i went hunting for lemons only to find that for some reason no one had any… finally found a little store that did and came back with two lemons in my pocket. i like the nice fresh tangy taste of lemons but i am quite the chocolate person… but the lemon meringue pie has always been a favorite!

i found this recipe a little laboursome but easy to do… its a martha day again (i bought this book a decade ago and have since then only stared at all the pictures with greedy sighs, now i am finally baking from the book and getting better at it! yayy!)

you will need:

FOR THE CRUST

1 cup flour (maida will do)

5 tbsps butter (cold)

couple of tbsps water (just put in some ice cubes into half a cup of water)

1 tsp salt (you can skip this if you are using salted butter)

FOR THE FILLING

the grated rind of a large lemon and the juice from it

the yolks from 3 eggs (room temperature)

2-3 tbsps butter

1 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

3 tbsps cornstarch (i used the typical cornflour that you get here)

1 tbsp of cold water to dissolve the cornflour

FOR THE MERINGUE

the whites from the 3 eggs

a pinch of salt 6 tbsps sugar

1. You can make the pie crust ahead of time and put it aside if you like. Mix the salt and flour in a large bowl. Add in the cold pieces of butter and gradually add the iced water to make a dough. Knead the dough well and roll it out into a 9″ pie plate. You can crimp the edges if you like.

2. Refrigerate the pie shell for at least 20 minutes. Then prick the pie shell all over with a fork.

3. now line the pie shell with crumpled parchment and put in some pie weights into it. this prevents the pastry from puffing up inside the oven while it is blind baked. if you dont have fancy shmancy pie weight just put in some chole or ralma or into the pie shell. works just as fine!

4. blind bake the shell for 12 minutes at 190 degrees and then remove the paper and the weights and bake for another 6 minutes.

5. In a bowl mix the grated lemon rind and the juice from it with 1 cup of water. Bring this to a boil. In another bowl mix 3 tbsps of cornflour and 1 tbsp of water. Add the three egg yolks to this. Add the yolks mixture to the lemon and juice mixture, keep stirring on a low flame until it thickens. Keep this aside.

6. Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until peaks form. Add 6 tbsps of sugar and whip for a couple of minutes more.

7. Dollop the lemon mixture onto the pie shell and then the egg white mixture.

8. Pop this into a preheated oven at 190 degrees for about 25 minutes. The egg whites brown a bit, watch this so it does not burn.

this tastes good! the egg whites are almost like whipped cream, and the tart lemon filling is nice and tangy!

Baking bread has been magical. This recipe is simple and its from Martha Day’s Complete Baking.

You will need:

1 and a half cups of maida

1 and a half cups of wheat flour

1/2 cup of toasted white sesame seeds

1/2 cup melted butter

1/4 cup milk

1 cup lukewarm water

2 tsp active dry yeast

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

Mix the flours together in a large bowl. In another clean big bowl, put in the yeast, along with salt and sugar in lukewarm water. Let this rest till it froths for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile toast the sesame seeds and keep it aside.

Put in all the liquid ingredients into the flour, that is the yeast, butter and milk (take care while adding the milk so the dough does not get too sticky). Knead the dough till it comes together and then turn it onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes.

Put the dough into the bowl, smother the bowl and the dough with some oil and cover with a plastic bag and let it rest in a warm place for about 2 hours.

The dough will have doubled at the end of two hours, punch the dough in and knead in 3/4 of the sesame seeds into it.

Take a greased loaf pan or a 9 ” loaf tin. Pinch the dough into 12 to 16 balls and put into the pan.

Let this rest again in a warm place till the dough rises above the pan.

Brush with milk and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top and put into a preheated oven at 190 degress for about 30 minutes!

I first made the pie dough with 2 and 1/4 cups of flour, 2 egg yolks, 5 tbsps of cold salted butter and iced water. I seperated the dough into 2 balls, because this is a two crust pie and it makes it so much easier to roll the dough out later. I let the dough rest in the fridge for about 2 hours, wrapped in cling film.

I then peeled, cored and thinly sliced 1 kilo of apples. Tossed them with 100 gms of castor sugar, 2-3 tbsps of honey, 1 tbsp of cinnamon powder, and 1 tbsp of lemon juice.

I rolled out the pie dough and put it into a 9 inch pie pan, letting the pastry overhang for about half an inch. Put in my apples.

Next I rolled out my other dough ball for the pastry top. Made some decorations with the leftover dough and brushed the top with one beated egg.

Into the oven preheated at 180 degrees for 40 minutes or so… and then brushed the top with more egg and back in the oven at grill mode for another 5 minutes!

Never again am I going to buy these from the store! I am crazy about sun dried tomatoes and can eat them by the bushel.

I made these in my oven and they taste infinitely better than anything that is store bought.

I first cut about a kilo of tomatoes in half and deseeded them and took out some of the flesh, then I let them drip for about 15 minutes on my wire rack.

I put in a big splosh of olive oil into a large bowl, mashed in 5 cloves of garlic and put in big spoonfuls of dried oregano, basil and some salt and pepper and tossed the tomatoes into this coating them well.

Then popped into the oven at about 100 degress on the wire rack for 3 hours.

They get all crinkly and divine. They can be stored in an airtight container with a generous drizzle of olive oil on top.

I have been tossing them into salads, tossing them into my spaghetti with parsley and cherry tomatoes and also into all my sandwiches and they are mouthfuls of squishy, tangy deliciousness!

These were yummy bite sized little babies! I got the recipe from The Purple Foodie. She is brilliant!

This makes for a good hearty lunch! This is a Nita Mehta recipe and I have to say just about everything that I cook from her books come out awesome!

I made the pastry dough with 2 and 1/4 cups of maida, 5 tbsps of butter, 2 egg yolks and some spoons of cold water. I wrapped the dough with cling film and popped it into the fridge to rest for about 20 mins.

I heated some olive oil in a pan and put in crushed garlic, then about a cup of chopped onions. When the onions cooked, I put in 5 large chopped sausages, I let this brown and then put it away. In the same pan, I put in about a bunch of spinach, finely chopped and let it cook till it wilted. Once the spinach cooled I squeezed the water out of it and added it to the sausage mix.

In a bowl I mixed together, 1 egg, 1/4 cup grated cheese, salt and pepper, 1/4 cup tomato puree and some  worcestershire sauce. I added this to the sausage and spinach mix along with 1/4 cup of crumbled paneer.

I then rolled out my pastry dough and lined a pan with it. Spooned my mix into it and covered it with a lattice made with the dough strips.  I brushed the pastry with beaten egg.

I popped this into the oven and baked this at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. After 20 mins I turned the oven setting to grill and let the pastry brown for about another 8 minutes!

I made the tart shell with flour and cooking butter with a pinch of salt. the recipe required a tablespoon of tapioca flour, which I substituted with corn flour. I think this worked rather well, as the tart shell came out all melty and crumbly in the mouth.

I baked the tart shells blind and let them cool. Meanwhile I melted 2 ounces of dark chocolate and let it cool. In a bowl I creamed butter, added some honey and vanilla essence and poured in my chocolate, I whipped all this together and added two eggs, one at a time, blending each in well.

If you are using unsweetened chocolate, then you may have to add sugar of course… but I wanted to reduce the sugar content in this recipe.

I filled in the tart shells with the cooled chocolate mix and popped them into the fridge to set. Should be done in about 30 mins.

The recipe contains raw eggs, so I suppose it is best to be sure its okay for your little ones to eat and does not trigger off some allergies.

Well… these happy little things once done do not have a hint of any eggieness!