Pear & Almond Upside-Down Cake

Almond and pear is a marriage made in heaven and where this cake in concerned, it is definitely true. If you like pears, you will love this cake. It is moist and buttery with a juicy topping of sweetly caramelised pears. I have also included some whole walnuts alongside the pears to create textural contrast and because I just love the pear/walnut combination. One of the great things about pears is that they go wonderfully with almost any type of nut and also taste fabulous with spices such as ginger, cinnamon and cardamom.

I often wonder why pears aren’t more popular than they are, because in my opinion that have a far more complex flavour than apples and when just ripe, they can’t be beaten in terms of flavour. I think that part of the reason is that pears are a more temperamental crop to grown requiring a sheltered perspective and settled growing conditions. So many of the pears that are sold these days are under-ripe and like hard bullets. It is no wonder that when faced with these, consumers are distinctly underwhelmed… but a perfectly ripe pear is truly something wondrous to behold; sweet with a juicy flesh and almost honey like taste – well.... they just taste heavenly.

 

The fact that pears tend to be sold at a slightly under-ripe stage makes them perfect for cooking or baking with, where the warmth of the oven or hob helps soften them and bring out their natural sweetness. Ripe pears would disintegrate to a mush especially in a cake like this which requires over an hour’s baking.

 

There are loads of recipes out there for upside-down cakes, but this is a truly delicious version full of the flavour of the pears.

 

As usual, I looked upon the baking of this cake as a good excuse to add a glug of almond liqueur – one of my favourites! Needless to say this was a wonderful addition which really accentuated the flavour of the almonds in the cake batter. This cake also makes a wonderful dessert where a dollop of cream on the side wouldn’t go astray. Alternatively, it is also fab served slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients:

Topping:
30g butter, softened
30g light brown muscovado sugar

A pinch of ground cinnamon

Cake:

3 slightly under-ripe pears, peeled, cored and halved

A handful of walnuts

300g butter, softened

250g caster sugar

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

150g self-raising flour sifted

150g ground almonds

25ml Amaretto
 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170C/Fan Oven 150C/Gas Mark 3. Grease and base-line a deep 20cm spring-form tin with removable base and set aside.

Topping:

2. Beat all the ingredients together with a wooden spoon until mixed together. Rub this mixture onto the bottom of the prepared tin and set aside.

Cake:

3. Place the butter and sugar into a large mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer, beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually add in the eggs, mixing well after each addition. Add in the sifted flour and mix briefly to just combine. Fold in the ground almonds and mix in the Amaretto.

4. Place the halved pears cut-side against the bottom of the tin. I arranged mine in an orderly circle but you can arrange them more randomly, if you prefer.  Squeeze some whole walnuts in the gaps between the pears and then spoon the cake batter all over the pears. Level off the surface with a spatula or the back of a metal spoon and bake in the preheated oven for 70-80 minutes. Check the cake after 40 minutes or so and if it is browning too quickly, cover with a lid of foil. The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Serves 8-10.

 

Coconut Waffles with Grapefruit & Ginger Curd and Fresh Grapefruit

January can be such a long a dreary month and can seem a little austere after all the celebrations (and excesses?!!) of the festive season. Everyone is thinking about their New Year resolutions, many of which invariably involve ‘getting fit’ and ‘losing weight’. Now, I’m all for trying to live a healthier lifestyle but as I’ve stated before, it can be a bit of a struggle when faced with delectable things to eat… and a little of what you fancy every now and again can’t be that bad for you, can it? In any event, as each New Year dawns people are keen to eat lighter foods, less laden with the fat and carbohydrates that so many of the dishes of deep winter are.

I always think that it is ironic that citrus fruits are at their best during winter. For obvious reasons, it is not possible to grow citrus fruits in Ireland with its temperate climate, and they have always had to be imported from warmer countries. Whilst citrus fruits are available to buy throughout the year, they are at their peak during January. There is also a greater variety of fruits to buy now, including not only oranges and lemons, but also tangerines, blood oranges, pink grapefruit, clementines, and Seville oranges; the latter being the best choice for making bittersweet orange marmalade.

From a food perspective citrus fruits inject some edible sunshine and cheery freshness at this time of year. I absolutely love them and as regular readers will know I am a massive fan of anything that includes or showcases lemons. I find it hard to resist lemon cakes or desserts and regularly use them in my cooking and baking. Because of this great love of lemons, I sometimes forget that there are so many other citrus fruits and that they too have so much to offer the keen home cook in flavour terms.

One of my favourite ways of using up leftover egg yolks is to make lemon curd which, once made, can be quite happily stored in sterilised jars in the fridge for 3 to 4 weeks. It can be used as a filling for cakes, tarts, biscuits and is heavenly spread on warm crumpets. In many ways, it’s not surprising that I love lemon curd so much, as it contains lemons and another one of my favourite ingredients… BUTTER!

I have often thought about using other citrus fruits to make curd, but always felt that none could match the perfect bitter/sweet balance of lemons. However, I recently came across a recipe online for grapefruit and ginger curd and just the thought of it really got my taste buds working overtime. I have always been a huge fan of grapefruit and felt that, like lemons, they would provide enough sharpness against the sweetness of the added sugar and cut through the richness of all the butter. The ginger adds a spicy warmth but is not overpowering and stands up to the acidity of the grapefruit.

This curd is absolutely fabulous and could be used in loads of different ways. Here I have paired it with coconut waffles and fresh pink grapefruit to create a tropical tasting breakfast. I have owned a waffle maker for quite a few years but it spends most of its time languishing at the back of the kitchen cupboard… These waffles are a perfect excuse to take it out, dust it off and use it more often.
 

Ingredients:

Grapefruit and ginger curd:
Finely grated zest of 2 pink grapefruit
Juice of 3 pink grapefruit

25g grated fresh ginger

85g caster sugar

100g butter

1 large egg plus 4 egg yolks, lightly beaten together

 

Coconut waffles:

225g plain flour

1tblsp baking powder

25g caster sugar

50g desiccated coconut

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 x 400ml tin of coconut milk

50g butter, melted
 

Method:

Grapefruit and ginger curd:

1. Place the grapefruit zest and juice into a small saucepan and add the grated fresh ginger. Bring to the boil and allow to bubble until reduced by about half (to approximately 125-140ml), Pour through a fine sieve into a clean, heatproof bowl and add the sugar and butter.

2. Place the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure that the base of the bowl does not touch the bubbling water. Stir the mixture until the butter melts and the sugar is completely dissolved.

3. Pour a few tablespoons of the hot mixture from the bowl onto the eggs and using a small whisk mix thoroughly. Pour this into the bowl over the pan of water and keep gently stirring all the time, until the mixture begins to thicken (to a consistency almost like mayonnaise). It may take you about 12-15 minutes of continuous stirring to reach this stage.

4. Remove from the heat and pour into sterilised jars. Allow to cool, cover and store in the fridge for up to 3 to 4 weeks.

Makes 3 x 250ml jars approximately.
 

Coconut Waffles:

1. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the caster sugar and desiccated coconut and mix through.

2. Place the eggs in another medium sized bowl and gradually add the coconut milk, mixing well with a small whisk so that everything is fully incorporated. Add this mixture into the dry ingredients along with the melted butter to create a thick batter. Do not over mix – you are not looking for a completely smooth batter, it will still be a little lumpy.

3. Separately, heat up your waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s instructions and once it is hot, ladle on some of the batter and cook the waffles (this will take anything from 3-5 minutes) until golden brown.

To serve:

4. Serve the waffles with some of the grapefruit and ginger curd, some fresh grapefruit segments and a little natural yoghurt.

Serves 6-8.

Chicken in a Dijon Mustard, Mushroom & Thyme Sauce

I just don’t know how this month has turned out to be so busy already! If this is indicative of how the whole year is going to go, it looks like I am in for a fairly hectic 2015… not that I’m complaining… all my foodie events and work are hugely enjoyable and I love doing them.

There are times when I’d like to have more time to actually cook and write up the recipes that I have been working on and adapting. I would also love to have more time to do research and try out some of the restaurants that I have been wanting to visit for a while, so I will have to try and get a bit more order in my life and find the time to do all these things!

This is a wonderful little dish that I knocked up over the weekend, when I was starving and wanted something tasty to eat at short notice. I had managed to find the time to dash into the butchers and  buy some part boned chicken breasts, but at the time had little idea what I was going to do with them or how I was going to cook them.

 

When I got home, I had a quick look in my fridge and store-cupboard and decided that I was in the mood for something with a punchy and piquant flavour. Dijon mustard is one of those things that I always have knocking around because I love its taste and because it can be used in a myriad of ways to create delicious dishes to eat. It was just the thing to use as the basis for my sauce.

 

At its simplest this is pan-fried chicken in a Dijon mustard, mushroom, thyme and brandy sauce, and let me tell you, it’s so tasty! I served it with some puréed potato and a few steamed broccoli stems and it was so warm and comforting to eat, but didn’t feel at all stodgy.

 

The recipe is loosely based on a recipe that I came across in Delicious – one of my favourite food magazines, but I have adapted it slightly. You can have a look at the original recipe here.
 

Ingredients:

25ml olive oil
4 part-boned chicken breasts, skin on

1 onion, thinly sliced

150g mushrooms, thinly sliced

2 cloves of garlic crushed

A large sprig of fresh thyme

250ml dry white wine

4tblsp Dijon mustard

250ml chicken stock

50ml brandy

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

 

Method:

1. Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over a moderate heat. Once the oil has heated up, season the chicken breasts with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and fry skin-side down for about 7-10 minutes until golden brown. Turn the chicken breasts over and allow to cook for 3-4 minutes on the other side. Remove the chicken breasts from the pan and set aside.

2. Add a tiny bit more oil to the pan if required and fry the onion and mushrooms for 4-5 minutes, tossing them every now and again until they are a light golden brown colour. Add the crushed garlic and thyme and cook for a further 2 minutes or so.

3. Add the wine to the pan and allow to bubble away for a minute or so before adding the mustard, stock and brandy. Let this bubble for a minute or two, reducing the heat slightly so that it is gently simmering. Add the chicken pieces back to the pan and allow to simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked all the way through. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary and serve.

Serves 4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Belgian Buns

Ok, I’m going to admit something which I think some of my regular readers will already have guessed… I don’t really ‘do’ diets and find it a bit of a struggle to practice any restraint when presented with delicious food. As such, it’s fairly evident that diets don’t feature heavily on my list of New Year resolutions!

I fully acknowledge that regular exercise and healthy eating are key to a long and healthy life but surely a little treat every now and again is good for the psyche and lowers stress levels! Well I find that it does for me anyway and there is nothing I like more than sitting down with a cup of tea and something nice to nibble on after a long, busy and tiring day. I also believe that it’s far preferable to eat something that you have cooked and baked yourself and where you know what ingredients were used and where they came from rather than mass-produced goods which are full of artificial colours, flavouring and other additives.

I have recently been baking a lot of my own bread and have been astonished how easy it is to achieve such delicious results. I always thought that yeast breads would be far more problematic and tricky to make, but once you follow a few simple rules, they are an absolute doddle. My children love the various breads that I have produced and keep begging me to make more.

There is something so therapeutic about kneading bread and seeing the yeast start to work as the dough proves. I really love it and can see why so many people are almost obsessional about artisan breads and bread making.  Using a couple of basic recipes, I have been having loads of fun experimenting by adding different ingredients to my breads. Both sweet and savoury ingredients, spices, herbs, nuts etc. can be added to ring the changes and create something full of exciting flavours.

I have always loved sweet yeasted buns, especially when split and generously spread with butter – they are just so delicious. This is my version of the cherry topped, icing covered buns that can still be found in some bakeries and tea-shops. For some reason the buns are called Belgian Buns, though the reasons for this have been hard to unearth… it’s not as if they are buns associated with Belgium nor are they specifically popular there. In fact, these are not unlike traditional Chelsea Buns, but with the addition of an obligatory, bright red glacé cherry. I think the finished buns look very retro and quite kitsch, but I find this very appealing. They are not meant to be elegant, but that doesn’t matter because they taste wonderful!

The buns also contain some dried fruit, which I have introduced into the dough in the same manner as one would introduce the fruit in a Chelsea Bun, by rolling up into a swiss-roll like cylinder and then slicing into individual buns.

This is the same basic bread dough that I used to make the Marzipan Buns, the recipe for which I posted a few weeks ago. I was very pleased with how those buns turned out and every bit as pleased with these.

   

Ingredients:

Dough:
300ml milk

40g butter

500g strong white flour

5g fine sea salt

15g fresh yeast

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Filling:

150g dried raisins, soaked in 50ml boiling water

30g chopped, dried mixed peel

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

To finish:

200g icing sugar

A little boiling water

5-6 glacé cherries, halved
 

Method:

Dough:

1. Put the milk and butter in a small saucepan and heat gently until the butter has just melted. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool down a little as you don’t want it too hot as it will prevent the yeast from working properly. Lukewarm is perfect.

2. Separately, place the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and mix together well so that the salt is well distributed. Crumble in the yeast.

3. Pour in the lukewarm milk and the lightly beaten egg and stir together with your hands, until the mixture comes together. Turn the dough out on to a clean work-surface until the dough feels smooth and silky and springs back when poked. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean, damp tea-cloth. Allow to prove for 90 minutes until the dough has almost doubled in size.

4. Line a large baking tray with some non-stick baking parchment and set aside.

5. Tip the dough out on to a clean work-surface dusted with a small amount of flour. Knock out the air from the proved dough. Allow to rest for a minute or two and then using a rolling pin, roll out into a rectangle about 30cms x 20cms.

6. Separately drain the soaked dried raisins, discarding an extra liquid that has not been absorbed. Sprinkle the raisins, mixed peel and lemon zest evenly over the rolled-out dough. Roll the dough along its long edge as you would a swiss-roll to create a long cylinder encasing the fruit as you go. Taking a sharp knife cut the cylinder into 10 equal slices and place flat, well-spaced apart on the baking tray. Cover with a clean damp tea-clot and allow to rise again until doubled in size (about 60 minutes).

7. Preheat oven to 190C/Fan Oven 170C/Gas Mark 5. Place the baking tray containing the risen buns in the preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until well risen and a golden brown colour. Once baked, remove from oven and allow to cool on baking tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

To finish:

8. Mix the icing sugar with about 1 tablespoon of boiling water to make a slightly stiff but still flowing consistency. Spoon the icing over each cooled bun and top with half a glacé cherry. Allow the icing to set and then serve.

Makes 10.