Salmon al Pesto in Filo Pastry with Lemon and Rosemary Rice

Woow, I haven't posted anything for a month. It doesn't mean I haven't been baking, but I haven't made anything new.. I baked a lot of brownies :-) I also did some nice dinners, but forgot to take pictures..
Anyways, yesterday I had some friends home for lunch and I wanted to make something yummy of course.
I had filo pastry in the fridge, and had to use it. So I made this delicious salmon with pesto rolled in the filo pastry, accompanied by lemon and rosemary rice.
It's easy, and there's not so much cooking to do:-)

Ingerdients (for 4 people)
4 pieces of salmon
Fresh pesto (homemade: whizz together basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts and parmeasn)
Filo Pastry
15gr melted butter
250gr rice
2 lemons
Rosemary

Preheat the oven at 180°C. Place a long piece of salmon on a sheet of filo pastry. Cover the salmon with pesto, then roll it in the filo sheet, and close it. Do the same for the other 3 pieces. Place on a tray, brush some melted butter on the pastries and bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes.
At the same time: place the 250gr rice and 500ml rice in a sauce pan. Add the juice of 1 lemon ( the 2nd lemon is to serve with the salmon), and 2tsp of rosemary. Bring it to a boil, then lower the gas, cover it and leave it to cook for a good 15min. Stir and check the seasoning as it will lack salt.

Salmon and rice should get ready at the same time and is ready to be served.

I forgot to mention that I made a lovely chocolate mousse for dessert and obviously forgot to take a picture of it. We ate them too fast. But who doesn't know what a chocolate mousse look like??!
I made chocolate mousse many times and never got the lightness I was looking for. I always compared them to the one my mum makes (mum's recipes are always the best). So I simply copied her recipe for once, and got THE best and easiest recipe of a chocolate mousse: light and not too sweet and with only 3 ingredients:
eggs; salt and chocolate.
For 4 servings, you will need:
3 eggs
100gr dark chocolate
 pinch of salt
Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Melt the chocolate. Whisk it to the 3 egg yolks. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Add the egg whites slowly to the chocolate mixture.
Pour into individual (or not) glasses. Chill for min 2hrs. Easy, isn't it?

Lemon Tart

At the moment, I don't work and I have plenty of time to bake and blog new recipes. I also have the opportunity to bake dishes that take a big more time and effort.
Today I am making one of my favourite tart: a lemon tart. I know i can also share it with my friend Laeti because it's one of her favourite too :-)
We like it very tangy and tart, so if you want to repeat the recipe less tangy, simply put less lemon juice and less lemon zest.

Ingredients:
Shortcrust pastry (home made or already made) or a plain tart pastry
Juice of 6 lemons
Zest of 3 lemons
40 gr butter
4 large eggs
200 gr caster sugar
165 ml cream

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Blind bake the pastry for 20-25 min and an additional 10 min without the weights/ beans.
At the same time, prepare the filling: lightly whisk the eggs in a bowl with a fork. Add butter, cream, lemon juice, lemon zest and sugar to the bowl. Place the bowl on the top of a sauce pan au bain marie (double boiler). The water needs to be simmering and not boiling. Use a heatproof spatula and stir constantly to prevent the mix from sticking at the bottom of the bowl. You need to stir until the filling thickens enough to stay on the spatula (it normally takes 20-25min). Strain the filling into the bakes pastry case ( to remove lumps), smooth the top and bake for 20min.
The tart needs to cool down and can be served at room temperature or slightly cold.
Enjoy