Recent culinary highlights

With the increasing temperature and daylight, I am enjoying more and more in the kitchen (when I get time). These days I am very into savory tart making. I feel more comfortable now in tart/pie crust making. And I discovered that if you roll out the pie crust on a large piece of parchment paper, just transfer the whole lot, paper and dough, to your pie dish and tuck the dough along with the parchment gently to fit around the intended pie dish. Yes, the pie/tart is baked directly on the parchment which sits in a pie dish. So easy, no more messy transportation of a fully rolled out dough and no more pie crust cracking up here and there. The clean-up is a doddle!

Here are other things I've made and am thinking when to make it again.

• The secret of creating a shiny top for brownies from Scientifically Sweet: both pretty and yummy. The method does work! Isn't it beautiful?
  
• Roasted broccoli and prawn cooked by Amateur Gourmet (originally from Melissa Clark): a truly wonderful dish. How an oven can create such a nice texture and taste for two very different ingredients still puzzles me. The seasoning is flexible, though. The key is the cooking method. I used minced garlic, dry chili flakes, thyme, salt and olive oil. Heaven.
• Smoked Salmon Smørrebrød: Man, try this asap! Wonderfully tasty and embarrassingly easy to prepare. The horseradish cream is a must. I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, skipped the mashed potato and oomphed up with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard. I did wish I had pumpernickel bread to go with it but Turkish flatbread went down equally well.
• Tarte a la tomate: I am in love and I have a picture to prove it. I used feta and a little bit grated cheddar. Worked out surprisingly well.
  
• Pea and ricotta cheese from Rachel Eats: Rachel is a Londoner living in Rome. I have been a faithful reader of her blog since I discovered it about a year ago. Her recipes are rarely complicated and usually contain just a few ingredients (always in season) to prepare. Let the quality of produce speaks for itself, authentically Italian. This is no exception.