Pear tarte tatin

I thought that a tarte tatin is a great dish to be served as an Easter dessert, and I decided to make mine with pears this time. I followed Gordon Ramsay's recipe, but downscaled it a bit to fit better my cake tin (Ø 20cm). This is how I made mine.

4-5 pears (Green Williams pears)

50g caster sugar

60g butter

1 star anise

2 cardamom pods

1 cinnamon stick

1tbsp brandy

300g puff pastry

Peel and halve the pears. Heat the sugar, butter, star anise, cardamom pods and cinnamon stick in a pan at high heat. Let the butter bubble, and stir until it gets toffee colour. Add in the pear halves and cook them for about 10 minutes at lower heat. Stir in the brandy once the pears have cooked.

Remove the star anise, cardamom pods and cinnamon stick from the pan. Brush a cake tin with some of the caramelised liquid. Place the pears in there with the round side down and pour the rest of the caramel liquid on the top. Place the rolled out puff pastry on the top and press it down along the edges.

Bake at 180C for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 160C and bake for further 15 minutes until the pastry is crispy and golden brown. Let the tarte rest for 10 minutes and then carefully turn it upside down onto a serving plate. This can be tricky because there is a lot of caramelised liquid.

Brandy cream

If you want to serve the pear tarte tatin with some brandy cream like I did, follow these instructions.

You need the following ingredients:

300ml whipping cream

2tbsp icing sugar

2tbsp brandy

Whip the cream and icing sugar for a few minutes and quickly stir in the brandy once the cream is firm enough. Serve on the side of the pear tarte tatin.

Happy Easter baking!

Your VegHog

Pear and walnut salad

I wanted to post a fresh and quick salad on this occasion just as a change to the autumn style dishes. This salad can be enjoyed at any time of the year. A pear and walnut salad is a classic, but I wanted to make somehow a different one. I first was reluctant to use a garlic and honey vinaigrette in this salad, but it turned out to be a rather interesting choice.

The salad:

Pear

Walnuts

Rocket

Ricotta cheese

The vinaigrette:

Garlic

Olive oil

Honey

Vinegar

Salt

Make the vinaigrette first. You could also use another salad sauce for this salad or even leave it as it is as pear is quite a juicy fruit.

Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the finely chopped garlic. Add honey and vinegar and simmer for a while. Add salt and the vinaigrette is done. Add more of any ingredient depending on the taste.

Roast the walnuts in a dry pan for a few minutes. Peel the pear and make thin shavings of it with a peeling knife. There are quite many possibilities to present the pear, but this time I decided to make the thin shavings.

Mix the rocket leaves with the vinaigrette and place them on a plate. Put the walnuts, pear and ricotta on the top and the salad is ready to be enjoyed. Easy!

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog