Pear Tart Bourdaloue, Version

Pear and Almond tart,
amongst many other things I learnt this version from friend and chef Shane O'Neill, unlike the original his is baked in an upside down manner and is pastry less gaining the coeliac friendly tag.The great flavour combination tree of pears and almonds with lots of caramelized buttery sweetness brings me back to it.
We've covered frangipane earlier this month and we'll use a double batch of that for this Bourdaloue.
The only new thing for us to deal with is the poaching of the pears.
Poached Pears
Ingredients
4 rocha pears, peeled halved and cored
500ml water
200gm sugar
1/2 cinnamon stick
12 backpeppercorns
1 bayleaf
1 star anise
2 cardamom pods
2 strips orange peel
1/2 vanilla pod
Method
Put the water, sugar and all the dry ingredients into a pot and bring to the boil add the peeled and halved pears return to the boil put the lid on ,reduce heat to simmer for approx 5~8 mins depending on the ripeness of the pears.Leave
to cool in the liquid, when they are cool remove from the liquid ( keep the liquid,for poaching fruits either in the fridge or freezer for future use) and leave to drain.Before using dab off excess moisture with a clean cloth or paper towel.
To make the tart.
Preheat your oven to 170°c.
Make a double batch of Frangipane.
Line a 10'' / 25cm deep sided baking tin/spring form with parchment paper (take a sheet of parchment paper it needs to be 2'' 5cm wider than the base, fold it in half then into a quarter fold it four more times by doing this you will be able to fit it into you baking tin easier).
Put 3 tablespoons of frangipane in the center of the tin arrange the pear cut half up with the stalk end facing in.Spoon in the rest of the frangipane pressing gently around the edges.
Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 40 -45 mins, it will be firm to touch in the middle.If you feel unsure turn the oven down to 150°c and leave for a further 10 mins.
Remove from the oven, leave to cool, then taking care turn out onto a plate. pear side up.
serves 12, serve with Vanilla ice-cream, or on its own with a coffee. Keeps well in the fridge for 4 or 5 days.

oh crumbs, the cupboards bare!

Often it has to be said there's nothing to eat save for a bit of stale bread, with little in the fridge or cupboards, crumbs it will be and i'm not disapointed,coarse crumbs fried add wonderful texture and taste to a dish, try fried tomato bread crumbs sprinkled over 'cauliflower cheese', or the classic pommes 'Delmonico' (diced potatoes cooked in milk finished under the grill with crumbs on top) make the google recipe search.
Spaghetti simply boiled and tossed in olive or butter sprinkled with golden crispy fried ciabatta crumbs will evoke many Italiens into romantising their 'nonna' patter and will be enhanced if one has been lucky enough to have some finely grated cheese cheddar or parmesan fried in with them until the whey and salts crunch and kick in extra Umami.
Crunchy Buttermilk Bread crumbs are what i've got in mind for us, homemade brown soda bread, crumbed, fried in rapeseed oil until nutty and slighty sweet with the buttermilks lactic acidity lounging ready to spike when sprinkled on smoked irish salmon,  providing the perfect foil for a little beetroot and horseradish salad.

Prune and Almond Tart

I've always liked almond tart with apricots or pears but it's an especially nice way to enjoy the humble prune. You'll need about 125gms of prunes or 16 to be precise about it.
French D'Agen prunes (moistened with a little Armagnac from the region) are considered the best and if you can get them do they'll be worth the expense, if not don't worry whichever prune get you'll need to remove any stones and give them a splash of burnt brandy (pour a measure of brandy into a warm pot or pan and light it to burn of the harshness of the alcohol) leave the prunes to soak in ths and cool before using. I used a little 'Sloe Sherry" on Californian Prunes, if you don't use alcohol strong tea goes well with prunes.
Now that we've got the prunes sorted, we've got the rest of the tart to complete, for the base use a half batch of our Sweet Pastry recipe, refer to Novembers list.
For the filling we'll use Franipagne for this recipe refer to Januarys list.

Assembling the tart.
Preheat your oven to 170°C/320°F
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface should be about 3mm thick and use to line a 23cm/9" tart tin there should be a slight over hang on the lip of the tin,this can be trimmed later. Line this with parchment paper and place a handful or two of baking beans into it. Blind bake for 10-12 mins until golden brown round the edges.you should have the smell baking filing the kitchen.
Remove from the oven take out the parchment paper and beans(keep for future uses).
Let the pastry cool then spoon in the frangipane mix.Gently push the prunes into the top of the filling.
Place the tart into the oven for 25~30mins until golden brown, just firm to touch in the center.Remove from the oven when done. Leave to cool,trim the edges with a sharp knife, dust with icing sugar.
Eat while still warm with vanilla ice-cream or sweetened greek yoghurt, or leave to cool completely and keep in an airtight tin and enjoy as a treat with a cuppa' over the next few days.

'F' is for Frangipane

Frangipane~ almond paste. a staple recipe in the pastry kitchen and used in a variety of ways, most especially for Almond tart.
Reading through Mrs Beeton's All About Cookery comparing christmas bakery recipes, in her method for Madiera cake she puts her butter and sugar in a bowl then going on to say -and with the hand beat it up to a very light cream, very sensible advice indeed for small quantities of butter sugar mixes, this is by far the fastest and most practical way to cream butter and sugar and involves the senses, and skips dragging out the electric mixer. Use softened butter working it against the sides of the bowl with the back of your hand it's soon ready for you to add the eggs one at a time working each in until you mix is light and fluffy again by this stage you just need to use your finger tips, the almonds will be worked in very easily and your mix will be ready.
Since i just gave away the method you'll need the following.
The ingredients.
100gms butter softened
100gms icing sugar
2 eggs
100gms ground almonds.
Proceed as above.

There's no Flour needed in this recipe as i've used icing sugar it's more stable when baking than when caster sugar is used.  Having no Flour makes it suitable for coeliac baking.

White Chicken Stock

One of the most common request is 'how did you make that sauce?' an easy answer is 'that's a kitchen secret', the reality is the recipe though simple enough cannot be divulged easily unless the person knows how to make a basic stock and take it through a couple or more stages, even then it's down to senses and experience.
The chapter on stocks and sauces in good cook books is usually a long one and rightfully so as it's one the many corner stones in a kitchen.
I hope to build a base for you to get a good stock, good plain sauce or derivative sauce at home.
A good stock is easy, think of  'mums chicken broth' renowned for its restorative values, it's simply a good stock with bits. Straining such a broth leaves you with a decent stock and from this you can create a decent sauce
.
I want to give a basic White stock recipe using chicken so we can achieve similar results when it comes to making sauces and trouble shooting.
There are ground rules, once these are applied you are free to play around and create derivatives.
Use fresh ingredients in correct proportion for the stock.
The meat used will be determining factor in end flavour, the cheaper cuts of meat are used, these have the most connective tissue which when cooked out release gelatine giving the stock body and strength.
Browning/roasting the meat beforehand will alter the end taste and colour of the stock.
Chicken,beef and pork can be considered as neutral flavour and used as a base for most sauces to accompany most dishes.
Lamb flavour is dominant and best used for lamb dishes only, the same with game and wild-birds  Consider white fish neutral, salmon is dominant and best used for salmon dishes or in chowder.
Carrots,celery,leek and onion are the classic vegetables to use in stock, turnip/swede and parsnips are to dominant in flavour and upset the balance.
White Chicken Stock
The Ingredients.
1kg chicken drumsticks
200gms carrot, peeled and diced
200gms onion, peeled and diced
75gms celery,diced
1 leek,white only diced
2lts water
1 bay leaf
12 peppercorns
sprig of thyme
vegetable oil 2tbspns
Method.
Place the vegetables in a pot with the oil and fry gently for a couple of minutes then cook for a further couple of minutes on low heat with the lid on. Add the chicken and the water bring to the boil,add the bay leaf,peppercorns and thyme then simmer for 2hrs skimming any fat or scum that appears and discard.
Strain the stock (the meat on the drumsticks can be used for sandwiches or pie) cool the stock down as quickly as you can and chill overnight this will allow any fat to rise and sediment to settle.
When you go to use the stock discard the fat or save it (use for roasting potatoes) decant the stock leaving any sediment behind.
This will be our basic stock and I will use this as base for future sauce recipes.
This will keep for 3 days refrigerated or if frozen  a month (freeze in 3 batches for easy access).