetable jam, only without any added sugar. It is dead easy.

Quarter any normal size tomatoes, and skin them if you can be bothered. Chop the pepper into 2cm pieces. Sweat a chopped onion and some garlic (as much as you like) in a tablespoon of olive oil until going translucent. Add the tomatoes and pepper. (You could add any other veg, like courgette, fennel, aubergine. I’d avoid mushrooms as they’ll make the mixture a less appetising dark colour.) Season with fresh ground black pepper, add some chopped herbs and half a glass of cooking brandy. Leave to simmer gently until the tomatoes are breaking down and everything is reducing – probably about 30 minutes. When cooked, allow to cool before putting it in the fridge.

This will keep 2-3 days in the fridge; or you could eat it hot, like ratatouille.

I used ours to make a tart. Drain any excess liquid from the tomato mix. Put the mix in a blind-baked tart case and dot with dollops of Boursin cheese (or any cheese of your choice). Ours made a 20cm square flan tin and used just over half a Boursin. Bake for 20-30 minutes in an oven at about 200°C until golden; cover with foil if necessary as the Boursin tends to blacken easily. The tart is best enjoyed warm or cold, with some green salad and a glass of light white wine.

Yep, I reckon that over the last 15 or so years I’ve written at least 80 posts about my exploits in the kitchen. From now on I intend to number them, as they should include hints, tips and the like beyond just straight recipes. As an example here is one of the recent experiments.

Lamb’s Kidneys with Linguini.

This was a further incarnation of my infinitely variable (see for instance here and here). I’m not going to give you the full method; you know how to cook my pasta recipes by now (if not, see the links above)!

On this occasion I used a handful of lamb’s kidneys, cut into 5-10mm slices, and added cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and some asparagus (cut into 2-3cm pieces). It was the usual method, although you’ll need to ensure the kidneys go early in the pan and are well on the way to being cooked through before adding the veg.

It went down well with a bottle of robust red wine.