Weekend Cooking: Mediterranean Vegetable Tart

A while ago now we watched British chef Tom Kerridge's series Lose Weight for Good, and I shared a recipe for "fried" chicken. This is a recipe that is definitely part of our regular meal rotation.

We also tried a couple of other things from the series, one of which is this Mediterranean Vegetable Tart. I just feels so summery to me, so it is perfect for this time of year! And the reality is that you can't go past puff pastry!

It's time for us to make it again and so today I am sharing the recipe so we can find it when we need to.

Mediterranean Vegetable Tart (Tom Kerridge)

280g/10oz ready-rolled light puff pastry
200g/7oz baby zucchini, cut into 15mm/⅝in slices
1 large red capsicum/pepper, cored, seeds removed, cut into 2cm/¾in chunks
1 large yellow capsicum/pepper, cored, seeds removed, cut into 2cm/¾in chunks
1 red onion, cut into 2cm/¾in chunks
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2 sprigs rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
4 sprigs thyme, leaves picked
olive oil spray
1 tbsp semi-skimmed milk
100g/3½oz cherry tomatoes, halved
75g/2¾oz goats’ cheese, crumbled
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper




Using a sharp knife, trim the sheet of puff pastry to 25 x 28cm/10 x 11in. Place it on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and score a border 2cm/¾in in from the edge all the way round. Prick the pastry within the margin, using a fork. Leave to rest in the fridge for about an hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 240C/220C Fan/Gas 9.


Put the zuchinni, capsicum and red onion into a large bowl. Add the garlic and herbs and season generously with salt and pepper. Line a large baking tray with baking paper, lay the vegetables on it and spray 15–20 times with oil.


Brush the puff pastry all over with the milk and sprinkle with a little salt. Cook on the middle shelf of the oven, with the vegetable tray on the top shelf above, for 15 minutes, rotating both trays halfway through to ensure even colouring. Remove both trays from the oven and reduce the temperature to 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3. Set the vegetables aside.


Press the inside of the pastry down and return to the oven for 25 minutes to get a super-crisp base.


Take the tart case out of the oven and increase the temperature to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Tip the roasted vegetables into the tart case, scatter over the cherry tomatoes and goats’ cheese and season with salt and pepper.


Bake for 20–25 minutes until the vegetables are cooked through and the cheese is softening and colouring at the edges. Cut the tart into quarters and serve.

Weekly meals

Saturday - Roast beef, vegies and gravy

Sunday - Roast beef, vegies and gravy 

Monday - Fried chicken, mashed potato and gravy
Tuesday - Homemade pizza
Wednesday - Zucchini and Mushroom risotto
Thursday - Pork chop, potato gratin, broccoli and cauliflower bake

Friday - 

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: Beef Stroganoff

We've made several of British chef Tom Kerridge's recipes now. His last few series have been about how create healthy meals that should help you lose weight as part of a balanced diet. What we like about the ones that we have made so far is that they are very tasty. For example, the recipe for "fried" chicken (which I posted here) is a regular part of our meal planning now

Recently we were rewatching some of series and we saw a recipe for Beef Stroganoff that we thought that we would try. In the end we didn't quite make it as written as we didn't add in the cornichones or gherkins. What we did have was still delicious.

The husband does already have his go to recipe for stroganoff but he did say that he would use the technique that is described for the meat in his version going forward because it was very tender.

Beef Stroganoff

½ tbsp light olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 beef stock cube
2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1 tbsp tomato purée
400g tin beef consommé (we used a beef broth)
150g/5½oz chestnut mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 rump steaks (175g/6oz each), visible fat trimmed
olive oil spray
60g/2¼oz cornichons or small gherkins, sliced
75ml/2½fl oz half-fat crème fraîche
2 tbsp finely chopped flatleaf parsley
2 tbsp roughly chopped chervil or parsley
2 tbsp dried onion flakes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
160g/5¾oz basmati rice, freshly cooked (to serve)

Heat the light olive oil in a large frying pan over a low–medium heat. Add the onion and cook gently for 10 minutes, or until softened and starting to caramelise.

Stir in the garlic and cook gently for 2 minutes. Crumble in the stock cube and stir in the paprika and tomato purée. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the beef consommé, mushrooms and mustard. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and simmer for 10–15 minutes, or until the volume of liquid has reduced by half.

Meanwhile, place a griddle pan over a high heat. Bash the steaks between two sheets of cling film, until about 5mm/¼in thick. Spray each side with six sprays of oil and season with salt and pepper. When the griddle is smoking hot, add the steaks and cook for 1 minute on each side. Remove and set aside to rest.

Once the sauce has reduced, remove from the heat and stir through the cornichons, crème fraîche, and most of the parsley and chervil (reserving some for garnishing). Stir in the juices from the resting meat and check the seasoning. Cut the meat into thick slices and stir into the sauce.

Mix together the dried onion flakes and reserved chopped parsley and chervil. Serve the stroganoff sprinkled with the onion and herb mix, with the rice on the side, if you like.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: "Fried" chicken

When we aren't eating cake we are trying to eat a little healthier, but I am struggling a little bit with it. One of the reasons that I am struggling is that the sous chef has decided that we are going to eat more low carb high fat/keto rather than the traditional low fat/calorie counting philosophy of losing weight. This means we have been doing things like eating cauliflower mash and cauliflower fried rice. Where I am struggling is with things like eating bacon and eggs for breakfast on a regular basis or eating keto cheesecake as dessert. I have 30 years plus of conditioning around eating low fat yoghurt, drinking low fat milk, not frying anything, and certainly not having a kind of cheesecake for dessert.

Having said that, we are currently watching a British cooking show called Lose Weight for Good. It is hosted by a chef called Tom Kerridge. Tom was very, very overweight and lost a lot of weight by cutting out carbs and exercising but his show is all about how to eat delicious low fat, calorie counted food because that is what the UK government recommends as the best way to lose weight.  I am interested in getting hold of his previous book where he talked about the food he actually ate to lose weight.

It does make it a bit challenging to have the two different ways of eating but at the end of the day it's about trying to find tasty food to enjoy.

One of the early recipes in the series was for a Southern "fried" chicken and it looked so delicious that we had to try it, and the recipe was definitely a winner. We took it for lunch a couple of days with salad. Definitely a recipe to try again and again. If fact we had it for dinner again tonight!

We did also have an avocado dressing with the salad. I don't love avo but the sous chef is very keen on it, but it was very tasty to have with the chicken and salad.

Southern "fried" chicken (Tom Kerridge)

12 boneless chicken thighs (1kg/2lb 4oz in total), skin and visible fat removed
sunflower oil spray

For the crispy coating

75g/2½oz plain flour
1 tsp garlic salt
1 heaped tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp flaky sea salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

For the marinade

200ml/7fl oz low-fat buttermilk
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp flaky sea salt
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp dried thyme
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp dried sage
¼ tsp white pepper

For the marinade, mix the ingredients together in a large bowl, add the chicken and coat well. Refrigerate overnight, or for at least four hours.

Preheat the oven to its hottest setting and line a large baking tray with baking paper.

For the crispy coating, mix all the ingredients together in a shallow bowl. Dip the chicken into the mixture and turn to coat well on all sides. Place on the lined baking tray. Spray each thigh 4–5 times with the oil.

Cook on the top shelf for 20–30 minutes, or until crispy, browned and cooked through. To test, poke the thickest part of the thigh with a skewer, the juices should run clear.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.