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, June 23, 2010
Avocado Pear Salad
A few weeks ago I was over at Court's for a family dinner and forced(!) onto salad duty. Without any pre-planning, we had to work with what she had on hand, and also work around preferences that include no balsamic vinegar and no strong cheese. Surprisingly, this was a hit with everyone. I say surprisingly because Court's husband claims to not like pears or avocado, and my dad claims to not like avocado and cheese.
Avocado Pear Salad:
1 head romaine lettuce
1 avocado, chopped
1 pear, chopped
goat cheese
Sweet Vinaigrette: (my new go-to)
2 tbsp minced onion
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
salt & pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Mango & Papya Salad
Summer weather calls for easy summer flavours. The other day I read an article indicating that North Americans get most of their "phytonutrients" from sources that are not as rich as they could be. One of the switches they recommended was to eat more papya instead of oranges, so last time I was at the store I went and bought me a papya. What to do with a papya though.... Well, mangos were on sale as well, and I regularly get avocado and feta, and that's all this salad takes! It tastes so tropical and fresh, and the saltiness of the feta keeps it from being too sweet. This is the way summer should taste, and this is the amount of time summer cooking should take. I plan to have this with fish next time I BBQ.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Quince Clafoutis
Quince is not something I'd ever cooked with, or even tasted, before. Naturally that meant that when I saw some at Sobey's I had to purchase it. And then it sat for ages in my fruit bowl until finally I figured they would need to be used before they starting going off. I decided to poach these (as they cannot be eaten raw) and use them in an adapted clafoutis. It's a French recipe that's a little bit asian, with star anise in the poached quince and Zen Green Tea liqueur in the clafoutis.
Step 1: Poaching the quince.
4 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
a couple of star anise or stick of cinnamon
3 quince
I tried to peel these, then got lazy and gave up. They were simply chopped and cored and dropped in the poaching liquid, then simmered for an hour plus. These need to be drained very well, as they retain a lot of liquid. I let them sit overnight in the fridge to get as much liquid out as I could. They have a lovely fragrant flavour and would be delicious on their own just after poaching, but I didn't want the extra liquid to ruin the clafoutis.
Step 2: Making the clafoutis.
3 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
6 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp Zen Green Tea Liqueur
3 quince, poached
Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. Butter a 1 quart/1 litre dish and sprinkle the bottom and sides with sugar. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, then mix in the flour, cream, zest, salt, and liqueur. Set that aside and line the dish with your poached quince. Pour the batter over the quince and bake around 40-45 minutes until the custard is firm and golden.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Pear Clafoutis
Court and I invited the family over for a spur of the moment french dinner, featuring rabbit stew and this clafoutis for dessert. When we were deciding on what to make, we wanted something relatively simple since we were putting most of our effort into cooking rabbit for the first time. We remembered Chris' experiments in clafoutis back in June and decided to try our own.
Pear Clafoutis (adapted from Ina Garten):
1 tbsp butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar, plus enough to line dish
3 eggs
6 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
seeds from 1 vanilla pod
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp cognac
2-3 ripe Bartlett pears
Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. Butter a 1 quart/1 litre dish and sprinkle the bottom and sides with sugar. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, then mix in the flour, cream, vanilla seeds, zest, salt, and cognac. Set that aside and peel and slice the pears to line the dish. Pour the batter over the pears and bake around 30-40 minutes until the custard is firm and golden.
We used vanilla seeds instead of extract and added the cognac, and then tried to convince ourselves that fruit desserts are always healthy.
Monday, November 2, 2009
English Apple Cake
With my bags of apples from Superstore I needed some simple recipes. Attempting to bake in the midst of messy home renos was trying, to say the least. Luckily, Nigel Slater did not fail me; I often find his simple, thrown-together meals are the tastiest.
I've now made this three times as it is so quick & easy. The apples don't need to be peeled, just cored & roughly chopped, and while it needs an hour of baking time it only takes 10 minutes of prep. It also adapts well to changes, which is not always true of baking. I changed the pan from an 8" square to an 8" round as that was what I had unpacked, and switched lemon juice for lime juice (which I now prefer).
Nigel Slater's English Apple Cake:
130g butter
130g sugar
3-4 medium apples
juice of half a lemon or lime
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 eggs
130g flour
1 tsp baking powder
Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Line an 8" round springform pan by just pushing parchment paper inside so it comes up the sides of the pans. It doesn't matter if this isn't pretty, as this cake is pretty rustic anyway. There is no need to grease the pan, making for easier clean-up as well.
Core and chop the apples and put in a bowl with the lemon or lime juice. Toss with cinnamon & brown sugar and set aside while you cream the butter & sugar well, then beat in the eggs. Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold into the mixture. Scrape the batter into the pan and dump the apples on top with a little extra sugar. Bake 1 hour. You may be unsure about done-ness as it's difficult to tell with all the apples on top, but each time I've made this 1 hour has been perfect. 
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Spiced Applesauce
We're back! After a month-long hiatus (and some pretty sporadic posting in September), I am hoping to get back into the swing of things by participating in National Blog Posting Month. We were pretty busy in October - me with home renovations and Court with her new baby girl - and with the holiday season coming up things will probably stay that way. Hopefully we'll be up for the challenge.
Discovering orchard bins of apples at Superstore has meant a glut of baking for me recently. Who can resist apples at $0.54/lb? They're a little banged up, but perfect for cakes, pies, and (obviously) apple sauce. I tweaked this a bit by using Lyle's Golden Syrup (which I could eat by the spoon) instead of sugar and cardamom instead of cinnamon. This was warm, fragrant, and delicious... and perfect for autumn.
Applesauce:
4 apples, peeled/cored/chopped
3/4 cup water
2-3 tbsp Lyle's golden syrup
cardamom, to taste
Add apples and water to a saucepan over medium heat and cook until soft. Bash up with a spoon over the heat and add the syrup and cardamom, both to taste.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Bavarian Apple Torte
Oh the baking we are doing! Last weekend my block had a block party, and someone with an apple tree brought apples to share with everyone. I love free produce! Of course, apple pies will be made, but this dessert is another I love to make with apples. It combines the goodness of apple pie with my weakness - cheesecake - and still manages to taste like a light summertime dessert. I am pretty sure this recipe exists with about a million minor variations, but here is the one I got from my mom years ago and have been using ever since.
Bavarian Apple Torte:
Crust:
1/2 cup margerine or butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Filling:
8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Topping:
4 cups thinly sliced, peeled, tart apples
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Additional Topping:
1/4 cup sliced almonds
My version is probably a bit heavier on the apple topping, and a bit easier on the cream cheese filling than some. Yes, it does make me feel like I am making a "healthier" dessert despite all the sugar.
Combine the crust ingredients and press into a spring form pan to bake for 5 minutes at 350 F. Cool and then top with the cream cheese filling (combined) and then the apple topping (combined). Finally sprinkle the sliced almonds on the top and bake at 450 F for 10 minutes followed by 400 F for 25-30 minutes.
This dessert needs to sit in the fridge overnight if you want it to serve nicely. If you don't care if it slides around, you can serve it the day you make it. I will admit, I do that sometimes and just serve it in bowls. Not as pretty, but just as tasty.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Berry Picking Brings Pie
Ever since winter, Court has been talking about visiting some U-Picks as neither of us had been before. Because we work on the west end, she chose South Windermere Gardens as our destination. We both expected that picking would take a couple hours, but in under 30 minutes we had an ice cream pail full of strawberries each, and another half hour got us each about 1/2 a pail of saskatoon berries. When I got home that night, I quickly cleaned and froze everything (except a couple days' worth of strawberries) as I had no immediate plans for anything.
This was several weeks ago, and I've been so busy lately I hadn't done anything wi
th my pickings. With a move coming up next month, I figured I should try to consume most of my perishables just to avoid having to pack up frozen goods for transport. My freezer is packed full of fruit and vegetables from this year (and last years!) harvests, so it seemed like a good time to try making a berry pie for the first time.
Saskatoon Rhubarb Pie Filling (1 x 9" pie):
500g saskatoon berries
300g rhubarb, cut in 2cm lengths
1/4 c water
3/4 c sugar
3 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 425F/210C. Put the fruit and water in a large pot and simmer 10 minutes, then stir in the sugar, cornflour, and lemon juice. Pour the filling into a pastry lined pan, wet the edges with water, and seal the top pastry layer on. Bake 15 minutes at 425F, then reduce the heat to 350C/180C and bake for a further 35 minutes.
I got very lazy and bought a pie crust, which was a mistake. I am not that fond of flaky pastry crusts and much prefer a shortbread pie crust. However, I have yet to find a good recipe for one and am no longer in the UK where they can be found at the supermarket. I've learnt my lesson though - this filling was good but the crust had that not-so-delicious store-bought taste.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Raspberry Peach Crisp
I know, I have been lax in my posting lately. It's been hard to avoid, we have been doing a lot of gardening (picking and preserving), and still trying to enjoy the little bit of summer we have been getting here on and off. To add to that, I'm now in trimester three of the pregnancy and am suddenly really starting to feel gigantic and immobile! Okay, enough with the excuses. In light of the fact that I bought a whole pile of peaches from the farmer's market in a fit of craving, and a few of them were getting dangerously close to the end of their lifespan, I ran out back and picked some raspberries and threw together a lovely raspberry peach crisp last night (no it wasn't my supper.... fine, it totally was my supper! I was dining solo and it fit the bill).
I know Brooke posted a rhubarb ginger crumble not too long ago, but crisps and crumbles really are such a great easy way to enjoy summer fruit in all its glory. I love that it is the type of baking that allows me to proceed the same way I do when I cook (throw things in rather than measuring). I did start with a recipe that I found on Tastespotting (and split in half):
Raspberry Peach Crisp
for the fruit:
6 ripe peaches- not overly ripe -sliced
1 pint raspberries
1 -2 T flour -depending how juicy the peaches are
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
for the crisp:
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup flour
1t cinnamon
1 cup oatmeal (not instant - Court: I totally used Quick Oats)
Preheat oven to 350
Toss the fruit in a bowl with the flour and sugar- try not to break up the berries.. Put it in an ovenproof about 9 x 13 baking dish- or individual oven proof bowls
Mix butter, sugars, 1 t cinnamon until well combined. Add the flour and oatmeal. Crisp topping should be fairly dry, but when pinched together it should stick together. Spread topping over the fruit with a light hand- don’t pat down- it should look crumbly.
Bake for about 25-35 minutes until juices are bubbly and topping is crisp. Serve warm with ice cream.
I made mine in a small round baking dish (that I threw in the freezer after making for post baby entertaining), and then had two servings that I made in little single serve dishes to enjoy last night and tonight.
I love pairing peaches and raspberries because the tartness of the raspberries go so well with the sweetness of the peaches in my opinion. Oh yeah, the creaminess of the melty ice cream doesn't hurt either :-)
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Rhubarb Ginger Crumble
Over the weekend we finally chopped down all of Court's rhubarb, and ended up with a harvest of just over 2 kilos. Result! This is one of my favourite recipes; it has been adapted from Delia Smith's Rhubarb and Almond Crumble - I have changed it to Rhubarb Ginger Crumble as the major change is that I've tripled the amount of ginger from the original recipe. So tasty that even Court said she may not hate rhubarb as much as she thought.
Rhubarb Ginger Crumble:
1 kg rhubarb
125 g sugar
1 rounded tbsp fresh grated ginger
125 g almonds (whole or chopped)
80 g chilled butter, cubed
180g self raising flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1-2 tsp ground ginger
125 g dark brown sugar
Preheat the oven to 400F/200C. Chop the rhubarb into 1 inch (2.5cm) lengths. Mix with the sugar and fresh ginger and set aside. In a food processor, add the almonds, butter, flour, cinnamon, ginger, and brown sugar and process until the almonds are mostly finely chopped.
In an 8"x11" baking dish, press the rhubarb mixture firmly in so it is spread evenly. Sprinkle the crumble mixture all over the rhubarb and press it down firmly all over; the more tightly it is packed together the crisper it will be. Finally, lightly run a fork all over the surface. Bake the crumble in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes. Leave it to rest for 10 minutes and then serve.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Happy Trails
Trail mix is so awesome that I could eat an entire bowl of it. And we did this past weekend; so tasty, but possibly not the greatest idea to eat that much of it at once. This was the first time I'd made it myself, so it was a lot cheaper than store bought and had some more interesting ingredients. I bought the nuts in bulk at Superstore and then added whatever I found in my cupboards. We had a mix of salted and unsalted nuts, and then dried blueberries (because Court is weird and doesn't like raisins), pears, and chocolate for sweetness. The perfect (trail) mix.
Trail Mix:
1c raw peanuts, skin on, unsalted
1c sea salt almonds, skin on
1c salted cashews
1/2 cup smarties
1/2 cup dried blueberries
1/2 cup sunflower seeds, unsalted
1/4 cup dried pears
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Spice Up Your Spinach Salad
My garden lettuce is still in miniature, but the spinach has been up for weeks and seems to be growing faster than I can eat it. After a weekend of overindulging I've been off desserts and dairy, so here's a rare salad that doesn't include cheese. Topping my spinach is a quick dressing of pureed mango with curry powder, fresh ginger, and a little olive oil. The remainder of the mango was sliced and added to the salad along with steamed chicken breast. For dessert, a handful of raw almonds... so healthy I'm feeling a little too angelic now.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Ripe Strawberries
The other day Superstore had strawberries on sale, and they actually smelled like strawberries, so I got a big container of them. I have since been enjoying them cut up on cereal, in yogurt, with spinach salad, and with cream and sugar, but I wanted to try another savory option. I know that strawberries and balsamic vinegar are a good pairing, but I threw in some goat cheese as well, just to shake things up a bit. It made for a delicious flavourful little afternoon snack that I will certainly try again in the future.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Grilled Peach & Feta Salad
It feels like summer is just around the corner, and with summer my appetite for salads has returned in full force. I seem to hardly eat salad at all in the winter months, but lately I have found myself often having them for 2 meals a day. It doesn't hurt that almost any combination of greens & fruit works, especially with the addition of cheese.
Grilled Peach & Feta Salad (serves 1):
2 handfuls spinach or other greens
1 peach, sliced
red onion
40-50g feta or chevre
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
pepper, chopped mint
Warm peaches are extra delicious, so I grilled the slices on the hob for a couple of minutes and then tossed them into the salad and seasoned with pepper and fresh mint from my balcony garden.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Feel Good About Weekday Breakfast!
Weekday breakfasts can be tricky. It is difficult to come up with meals that take less than 5 minutes to make, but are still tasty and healthy. This weekend I did some thinking about what kind of breakfasts I could have this week to shake things up. None of these involve reinventing the wheel, just making sure that simple items are done up to taste good and look good so that your morning meal is a pick me up instead of bogging you down. Each of these contains food items from a minimum of three food groups too.
Today's was a simple toasted 12 grain bagel half, spread nice and thick with light cream cheese, and then topped with fresh blackberries (which I got on sale at the grocery last week). They looked like shiny little jewels perched atop the bagel! The best part was the combo of the creamy cheese and the crunchy toasted bagel with the juicy squirt of the blackberries as you bite into one. Delish from beginning to end! As an alternative, if I had some extra brie to use up I have substituted that in the past for the cream cheese. It makes for a slightly more savory breakfast.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Reinvention!
The entertaining just does not stop over here! My parents were visiting from down south, so I hosted some family dinners in celebration of that. The first time I did not have enough appetizers to appease my father until dinner, so this time I was determined not to have that problem again. Although I had one appie on the roster (the shrimp blossoms), I figured last minute that I would add another by revising one of my favourite lunches ever so slightly.
I have posted in the past about my love of mango with brie as a flatbread at lunch, so it was a quick change to make that into a little appetizer. I left out the onion, since it would be a bit fiddly to add, and simply cut up pieces of yellow pepper, mango and brie to pile on a little square of flatbread. I picked yellow pepper instead of red so that the whole thing was yellow, which I thought made it extra cute.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Apple Pork Chops
I work normal working hours, and my husband works shift work, so our schedules differ pretty significantly. In the interest of eating well, and not having cereal for supper except in the rare dire dinner emergency (like two straight weeks of -30 weather keeping us from the store), I have enacted a cooking rule. My rule is basically that if one of us is working, and the other has the day off, the day off person is in charge of making dinner. Now, if we are both working or neither of us is working, I am generally still in charge, but I do feel that if I am working all day and someone else isn't, it wouldn't kill them to see that I get to come home to a hot meal on the table. The thing is that my husband is actually a very good cook, it's just that he only chooses to use his talent a couple times a month. It's all very go hard or go home. This week he decided to make me one of his favourite recipes: Apple Pork Chops. It is based on the recipe "Old-School Pork Chops with Apple and Sage" from the Cook with Jamie cookbook (since he will only make food endorsed by Jamie Oliver), but with changes based on what we had stocked in the pantry. Many people are put off by pork chops, thinking that they have to be cooked until they are all dried out to be safe, but with meat being as it is today, you can actually cook them less, and discover that pork chops can be juicy and delicious!
Old-School Pork Chops with Apple:
Four 9-ounce pork chops
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
2 good eating apples (e.g. McIntosh or Cox), cored and each cut into 8 wedges
knob of butter (a couple of tablespoons)
sprinkling of cinnamon
thyme leaves (optional)
Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C. Lay the pork chops out on a board and, using a sharp knife, make 1-inch-deep cuts all along the fatty side of them. This is the key to these delicious chops as it helps to render the fat out and will also make the skin crispy. Sprinkle the chops with salt and pepper.
Pour the olive oil into a hot frying pan. Carefully place your chops in it and cook them for 2 to 3 minutes each side on high until golden brown. If you need to, open out the little pieces of fat along the edge so they don't stick together.
When the chops are nearly done, lift them out of the pan and put them in an oiled baking pan. Add the apple wedges and a knob of butter to the frying pan and fry until lightly golden. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Lay 4 wedges of apple on top of each pork chop. If I have some thyme from the garden or in my freezer, I will sprinkle some leaves on each one.
Put the baking pan into the oven for 4 to 6 minutes until everything is golden and melted.
Eating pork dressed with such sweet flavors is amazing. I find that more and more people are shying away from pork, but I am in the opposite boat, where the more ways I learn to cook it and keep it moist and a bit fatty, the more I appreciate it as a meat. I am hoping to see pork regain some popularity this year as people go back to more budget friendly comfort foods. I like to pair this dish with a side that is a bit tangy, like Jamie's french green bean salad, which I hope to post the next time we make it.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Cranberry Sauce
There was once a time when I hated cranberry sauce, but this is what changed my mind. And it is not for turkey alone! It's also terrific with duck and beef, and makes a great addition to sandwiches when you're consuming the leftovers. I made this a day in advance simply to help save time preparing Christmas dinner, and served it chilled. Usually I prepare it to be ready with the meal, as I prefer it warm.
Cranberry Sauce:
2 bags/700 g fresh cranberries
3/4 cup/165 g sugar
1 bottle/750 ml red wine
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
grated zest and juice of 2 oranges
In a saute pan, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and gently simmer uncovered for 1 hour stirring occasionally.
Friday, December 26, 2008
My Favourite Avocado Salad
After many days of eating like a pig, I really felt like having a salad today. This is my favorite salad of all time. It has evolved from the Joey's Diva (Viva now?) salad, but at this point it only has a couple of the original ingredients. I frequently serve it over top of whatever salad greens are in season, but having been by the grocery store the other day, there were not any appealing looking greens to be had. No worries though, the greens are mostly filler anyway.
Avocado Salad (a large salad for one):
1 avocado chopped
1 small pear chopped (apple could substitute for a more crisp taste)
3 dried apricots finely chopped
1 tablespoon toasted pine nuts
feta to taste
Optional: crispy warm bacon bits (make them, do not shake them out of a container)
To toast the pine nuts, place them on a baking sheet on "broil" and keep an eye on them until they start to brown. This will only take seconds. Top the salad with a drizzle of olive oil and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
I am not the kind of person that will eat a pile of greens all by themselves. For me to eat a salad, I like to have some cheese in it and/or nuts and/or meat. With this one, if I throw the bacon bits on it, I get all three. If you are serving this salad at a dinner party, do not make it too far in advance or everything will brown.
