Salted Caramel Apple Tarte Tatin

Apple tarte tatin is a classic dessert and if you use pre-made all-butter puff pastry, relatively easy to make. For the tarte tatin pictured I used homemade puff pastry, but I’ll be the first to admit that it is a bit of a production to make your own and you have to be in the humour, so feel free to purchase it instead.

There are certain flavours or dishes that really represent the fashions and tastes of an era… although it sounds a little pompous, such dishes symbolise the culinary zeitgeist. For me the one flavour that has really done this over the past couple of years is salted caramel. It is not hard to understand why it is so popular. Caramel, by its very nature and because of the fact that it is mainly comprised of sugar, is incredibly sweet. It can also possess a slightly bitter note depending on how dark the caramel is. Salt tempers this sweetness but at the same time accentuates the underlying buttery flavour of the caramel. The salt also manages to highlight the taste of the apples used in this particular dish and everything works harmoniously together.

Of all the foods and recipes that I cook, this is the one, more than any other, which elicits the most appreciation. This never fails to amaze me, because it is really so simple to make and includes very few ingredients… yet it is the one that people seem to love the most. I suppose that if you think about it, it’s not really surprising… what is there not to love about the marriage of hot, soft apples covered in a seductively sweet caramel and crispy, buttery pastry.

 

Ingredients:

6-7 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and halved
150g caster sugar
85g unsalted butter

½ tsp flaky sea salt

350g puff pastry (homemade or made with all-butter)
 

Method:

1. Place the sugar in an oven proof frying pan, with 2 tablespoons of water and heat gently over a moderate heat until all the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has completely dissolved, turn up the heat until the sugar mixture is bubbling and allow it to bubble for almost five minutes –watch it like a hawk and remove immediately from the heat if it is getting too dark. What you are trying to achieve is a rich golden colour.
2. Once your caramel is a rich golden colour, remove from the heat and stir in the butter but be careful as the mixture may foam up quite angrily. Add the salt and mix through.
3. Place the apples cut side uppermost in the caramel, fitting them as snugly as you can. Return to the heat and allow to bubble gentle for about five minutes. Remove from the heat and let the apples cool completely.

To finish:

4. Heat the oven to 220C/Fan Oven 200C/Gas Mark 7. Roll out the pastry to a thickness of approximately 3mm and into a circle large enough to cover the apples in the frying pan. Lay the pastry over the cooled apples and tuck in any excess around the edges. Place on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for approximately half an hour until the pastry is a golden and well-risen.

5. Remove from the oven and allow stand for about five minutes before carefully inverting onto a serving plate.

6. Serve immediately with crème fraiche or a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

Serves 6.
 

    

Pear & Hazelnut Frangipane Tart

I have posted a number of frangipane tart recipes over the past few months, but the reasons for this are simple;- frangipane tarts are relatively simple to prepare, are extremely flavoursome and they keep well for a few days. Although classic frangipane is made with ground almonds, it is very easy to substitute other ground nuts and experiment a little. I love the combined flavours of hazelnut, pear and chocolate – they just go so well together; each bringing out the best in the other.

I use whole hazelnuts which I roast and remove the skins of before grinding to a relatively fine powder in my mini food-processor. Although ground hazelnuts are available in the shops to buy from time to time, I prefer to roast and grind my own because I think that the flavour is richer and nuttier.

 

Usually when I make pear frangipane tarts, I tend to use fresh pears but the problem is that if they are very hard, you need to poach them lightly before baking them in the tart or they may remain bullet-hard, or if slightly over-ripe they may disintegrate into a mushy mess on baking. In this instance I used pears tinned in their own juice and I think they worked a treat and gave a far more consistent result than the use of fresh pears would have given. I am all about producing tasty, but easy-to-prepare dishes, so I think that it is perfectly acceptable to take these shortcuts every now and again.

As already mentioned this tart keeps very well if cooled down and stored in an air-tight contained for a couple of days. I tend not to refrigerate it as I think that chilling dulls the taste a little, but if you feel more comfortable by all means do so. I should mention that this tart is truly delicious served still slightly warm from the oven with a scoop of ice-cream as a dessert.

 

Ingredients:

Pastry:
175g plain flour
50g icing sugar

100g butter, cubed

1 egg yolk

1tblsp cold water

Frangipane:

125 butter, softened

125g caster sugar

100g ground hazelnuts

25g ground almonds

2 large eggs

2tblsp plain flour

1tblsp Frangelico (optional)

To finish:

1 tin of pear halves in fruit juice, drained

3tblsp apricot jam

50g dark chocolate, melted

Method:

Make pastry:
1. Sieve the flour and icing sugar together into a large bowl. Add the diced butter and using your fingertips, rub into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Make a well in the centre and add the egg yolk and a tablespoon of water and mix using a fork until everything comes together to form a dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead briefly to form into a ball. Wrap in cling-film and place in the fridge to rest for at least half an hour.
Make the frangipane:

3. Using a hand-held electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs gradually, beating thoroughly after each addition. Fold in the ground nuts and flour and mix through the Frangelico, if using. Set aside.

To finish:

4. Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan Oven 170C/Gas Mark 5. Roll out the pastry dough thinly and use to line the base and sides of a 35cm x 10.5cm x 2.5cm fluted, loose-based oblong tart tin.

5. Next spoon the frangipane mixture into the dough-lined tin and spread out evenly to the edges. Place the drained pears, cut side down into the frangipane mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 35-40 minutes until golden brown and slightly puffed up. Remove from oven and set aside to cool in its tin.

6. Heat the apricot jam with a couple of tablespoons of water in a small saucepan until bubbling. Remove from heat and sieve into a small bowl (this is to remove any lumps of fruit from the jam).

7. Brush the smooth jam over the tart. Finally drizzle the melted chocolate over the tart and allow to cool.

Serves 6-8.

    



Tea Poached Pears with Stem Ginger Ice-Cream

This dish is a re-working of the dish that I recently cooked on MasterChef Ireland on RTE1, the Irish national broadcaster, The great thing, but also the daunting thing about doing my cooking on the programme was that for the first time it was being independently judged and I was being given feedback; feedback that I could then take away and use to improve the food that I created. You have to understand that I have only ever cooked for friends and family before this, so it was quite intimidating having to cook in such a pressurised situation.

The essential elements of the dish have not changed, but I have played around with proportions and also with the way that I originally presented it. I’ll be honest; I cringe when I look at my original dish. It just looks so heavy! The taste was there but it needed developing and refinement. I think that here, I have produced a far more elegant looking dessert but one that still retains the fundamental characteristics of the original dish.

I love how poaching the pears in the tea really brings out the fruitiness of the pears , whilst the toasted tea brack echoes the flavours already used but adds a welcome textural contrast to the yielding softness of the pears. The reduced tea syrup has a slightly bitter edge to it courtesy of the tannins in the tea, but this is mitigated by the sweetness of the pears. If anything was to be my signature dish, this is it!

 

Ingredients:

Stem ginger ice-cream:
4 egg yolks
25g caster sugar

1 tsp cornflour

300ml single cream

1 tsp vanilla paste/extract

½ tsp ground ginger

4 balls of stem ginger in syrup chopped finely

2tblsp ginger syrup from the jar of stem ginger

Pears:

1 litre of strong tea made with 5 Barry’s Gold Blend tea bags

75g caster sugar

4 slightly under-ripe Conference pears

1 vanilla pod

Peeled rind of half a lemon (in large strips)

Peeled rind of 1 orange (in large strips)

Toasted brack:

4 slices of tea brack

2 eggs

25ml cream

A large knob of butter
 

Method:

Stem ginger ice-cream:
1. Place the egg yolks, caster sugar and cornflour into a medium-sized mixing bowl and beat together until light and creamy using a hand-held electric mixer.
2. Separately, heat the cream and vanilla paste in a medium-sized saucepan over a low heat until it almost reached boiling point (don’t let it boil).

3. Pour this mixture, in a steady stream onto the egg yolk mixture, beating gently all the time. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over a gentle heat for 5 minutes or until the mixture has thickened and is smooth. Don’t be tempted to increase the heat, of the egg yolks will scramble.

4. Pour the mixture into a clean bowl, mix in the ground ginger and cover the surface of the custard with cling-film to prevent a skin forming. Allow to cool completely.

5. Whip the cream in a mixing bowl until it holds its shape in soft billowy peaks. Stir in the cooled custard mixture along with chopped stem ginger and the ginger syrup.

6. Churn in an ice-cream maker following the manufacturer’s instructions.

Poached pears:

7. Peel pears, leaving stalk intact. Using a melon baller or a small teaspoon, hollow out the centre from the bottom of the pear to remove the woody core.

8. Put warm tea mixture into a saucepan – choose a saucepan that the pears fit snugly in and which allows the tea to cover them. Put pan over a medium-high heat. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Split the vanilla pod and add to the syrup. Add the peeled rind of the orange and lemon.

9. Stand the pears in the mixture and bring the tea mixture to a gentle simmer.
10. Simmer for approximately 15 minutes until the pear is tender. Remove the pears with a slotted spoon to a dish to cool.
11. Meanwhile, turn up the heat under the tea mixture and reduce (by about two-thirds until a light syrup consistency has been reached. Discard the vanilla pods and peels. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Toasted tea brack:

12. Using a 7-8cm round cookie cutter stamp out rounds from the slice of tea brack. Whisk the eggs together with the cream in a small bowl. Heat the butter in a small frying pan over a moderate heat until just beginning to sizzle. Soak the rounds of tea brack briefly in the egg mixture making sure each side gets soaked and then fry for two minutes on each side. When golden brown on each side remove from eat.

To serve:

13. Place a round of the tea-brack in each serving bowl. Then place a poached pear sitting on top, spoon over some of the reduced tea-syrup and serve immediately with a scoop of the stem ginger ice-cream.

Serves 4     

Tea Brack

This is the tea brack that I have been making for years, tweaking it along the way in an attempt to create the perfect cake and it is one that I am incredibly proud of. It is moist, but not damp, keeps incredibly well and tastes so delicious, liberally spread with good Irish butter.

 

Many tea brack recipes include ground spices, but I specifically choose not to do so because I like the subtle background taste of the tea to really come through. I may have mentioned before, but I love tea!

 

To clarify – I REALLY love tea!

 

I know that I may be sounding a bit Mrs. Doyle about this but in my opinion it is the most wonderful drink – refreshing yet comforting at the same time.

Nothing beats tea.

With each of my pregnancies, my sense of taste became distorted and foods and beverages that I had previously liked, tasted awful to me. I would have coped better if I could at least have still enjoyed my cups of tea, but even they tasted terrible to me. Little wonder that within minutes of each of my three gorgeous children being born, I was demanding a cup of strong tea! Ah... go on, go on, go on!
 

Ingredients:

200ml strong black tea, made with three Barry’s Gold Blend tea bags

150g sultanas

100g golden sultanas

150g raisins

50g currants

175g soft brown (Muscovado) sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

25g butter, melted

275g plain flour

½ tsp bread soda
 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/ Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Butter and line 900g loaf tin.
2. Put the tea and dried fruit into a saucepan and bring up to the boil. Boil for one minute and then set aside to cool slightly. When slightly cooled add soft brown sugar and set aside.
3. Stir the egg and melted butter into the cooled fruit mixture.

4. Sieve the plain flour and bread soda together and fold into the egg and fruit mixture.

5. Place the mixture in the prepared loaf tin and bake for approximately 45 minutes. Allow cool in tin for 10 minutes before turning out. Cool on a wire rack.

  

Serves 8-10.
 

    

 

MasterChef Ireland 2014

So... I applied for MasterChef Ireland...
 

I still can't quite believe that I did it... But I did. With only two hours to go until the deadline for submission of applications, I quickly filled out the form... Paused for a second, thought "should I do this?"... and pressed SEND. My application was in.

I have been a fan of the programme since it was first broadcast by the BBC in the UK, but I had always thought it looked so pressurized and stressful! I felt so sorry for contestants who had disasters in the kitchen because, in the main, you could see that they were all passionate about food and cooking. I often wondered how I would feel in the same situation if my cooking were to be criticized. When MasterChef Ireland started in 2011 I became an avid viewer. It was every bit as tough as the UK version and I thought that Nick Munier and Dylan McGrath, the two judges were great!
 

I have always loved cooking. I enjoy the processes involved, the different things you can produce with a range of ingredients. Most importantly I enjoy eating! At a very fundamental level, I think that to be good at cooking, you have to enjoy eating!

The thing is... Friends and family tell you that your cooking is great but they ARE going to say that aren't they?? Granted, my nearest and dearest have always appeared to enjoy eating what I cook and cooking for them gives me great pleasure. I have always thought that I was a better than average home cook, but to expose yourself publicly to being assessed and possibly criticized?...AND... ON... THE... TELLY...??? Oh Jaysis!

But you know what - sometimes you have to take risks in life. Sometimes you have to do something that you never thought you'd do in a million years... Sometimes you have to do things that take you out of your comfort zone.

Because by doing so, you never know what great adventures and experiences lie ahead... And what interesting, funny and unique people you'll meet.

First aired on RTE1; 8.30pm, 4th March 2014.