Le Cake

Here’s a wonderful savoury ‘apero’ snack often referred to in France as ‘Le Cake’. During our “Draw it, paint it, cook it, eat it” weekend this proved to be a huge success particularly when consumed with a sparkling kir!

Ingredients

200g plain flour
150g grated Comté cheese (Cheddar works fine too)
100g melted butter
150g Lardons (smoked or unsmoked)
50g chopped pitted black olives
3 large eggs
7g sachet of quick action dry yeast
A few sprigs of thyme & rosemary, stripped & chopped
Salt & pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of milk

Butter & line a 2lb loaf tin & preheat your oven to 200°c /gas mark 6.

Mix the cheese, flour, yeast, lardons, olives, herbs all into the melted butter. Then add the whisked eggs & milk plus a little salt & pepper.

Mix well and pour into the prepared tin. Bake in the oven for 10 mins at 200° then turn down to 180° and cook for a further 20 minutes or until risen and browned.

Don’t worry if there is a little bubbling butter on the top at this stage because it should be absorbed during cooling.

Leave in the tin on a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes, then turn out and eat warm.

It's also very tasty cold and keeps for a few days.

Autumnal Favourite - Pumpkin risotto

It’s been a while since I added anything to the blog as we’ve been rather busy with guests throughout the last few months.

I realised that it’s nearly a year since I started this blog and we seem to have come full circle as you can see from this picture. As it’s pumpkin time again I’ve just completed this work using watercolour and pastel and it reminded us that one of our favourite recipes for this time of year is Pumpkin risotto. If you fancy trying it this is the recipe I use.

Ingredients for risotto for 4 people

500g pumpkin/squash

1 large garlic clove

4 sprigs of rosemary

Salt & pepper to taste

(optional – chilli flakes or finely chopped fresh chilli)

3 tablespoons of olive oil

50g of butter

1 red onion peeled & chopped finely

250g of risotto rice

1 glass dry white wine

1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock

150g of grated parmesan

Method

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees

Take the seeds out of the centre of the pumpkin and cut into large chunks, leaving the skin on.

Brush a baking tray with a little olive oil and place the pieces of pumpkin skin side down in the tray.

Sprinkle the pumpkin pieces with salt, pepper, chopped garlic and rosemary sprigs then drizzle about half of the olive oil over them before covering with foil and baking until soft (about 45 minutes). You can also give your pumpkin a bit more kick by adding chilli flakes or fresh chopped chilli at this stage.

Once the pumpkin has cooked allow it to cool and gently remove the skin. Place to one side with any juice that is left in the pan.

Take a heavy bottomed frying pan and gently fry the onion in a mixture of the butter and remaining olive oil.

When the onion is soft (10-15 minutes) add the rice and stir for about a minute off the heat until it is mixed and the rice coated with the oil/butter.

Placing the pan back on the heat, add the stock a few ladlefuls at a time and simmer for about 15 minutes or so until the rice has absorbed nearly all the liquid. This should give you a nice creamy texture.

Add the dry white wine and the grated parmesan, stirring gently. Finally carefully add the pumpkin pieces with any juices and serve immediately.