Fusilli Bolognese

Had a surprise visit from the in-laws this evening. They emailed Mr VST this morning to say that they would be in the area and might pop in and see us. He specifically asked them if they wanted dinner and they said no. When they arrived I had already cooked dinner for Mr VST and I with enough left for lunch tomorrow. I didn't make a huge amount, just enough for healthy sized portions today and little ones for lunch. I didn't have enough linguine so I cooked up some fusilli as well. Mr VST got hungry while they were here so then asked them if they wanted to eat with us which of course they did. Small portions of fusilli bolognese were had by all. Thankfully I had taken some rhubarb cake out of the freezer on Saturday to see us through the week and so we had that for pudding with custard as well.

Rhubarb and Custard

I have been addicted to rhubarb and (soya milk) custard this week. There is local rhubarb on the stall, great big bunches for £1 and I haven't been able to resist. 

Rhubarb Cake

Local rhubarb on the stall this week, a big bunch was only a pound, I couldn't resist. I was especially pleased when I remembered how easy it was to make this recipe! 

Mix up the flour, butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract

Chop up the rhubarb and add some lemon juice

There are a couple of steps in between but you end up with a light vanilla sponge contrasting with the slightly tart rhubarb and then a little ginger kick on top. De-licious even if I do say so myself.

Vegetarian Club Sandwich & Two Puddings

I went on a course on Wednesday and the description of the day said that there would be refreshments at 9am, 11am, 1pm and 3.15pm. I interpreted this as meaning that there would be constant feeding. I have been on courses before where I was served pastries, egg butties, as much tea and coffee as you like, a two course hot buffet lunch and mints. I had decided that this was going to be the same and so I didn't have breakfast just to make sure I could make the most of it. When I got there I was disappointed to find that refreshments for the most part meant tea and coffee. So I had a couple of herbal teas which kept me going. My tummy started grumbling about half an hour before lunch. We had had to pre-order our lunch from the bar and lounge menu. There was only one vegetarian option which was a club sandwich so I went for that. We had a £16 allocation and that took up only £6.50 so I went for a pudding. I chose the rhubarb and ginger tarte tatin with coffee ice cream and a fruit compote. I still had £3.55 left and the caramel shortbread from the tea menu was £3.45 so I ordered that as well, well I had missed breakfast!

The club sandwich was interesting, it had a very slim cheese layer, lettuce, it supposedly had egg mayonnaise but thankfully I couldn't taste it, it was OK. The vegetable crisps and coleslaw that were served with it were lovely. The rhubarb and ginger tarte tatin was slightly strange if I'm honest. The pastry wasn't very nice and a bit soft. The coffee ice cream didn't go with it at all. The fruit compote was lovely but didn't go with either the tatin or the ice cream. The caramel shortbread was also a desert option and someone messed up and brought me the desert version instead which involved two caramel shortbreads! I wrapped them up in a napkin and took them home for dinner.

Rhubarb Crumble and Custard

I love rhubarb and there were great big bunches for a pound on the market stall this week. I couldn't resist. Crumble is one of my favourite things to make with rhubarb. I made six individual crumbles with about 500g rhubarb and they were all delicious!

Gylly Beach Cafe, Falmouth

Mr VST and I are on holiday this week. We came down to stay with some friends in Falmouth on Wednesday evening. We went out for dinner to the Gylly Beach Cafe for dinner. There were two vegetarian main options, a spinach and mushroom lasagne served with garlic ciabatta and salad and Pan-Fried Primavera Risotto 

Cakes with helford blue cheese served with salad and rocket & walnut pesto. Neither of us are keen on blue cheese but Mr VST can't stand it. I didn't want to have the same thing as him so I chanced it!

There wasn't a strong blue cheese flavour at all and the risotto cakes were lovely. I'm not sure they needed to be pan-fried though. It just made the outer layer chewy. The insides were creamy rice with the 'primavera' consisting mostly of peas. The salad and rocket and walnut pesto were a great accompaniment.

I had a bite of Mr VST's lasagne. The mushrooms were delicious, the garlic ciabatta was very garlic-y as was the rest of both of our meals. It worked well on the bread but I'm not so keen on waking up with garlic mouth the next day which I did. I think maybe a little less garlic would have been better. The cafe was lovely though with a great atmosphere. We shared puddings with our hosts and went for a chocolate amaretto torte with poached orange segments and an apple and rhubarb crumble with elderflower custard.

As you can see the chocolate torte was beautifully presented. It was thick, creamy and chocolatey as you would expect and the poached oranges were delicious.

The crumble can also be recommended. There didn't seem to be an awful lot of ginger in the crumble itself but it is one of my favourite puddings and the elderflower custard was sweet and light.

Not strictly food but I thought these pasty toys were great! They were in a shop window in Falmouth. They seem to be dressed up to celebrate the royal wedding. We got a couple of real ones for lunch a bit later on.

Rhubarb Cake

My Mum made this rhubarb cake ages ago, May 2008 to be precise. It was delicious and I asked her to email me the recipe and that is how I know (I'm not THAT obsessed with food!). I haven't made it since then. Rhubarb is in season and they had large bunches on the market stall this week for £1 each. I love rhubarb and especially rhubarb crumble but I thought I'd like to do something slightly different and something portable so that I could take it to the picnic.

So you need:

For the base                                                          
300g Rhubarb
Juice of half a lemon
165g self-raising flour
175g butter
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

for the topping

25g butter
2 tbsp self-raising flour
1 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp ground ginger

1. Set the oven at 180 degrees C (160 for fan ovens)
2. Grease a cake tin or in my case a lasagne dish!
3. Chop the rhubarb into 3cm lengths and mix with lemon juice
4. Cream together butter and sugar, mix in flour, eggs and vanilla extract.

The recipe says whisk together the ingredients in 4. but I tried that and the butter just went into little lumps. It didn't make any difference to the overall taste though.

5. Fold half the rhubarb into the batter mix and spoon it into the tin. Scatter the remaining rhubarb over the top.

6. Make the topping by rubbing the butter into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and ginger and sprinkle over the cake.

Bake for 50 minutes and then leave to cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

The result is a really moist sponge with a subtle gingery topping and lovely chunks of rhubarb throughout. Mr VST and I had to try it before serving it to my family of course so we had some with ice cream. It was equally delicious cold and eaten as a cake today.

Cheese Pie, Jacket Potato and Carrots

Friday night saw us travelling down to the in-laws. Mr VST had requested a speciality of his mother's, her cheese pie. This consists of pie crust, bottom and top, with cheese sauce inside it. It is nursery food at it's best. There are sometimes Quorn chicken-style pieces in the pie but then it changes it's name to Quorn pie! On Friday I detected some onion in there. It was good pie and I ate FAR too much of it. This was served with some boiled carrots and a jacket potato and then followed by a proper crumble. It was an apple and rhubarb crumble with a thick (2cms) crumble on top which was the perfect texture mmmmmm.