Pear & Goat Cheese Tart

An alternative dessert

If you have some very overripe pears and a bit of leftover strong cheese in your fridge that you don’t know what to do with then this tart makes them standout stars. The combination of very ripe pears and cheese is one of the most magical tastes of Autumn be it a pungent Roquefort or some really good goat’s cheese – which i was lucky enough to have in my fridge. In fact I first made a version of this tart with Roquefort but I might prefer it made with the impeccable clean tasting goat’s cheese from Mihai Preotescu as in this version. The recipe uses my easy peasy walnut and olive oil pastry which is just pressed by hand into the tin – no rolling pin necessary and no cleaning of a flour dusted work surface – labour saving and saving the planet all at the same time … We drizzled it with some strong wonderful Romanian honey and serevd more roasted walnuts alongside. I am ashamed to say (was it the wine?) I cant remember which type it was..perhaps “stejar” (oak).

This is a perfect dessert for those who do not like or cannot eat “sweets” but it is also a lovely light lunch served with a good remoulade of autumn veggies: celeriac, carrot,apple.

Continue reading “Pear & Goat Cheese Tart”

Pink Grapefruit & Aperol Sorbet

A palest pink, melt in your mouth, summer sorbet.

This pink sorbet has a pleasant mouth puckering tartness about it. Its perfect as a posh palate cleanser between courses or to cool down with on a hot sunny day. The recipe is a cinch once you have conquered the hot sugar syrup fear factor of the Italian Meringue. I love it because it positively does not need any fancy ice cream machines to be just perfect. And because the egg white is cooked…its very safe too. Basically the trick is to incorporate a fluffy stable meringue cloud into your sorbet base (or your sorbet base into the meringue). The air in the meringue creates a lightness in the sorbet that makes a scoopable end product – so no need for an ice cream machine.

I have always loved Campari and now we have Aperol which is its less alcoholic and more orangey coloured cousin. Aperol contains among other things bitter orange, gentian, rhubarb and cinchona (from which quinine is extracted).

Ingredients

1 quantity of Italian meringue made with 4 egg whites

600ml of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice (I sieved mine but if your juice is pulpy thats fine)

100ml of Aperol (actually i did add some extra because I really love all things bitter like tonic water, Campari, tonic water and Campari and now Aperol… so I probably got to 150ml ish)

No extra sugar required because the sugar is already in the meringue and I dont like oversweet ices

Gadgets & Gizmos

To make the meringue you do need an electric whisk and preferably a food mixer such as a Kenwood or a Kitchen Aid because that frees your hands to pour in the syrup. No ice cream maker necessary and in fact dont put this mix through one as it will simply knock the air out of it.

How To

In a large bowl gently fold in the meringue to your juice and Aperol taking care not to knock all the air out of the meringue.

When its pretty well incorporated put it in the freezer.

Check after a couple of hours (this freezes quite slowly as there is some alcohol in the Aperol ) and this is important because this is really a liquid sorbet base and its almost certainly going to separate out a bit from the meringue – thats fine. As it freezes its easier to mix it together – use a fork. I did this a couple of times and the end result was a homogenous nicely incorporated sorbet.

You Are What You Eat

Its hardly going to be one of your five a day and freezing the fresh juice diminishes the Vitamin C. If the “Cinchona” contains some active quinine then consider it an anti malarial!

Improvs and Ideas

All manner of citrus type concoctions can be made according to the same basic recipe. Other bittery drinks such as Campari, home made sloe gin, limoncello etc deserve being made into sorbets too.

Orange Curd

Citrus bliss

Orange Curd is the softer more fragrant cousin of the better known lemon curd. I particularly like it made with bitter seville oranges and I like the showiness of blood orange curd. Use it in cakes, tarts and pancakes or spread it over toast and scones. All it takes to make is a saucepan and a wooden spoon and a little patience. Continue reading “Orange Curd”