Lottie's Cream Cheese and pesto twisters

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been busy with exams and other things.

This weekend my brother had a homework assignment to create a solar system. He decided to use pastry to do it. However, he only used half the pastry. My mum said I could use the pastry in anyway I wanted. I decided I would make cheese twisters, like the ones they sell in farmers' markets. However, my idea was not just to make the obvious cheddar cheese ones. I wanted to make them less crumbly, more chewy kind of texture. That is why I did not use puff pastry, but, shortcrust pastry instead. I also decided that I would use the pesto ad cream cheese as the flavour. my idea worked just as I wanted it to and here is the recipe:

Lottie's Cream cheese and Pesto Twisters:(makes approximately 24)

ingredients:

• 100g of cream cheese
• 2tbsp's of fresh pesto
• 320g of puff pastry
• flour for dusting
• 1 egg beaten

Method:

1.  Heat the oven to 180-200 gas mark 6
2. Tip the cream cheese and pesto into a bowl and mix well
3. Roll out the pastry onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a rectangle shape. (if you can't do not worry, but when measuring later it will make life easier)
4. Cut your rolled out pastry in half
5. On one half spread the pesto and cream cheese mix as evenly as possible
6. Place the other half of the pastry on top like a sandwich
7. Cut this into strips about 1cm thick
8.twist the pastry's carefully as they rip if you pull them
9. place them on the tray and egg wash them with a beaten egg
10. cook them for 20-25 minutes until risen.

If you have any recipe idea made from leftover food then I would love to hear them so please comment below.
Lottie X

Newsflash

On the 8th of march in Telegraph magazine I have written an piece about a food course I experienced a few weeks ago. It was an enjoyable experience for me and I would love it if you read it

Thanks
Lottie X

Borough Market

Over the Easter holidays, I had the enjoyable experience of going to work with my dad for a unique work experience. Lucky for me, my dad works in the heart of London next to the famous London Bridge. His fortunate location also happens to be directly in front of the Borough Market. 

Borough market is full of freshly grown produce all freshly made and grown by farmers. Some of the produce include:

• Vegetables
• Fruit 
• Truffles
• Mulled wine
• Pork and a variety of butchering
• And of course my favourite: CHEESE!

Lucky for me a great deal of the stalls offer samples of almost anything you could ever imagine. from sticky Camembert to crumbling biscuits and even the chance to examine and smell a £190 pound truffle. 

However for me the highlight of all of this was the mouth watering array of cheeses they had to offer. As a foodie, one of my favourite foods is cheese. From soft Brie to a hard mature cheddar, I always enjoy a sample or bite of this unique product. Fortunately for me, the market is full of stalls selling different kinds of cheese from all over the UK.  

Overall I really enjoyed my experience exploring the market tasting so many different foods from so many parts of the country.

If you recommend any other food centred places I would love to hear them so that I can blog about them so please comment below.
Thanks
Lottie x

community fridges

Recently I have been watching a very enjoyable program. Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday night feast. Although the series is mainly about recipes and cooking, I have also been very interested in a part of the program called Food-Fight. This part of the program looks into some of the biggest wastage's of food in the UK and how they are caused. There are some unusual ideas like eating old cows instead of new-born calves and some obvious ones about eating a bigger variety of fish. However in one of the episodes there was something that caught my mind. The idea of a community fridge.

 As I said in my Lottie’s kitchen post, I love food charities and how they help the world. However A community fridge is purely just for your area or county and they are easy for you to make a difference to the less fortunate people in your neighbourhood. A community fridge is quite obviously a fridge or several of them place in your area or county. The fridge is there only for your sake and the sake of others around you. All you need to do is place some of your leftover food that hasn’t gone bad yet in there. A few unripe avocados, a two day old loaf of bread. It is as simple as that. And if you need food just go to the fridge and take something out for yourself. Everyone wins. You are getting rid of leftovers and sometimes even get food in return.

This is especially beneficial for an estate or block of council flats as it means that the chances of them running out of food will rapidly decrease. It will also majorly decrease the amount of food being wasted in the country which is at the moment about £13 billion pounds worth. With all this leftover wastage it could feed the 1.4 million starving children in Africa.

So overall with this brilliant idea we could:

·       - Stop food wastage

·        -Change the amount of hunger people in UK must face

And many more. 

This is how you can help: Suggest to your local MP or park workers to add this idea into the community. You will be surprised how many people benefit from it. Including you.

If you can think of any other ideas like this, I would love to know so please comment below.

Lottie X

the photo above is a community fridge in Southend where the idea has already been put to the test by Jamie and Jimmy. 

Kale and egg salad

on a Monday evening I always enjoy a particularly light meal. After mixing and matching different original ideas I came up with my own recipe for a salad, that is healthy, nutritious and full of flavour, protein and something your taste-buds would really appreciate. the good thing about this recipe is you can make it your own. this is the recipe for my Kale and Egg salad:

ingredients:

• An Egg
• A handful of kale
• Some cheese of our choice (preferable orange cheese)
• Any spices or dressing for the kale (such as salt or paprika)

For the egg: the egg can be cooked for your liking though I recommend not doing it scrambled as that would make it too flavoursome for the kale and the cheese . My personal favourite is a soft poached egg therefore I will show you the recipe for that

The kale: the kale like the egg can be cooked to your liking, it can be crispy or boiled. however as my favourite way to eat it is just cooked in the microwave then that is what I will explain to you.

Method:

1. To make the poached egg you need to: 
Add a small dash of vinegar to a pan of steadily simmering water.
Crack the eggs into a clear bowl or cup.
Create a gentle whirlpool in the water to help the egg white wrap around the yolk.
Slowly tip the egg into the water, white first. Leave to cook for three minutes.
Remove with a  spoon, cutting off any wispy edges using the edge of the spoon.
Drain onto kitchen paper – nobody wants egg like poaching water making their toast soggy or dampening their salad.

2. In order to cook the kale you then need to:

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.

 Add the garlic(optional) and cook until soft.

 Raise heat to high, and toss to combine. 

Cover and cook for 5 minutes. 

Remove cover and continue to cook, 

Keep stirring until all the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add vinegar.(seasonings are optional)

3. Now you have your cooked Kale and freshly boiled egg you need to put the whole dish together. 

To do this you need to dry the kale and put it on your serving plate

You then need to grate some cheese of your liking onto the Kale. I recommend doing a mild and soft cheese such as mozzarella or red Leicester.   

finally, place your egg on top of the dish and serve.

You can tell if your egg is a good egg by seeing if when you cut it open it has a golden yellow yolk and starts to drip all over the kale. 

So there you have it. A healthy, simple, quick and easy recipe for a small dinner whenever you feel like it.

If you have any ideas for a healthy, simple and quick meal then I would love to hear then so please feel free to comment in the box below 

Thanks

Lottie X