I always seem to purchase too much fruit for one person to reasonably eat, so end up with a glut of it on the verge of going off. In my search for a way to use up some pears, I came across this gluten free tart in a recipe on the Food Network site. It doesn't really have a cake texture, more of a squidgy/meringue-y/sticky goodness texture... and if that's not enough to sell it I don't know what is.
Pear Almond Tart:
2 ripe pears
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 tbsp sugar
2 cups ground almonds
6 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract
Preheat oven to 350F/180C and butter a 14"x3" pan or tart shell. Halve and core the pears, then toss with cardamom and 1 tbsp sugar. Blend together almonds, eggs, 1 3/4 cups sugar, and almond extract, then pour into your buttered pan. Press the pears into the batter, cut side up. Bake for 40-50 minutes.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Anna Olson's Pear Almond Tart
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Crème Brûlée
This recipe is from John Burton Race's book, French Leave. It was my first crack at making Crème brûlée, and I expected it to be difficult, but it was surprisingly easy! Seriously, I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true. It amazes me that I have had so many bad brûlées at restaurants in the past (seriously - scrambled egg consistency at a high end restaurant that I won't name!). This is going to be a bad bad thing for me, as I will likely start keeping full cream in my fridge at all times and make this very regularly. Methinks that will not help me on the road to losing the baby weight...
Crème Brûlée (Serves 4):
2 egg yolks
90 grams caster sugar (seeing as we are in North America I used fine berry sugar)
1 vanilla pod (I used vanilla extract about a teaspoon)
70 mL milk
175 mL double cream
Put the egg yolks and 40g of the sugar into a bowl with the vanilla and whisk to a smooth paste. Add the milk, whisk in the cream (thicken a bit, but it won't be like whipped cream), pour into four ramekins and refrigerate for an hour before cooking.
Preheat the oven to 300F/150C and put the ramekins in a shallow pan filled with water to a depth of about 2.5 cm (1 inch) as shown. The brûlées will take about an hour in the oven to set. When cooked, remove from the oven and let the brûlées cool to room temperature.
When you are about ready to serve, sprinkle the tops with the remaining sugar and put them either under a very hot broiler or use a torch to caramelize the sugar. Using high heat is important because you want to create the sugar crust on top, but not warm the custard through and make it runny. Serve right away.
This is so good I am thinking about making it for breakfast now, thank goodness I don't have any cream on hand and I have a baby that will be back up to eat again any second!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Ratatouille Tarte
As mentioned last week, I took the Ratatouille I made, and used some of it in a tarte. Really, a tarte is pretty much the same as a quiche for all intents and purposes. In this case I threw some goat cheese in with it because who doesn't love goat cheese with roasted veggies? I served it up with a nice little spinach, bacon, pine nut and goat cheese salad for lunch when my mom came over. Isn't this such a girls lunch?
Ratatouille Tarte:
Buy or make a pie crust (I buy, I am crap at pastry)
Add your fillings (ratatouille and goat cheese) so that they cover a good deal of the bottom of the tarte, but don't pile up above the rim of the crust.
Mix up eggs and cream at a ratio of two eggs per quarter cup of cream so that you get a consistency that isn't quite the same as an omelet. Give it a good whip so that it comes out light and fluffy. The amount you need will depend on the size of crust you use - I made two at once (and froze one after baking), and used seven eggs in total.
Bake in a 400 F oven until it is set (about 40 minutes). I cover it in foil for the first half and then uncover it to brown for the second half.
Throwing an extra in the freezer after they are done baking is a great way to have a little snack on hand for when you get surprise lunch guests, and all you need to do when you are ready for it is throw it in the oven covered in foil at 350 until it is reheated.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Quiche with Beets & Chèvre
For a recent pot luck lunch at work, I decided to make mini quiches as they're extremely easy to make and I already had all the ingredients at home. (Except pastry, and to save time I just bought pre-made shells.) I started off making Asparagus & Boursin Quiche, but when I ran out of boursin cheese I was forced to think on my feet. Our beet harvest came up last weekend, so with a fridge full of them it seemed like the easiest thing to use. Luckily, quiches are extremely forgiving and it's easy to simply toss things together.
Beetroot & Chèvre Quiche (makes 8-9 appetizer size):
2-3 medium beets, peeled & chopped
100g goat cheese
splash red wine
1 egg
salt & pepper
fresh sage, chopped
Put the peeled & chopped beets in a saucepan with water and a bit of red wine. Bring to the boil and let simmer around 20 minutes until cooked, then remove and blitz in the food processor. In a bowl, blend together the beet puree, cheese, egg, a splash of red wine, and add the seasonings to taste. Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. Prebake the pastry shells for 10 minutes to crisp them up, then add the filling and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the centres spring back. Before baking, I added garnishes of cooked carrot flowers - cute!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Eggs and Soldiers
Breakfast in less than 10 minutes! A soft boiled egg, 5 spears of asparagus, and a slice of toast: this is a nice sit-down breakfast that is also quick and healthy. I cut my toast into dip-able spears as well so I wouldn't miss out on any of that liquid yellow heaven.
For a soft boiled egg, 
bring a small pot of water to a simmer then add the egg and cook for 6 minutes. While the egg is cooking, make a slice of toast and with 3 minutes left on the egg drop the asparagus into the pot of simmering water to cook. When the timer goes, everything is ready to eat. Once done, drop the egg into a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. Remove & serve.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Asparagus and Goat Cheese Omelets
All I did was brush the asparagus with olive oil, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, and roast it for 3 minutes at 500 F. Then I folded them into the middle of an omelet with a sprinkling of goat cheese. I also topped the omelets with a bit of crumbled goat cheese because goat cheese is so tasty, that a little extra never hurts. Look at the little ends waving to me from inside, proud to have been the ones up early enough to be cut prior to the snow. I know, I need to move past this! 
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Egg & Toast Salad
I really did not feel like cooking dinner last night, but I also didn't feel like having plain eggs & toast... which is about all I had in the house that was quick. I decided to make this boring weekday dinner into a salad - all the while thinking it was going to be horrible. It happened to be a great variation, and a good way to make dinner a little more seasonal.
Egg & Toast Salad:
3 poached quail eggs
2 large handfuls salad leaves
1/2 english muffin, toasted & brushed with olive oil
grated parmesan
Dressing:
whole grain dijon mustard
sea salt
red wine
Friday, April 3, 2009
Pump up your mcmuffin
For weekday breakfast number three, I decided that eggs are not actually too much work for a weekday if you are just doing a quick fry up. Plus, while it is still cool out, I wanted to include a warm breakfast option because to me it seems really luxurious to get up in the morning and get to have a hot breakfast before work. I am lucky my office isn't in one of those that has a little cafe in the bottom that offers a breakfast special or I would be all over the eggs, bacon, sausage and hash browns every day (which is probably a bit excessive, especially in the breakfast meats category).
Calling this a mcmuffin at all is a bit off base I guess since I substituted a whole grain flax bagel for the english muffin base. I just wanted to give it a little more whole grain goodness, and I skipped slathering it with butter. I topped the bagel with some baby spinach leaves to pump up the veggie factor, and then thinly sliced some really strong white cheddar. When I popped the egg on top, it melted the cheddar a bit, so it stayed together a bit better. Season with a bit of salt and pepper, and I like to soft fry the egg if I am not taking my breakfast to go, and then break the yoke open so that the vibrant yellow spills out all over the plate and I get to mop it up with the last bits of bagel crust.
Friday, March 13, 2009
A Seriously Easy Quiche
More asparagus... but this is the last of it for this week. I have never tried making a quiche before, but I was certain it couldn't be too difficult - and I was right! I was feeling pretty impressed with myself as I ate this.
Because Boursin (I used the regular garlic & herb, but I am sure the others would be tasty as well) has so much flavour, I literally did not add anything else to this. Just the asparagus, cheese and eggs, and bam! Instant quiche. Next time I'm entertaining, this will be making a reappearance in appetizer form, possibly with courgettes instead of asparagus.
Asparagus & Boursin Quiche (2 x 4.5"):
65g asparagus, chopped
1/2 pack/75g Boursin cheese
2 eggs
splash of milk
I won't post the recipe I used for the pastry, as it didn't turn out at all and I ended up having to just push pieces of it around the cases and squish them together. Just use your favourite savoury shortcrust pastry recipe, or store bought.
Oh, okay... here's 
the pastry recipe:
150g flour
90g cold butter, cubed
1 egg yolk
pinch salt
water
It may work for you. I only had 2 regular eggs left and I had used them up for the filling, so instead of an egg yolk I used 1 quail egg. Haha, perhaps that had something to do with my failure? Bring the flour and butter together until they reach the breadcrumb stage, then add the egg yolk and salt. If you need to, you can add some water to help the dough combine.
Brush the cases with oil, lay the pastry in and all the way up the sides. Line the pastry with parchment paper and weigh it down (I used pennies as I don't have baking beans). Bake at 375F/190C for 15 minutes until pale golden.
In a bowl, whisk together the boursin and eggs and add some milk if you need to pad out the filling. I added enough milk to ensure that both quiches would be full to the top of the pastry - probably less than a quarter cup. While the pastry is baking, bring some water to the boil and cook the asparagus for around 3 minutes. Remove pastry from oven, add the asparagus and pour over the cheese & egg mixture. Bake at 400F/200C for 15-20 minutes.
Monday, March 9, 2009
A Grown-up Egg McMuffin
On Saturday morning I had a craving for an egg mcmuffin - but not the regular greasy (yum) kind. I wanted something a bit more grown up. Because it was snowing like crazy I definitely did not want to leave the house, so I just made do with what I had. It turned out to be perfect... and almost ridiculously delicious. I poached the egg instead of frying it, and added goat cheese, sage, and tomato. I am sure this one will be staying in my repertoire.
Egg McMuffin:
1 toasted english muffin
1 poached egg
goat cheese
sage
tomato
salt & pepper
This was my first time poaching an egg. I suppose I was always worried they wouldn't turn out, and didn't want to waste eggs (why yes, I am very cheap thrifty). It was a lot easier than I had thought. In a shallow pan, bring a few inches of water with salt to a simmer over high heat. Lower the heat to medium, add a splash of vinegar, and gently pour the egg into the water. Supposedly, the vinegar keeps the egg together. Cook 3-5 minutes with a lid on until it reaches your desired firmness of yolk. If you want to rinse off the vinegar taste, just drop the cooked egg into a bowl of cool water before serving.
While the egg is cooking, bash up the sage with some sea salt and mix with the goat cheese, and get the english muffin toasting. Spread the cheese on the toasted muffin and place a slice or two of tomato on the other side. When the egg is cooked, add it to the muffin and season with salt & pepper. Done!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Breakfast Casserole - How Retro
I know that casseroles in general seem a bit retro, but I expect them to be making a big comeback this year in the wake of the "economic crisis" and the fact that casseroles are generally economical, filling, and fast for those that are dual income families (meaning no full time cook). I think I will be trying to dig up a couple of good ones over the next little while to help support my prediction. This one happens to be a great breakfast casserole that is extra great because you prep it the night before so that you can sleep in a bit on the morning of your breakfast/brunch. My mom always makes it for us to eat Christmas morning, and it has become a bit of a tradition at our house.
Wife Saver Casserole:
16 Slices of bread (crusts removed)
16 Slices of back bacon or ham (cooked)
16 Slices of sharp cheddar cheese
6 Eggs
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 cup Onion (minced)
1/4 cup Green Pepper (finely chopped)
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3 cups Milk (whole or 2%)
A dash of hot sauce
1/4 lb Butter
Cornflakes (crushed)
In 9 X 13 buttered baking dish, put 8 pieces of bread (covering the bottom of the dish entirely). Cover bread with cooked back bacon or ham slices. Lay slices of cheddar cheese on top, then cover with the remaining slices of bread (to make it like a sandwich).
In a bowl, beat, eggs, salt and pepper. To egg mixture, add dry mustard, onion, green pepper, Worcestershire sauce, milk and hot sauce. Pour over the 'sandwiches'. Cover and let it stand in the fridge overnight.
In the morning, preheat the oven to 350F.
Melt 1/4 lb butter and pour over top. Cover with crushed corn flakes (or Special K cereal). Bake 1 hour in 350F oven. 
Let stand for 10 minutes before serving or it will slide apart as you remove portions from the baking dish. I left out the green peppers this time to suit one of my guests. It was delish!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Quick Quaint Quail Eggs
This week was Christmas Pot Luck at work and I wanted to make something that is tasty, quick, and not going to break the bank. It's also a little different from the usual fare, which I always enjoy. Most of the people I know have never tried quail eggs, but they're pretty much just like regular eggs - only cuter!
Put 24 eggs in a large saucepan of simmering water and cook for 5 minutes. While they are cooking, make the salt dip(s) by just grinding all ingredients together using a mortar & pestle or spice grinder.
Sesame Salt:
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1/2 tsp sea salt
Coriander Salt:
2 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted until fragrant (~2 min) in a fry pan
1 1/2 tbsp sea salt
1 tsp demerara sugar
When the eggs are done, drain, then run cold water over the eggs to stop them from cooking. It's easiest to peel them now, under the running water. The shells are a bit thicker than regular eggs, so the peeling is what takes the longest as you want to keep them looking pretty. I made these the night before and used the egg tray to transport & serve them at work, and stuck toothpicks in them to serve. Easy peasy!
