For the very basics of the recipe I used Greg Wallace’s peach and almond tart on the BBC Good Food website as I wanted something simple that used a frangipane filling.  Usually I add the alcohol in before baking, but I figured this time I’d make a tequila glaze, which was inspired a little by a dessert my housemate had which used tequila over sorbet.

Apple tartlets with tequila glaze

Pastry
88g plain flour
43g  unsalted butter
1/2tbsp caster sugar
1 egg yolk
Filling
50g caster sugar
70g butter
1 egg
70g ground almonds
25g plain flour
apples sliced
Glaze
water
caster sugar
golden tequila

Start with making the pastry; rub in the flour and butter until it looks like breadcrumbs, then mix in the sugar and using the egg yolk and a little water bring it together to make a dough.  Wrap it in cling-film and refrigerate for an hour or so.

Heat the oven to 180c fan, roll out the pastry and cut into four pieces and place inside each of the tarlet tins.  push into the edges and trim of the excess.  Add in baking beans (or dried chickpeas wrapping in greaseproof paper) and bind bake for 10 mins.  Remove the beans, prick the base and bake for another 10 mins.

For the filling; whisk the butter and sugar until you get a paste and beat in the egg, then add the alongs and flour.  Spoon into the pastry cases and arrange the apple slices however you see fit.  Bake for 30-40mins until golden.

For the glaze: using two parts sugar to one part water heat to make a syrup.  Once you’ve go a fairly thick syrup add in a slug of golden tequila and warm through.  Pour the glaze over the tartlets, but try and trying to avoid getting the base of the tartlet soggy.  I did this by using shot glasses – perhaps if I were to serve them as a dinner party I’d fill the shot glass with tequila too!

Sadly I  didn’t get to take these into work, so opinions were all from the house.  The apples really reduced in the baking process so I’d pack them in more than I did and this would have the added benefit of giving it a more apply taste – possibly using cooking apples too.  The pastry didn’t need the 20mins in total, so I’d keep more of an eye on them but it had been so long since I made pastry that I was wary.  The tequila glaze wasn’t too overpowering and was delicious…I wanted to put it over some ice cream after the tartlets were eaten!

I can’t seem to find the recipe online, which is strange as it came from the BBC Good Food magazine and they usually put everything on their website.  Then again I only loosely followed it as I had discounted vegetables to use up in the sauce, a jar of passata instead of chopped tomatoes and switched the milk for soya milk, so I’m not sure there would be much point!

The Montserrat tomato – because it looks like Montserrat!  I love tomatoes and they had soooo many different types and for different purposes that it was wonderful.  I also enjoyed the special ones for rubbing on your bread.

The cheeses – this is one example of a cheese that we saw in the beautiful market just off Las Ramblas (I’m not going to try and spell either the market or the name of the cheese).  As for the name of the cheese you can take a guess based on its shape or you can make use of an online translator, but I’m not putting it on here!

The strawberries! Fresh, ripe and by the crate – they were wonderful and the whole family enjoyed eating them!

The Calcots – or onions – so special they have their own traditions and we went to a feast to celebrate these and to eat them!

The beer – we managed to try several different varieties during our stay!

The paella which was just amazing…

and of course the crema Catalana as we were in Catalonia!

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At lunchtime today, I was wondering what to eat. I bought some peanut butter in Tescos the other day, after a sudden craving. And suddenly, I had a thought. A crazy thought. We had peanut butter. We had jam.

Yes, yes I did. I made my very first Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich, or a PB&J. Hey, if you can’t visit America or live in America, why not bring a classic from the USA to your life?

HOW EXCITING!

Peanut butter on one side, and jam on the other. And BOOM. You’ve got your PB&J.

I’m not really sure what I was expecting, but I’d always thought it was a bit of a weird combination, just as I think having bananas in a sandwich is weird. But I was wrong, so wrong. You get the salty PB mixed in the sweetness of the jam, all in one go. Just because I was wrong about that doesn’t mean I’m about to have a banana sandwich though, just throwing that out there.

It. Was. Epic. I might very well have another one tomorrow.

I can’t believe I’ve actually just written a serious blog post about a sandwich :|

Tonight for dinner I made quesadillas! I’d offered to cook because it’s Mothers Day.

It’s thanks to TGI Fridays that I even know how to make this… good times. I often think about various people (only the nice ones) I worked with over my three years there and wonder how they’re getting on. Some of them are still there, but some of them have moved on, and there’s a couple of people who I would quite like to catch up with but who I’m not likely to see again, sadface.

Anyway, the quesadilla was good – I even made the pico to go with it! This might be the start of an exploratory relationship between me and Mexican food. I can already do fajitas and quesadillas, so I might try something else out at a later date… maybe enchilladas. Plus it’s a good excuse to buy an oversized comedy sombero (frankly I’m shocked I don’t already own one) and drink a lot of margeritas – both totally necessary when cooking Mexican food.

There are undoubtedly a lot of chicken-potato salad variations that have claimed to be the best among the best, so I’ll simply say this is a recipe that has been tried and tested several times over and remains a longtime family favorite. It is pretty simple to make and can be whipped up in a jiffy to make a decent meal (or merienda) for your family or for guests who unexpectedly drop in.

So, here goes:

Ingredients

• 1.5 kilograms of potatoes, boiled, skin on
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and boiled
• 3 stalks celery
• 2 chicken fillet breasts, boiled and shredded
• 2 tbsp pickle relish
• 470 ml Ladies Choice Sandwich Spread
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Optional: Lettuce and  chopped walnuts

Procedure

1. Scrub potatoes thoroughly, or peel first if you prefer. Peel carrots. Boil together for 15-20 minutes until cooked, but not overdone. (I usually halve one potato to allow me to visually check for doneness.)
2. Meanwhile, boil the chicken breast fillets in another pot of water with around 2 teaspoons salt. When done, shred and set aside.
3. Remove leaves from celery stalks.  Peel stalks to remove stringy parts, and slice thinly.
4. Peel potatoes and cut into 1 to 1.5-inch cubes. Cut carrots into smaller-sized cubes than the potatoes.
5. Put potatoes, carrots, celery, and shredded chicken together into a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and freshly cracked pepper.
6. Add pickle relish and sandwich spread and mix carefully (to ensure potatoes and carrots retain their shape) but thoroughly.
7. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
8. Chill, then serve on bed of lettuce. Top with a sprinkle of walnuts, if desired.