~ Menu ~
Salad
of Blue Cheese & Sugar Spiced Walnuts
Pear
Vinaigrette
Glass
of Merlot
Handful
of Grapes
Coffee
A few days ago we bought 5 pears for
8p. I think they were Red Anjou, they
were large and firm so I put them on the window sill (together with some of the
out of date flowers my real man is constantly buying at 30p a bunch) to ripen a
little. Yesterday I peeled and sliced them, nibbled the cores, tossed the
fruit with light brown sugar and baked them at 375ºF/190ºC/170ºC fan/gas 5 till
tender.
And
what did I do next? Well
...
The first thing I made was a Pear Sponge
for my real man, I prefer crumbles it was his turn to
choose. See here for the sponge recipe.
That used about half so today I took a
spoonful to make the dressing for my lunch. This was an old favourite on my
menus in the West Indies although it could in no way be considered a tropical dish. For the sugar spiced walnuts see here they are great with loads of things or just on their own.
Pear Vinaigrette - 2 ways
The way I make this vinaigrette from scratch ...
1
large almost ripe pear
150ml
cider vinegar
2
tbsp runny honey
200ml
olive oil
~ Peel,
slice and simmer the pear in the vinegar till tender and the vinegar has gone!
~ Put
the pear in a liquidiser or food processor together with the honey and whilst
running gradually add the olive oil till the dressing has emulsified.
~ Taste
and season.
The way I did it today ...
1
tbsp sweet cooked pear
½
tbsp cider vinegar
60ml
olive oil
~ I
just puréed the lot and seasoned generously with black pepper. It wasn't quite the same as my original
recipe but was very good and worked well with the blue cheese and the nuts.
I have two other plans for the rest of the
pears ...
2.
Any day now I am going to make Buttered Rum and Ginger Ice Cream. We had planned to have it for Christmas but
had Far Too Much Food which we are still
trying to eat up, so ... later on that one. Not too much later though because it will be a humdinger with some pears!
In Other News
I have just read in an article on how to "think
like a chef" ...
“BEFORE YOU START COOKING, put on some music and
pour yourself a glass of wine, fruit juice or iced tea. A relaxed, composed
cook is a more efficient one.”
In more than 30 years working as a chef I never knew that was
the way to start work!
3 comments:
And to think I told the checkout girl last night that my husband is the "only man in the world who can get away with buying his wife reduced flowers!" I was wrong!!!
what a bargain!and the flowers are lovely, I love stocks they smell so lovely!
I'd be cross if he paid full price!
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