Peake Practice, with Ray Peake

THIS week's recipe may on face value sound like a pizza and look like a pizza but I can assure you the taste is far more interesting.

That is not to say I have anything against pizza.

In fact, I am a regular at a local true Italian takeaway where I always order the special pizza that includes peaches as part of the topping.

The more observant of you will notice that the recipe this week advocates the use of frozen pastry as opposed to making your own.

No, I am not going soft in my old age.

I am becoming realistic.

Puff pastry is very difficult to make well and so easily made badly due to the complex process involved.

I know. I made it once and it was bad so I have never attempted it again.

I know my limitations.

So frozen pastry it is for guaranteed perfection.

In fact, in all the establishments I have worked in - ranging from restaurants to four and five-star hotels and cruise ships - not one made their own puff pastry.

So join the elite and buy it already made for you.

In this case it is not a culinary crime to use convenience foods. Which brings to mind a wonderful appetiser I recently enjoyed at a friend's house.

Ten of us were sitting around a grandly set table, not unlike The Waltons, enjoying a salmon mousse the likes of which I had never tasted before.

Creamy yet light, oozing flavour but still subtle - a true gastronomic masterpiece, in fact, made even more heavenly by thoughtful garnishing with the most tender asparagus spears ever.

I lavished compliment after compliment upon my hosts, who seemed bewildered that I enjoyed a mousse so much when the main ingredient, namely the salmon, had in fact originated from a tin, as had the asparagus.

Until told of this I honestly assumed it was fresh salmon and asparagus.

Regardless, I still want the recipe Glennys if you are reading this. It is too good to keep to yourself.

So is there something to be learned from this?

You bet there is.

Convenience food in all its forms - frozen, tinned or dried -has its part to play in all kitchens, be they in your home or in professional establishments. It is the skill with which they are used and mixed with other fresh ingredients that makes them much more acceptable and, in some cases, absolutely delicious.

This week I would also like to share with you a cheese I have recently discovered.

My range of preference for cheese is pretty much restricted to Lancashire and more Lancashire.

There are, however, differing standards of quality.

Well, I have discovered the most Lancashire of Lancashire cheeses.

It is Organic Lancashire, it's available in supermarkets beginning with the letter A and it is a truly fine cheese.

If you are a Lancashire cheese fan and it is your birthday - it is quite expensive - give it a try.

Tomato And Pepper Tart

(MAKES FOUR)

1 small packet puff pastry (frozen)

16 ripe tomatoes

4 green peppers

1 tbsp tomato puree Pinch salt

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp olive oil

Sprig thyme

2 cloves garlic

10 large basil leaves (chopped)

1 tspn herbs de provence

1 onion

PASTRY

CUT puff pastry into 5cm squares and roll out to a thickness of 2mm.

Prick all over with a fork and, using a 10 inch pastry cutter, cut the pastry into rounds.

Place on a baking tray. Place another baking tray on top of the pastry (this prevents it from rising).

Place in oven gas mark 8 for 15 minutes or until golden brown and allow to cool.

FINELY chop the onion and garlic and lightly fry in vegetable oil.

Add the tomato, tomato puree, sugar, herbs, basil, thyme, sat and pepper.

Cook on a low heat for five minutes. Whizz in a food processor for one minute.

THESE are fiddly to make but do make the tart look so impressive so allocate at least half an hour to this part of the recipe and I am sure you will be pleased with the results.

Quarter each tomato and remove the seeds and the skin. Repeat this technique with the green peppers. Using a 2cm pastry cutter, cut round discs from the tomatoes and peppers.

If you have managed this time-consuming task you should have a plateful of tomato and pepper discs.

Give yourself a pat on the back!

SPREAD the tomato mixture over the cooked pastry bases, arranging the tomato and pepper discs on top ensuring that they overlap slightly using one pepper to every two tomatoes.

Drizzle with olive oil.

Place in oven Gas mark 8 for 5 minutes.

Serve immediately.

EXCELLENT served with tossed salad and freshly-grated parmesan cheese.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.