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homemade crab ravioli with mascarpone, lemon and dill.

shopping list.
makes one large portion or two small.

for the pasta
♥ 100g "00" grade white flour
♥ one egg

for the crab filling
♥ one tin of white crab meat
♥ 100g mascarpone cheese
♥ the juice of one lemon
♥ one tablespoon of dill


begin by making pasta, with a machine, like in my first attempt at homemade pasta post. you pretty much use 100g flour to one egg. this was a really big portion for myself and i didn't actually end up eating it all. but it was very therapeutic to make! :) the actual pasta making takes around 15 minutes and the crab filling takes next to no time to mix together. 

ribeye steak salad with balsamic dressing.

this was a really quick and tasty lunch i made at the weekend; ribeye steak cooked rare with spinach, rocket and balsamic dressing. 


in a grill house once, i was told that ribeye tastes better cooked medium as it melts the fat throughout the meat and gives a marble effect. however, i'm too much of a vampire for that and i never pick very fatty steaks. my favourite way is to get the pan as hot hot hot as it'll go and blast the steak two minutes each side, only turning once and browning the edges to finish. 

then, slice it up. place on the salad. drizzle the balsamic. and devour.

tomato and basil tear 'n' share bread.


so tomato and basil tear and share bread. actually, my first ever attempt at making bread at all. i stuck to the below recipe except for taking it out two minutes early and grating parmesan over the top. delicious, indulgent and... easy! let me know if you have any other great tear 'n' share bread recipes - this book which i was sent by bakingmad.com is absolutely brilliant! 

koya japanese restaurant, london.

well, time out gave koya a whopping 5 stars and i'm certainly not disagreeing. this week i got the chance to go there with my friend who has recently moved to london. nearby leicester square tube station, we got there at about half 5 and by 6 there were queues out the door. 

no surprises why really, when you look how tasty the food is! we shared a mixed seaweed salad (£6.10) and steamed monkfish special (£8.90), then for mains had duck donburi (£12.10) and tempura udon noodles (£10.30) over a glass of red. 

absolutely amazing food and would definitely recommend going if you're ever nearby. five hearts from me! ♥♥♥♥♥

www.koya.co.uk 



Square Meal

valentine's bakewell tarts.

shopping list
♥ 100g butter
♥ 125 caster sugar
♥ 150g ground almonds
♥ three eggs

♥ strawberry jam
♥ 100g icing sugar

♥ 100g glace cherries
♥ 375g ready made sweet shortcrust pastry

to make your own pastry
♥ 200g plain white flour
♥ 100g butter
♥ one egg
♥ two tbsp icing sugar



i found this bakewell tart recipe whilst browsing on the baking mad recipe. and seeing as st. valentine's day is coming up, i thought i'd put the glace cherries in a little heart too. 

i used 4" x 4" baking tins to make 8 little bakewell tarts and used a little more icing sugar than the recipe actually says. not sure if this is just my sweet tooth!

i'm never really ashamed of using ready to roll pastry either since they're such good quality - of course it'd be better to make your own and i've never actually tried it using icing sugar.

this was a really fun recipe and my eight-year-old sister even managed to keep up. cracking her first perfect egg... a brilliant achievement for the little baker (see cheesy grin in picture six). so watch this space :) 

oh and if you liked this you might like my lemon and almond tart... with lemon curd instead of strawberry or raspberry jam.

happy valentine's! ♥