Currants and Clotted Cream Parcels

What would the house of your dreams look like? That was the title of a post from a blog I follow. I’m afraid the text is in Spanish, but in summary the author poses the question and then talks about how probably most of the readers would imagine all sort of houses: big expensive houses with huge gardens and a heated pool, great cottages with loads of land, small cosy modern lofts… But all of them will have something in common: all of them will be feasible, doable and buildable in the real world.

I need to admit I imagined the house of my dreams. And it was pretty feasible (in a world where all money is available). Not too large, detached house, with 4 or 5 bedrooms, the top one being dormered, a huge kitchen with masses of cupboards, drawers and storage systems, pans and pots hanging on the ceiling, two ovens, an AGA kitchen and of course a Kitchen Aid!!!!!!  And I would kill for a cherry pit remover machine. There will be hidden corridors, passages and trap doors with slides and intricate stairs throughout the inner house. It would also have a great garden with all sort of flowers and a huge tree house on an ancient tree. There will be lots of windows with all sort of shapes everywhere. And a wooden mailbox. 

He then places one of the most interesting questions ever: why do we set limits to our own imagination and dreams? We do we feel embarrassed by letting our creativity fly?

Why not to imagine a resilient house that changes in size and shape according to our needs? Or a house with an internal sea to sail on before bed time? Or even a house in a parallel reality?

Remember the original question: What would the house of your dreams look like? And we have decided to condemn our imagination, our thoughts, our dreams. We have given up to all the possibilities available to ourselves, and have decided to be normal, restrained, prudent.

Or even worse, we would have felt embarrassed and uncomfortable because imagining an unfeasible house, even though the pleasure of visualizing it would have been awesome. To dream “too much” is not well considered in our world. 

The worse thing is that these feelings are stopping us from letting our imagination take us to amazing places, is also pushing us to repress the others. 

The author proposes a game: try and ask the question during a family lunch and talk about a completely unreal and unfeasible house. Watch their reactions. It is possible that they laugh, maybe with affection, but also with a bit of pity because you are obviously not mature enough. 

It seems to me that we spend a lot of time speaking about real things. About our jobs, cars, mortgages… things from the real world that say little to nothing about ourselves. About our real us. We have been taught to be realistic and pragmatic. To have our feet on the ground.

Wouldn't it be much more interesting to know the dreams of our family and friends, to have the mental freedom to think, imagine and create whatever we want, without ridiculous self-imposed limits? 

Let’s come back then to the beginning.

What would the house of your dreams look like?

This week recipe is the best end of summer dessert, perfect to be served in a house warming party and make your guests wish you move more often!

WHAT DO YOU NEED

1 Filo Pastry Roll
100gr Red Currants
100gr Black Currants
150gr Clotted Cream
50gr Butter
100gr Icing Sugar
2 Vanilla Pods

WHAT DO YOU DO

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Mix the clotted cream with the vanilla seeds. Click here to see how to do it. Prepare all the ingredients and have them on hand. Raw filo pastry dries out very quickly, so keep it  in the fridge until the very last minute. Unroll the filo pastry and cut in squares of 10cm approx. Cover the remaining pastry with a wet kitchen towel.

Put 5 or 6 squares turning the edges in order to make a star with the filo pastry. Tip: it is easier if you do it in the palm of your hand, as you can see in the picture below.

Drop a teaspoon of clotted cream in the middle, add some red and black currants and sprinkle icing sugar to taste.

Close up the parcels and tie the corners with cooking thread. Melt the butter in the microwave and brush the parcels with it. Sprinkle some extra icing sugar on top.

Put all the parcels in a oven tray lined with grease-proof paper and bake for 10/15 mins.

Eat immediately.