Favorite Salad with almonds, sultana raisins and a creamy Parmesan dressing

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Salad w almonds, sultana raisins and a creamy Parmesan dressing This is a salad that will BLOW YOUR MIND. And I say that without flinching. Confidently. Cause, honest to God, every time I eat it I’m amazed with how good it is. It’s a salad that somehow manages to take the center stage, but without being show-offy about it.

 

Waltzing Matilde making the best almond and sultana raisin salad. It generally makes me wish I could eat only that and forget about the rest, because really, it has everything you need. It’s salty, it’s nutty, it’s sour, it’s sweet.

 

Waltzing Matilde making a delicious parmesan dressing. And then you have the umami from the Parmesan and the creaminess from, well, the cream.

 

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Plum pie with creamy nutty Frangipane

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Time for plum pie with nutty Frangipane! At Waltzingmatilde.com There are so many things to love about this pie that I don’t even know where to begin. Perfect pastry? Naturally. A gooey, nutty heavenly cream hidden inside, called something as intriguing and promising as Frangipane? YES. A sticky, tangy, shocking purple coating of plum? Check.

Plum pie with creamy Frangipane, Waltzingmatilde.com Also, it’s so effing autumnally and comforting you just wanna curl up and use it as a blanket. Seriously, an evening with this pie + pitch black outside + rain against the window + a couple of episode of Looking/The Honourable Woman/The Mindy Project (season 3 – yeah!)/Louie/River Cottage = perfect life. Summer: you’re free to go.

Ingredients for Frangipane. Waltzingmatilde.com Wait, before you run off looking for a plum tree, I must give you a few more words on Frangipane. Frangipane will MAKE YOUR LIFE BETTER. It’s part of a fine old Italian, then French, baking tradition (dating back to 1226 according to some, read Wikipedia). It’s made out of egg, butter, sugar and ground almonds. And you can use it in, like, everything. Like, all over the place. In cakes, cookies and croissants. Think of it as a melted and golden version of marzipan. A rule of thumb is: since it’s so gooey it normally needs a host. Or does it now…?

Plum pie with nutty Frangipane. Waltzingmatilde.com For this recipe I’ve used a mix of almonds and hazelnuts, which, yes, granted, might upset the Italians and the French but that’s a risk I’m willing to take, considering the result. Sweet-gooey hazelnut with sour-sticky plum, you see what I’m saying, right?

Waltzing Matilde whipping cream. In Kenzo t-shirt and plumcolored nails. Waltzingmatilde.com

 

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The best sandwich ever, Or How to work with fat on fat

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The worlds best sandwich Folks, it’s time for another one of my revelations. Listen, since I was 3 I’ve dressed my morning sandwiches in pretty much the same way: butter, some cheese and then perhaps some ham, veg or jam on top. That’s the way you make a proper sandwich, right? That’s the classic proportions, right? You couldn’t possibly put more layers on to that, could you? I mean if you fancied something else you’d have to wait and put that on your next sandwich, right?

Making the best sandwich ever No, friends, it doesn’t have to be that way. It doesn’t have to be either or. The secret is: both, all of it, at once. I don’t know how it happened really, a lucky mistake I guess, but, I’ve found the path to the best sandwich ever (I’m not even exaggerating.)

 

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