Chocolate,date and almond Filo coil.

This recipe is from Catherine Atkinson's " Pastry Cook".

you need: 275 gr filo pastry( not frozen)

50 gr melted butter

icing sugar+ cocoa powder+ ground cinnamon for dusting

For the filling: 75 gr butter

115 gr dark chocolate( broken into pieces)

115 gr chopped dates115 gr ground almonds

75 gr icing sugar

10 ml rose water

1 tsp ground cinnamon.

method: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.Grease a 22cm round cake tin.

for the filling melt the butter with chocolate and then add all the other filling ingredients. Filling paste should b quite thick. Leave a paste to cool.

Filo: lay one sheet of filo on a clean and flat surface. brush with melted butter,lay another sheet of filo and brush again with butter.

Roll a handful of the chocolate and almond mixture into a long sausage and place along one long edge of the layered filo. roll up the pastry tightly around the filling to make a roll.

Fit the filo roll in the cake tin,so that it sits snugly against the outer edge. make more filo rolls in the same way, adding them to the tin until the coil fills the tin.

brush the coil with melted butter and bake for 30-35 minutes until the pastry is brown and crisp. when brown,transfer to serving plate and dust.

Enjoy :)

* for my taste this cake was too sweet .. but otherwise good :)

Broccoli-tomato salad

Originally this recipe is Jamie Oliver's but i changed few things. so here it is..

You need: 2 large heads of broccoli

8 slices of bacon

a bit of olive oil

3 tomatoes

1 can of sweetcorn

For the dressing: half glove of garlic

2 tsp dijon mustard

6 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp of white wine vinegar

salt + pepper

Method: Cut broccoli into little florets and rinse with running water. Steam or blanch them for 1 minute. Broccoli has to stay crunchy not soft. Place on a kitchen towel to dry off any water( if broccoli is dry it is easier for dressing to absorb into broccoli).

Fry bacon and let it cool off a little bit and then cut into small strips.

Put bacon and broccoli into a bowl.

Dice up tomato and add to the bowl. Drain off sweetcorn and add that one aswell.

For the dressing crush and chop garlic and mix all the ingredients together. ( i used a whisk).

Pour over broccoli and mix gently.

Enjoy :)