Sunday, May 15, 2022

Milanese Anchovy Sauce.

This is Aldo's (from masterchef) recipe for  anchovie sauce, use it with pasta, asparagas, fish, anything really.

10 cloves of garlic
500 ml milk
15g anchovies
3 tbs capers
olive oil
black pepper

In a small saucepan add milk and garlic. On low heat cook the garlic making sure that the milk does notl burn, stirring occasionally every 3 minutes. The all cooking of the garlic should take more then 20 minutes ( the garlic must be soft to touch)
In a mortar and pestle add anchovies and capers with a drizzle of olive oil and start to pound on the ingredients until achieving a pesto consistency if required a bit more of olive oil add a bit at time.
Once the garlic is cooked add it to the anchovies pesto and keep pounding until becomes a thick sauce if required add a bit more of olive oil to smooth the sauce. Season with pepper.

Sunday, May 8, 2022

Mary Berry’s lemon and lime cheesecake

 I needed a dessert for a dinner party, one that was easy, relatively quick and could be made the day before as I did not want to be fussing around on the day.  This was perfect!

I have changed the recipe slightly, taking out the sugar in the crust, instead using choc coated biscuits, and increasing the lime a little..  But - you can really make it with any biscuits and you dont need to use limes, you can just make it with lemons if you like.  I don't worry about taking the crust up the side either, just do a bit at the bottom - works either way.  I make this in a spring for pan with a bit of parchment paper on the bottom to make it easy to remove from the pan.

Also, I just use the bung it in method for the filling, bung everything into a bowl and mix with a hand held beater, it works perfectly.  As for decorating the toop, I don't use the Mary Berry method, I just cover the top with whipped cream and some lime zest if I feel fancy.  You do need the whipped cream though, it tastes better.




Ingredients:

  • 10 choc coated digestive biscuits, crushed
  • 50g  butter, melted

  • 150ml double cream
  • 397g can full-fat condensed milk
  • 175g  full-fat cream cheese (room temperature)
  • grated zest and juice of 2 small lemons
  • grated zest and juice of 2 limes

  • 150ml (5fl oz) double or whipping cream, and 1 lime sliced thinly to decorate

Method:

  • To make the crust: place the crushed biscuits, together with the butter and sugar, in a medium bowl and stir until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed.

  • Turn the crust mixture out into a 20cm (8in) loose-bottomed tart tin and press firmly and evenly over the bottom (and up the sides if you like) using the back of a metal spoon. Chill for 30 minutes until set.

  • To make the filling: place the double cream, condensed milk, and cream cheese in a bowl with the lemon and lime zests. Mix thoroughly. Using a balloon whisk, gradually whisk in the lemon and lime juices and continue whisking until the mixture thickens.

  • Pour the lemon and lime filling into the crumb crust and spread it evenly. Cover and chill overnight.

  • Up to 6 hours before serving, whip the cream, as shown below, until it just holds its shape. Decorate the top of the cheesecake with swirls of whipped cream and slices of lime, then return to the fridg