The weather was decent this morning in London, so I cycled to work in Central London. There are roadworks everywhere and they make any cyclist's journey very hazardous when it's already touch-and-go as it is without any obstacles. With roadworks a three-lane road suddenly becomes two-lane. Can you imagine that situation with loads of cars jammed into each other?
We, cyclists, try and weave our ways through cars to get ahead, in and out between cars. Now there are two ways here - cycling along between the sides of the cars and cutting sideways in between the front and the back of two cars. It's basically a combination of going horizontal and vertical in a zigzag way.
Of course I look behind when I do the latter first (because my line is closed off with no space to go) and join in other cyclists doing the first. When I looked behind me to check if any cyclists are coming from behind this morning, there was one woman cyclist with a stupid pink helmet coming from way behind me. I judged it safe to take her 'line'. I went ahead and came to the front at the traffic light.
This woman suddenly tapped on my shoulder and said, "You weren't looking when I was right behind you." I said, "I did look and you were miles behind me. I also noticed that you speeded up once I took your line." She then started shouting, "I'm only telling you for your own safety!" The traffic light changed at this point, so I moved on. She followed me to the next traffic light and shouted the same thing again. I said to her, "Don't worry about my safety. I used to ride 400cc motorbike and I'm still here." She started shouting some foul language.
Cyclists in London tend to be hyper and our life in London is stressful sometimes...
Ingredients (for 24cm tart tin):
(for the pastry)
160g plain flour
80g cold butter
(for the filling)
about 900g brown mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 leek, washed and thinly sliced
100g Gruyère cheese, grated
200ml crème fraîche (or sour cream)
3 eggs
a knob of butter
Make the pastry as in this post up till the second paragraph.
While the pastry is sitting in the fridge we'll get on with the filling. Fry the mushrooms with a knob of butter on high heat. Take them out onto a plate when the liquid evaporated and mushrooms are nicely browned. Fry the leeks in the same pan. Put the mushrooms back into the pan with the leek and season with salt and pepper.
Crack the eggs in a largish bowl and add the cream and cheese. Mix everything well. Add the mushroom and leek mixture and mix again. Take the pastry out of the fridge and pour the filling into the pastry case. Bake in the oven for about 30-35 minutes.