Garlic and Galettes

After the sunshine comes the rain... Durham is showery. Amy and Josie went to pick the wild garlic which is all over the banks of the river and the forests - you can smell it in the air on a lap of the Bailey. They blended it with pine nuts, basil, lemon juice and oil to make the most beautiful wild garlic pesto to go with fresh pasta. Follow me on Instagram @lashart93 to see photos!

For dinner - can you tell we have more free time after exams? - we made a galette. It's one of the best ways to use up bits and bobs of veg and cheese from the fridge in a kind of elegant way. I make my pastry with 1 part butter to 2 parts flour, with a bit of water thrown in to bind it together. I roasted a load of veg (courgette, carrot, sweet potato, red onion and baby plum tomatoes), added some 'salad cheese' and whacked it on top of the pastry. When the edges are folded over, it goes in the oven to cook. All that was left was to ask our guest to bring us hummus and crisps; always a winner but we plan to make our own next time!

The idea for this comes from the winter vegetable and gorgonzola galette at Happy Yolks, but Donal Skehan has a recipe for a tomato, ricotta and thyme one and Apt. 2B has one for rhubarb and apple.

Mud Pies

Our kitchen has been a flurry of baking activity this afternoon. Not only did we get to work on these little beauties, but also a batch of flapjacks for Amy’s lucky brother and his family. So, with a little help from my friends, I present to you the mud pie brownie/biscuit combo, stuffed with chocolate chunks, peanut butter and chocolate spread.

Originally, the recipe was for Salted Caramel + Nutella Stuffed Double Chocolate Chip Cookies from the lovely Izy Hossack at Top with Cinnamon.  Izy’s one of those girls who, at 19, has achieved more than I hope to in my lifelong career, with a cookery book published at just 18 and a whole lot of press coverage besides. I’m cool with it. 

In case anyone’s desperate to wish me luck, my next exam is on Saturday. Then I’ll be heading down south and, since Mumma and Pappa Hart have abandoned me for a mini gap-yah in Australasia*, imposing myself on my siblings – I figure they probably miss me since I haven’t been home for a couple of weeks. I’m hoping for sunshine, baby shower planning (don’t panic, not for me) and maybe a cheeky first BBQ of the year...? A girl can dream.

*Also known as taking time to visit their two much-loved eldest children and their families.

Everything's Rosy

Sundays call for walks in the late afternoon sunshine, birthday waffles and a round of lemon and poppy seed cakes, especially as exam season kicks in. Thanks to two dodgy legs on two different girls, today our run was replaced by a walk and we enjoyed the river views, despite the midges. 

My housemate Amy was overwhelmed by a care package from her lovely parents – Waitrose goods to be shared (read: devoured) by us over the following weeks (read: days). I've used the lemon curd in between the cake layers, swirled in with buttercream; it cuts through the sweetness. I was all for making my own lemon curd and even had a couple of egg yolks ready in the fridge from a post-run egg white and spinach omelette. But since making curd is tricky, and we already had some, I took the easy route. 

This recipe uses ground almonds which makes the sponge a little lighter. I made the cake in thinner layers, cut out circles with a plastic cup (classic under-stocked student kitchen), and stacked them with lemon buttercream, lemon curd, and some beautiful little rose petals. My wonderful mother, perhaps atypically for a university parent, sent me off this term with a pot of petals to wish me on my way. Not practical, perhaps, but bloody well suited to me. 

To my fellow students entering exams, good luck and be well. To everyone else, probably the same.