Pastel Caprese
I love London and I hate London. I popped to the capital to meet some friends yesterday, it was the first back there after not visiting for about six months.
London always makes me try really hard to fit in, this entails not looking bright eyed at all the sites, at how busy everybody seems to be or how cool and organic their style is. Deep down I want to be one of them but can’t quite pull it off. Londoners are a different breed of people, they move faster and they don’t make apologies for who they are, and the city embraces that. All that hustle makes my blood pump faster.
On the other hand I do not enjoy the pressure I feel when I am there, that if you are an underachiever the city will swallow you. I sat next to a lady with a Gucci handbag while she ate her sushi and I tucked into a bar of Tunnocks. I felt so out of place…but why really? A bar of chocolate caramel makes me so much happier than a Gucci bag. And a lot happier than sushi!
I think that city would swallow me, I am not a perfectionist but maybe – like the Londoners – I should not make apologies for who I am and embrace my cheap chocolate and my hatred of sushi. I am happy with an easy, hustle free life where imperfections make things exciting.
I think the food I make reflects this, especially in recent months where I have moved into a new flat so there is a lack of many things I find essential such as a rolling pin and cookie cutters. I am also still getting used to the sci-fi oven we now have – it is very powerful and it has six different settings for cooking (it made my brownies explode).
Thankfully pastéis which is plural for pastel (damn these romance languages!) are not really supposed to be neat looking. There is really no translation for pastel, I think it is just an old Portuguese word for pastry. All I can tell you guys is that it is an ever present snack in food markets in Brazil and it is a one of our final World Cup recipes!
The dough is crispy and deep fried. This should be enough to make you fall in love but guess what? There’s more: you can fill it with whatever you fancy, whether it is savoury or sweet. Cheese and tomato and guava sweet are the most famous ones. I based this recipe on the Italian caprese salad substituting the basil for a little pesto.
Hopefully you will forgive me for the rough edges, but I tell you what, I guarantee this will be more enjoyable than sushi.
Pastel Caprese (Makes 5 large)
2 cups of plain flour
½ tsp of salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp vodka
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
½ cup warm water
Fresh mozzarella
Beef tomato
Pesto
1 egg, lightly beaten
Oil for frying
1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl until it forms an
elastic dough
elastic dough
2. On a floured surface knead the dough hard for a few minutes then let it
cool in the fridge
cool in the fridge
3. Stretch the dough with a rolling pin and cut
into 10 squares (around 5’’x5’’). It is very important to stretch the dough really thinly. If you have a pasta machine at home definitely use it to stretch it.
into 10 squares (around 5’’x5’’). It is very important to stretch the dough really thinly. If you have a pasta machine at home definitely use it to stretch it.
4. Place the mozzarella pieces on with a teaspoon
of pesto and topped off with a slice of tomato and brush the edges with the egg.
Cover with another square of dough and press the sides with a fork to join the
two together.
of pesto and topped off with a slice of tomato and brush the edges with the egg.
Cover with another square of dough and press the sides with a fork to join the
two together.
5. Fry in hot oil until golden in colour
