07/10/09 – Tarte Aux Poires

The Pastry
250 gr plain flour
100 gr sugar
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
8 tblsp unsalted butter (cut into small cubes)
4 tblsp cold milk

The Pears
1 l water
250 g sugar
4 pears – peeled, cored and halved

The Custard
2 eggs
70 g sugar (vanilla sugar if you have it)
125 ml milk
125 ml double cream
90 g ground almonds
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (if you don’t have vanilla sugar)

Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and butter in the bowl or a food processor. Mix by hand for ages or process for 10 to 12 seconds until the mixture is dry and crumbly. Add milk and continue mixing 12 to 14 times until the dough begins to hold together, but before it turns into a ball. Remove dough from processor bowl and roll into a disk. Wrap with cellophane and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Combine water and sugar in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Submerge pear halves and poach for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Allow pears to cool in their syrup. When cool, remove from syrup and drain. You can use the remaining syrup as diluting juice (mmmm).

Take dough out of fridge and bring to room temperature. Roll the dough on a floured worktop until it is approx 3 mm thick and 32 cm in diameter. Transfer the dough to a 25 cm tart pan and gently press it into the bottom and fluted sides of the pan. Prick the bottom of the pan with a fork. Refrigerate for a further 15 minutes.

Blind bake the pastry at 375 C for 10 – 15 minutes.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together. Whisk in the milk and cream. Combine the almond powder with the vanilla powder and whisk the combination into the liquids. Et voila – custard!

Arrange the pear halves, flat side down in a circular pattern in the pastry shell. Carefully pour the custard into the shell to fill the spaces around the pears.

Bake until the custard is set, the top is golden, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean — about 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack before serving and eating (all in one go). Nice with a dollop of creme fraiche!!

07/10/09 – Orange Drizzle Cake

The Cake
250 gr butter
250 gr sugar
3 eggs
3 tablespoons cream
seeds from 1 vanilla pod
260 gr white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

The Drizzle
grated rind of 1 orange
juice of 2 oranges
juice of 1 lemon
70 gr sugar

Mix together softened butter and sugar with vigour. Add the eggs one at a time and then the cream and vanilla seeds (having split the pod down the middle and scrape out the seeds). Mix in flour and baking powder before pouring the whole lot into a lightly oiled cake tin. Bake for c. 50 minutes at 180 (fan assisted).

Meanwhile, grate your orange peel for decoration (I didn’t bother with this bit … ), combine the drizzle ingredients in a pan and heat.

Once your cake is ready, make 1000 (aprox) tiny holes with a toothpick before gently pouring over the drizzle. Leave to cool (if you can wait that long).

24/05/09 – Puerco Pibil Robert Rodriguez

5 tblspns annato seeds
2 tspns cumin seeds
1 tblspn whole black peppercorns
8 allspice
1/2 tspn whole cloves

Grind all this up in a coffee grinder
Up to 2 habanero peppers (these are really hot, be warned), deseeded and chopped up
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup white vinegar
2tblspns salt
8 cloves of garlic
juice of 5 lemons (or less, to taste)
splash of tequila

Place all the liquids and the ground up spices in a blender and blend it. 5 lbs pork butt (whats the translation?) Cut the pork into 2 inch squares Put it in a large ziplock bag and pour in the blended liquid. Line an oven dish with Banana Leaves Pour in the pork and fold it up in the leaves Cover the dish with tinfoil Roast it slowly for 4 hours at 160 Celsius – Serves 8 with rice.

29/03/09 – Hotsauce

It’s time to disclose the secret recipe – this one dovetails nicely with Greivesy Beans further down the page. The recipe works best of all if you first grow your own chillies but failing that you can buy them from a shop.

Take 6 red peppers. De-pip them and grill them gently for 10 minutes and while still hot put them in a plastic bag for 10 further minutes (makes the skin easier to take off). In a heavy bottomed pan, roast a handful of finely chopped chillies (or pounded if dry) and add a good few cloves of garlic. To this add the red pepper pulp (you can buy pre-pulped peppers in a can but this is considered cheating by many) and a few heaped tablespoons of white sugar. Add a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture of vinegar and water (a good idea to open the window at this point) and boil rapidly for a few minutes. Give the whole lot a good seeing to with a hand blender until there are no lumps. Simmer until texture is as desired. Using a funnel, pour into sealable bottles while the mixture is still hot (in temperature). Seal the bottle tops and leave to stand until your patience wears out. I’ve been told that these bottles of hot joy would make great presents but I find that they’re hard to let go of.

15/03/09 – Greivsy Beans

We always keep some of my beans frozen for emergencies. My wife highly recommends it.

Roughly chop some onion & slowly fry in oil in largish saucepan for 10mins. Add some cumin, chilli powder & garlic to taste & mix together. Turn up the heat then add the mostly drained beans trying to gently burn them for 5 mins as I find this adds to the flavour. Add 2 tins tomatoes & powdered Marigold stock (2 tspns) and bring to a bubbling state to rid the mix of some liquid for 15-20 mins.

Mash the mix roughly trying to break most of the beans apart but not making it too smooth. This can be left to cool before packing flat (for quick defrosting) in large ziplock freezer bags.

Nachos Baby!

Heat your delicious Greivsy Beans while pre heating the oven (180 – 200C) and large casserole dish. Take out the dish once its hot & delicately interlace your plain corn chips on the bottom. Add a good layer of grated cheese (we use mature but el cheapo is fine) as this will form a good crust for your Nachos Baby! Continue to lay chips then beans then cheese leaving off the last layer of cheese. Into the oven she goes for 15mins (keep an eye on it) at which point add your last layer of cheese. Crack the red, set the table & 5-7 mins later serve your Nachos Baby with sour cream (or plain yoghurt), jalapenos and salsa direct to the table. This will ensue that the dish is clean by the end as that cheesy crust is chipped away.

10/03/02 – Rye Bread

I thought I’d kick the recipe tab off with a basic. Bread! It’s easy, it’s quick and it’s essential.

The one we’re making today is half rye/half white. I like to use organic flour – Dove’s is good but Tesco’s own brand will do. Yeast is the key – the dry stuff works alright but the fresh stuff is way better – you can buy it from Harvey Nichols for a million quid or just ask the baker at Tesco’s and get it for free (reckon I know which one I’ll be going for …). So, on with the show:

In a bowl, mix 2 pints of half and half flour (rye and strong white) with a tablespoon of salt, a tablespoon of sugar (or syrup) and a tablespoon of yeast (heaped if fresh). Then add a pint of hand-hot water (nothing warmer than you’d bath your baby in or it’ll kill off the yeast). Give it a good stir with a fork and then tip it out onto a floured table top. Don’t worry about consistency if it’s all a bit runny – just keep adding flour until it feels right. Knead for about 10 minutes (or until you can’t be bothered anymore), divide your dough into two and put in a tin. Cover with a towel for as long as it takes the dough to rise. At this point you should really beat it down and leave to rise again but I don’t reckon it makes so very much difference. Pop your tins in the oven for about 30 minutes. Crust should be golden and loaves should sound hollow when tapped. Cool on a rack – chuck one in the freezer for later in the week and start eating the other one.