Courgette and mushroom summer pie

This is a recipe I've got from a friend by word of mouth (very surreal nowadays).

So here it is:

Ingredients

Crust:

• 250 grams flour
• 8 grams yeast (fresh)
• a teaspoon sugar
• a tablespoon warm water
• 70 grams butter (melted)
• 3-4 tablespoons milk
• one egg and one yolk

Filling:

• 350 grams [more is equally fine] cheese mix of your choice (make sure you use one salty cheese, with a more powerful taste and one fat cheese that will melt when baked)
• a tablespoon dried thyme - I buy my thyme fresh and dry it myself
• one egg and the egg white you didn't use in the crust
• black pepper

Topping:

• one and a half zucchini, courgette or [better] both
• 6-7 medium sized champignon mushrooms
• 100 grams cheese 
• pinch salt, pinch pepper

Method

Crust:

In a cup, mix the yeast and the sugar until the yeast liquifies. Add warm water and a teaspoon of the flour. Let sit for 5 mins. Then mix it well with all the other ingredients.

Let rest and rise while you prepare the filling and toppings.

Filling:

Grate the cheese and then mix with the other ingredients.

Topping:

Cut the courgettes/zucchinis in slices [2-3 mm thick]. Sprinkle salt and let them soften while the crust dough rises.

Cut the mushrooms in slices and place them in a tablespoon olive oil in a non-stick pan and fry them about 30 seconds to one minute on every side. Don't overlap the slices in the pan - use multiple pans or multiple batches. You'll need the specified cheese for assembly.

Assembling:

Place the crust in an oiled pie tin using your fingers or a rolling pin. Pour the filling over the crust. Place the courgette slices overlapping only slightly. Grate the cheese you saved for the topping on top of them. Then place the mushroom slices over the cheese. 

Note: You can swap the layers of courgette and mushroom slices or you can mix them to form other patterns.

Then bake for 30 min at 190 Celsius. I actually didn't follow this last instruction and decided that a lower temperature and a longer time would be more appropriate in ensuring that the crust portion touching the filling doesn't stay raw while the outer layers burn. I didn't have a thermometer-enhanced oven so I can't tell you what the temperature was but I left it on low-to-medium for about 100 minutes.

So here it is - one of the most detailed recipes I posted so far. 

I recommend this for lunch, brunch, as a side dish, as a main dish, etc.

Tuna s'witch

Tuna carrot sandwich. Whip up a tuna salad: grate a large carrot, chop a white onion and mix with good quality tuna chunks in-oil. Add cider vinegar or lemon - or both [half quantities], and black pepper. Top slices of toast with this salad and add hard-boiled eggs. A good sauce that goes well with this is what I call a fake mayo: half-and-half mustard and full-fat sour cream.

There you go: tuna sandwich, with a switch!

Summer pork: this is how it's done

I know that eating pork during hot summer days might seem like a bad idea, but I thought - if Spaniards dot it so well, why can't I?

So I went off buying pork (juicy and fat pork neck) and summer veggies (zucchini, mushrooms and garden tomatoes).

I brushed salt and coarsely crushed black pepper onto the pork slices and placed them in a non-stick pan on moderate-to-high temperature.

Meanwhile, i cut the vegetables into chunks and heated them on low with red onions until juices started to  flow. By then I had just boiled some rice so I combined the two to form a so-called risotto.

It's very easy to make and quick as well - 20 mins tops.

To be enjoyed with a sprinkle of fresh dill even on hot summer days, in a shaded and cool place.

The recommended drink is pressed citrus and lemons, mixed with spring water and served ice-cold in chilled glasses and garnished with melon.