The Tapas photos!

Check these out :

Champinones al Ajillo - Button Mushrooms in garlic and olive oil served with parsley and lemon

Queso al Horno – Soft baked goats cheese served with onion chutney and tomato jam

Tortilla Espanola – Classic Spanish potato omelette served with salad leaves and aioli

They tasted as good as they look.

La Estrella is definitely worth a visit – I should say that it doesn't have a large dessert menu but personally I went to sample the tapas. It's a small venue but I think that works in its favour – don't forget to book – they were turning people away who hadn't!

Before I go any further ...

… I thought I'd let you know about La Estrella Tapas Bar.

Early supper out on a Friday night with friends. La Estrella is located at the bottom end of the High Street in Rushden, Northamptonshire. To give you an idea how popular it is, we booked on the 25^th September for ten days hence and got the last table.

It is modern, bright and has a relaxed, informal atmosphere - café style dining.

It helps when one of the staff is Spanish - it gives a certain chutzpah, not wishing to confuse cuisines!

Mixed olives and bread are brought, along with pre-tapas drinks. I'm not a “fizz” drinker but decided to throw caution to the wind and chose a glass of Prosecco from the specials board, which was delicious and I'm difficult to please.

The menu caters for everyone - to cut a long story short here are our choices :

Gambas al Ajilio

King prawns cooked in garlic, virgin olive oil

and fresh chillies

Chorizos del Demonio

Spicy chorizo served with fire roasted red peppers

Whitebait from the specials board

Patatas Bravas

Twice cooked potatoes smothered in garlic aioli

and bravas sauce

Champinones al Ajillo

Button mushrooms in garlic and olive oil

served with parsley and lemon

Queso at Horno

Soft baked goats cheese served with onion

chutney and tomato jam

They were generous portions, so much so that we've decided that when we go back we'll order two tapas each and then may be a patatas bravas in the middle for all!

You must be expecting photos – and you'd be right – up next.

Toffee Apples – photo guide

I'm so sorry you can't smell the apples.

Less is definitely more – treacly sugar, fragrant and zesty oranges and the richness of the butter – finally the hero - Cox apples.

What's not to love!

Your Autumn Treasure continued

Turn a glut into treasure trove.

It always seems to be that when you've had a great summer it produces so much of a glut it's difficult to know what to do with the bounty.

Have you been given yet another bag of eating apples? I have – here's what I did with mine :

Toffee Apples

but not as you think of them

6-8 large Cox's apples, peeled, quartered and each

quarter sliced into 4

115g/4oz unsalted butter

125g/4½oz soft dark brown sugar

1 medium orange, zest and juice

Place the apples, butter, soft dark brown sugar, orange zest and juice into a large frying pan and cook for 10 minutes until tender.

The recipe given will give you 1.5k/3.3lbs of toffee apples. I box up in smaller quantities – it's more economical and so no waste - you can pull out whatever you need. It's whatever suits you.

The world really is your lobster with the toffee apples :

You can serve hot or cold over ice cream or custard

You can use as a base for crumble

You can serve on top of waffles with ice cream or cream

You can serve as a filling in a crepé

My original use for these toffee apples is as a base for a tart tatin – it's on the blog if you'd like to check out the recipe on the blog – Sunday 18th October 2015 Speed Sweet TATT.

Photos up next!

Cheese Feast photo guide

I hope you'll love these – and I hope you get what I'm trying to say – fill your freezer with one element – the pastry cases – or two if you want to make up the filling and freeze it – result – fab food quickly and easily.

You don't have to make the pastry if you'd rather not – a ready-made shortcrust sheet will do, it just won't have the cheese.

The verdict of the jury was … yum – a light crispy pastry – a double cheesy hit, definitely worth a shot.

There were two leftover, so lunch for the next day. I warmed them for 20 minutes at 160fan/180c/Gas 4. The feasts were still light and crispy – they held their shape very well – I cut one into quarters and it was perfect to pick up with my fingers.

I'm already thinking of other uses for home-made shortcrust pastry – hold that thought.

Feeling creative?

My Cheese Feasts ...

… the theory and the practice.

I've already made the cheese pastry bases and cooked them – they're in my freezer or rather they were – I've taken out six, ready to be filled for supper tonight.

In my fridge I've got the baked potatoes that I cooked whilst my oven was on.

I've also got a lump of Red Leicester cheese that is only fit for grating and the same again with Mature Cheddar. Grated and bagged together they weigh 200g – I'm using 100g.

I've always got onions, so I finely chop half a large one and soften it gently with a knob of unsalted butter and a drop of rapeseed oil – 5 minutes – approximately 180g

I do check my fridge to make sure I've got another of my staples – Dijon mustard – yep, present and correct!

I take two baked potatoes from my fridge stash, peel and cut into small dice – weight is approximately 400g and tip into a large mixing bowl, mash the potato using a fork, add the onion and 100g of the mixed grated cheese together with a teaspoon of mustard, just a sprinkle of salt – it's already in the cheese and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Mix well. The mixture can be made ahead, boxed and fridged.

Pre-heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Place your cases on a baking sheet and fill each case with a generous amount of the filling. Bake for 20 minutes.

The “Feasts” don't have to be veggie - I served mine with ham hock but the world really is your lobster – your filling can be whatever you want it to be, think on … as we say up North … you might want to consider cooking more than you need for a meal so that you deliberately create leftovers for your own version of a “feast”.

Photo guide up next.

Your pastry rules

Pastry making is another form of therapy for me but it's a technique that scares some cooks. I love shortcrust pastry – it has been overtaken by puff pastry in recent times. The invention of the ready-made pastry sheet is without doubt fantastic but it's good to make sure you can still cut it.

Here are some basic rules you'll find helpful :

Shortcrust pastry is half fat to flour and then liquid to bind

Flour contains gluten – the more you work your pastry the more

you develop the gluten and if you want a pastry suitable for a patio

that's how to achieve it!

Your pastry should be crumbly – your ingredients

should be cold – it will help keep the pastry light and crumbly -

including your kitchen – first thing in the morning is best

When rolling out try not to use too much flour – you're adding

more flour to your pastry and distorting the recipe

If you have to work on a warm day in a warm kitchen

then roll it between two sheets of baking parchment

Rest your pastry for 30 minutes in the fridge before rolling it will also prevent shrinkage when baking

Rest your pastry again, covered, when rolled out and in its tins

Having inwardly digested all of the above there is one golden rule that should always be observed – baking is a science – be accurate with your weighing out. There's nothing wrong with using a food processor to make your pastry but I think you get a better result from using what comes naturally – your own hands.

Coming up next is the result of my “therapy session”!