Spiral Tart

So many people ask me where I find the time to fit so much in. Well I'm an extremely organised person and write a lot of to do lists so I don't forget. This food blog has been on my list for a while, but time hasn't been on my side.
The start of the year was great, plenty of training for the European championships in Lisbon, then the competition itself. It was my first as a purple belt and I was petrified! There were only 4 ladies in my division and one of them was my friend Carol. Thankfully we were on opposite sides of the brackets, so I had a Brazilian lady to fight. She was tough and swept me and won by 2 points. I got a default Bronze medal for my effort, and entered myself for the open class. I had one more fight with a much bigger girl and she won by 2 points again. It was a great experience and I came away knowing what I needed to work on, my strength!

With Carlson Gracie Jnr

First Purple belt competition

Since then I competed in the Kleos competition in High Wycombe. A very well run small competition  with 3 purple belt feather weights in one division. I came second after two fights and a very good and technical final, but I got caught with a choke.

I went on to compete in another small competition, the Southend Open where there was just two of us. I was up against a very experienced Jiu Jitsu practitioner, referee and competitor, and I won by submission!

Last month I went to New York. My cousin lives on the Upper East side of Manhattan, and I hadn't seen James in about 18 months when he was here for a very sad occasion. So I thought that a trip to New york would do me the world of good and James too!
The trip coincided with the New York open and the New York No Gi open. It would be the first time that I would be competing in a competition where I knew absolutely no one. At most competitions there is a team mate, or someone who you know from another team. Not this time. It was a challenge I was ready for.

My first night in new york was an early one. I got to my cousins apartment, met his lovely flat mate Lexi and went for a nap. 12 hours later I woke up and was ready to start the day exploring. I bought a weekly travel card and smashed the living day lights out of it! I went absolutely everywhere!!!
The first day alone I visited Central Park, Time Square, Grand Central, crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, hung out in DUMBO then went out to see the New York Yankees play baseball. It was freezing, so we didn't stay for the end. Good thing really because they lost.

Times Square

Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

James & Jolie at the Yankees game

New York Yankees game

The next day was one of my highlights. My cousin Lindsay is CSS for Virgin Atlantic and flew in the day after me. She only gets one night in NY, so she took the train from New Jersey and met me at Penn station. It was so good to see her as it had been a few months. We hopped in a cab and went to Big Daddy's, an all American style diner where we met James for breakfast. It was quite surreal that all three of us Brits were in the same place at the same time. It was a good little catch up. James went to work, Lindsay went to get her plane back to the UK, and I went shopping.

Cousins - Lindsay, James & Jolie

Temptation had really set in when it came to seeing all the lovely cupcakes, Pretzels and the smell of Pizza in Little Italy. I was on weight for the Gi, but had to drop 300g to be in the safe zone for the No Gi the day after. I resisted, and my steel will power didn't get a single crack.

Saturday came and was the day of the competition. I wasn't competing until 2.30pm, so I wanted to make sure that I had made use of the morning, and I went to the Brooklyn Flea market. I bought a nice print that fitted nicely in my bag, then got myself off to the City college in Harlem.
As soon as I walked in the venue I was petrified. I had got there a couple of hours before my fight was due to start, got warmed up, went to the bull pen and saw that they had changed the fight time to an hour later. I could have kicked myself! I must have read it wrong on the website and wondered why the ladies weren't warming up when I did.
An hour later I was ready to go again. The lady I was fighting was smaller than me. Super feather can be really tricky as they are really wriggly and have a lot of technique. We got to the mats, shook hands, she pulled guard, but I just couldn't pass it. Everything I had learnt had gone out of the window and my muscle memory had ceased up. I almost passed twice, but she was too good and I was left in her spider guard for most of the match.
There were no points, no advantages, and she got the decision. I was gutted.
Straight away I signed up for the Open class. Waited around until 6.30pm to be told that no one else had entered. I was gutted again! I took my default gold and went back to my cousin's apartment and sulked.

Better try harder next time

Nyjah Easton - Super nice lady and awesome black belt competitor

Sunday morning came, I woke up far too early, was feeling really grumpy. I didn't want to compete today. I put a note on Facebook and thankfully I had some really good advice, and a couple of really nice messages from a team mate and a female black belt who I really respect and admire. I got a little more sleep and was buzzing for the day ahead.
Why do I do this? Why do I put myself through the training for a competition, the strict diet, the nerves and now the fact that no one from my team is here to support me, I have come here willingly on my own to support and challenge myself?
I can do this!

I bought cupcakes on the way, I listened to some of my DJ mixes, I found some Carlson Gracie Chicago team mates to hang out with and I was buzzed for the day.

My first fight was with a Brazilian lady called Aline. She was awesome, and very technical. She got a sweep, but I managed to pass her guard and go straight to mount. I won 7-2.
My second fight was the final against an American girl who was only 19 years old called Taylor. She was awesome too. I pulled guard, locked an arm bar, but she was good at stacking so it never went on. We had a very fun and technical fight, but it went to decision and she won. I didn't mind. Gold would have been awesome, and to beat someone who was 18 years younger than myself would have been incredible. But Taylor was one of the nicest girls I have come across in Jiu Jitsu, and it was the fight that mattered that day, and it was a great fight.

Fun in the feather weight division

After the open class and coming away with a Bronze after 2 fights, I stuffed my face with chocolate, cake, fizzy drinks, Pizza, then went out for drinks with James, laughed so much and got very tipsy on some interesting cocktails.
I could finally let my hair down, and it felt really, really good.

On the Monday, I got ready, had a decent breakfast and headed down to the Marcelo Garcia academy in the West Village. The first class was No Gi and taught by Matheus Diniz, a brown belt and I had recognised him from the day before at the Open. I partnered up with another girl who was also a visitor. It was a great class, and lots of effort went in to the details of the technique. The next class was Gi. After a warm up, everyone gathered round in a semi circle. The class was 50 people strong, and thats quite incredible for lunch time. There was a guy filming, so I just thought a technique was going to be shown and filmed for the website.
Marcelo gave a lovely speech about how proud he was of everyone for competing at the weekend. He asked some of the guys to get their medals and have a picture. Matheus, Mansher and Dillon all knelt down at the front and Marcelo went to get the team trophies. He knelt behind Matheus, undid his belt and replaced it with a black belt. He did the same with Mansher and Dillon. I couldn't actually believe what I was seeing. I've only ever seen a one black belt get their belt at one time and seeing that was special enough.
Even though I'm not in the same team and I was training there as a guest, it still brought a tear to my eye because you know these guys have worked so hard.
Marcelo made another speech, and kept stopping himself from crying every so often.
it was quite a moment.

With Marcelo Garcia

The class carried on with plenty of sparring and a lot of smiling faces due to the promotion. The atmosphere was lovely.

After the class I went to Chelsea Market, then on to the high line. I ate a smoked salmon and cream cheese Bagel, ice cream and a Prezel, and headed back for some more Jiu Jitsu.

The first class was basics. The second was intermediate and the last class was advanced. After 3 hours back to back training, I sat out for a couple of sparring rounds and had a chat with Marcelo. He is quite possibly one of the nicest, humble men I have ever met and it really reflects in his gym. The atmosphere was fun, people were so nice and respectful. They must get tonnes of visitors, but treat us with the same friendly face as they would their own team mates.
I wouldn't hesitate to go back here and I would highly recommend anyone who trains Jiu Jitsu to visit.

Five classes in one day, the day after a competition was harsh on my body. I ached so much by Tuesday, but I still went out and did some sight seeing. I visited the World trade centre which reduced me to tears. Mixed emotions of sadness and anger came over me, so I had to get out of there as soon as I could. So I went to Coney Island. A strange place, but I'm glad I went, walked along the lovely beach, ate cheesy chips and bought a bag of sugary sweets.

Later that night, I met James, Lexi and Emily for drinks, then we went on to Little Italy for Pizza.

My last day came and I had just two more things to tick off my list. I got myself on the Staten Island ferry, saw the statue of Liberty, went to Magnolia Bakery, bought far too many cakes, then headed up to the top of the Rock.

I got my bag from James's apartment, headed to JFK Airport, sat down in departures and got drunk on red wine.

New York was amazing, my life is amazing and I'm thankful for all the fun I have in it.


Now for the food!

It has taken me 4 attempts, but I finally figured out what was making my spiral tart so watery in the previous 3 attempts. I was using Buffalo Mozzarella rather than grated dry Mozzarella. Now it's perfect!

Ingredients:

Tart crust
1 Cup of almond flour
3 tbsp of Tapioca flour
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/4 cup of melted butter
1 large egg

Filling
200g Dry grated Mozzarella
200g Soured cream
1 tsp mixed dried herbs
1 Large Carrot
1 Large Courgette
1/2 Aubergine

Method:

Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Put the almond flour, tapioca, paprika, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl and mix well. Add the egg and melted butter and mix until everything has combined.
Use a 9" tart tin and press the tart crust in to the tin and make sure every part of the inside has been covered. Place in the oven for 8-10 minutes.

Use a vegetable peeler and peel the carrots and courgettes in to strips. The Aubergine is quite hard to peel, so its better if you thinly slice this. Make sure the vegetables are all evenly sized with thickness.
Mix the Mozzarella, soured cream and herbs in to a bowl.
Once the tart crust is ready, pour the mixture in to the tart base and spread out evenly.
Chose which vegetable you want to start with first and gently place them round the edge, swapping to the next vegetable and the next, and continue until the vegetables have covered the base to the middle.

Place in the oven for 30 minutes or until the vegetables have cooked well. Leave to cool, then serve with a nice big salad.

Enjoy!
Jolie x