Thank you, at last

It’s been a long time in the coming but at last I had a thank you dinner for A, my friend in work who helped me originally set up Berrysimple. He was also the first person to leave a comment on the web site after I moved over to Blogger, back in early March. So in honour of his comment I decided to make the same Paella dish again from that post. I was never happy with the picture I took that time. It just didn’t do the dish any justice. This Paella is a perfect dish for A and his girlfriend Y, who are both vegetarians (or more correctly piscatarians because they eat fish).

I also wanted to thank Y for loaning me her bright pink simonelli-chan bike last month. I was doing a corporate Triathlon and I only had a big clunky mountain bike that I ride into work every day. I borrowed the road bike for a few weeks to get used to it and after the triathlon I didn’t want to give it back.



For dessert I decided to make Limoncello Meringue Pies, again from Delicious Magazine. When Mum was here she bought me four individual loose bottom tart tins. Apparently every cook needs to have these in their kitchen. One of the key ingredients in these tarts is Limoncello, obviously, and I could only buy a very big bottle of it so I have a feeling I will be making a lot of lemon dishes in the future.

In the magazine the recipe was for eight tarts and since I was only making four, I just halved everything. But I had problems with the pastry, the lemon filling and the meringue topping. I didn’t seem to have enough at each stage to make them stretch to four tarts. When I checked this morning the recipe says use 8cm tins and mine were 12cm. I won’t make that mistake again.

Limoncello meringue pies

Serves 8

2 cups (300g0 plain flour
1 tbsp icing sugar
190g chilled unsalted butter, cubbed
4 egg yolks
¼ cup (35g) cornflour
1/3 cup (80ml) lemon juice
¼ cup (60ml) limoncello liqueur
2 egg whites

Process flour, icing sugar, 125g butter and a pinch of salt in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add 1 yolk and 2-3 tbsp iced water and process until mixture comes together in a smooth ball. Enclose in plastic wrap and chill for 30 mins.

Meanwhile, place cornflour in a bowl with 1 cup (250ml) water and stir until smooth. Place in a pan with lemon juice and ½ cup (110g) caster sugar, and stir over low heat for 7-8 mins until thickened. Remove from heat and add remaining yolks, one at a time, combining well with a wooden spoon. Stir in the limoncello and remaining 65g butter, then cover surface with baking paper (to prevent a skin from forming) and cool.

Lightly grease eight 8cm- diameter loose bottomed tart pans. Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface until 3mm thick. Line each pan with pastry, trim edges to fit and chill for 10 mins.

Preheat oven to 180C. Using electric beaters, beat eggwhites until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining sugar and beat until glossy and firm. Pipe or spoon onto tarts and bake for 5-6 mins until top is golden. Cool slightly before serving