Pear and butterscotch clafouti

Clafouti was originally made with cherries, but has developed far further and now includes all sorts of fruit. I love it, as a simple, quick to make and incredibly elegant dessert.

Traditional cherry clafouti includes a splash of kirsch. I decided to make a pear clafouti this time around - decided by having a surfeit of eggs in the house, and a large tin of pears at hand. To add a little extra twist, I had a think about flavours and concluded that butterscotch schnapps might just work. And indeed it does - the butterscotch schnapps being quite a warm creamy flavour it worked well with the custard and contrasted with the slightly crisper sharper edge of the pear.

Now I am sure a purist would use freshly sliced pears for this recipe, but then again, a purist wouldn't be allowing butterscotch schnapps anywhere either, so they can go be purist and we can enjoy the fruits of our experimental labours. Tinned pears mean that you can create this delicious dessert at any time of the year or day of the week. If you do use fresh pears, peel and core them, and slice them thinly.

Ingredients

Butter
5 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
1/2 cup vanilla sugar (I make my own by keeping my vanilla bean pods in the sugar jar)
1/2 cup sifted flour
1 and a half tablespoons butterscotch schnapps
1 cup (250ml) cream (normal 35% fat cream is fine; occasionally I even use sour cream)
3 extra tablespoons of caster sugar
1 large tin of pears, drained

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Take a large ceramic or glass pie dish (a gratin dish will do at a pinch). Grease the bottom with the butter and sprinkle it with the caster sugar; shake the dish to get an even spread of sugar.

Place the eggs and vanilla sugar in a bowl and beat until pale and creamy Sprinkle on the flour, add the cream and the butterscotch schnapps and mix with the whisk to combine well.

Arrange the pears around the dish in an attractive pattern. Pour the batter over the top.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until set. Allow to cool, and serve sprinkled lightly with sugar, with or without icecream.

Brie and Asparagus Quiche

Surprisingly, because it isn't the season for them, there were bunches of asparagus in the shops this week, and at a pretty reasonable price. No I didn't do terribly immoral things by buying asparagus from the other side of the world... no, these had a pretty ok carbon footprint having come from Spain. So... what to make for a winter dinner with friends, using this delicious vegetable? I know... 

Brie and Asparagus Quiche

1 cup cream or sour cream

1 bunch of asparagas (500g)

200g brie

salt & pepper 3 eggs 300g shortcrust pastry

• Roll out the pastry and line a ceramic or glass quiche dish.
• Lay out the asparagus and tuck slices of brie between.
• Mix eggs & cream till nicely blended. Season with salt and pepper
• Pour egg mix into the quiche dish
• Bake in an oven at 200 degrees C for 25-30 minutes until nicely browned.
• Serve warm or cold as you like... delicious!

First experimentation with the new pasta machine - Foie Gras Ravioli with Pumpkin Veloute

Foie gras is a very traditional thing to eat at Christmas time in France and (at least southern) Switzerland. 

Last year I made tiny little foie gras and red onion tartlets (which I completely failed to photograph, how bad am I?) and this year I thought I would put my new pasta making machine to work and make foie gras ravioli. 

I started with a basic egg pasta dough: 

300g fine white flour 

3 eggs 

Place the flour in a heap on the work bench, and make a well in the centre. Break the eggs into the centre and then using your fingertips work the flour into the eggs. This is the really fun messy bit. Once incorporated, knead the dough, if necessary adding just a drop of water or two to get a good workable consistency. How long to knead? Till the dough stops feeling sort of grainy and starts feeling smooth.

Wrap up in plastic wrap and let sit for at least half an hour. Break the dough into two pieces (leaving one wrapped up) and set your pasta machine to the widest aperture. flatten the ball of dough out a bit so it can fit through and feed it through by cranking the handle on the machine. Once fed through, fold it in half and feed it through again. If the dough kind of catches on the rollers and has a rough knobbly surface, smooth just a little flour on to the dough before folding and feed through again. Do this 6 or 7 times... I promise you will know when it is done as your pasta dough will be smooth and silky. 

Then take the machine in a step and feed the pasta through again. In another notch and feed again... You might find you now have an unmanageably large length of dough; if so, cut it in half and put one half under a damp clean dishcloth while you deal with the other half. Keep taking the machine in a notch and feeding the pasta through until you have the finest sheet you can get. Don't worry if the edges are not perfect! 

Stage 2: the Ravioli 

1 bloc du foie gras (about 200g) 

1 batch egg pasta dough 

If you are making square or triangular ravioli you can simply place the sheet on the bench, brush it with water, put your ingredients on top, lay another sheet on top of that, and then press together and cut out the ravioli. In my case I wanted to make something a little more festive, so I cut out heart shapes. Then I (and my handsome assistant) brushed the edges of one heart with water and then placed pieces of bloc du foie gras on the pastry, leaving a good edge of pastry. We then placed another heart of pasta on top and pinched around the edges firmly. Sprinkle the hearts with flour to stop them sticking together then spread out on a tray and pop them in the freezer. Once frozen you can put them into a ziplock bag and keep them that way until ready to use. 

Stage 3: Pumpkin Veloute 

1 medium onion, finely diced 

1 butternut pumpkin (aka squash) 

1 tsp caster sugar drizzle of olive oil 

1 litre of chicken stock. 

In a large pan, soften the onion in the oil until translucent. Add the cubed pumpkin and sprinkle with the caster sugar. Stir the cubed pumpkin over medium heat until the pumpkin is browned and the sugar has caramelised. Pour over the chicken stock and raise the heat to bring to the boil. Simmer until the pumpkin has cooked completely then put through a ricer, after which you can use a stick blender to blend to a velvety smooth veloute. 

To complete the dish: Heat the veloute until warmed. 

Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Once it has reached boiling point, add the ravioli (still frozen). 

Cook for just a few minutes till al dente. Put out serving plates, add some of the veloute and then lay the ravioli on top in a decorative fashion. 

Grate a little nutmeg on top.

Photo courtesy of Ed.

Miniature pavlovas

Mini Pavlovas

4 egg whites
250g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk the egg whites until they reach soft peak. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture becomes stiff and glossy. Fold in the vanilla. Place teaspoonsfull on to baking sheets, making an indent in the centre of each meringue - dont worry if they are imperfect - they will smooth out in the baking. Bake for 5 minutes at 180 degrees, then turn the oven down to 120. Continue to bake for 20 minutes. Cool on the tray.

Top with stiffly whipped cream and fresh fruit just before serving.

(the meringues can be kept for a few days in an airtight container)

Pickled eggs with a slight asian twist

I have a bit of a plethora of eggs at the moment and, having already thrust half a dozen on a friend, I still needed to use up some.

So, I went for something obvious.. pickled eggs. A search on the internet produced some interesting recipes, including some including beetroot which looked rather fun. But I didn't have any beetroot, or bay leaves, or pickling spices. But am I the sort of person that would let a little thing like that put me off? Never! So here is the recipe I invented, and I must say that the pickling liquid tastes great... I will let you know how the eggs taste in a day or two.

Pickled eggs with an Asian Twist

6 eggs, boiled and peeled
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup white sugar
2 lime leaves
1 small piece of dried galingale
2 teaspoons dried lemon grass
a pinch of dried birds eye chillis

After boiling and peeling eggs, place in a wide mouthed jar (I had to use a plastic container having no glass jars around!). Put all the other ingredients into a small pot and bring up to a slow boil.



Boil for 5 minutes, then pour over the eggs. Pop the lid on and keep in the refrigerator for at least two days before eating.

Spiced pavlovas with leatherwood honey clementines

My original idea was to do pavlovas with figs on top because I had seen lots of figs in the shops and markets, but when it came to time to cook I went to shop after shop and found not a fig!

But clementines were everywhere, so pavlovas with clementines it became and oooh they were goooooood.

Spiced pavlovas with leatherwood honey and clementines (original recipe by Kiriel)

6 clementines
1tbsp leatherwood honey
2 tbsp sugar

400mls of cream

4 eggwhites
250 g fine sugar
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tsp cornflour
1 tsp cinnamon

Beat eggwhites until it is at soft peak. Little by little, add the sugar, beating well, until mixture is firm and shiny. Gently fold in the rest of the ingredients. Spoon onto silicone paper covered trays in rounds and then pipe a wall of meringue to make sort of nests. Bake for 50 minutes at 120 degrees C and then turn off the oven and allow to cool for 1 hour with the door slightly ajar.

Meringues just about to go in the oven.

To top the pavlova: peel 4 clementines and clean up the pieces so there is no pith. In a small saucepan, heat up 1 tablespoon of leatherwood honey, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 cup of mandarin juice (squeezing the 2 clementines left) and simmer until thick and syrupy. Put in the pieces of clemetine and simmer for 20 minutes until the fruit has absorbed plenty of the flavour of the sauce and softened.

Whip 400mls of cream with a little vanilla until it has soft peaks.

Give each guest their own pavlova, topped with the whipped cream, mandarin pieces and drizzled with syrup. Scatter with crushed honey-roasted macadamias and serve.

Eggcentric dish explained

For a while now I have had on the left hand side of my blog, a photo of a dish I made for one of our foodie dinners, but I have never posted up exactly what it is or how I made it. Finally I have done it.

The theme of the dinner was 'hidden secrets', and among other dishes, I decided (inspired by a dish a friend made for a dinner a long time ago) to produce these; yep, they look like half a dozen eggs, but what you cannot see until they were broken open is that they were filled with a white chocolate mousse and then had a yolk in the middle made of an orange marmalade & cognac mixture.

The white chocolate mousse was made like this:
Measure 1 tblspn crème de cassis liqueur into heavy small saucepan; sprinkle unflavoured gelatin over & let stand 5 minutes to soften. Add 3/4 cup cream & stir over low heat till gelatin dissolves. Add white chocolate & stir until melted & smooth. Transfer to medium bowl. Refrigerate until cool but not set, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.

Whip 1/2 cup whipping cream in medium bowl until soft peaks form. Add remaining 2 tblpns crème de cassis & whip until stiff peaks form. Fold whipped cream into white chocolate mixture.

Chai tea creams with sesame praline

These delicate tea scented creams looked lovely and tasted even better. I was going to call them English tea custards, but upon eating decided that they should be renamed chai creams because of the spicy flavour from the anise.

Chai Tea Creams (original recipe by Kiriel)

1 cup cream
1 cup milk
1 star anise
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 english breakfast tea bags
1 & 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
3 egg yolks

Put all the ingredients except for the egg yolks in a pot and heat gently, allowing the spices to steep and brown sugar to dissolve.

Whisk the egg yolks until smooth, and then whisk into the cream. Pour into ramekins. Place the ramekins in a deepish baking tray, and fill the dish with water till it reaches 3/4 of the height of the ramekins. Bake at a medium temperature for 45 minutes until creams are just set. Decorate with sesame praline and serve at room temperature. (how to make the sesame praline is in my post of 23 September)

Mixing it... mayonnaise

I am willing to reveal one of my dishes for the challenge dinner party. Potato salad. Ok, so that doesn't sound very challenging, I admit, but it is, more than it seems at first glance. After all, what does potato salad have to do with tea?

Green tea mayonnaise. So, time for a bit of inventing. What can we do to introduce green tea to mayonnaise? There are actually quite a few opportunities and I tried three, but only two of which I will include in the recipe below, as I concluded that the third wasn't very effective with dried tea. Can you guess what it was?

The ingredients

Green Tea Mayonnaise (Original recipe by Kiriel)

2 egg yolks
1 cup good quality oil
1/2 tsp salt
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar or lemon juice
1 dessertspoon of mustard
pepper
2 tablespoons green tea
2 tablespoons hot water

Put the vinegar/lemon juice in a small pot; add 1 tablespoon of green tea and heat to a simmer. Once warm take off the heat and allow the tea to steep in the vinegar until cool then strain.

Put 1 tablespoon of green tea into a cup and pour on the hot water. Allow to steep then strain. Chop finely.

Put the eggs, vinegar and salt in a bowl, and whisk till well blended and the mix lightens. Now add just a tiny bit of oil with one hand while you whisk with the other, until well blended and emulsified. Gradually, just a drip or two at a time, whisk in the oil. Once you have used up about 1/3 of the oil, you can be a little bolder, adding the oil in a thin stream, whisking constantly all the time.

Stir in the mustard and the green tea and grind some pepper in.

The final product

This mayonnaise should keep for up to a week in the fridge, and I guess the tea flavour is likely to increase over time.

French toast and salad

Feeling horribly unwell so I stayed home from work. After sleeping lots, I dragged my sorry butt out of bed to face the kitchen and a complete lack of culinary inspiration. I wanted something to eat that would be healthy, to get me well, but really really quick and easy to make. Thus french toast and salad were born. Salad consisting of the only two fresh vegies I had in the fridge, cherry tomatoes and snow peas.

French toast? Cmon, do I really need to give you a recipe? Just in case there is a loyal fan out there who doesn't know how to make it, here 'tis. For most people french toast is purely sweet, but I actually like mine herby. You gotta love a dish which can be both main course and dessert!

3 slices of bread
1 egg
1 tablespoon cream
1 tablespoon water
(I used the mix of cream and water because I didn't have any milk in the fridge; you could use 2 tablespoons of milk instead)
salt
pepper
1 tsp dried oregano

Put the cream and water in a small dish. Add the oregano and give it a few minutes to allow the herbs to soften. Add the egg, salt and pepper, and mix with a fork until well combined.

Take the sliced bread and run it through the egg mix, allowing it to coat the bread. Don't leave the bread in there for long, or it will go soggy. Pop straight into a lightly oiled and hot frypan. Cook one side until golden brown. Turn over and cook the other side. Serve piping hot.

For a sweet version, remove the herb, salt and pepper. Once cooked sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or icing sugar, or even drizzle with maple syrup.

Goat's cheese omelette

3 egg whites (left over from making ice-cream)
2 whole eggs
splash of cream (also left over from making ice-cream)
large pinch of mixed herbs
50g feta
salt & pepper

Combine eggs, herbs & seasonings. Whisk until the mixture is light, adding a splash of cream just before the end. Pour into lightly oiled warm frypan. Allow to cook until the edges are set, then chop up the feta and sprinkle over the omelette. Once the egg is lightly set, fold in half and serve.