Poached pears

Poaching fruit and storing in syrup is such an old-fashioned way of preserving for the colder month when fresh fruit is hard to come by. My grandma was a master in this fine art and had a cellar full of jam jar treasures. Cherries, apples, plums and of course pears from her garden on to our plate to complement pancakes or rice pudding or as a quick dessert in their own sweet juices.
This recipe is great for the firm winter pears you find these days as they will get soft throughout the cooking process but still keep their shape and won't get too mushy. You can keep the pears in the fridge for some days or freeze them in the syrup to use another day. You also don't need to strain the ginger and lemon peel as they will crystallise in the process and will taste great. The syrup would also be great with other desserts. Think panna cotta or brighten up humble yoghurt for breakfast.

POACHED PEARS WITH GINGER SYRUP

6 ripe but firm pears
3 cups dry white wine (Riesling is great)
1 cup sugar
pinch of salt
knob of ginger
1 lemon (peel and juice)

In a medium pot combine the wine, sugar, salt, lemon peel and juice and julienne of ginger. Simmer over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Peel the pears and add to the liquid. Cover with a lid slightly ajar and simmer for about 15-30 minutes depending on the size of your pears. They are done when easily poked through with a knife. Transfer the pears to a plate and leave to cool. Meanwhile reduce the remaining liquid to a syrup. Boil for about 20 minutes. Serve the pears cold with warm syrup and maybe some ice cream or a dollop of crème Chantilly.

Happy New Year!

2013 – sorry, but the bar has been set pretty high. Thank you 2012 for the arrival of Milo and the chaos and love he embodies. 2012 also brought a new house and home and a new perspective on life. Wow. But my New Year's resolution is to give 2013 a fair chance and I will keep looking at the sweet side of life and hope to spend more time here, trying out recipes and posting about them. Happy New Year to you all! {New Year, new luck}

Gingerbread ice cream

This recipe is based on one I have seen in Nigella's new cook show 'Nigellissima' and couldn't resist trying it myself. It sounded far too easy to be any good as it doesn't involve churning and I could keep the ice cream machine in the back of the cupboard for some time longer. It hardly involves prep time either and is ready after 6 hours of freezing so you can whip it up right before a dinner party if needed. You don't need to remember to defrost it before serving either as the alcohol in the recipe prevents it from becoming solid.
I have given it my own spin and changed the flavour to a Christmas version with spices and rum and a different texture by adding biscuits, similar to cookie dough ice cream.

GINGERBREAD ICE CREAM
 
300ml double cream 
175g condensed milk 
4 tbsp rum or spiced rum 
1 tsp cinnamon 
1 tsp ginger 
1 tsp all spice 
pinch of nutmeg 
gingerbread biscuits
 
Mix the cream, condensed milk, rum and spices together and whisk with a blender until soft peaks form. Mix some of the ice cream with crushed biscuits. Fill your moulds or a container with the plain ice cream until 3/4 full and top up with the version with the biscuit pieces. Freeze until serving.

December

Still waiting for the first snow, frost flowers and dusting off those Christmas decorations.

Pumpkin and goats cheese tartlets

I promised more pumpkin recipes so here we go. This recipe is for 4 mini tartlets but you can easily make a larger tart by doubling the quantities and baking for longer. If you find you have some roasted pumpkin left over use it up in a pumpkin and goats cheese risotto. Drizzle some pumpkin seed oil on top and you have yourself a quick and easy dinner.

PUMPKIN AND GOATS CHEESE TARTLETS
 
short crust pastry
2 large eggs
2 tbs sour cream
100gr mild hard goats cheese
50g feta
1 shallot
100ml milk
200g pumpkin
salt and pepper
fresh thyme
 
Preheat the oven to 160°C/Gas 5. Peel, deseed and cut the pumpkin into wedges, then place on a baking tray. Cover with tin foil and leave in the oven for about 30-40 minutes or until soft. Set aside to cool slightly and cut into small cubes. Roll out the pastry and blind bake the shells. Let cool for a bit. Combine the egg, sour cream, milk and goats cheese. Finely chop the shallot and add to the mixture with the thyme. Season with salt and pepper and pour into the pastry shells. Sprinkle with the pumpkin cubes and feta. Bake for 15 min or until set and golden.

Spider web pumpkin pie

This pie made it to a Halloween party (sorry, this post is a bit late...) but could look equally nice at a Thanksgiving dinner. You could alternate the decor to little hearts by making dots instead of circles and moving with the tooth pic outwards on one and inwards on the other side. Or do stripes and cross them to get a geometric pattern. Get creative!

PUMPKIN PIE

sweet pastry base
500g pumpkin, peeled and cubed
2 tbs rum
knob of fresh ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of ground nutmeg
100g sugar
pinch of salt
100g cream cheese
25ml single cream
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 160°C/Gas 5. Peel and cube the pumpkin and place on a baking tray. Cover with foil and leave in then oven for about 40 minutes or until soft. Set aside to cool slightly. Blind bake the sweet pastry and leave to cool also. Prepare the filling by processing the pumpkin cubes and the ginger. Then add the rum, spices, sugar, pinch of salt, and whisk in the cream cheese and the egg until well blended. Put 3-4 tablespoons of the mixture aside and add the cream to get a lighter shade of the pumpkin mix. Pour the darker mix into the baked pastry shell. Now spoon the lighter mix over in circles and use a bamboo skewer, tooth pick or cocktail stick moving from the centre outwards to create the spider web decoration. Bake for about an hour at 160°C until set. Rotate the cake after half an hour so it bakes evenly.

November

November weather but never to cold for ice cream, ... or affogato, and something that leaves me puzzled.

October

Mint tea and a chin wag, lovely veggies at my local market and the right attitude.

Pea and courgette quiche

Did I already mention how hard it is to find the time these days to cook or bake? This quiche took two days to make. Not because it is so complicated, the opposite is true, but I only managed to blind bake the base when my little one needed my attention and I didn't find a chance to finish what I had started that day. Luckily it is fine to keep the baked short crust until the next day and it would freeze well too. Just prepare the filling fresh and bake when you get to it.

PEA AND COURGETTE QUICHE

short crust pastry
5 eggs
300ml milk
100ml single cream
100g mature cheddar
100g smoked cheddar
1 small courgette
handful of peas
salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 160-180C/gas 4-5. Roll out the pastry and blind bake the base. Let cool for a bit. Combine the egg, single cream, milk and grated cheese. Season with salt and pepper and pour into the pastry shell. With a vegetable peeler make ribbons of the courgette and add layer over the egg mixture. Sprinkle the peas over the quiche and bake for 30-45 min or until set and slightly puffed up.

September

Foraging for blackberries and fall colours

Blackberry meringue cake

We went foraging this weekend for blackberries and were lucky. This is the first cake I made in our new home, our new kitchen and in a new oven. It's a gas oven and I will surely need some time to get used to and to bond with. Quite a special relationship between a baker and his/her oven, right?
And with a newborn in the house there is just no time to bake. On some days it's a struggle to find the time to cook (so blessed are frozen and canned foods these days!) and I can be lucky if it's still hot when I come to eat it. So making a cake is somewhat a luxury now that I cherish and it tasted even sweeter.

BLACKBERRY MERINGUE CAKE
100ml vegetable oil
125g brown sugar
4 eggs
200g flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 lemon (juice and zest)
pinch of salt
100g caster sugar
Preheat oven to 175-195°C. Separate the yolk and white of 3 of the 4 eggs. Mix the oil and brown sugar with a hand held blender, add the one egg and 3 yolks, salt, lemon juice and zest and beat until pale. Mix the baking powder and the flour and sift, gently adding to the mixture. Pour into a baking tin and bake for about 30 minutes. Sprinkle the blackberries on top and bake for another 20 minutes and take out of the oven. Reduce the temperature of the oven to 125°C. To make the meringue whisk the 3 egg whites in a metal bowl until they start to form peaks and add the sugar. Beat some more until stiff and glossy. Now spread over the slightly cooled cake and put back in the oven to bake for another 45 minutes to an hour. The meringue topping should be golden on the outside and have a nice crunch to it.

August

 

 Berry colours and delicious rose water panna cotta