Tag Archives: cinnamon

La Tarte Tatin

27 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by in Desserts, Tarts

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Tarte Tatin

Tarte Tatin

I made this a couple of months ago with a friend and didn’t get round to blogging it so I had to make it again as this is a sublime dessert. It’s one of those desserts that’s really easy to make but definitely impresses.

What you will need:

An oven proof pan
4 apples
100g sugar
100g butter
1 sachet of vanilla sugar (usually 7.5g)
1 tsp cinnamon

Short crush or puff pastry

Heat your oven to 180C. Peal your apples and remove the core and slice into 8 or 12 slices. Put your oven proof pan on a medium heat and add the butter, sugar, vanilla sugar and cinnamon. You want all the ingredients to turn into a caramel, continuously mix the ingredients so that they don’t burn or over-boil. Once you have a caramel add to it the apples slice around the bottom of the pan. Cook the apples on a medium heat for about 10 minutes. When the apples start to soften they are ready. Take the pan off the heat.

Roll out your pasty and cut a circle a little bigger than the pan. Place the pastry over the apples, you can have a bit of pastry going up the side of the pan but make sure that the pastry is slightly tucked in and air tight.

Place the pan in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove and let the tarte cool. Then use a plate to place over the pan and flip over and ta-da there you have it, a tarte tatin a la francaise.

I had a little pastry left so I rolled it out, added parmesan, sliced and then fried leek with chopped parma ham on top and put it in the oven for 25 minutes. A great little addition to our salad based meal before having our yummy dessert.

Enjoy
Mel

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Poached Pears

15 Sunday Jul 2012

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Poached Pears

Joy and her family came to England for a visit and so the two of us were able to cook together again – what joy! We invited some friends over for a dinner party and we made a new dessert neither of us had made before. Whilst in the local supermarket looking for raspberries that turned out to be way too expensive we thought why not try poached pears… So we gave it a go and the result was pretty good, we were both stunned by how easy and yummy these treats turned out.

Here is what you need:

Poached pears
6 Pears (we had six guests)
4 Juiced Oranges
Enough water to fill ¾ of a pot
1 Orange’s rind
2 Anise stars
2 Cups Sugar
3 Cloves
1 Cinnamon stick
1 Vanilla pod

Vanilla syrup
1 1/2 Cups of Sugar
4 Cups of Water
1 Vanilla pod

Poaching the pears

Peel the pears. Slice the vanilla pod down the middle and scrape the seed out the pod add with all other ingredients into a big pot and then add the pears and bring to a boil. Once it boils reduce the heat, cover and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the pears from the pot and place to one side. If you find there is too much water for the size of your pot then reduce the amount.

For a nice presentation, you can place the pear on top of a tablespoon of melted chocolate or nutella. This helps keep the pear in place on the plate or bowl.

Vanilla syrup

For the vanilla syrup combine all ingredients in a small saucepan on medium heat. Stir constantly until sugar is dissolved and it thickens. You could use the water that the pears were cooked in instead of using water.

Pour over pears and serve.

Enjoy!
Mel and Joy

Rhubarb Crumble

30 Saturday Jun 2012

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Individual Rhubarb Crumble

I work on Lower Marsh, a fantastic little street hidden behind the imposing Waterloo Station. If you’re ever in London it’s definitely one of those hidden gems that’s worth a visit.

The local fruit and veg guy, Dave had a pound of rhubarb for 90p so I though I’d try making rhubarb crumble. I used honey instead of sugar for the rhubarb.

What you need:
4 sticks/ 1 pound of rhubarb
4 tbsp honey
4 tbsp water
2 tps cinnamon

For the crumble:
100g flour
80g brown sugar
50g butter
(optional crushed walnuts and cinnamon)

Heat your oven to 180C.
Cut your rhubarb into small chunks or small slices. I cut them into slices as I made small separate crumbles and thought they would look prettier, but this is really up to you. If you are making one big crumble then place your rhubarb in the oven dish you will be using to make the crumble. Add the honey, water and cinnamon and mix all together. Place in oven for 20 – 30 minutes, check every 10 minutes and stir if necessary. It is ready when they are tender and soft.

Rhubarb

When choosing what oven dish to use make sure not to use one that’s too big as the rhubarb shrinks as it cooks so you want it to be stacked up quite high.

For the crumble
In a bowl place the flour, cut up butter and sugar, and rub all the ingredients together until the mixture has a crumb like texture. You can add in cinnamon, crushed walnuts or any other (dry) ingredients you fancy trying. You will probably have some crumble left-over, it is perfect for freezing and takes minutes to reuse once removed from the freezer for any future crumbles you fancy making.

Once the rhubarb is ready place the oven dish you want your rhubarb crumble to be cooked in. Then sprinkle the crumble over. How much you sprinkle is really up to you.

Sprinkle the crumble

Place your dish in the oven for 30 minutes – it’s ready when the crumble takes on a golden colour. Serve hot or cold with a drizzle of fresh cream or custard.

Enjoy!
Mel

Cinnamon and Walnut Banana Cake

28 Tuesday Jun 2011

Posted by in Desserts

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Two bananas have slowly been turning blacker and blacker on the top of my fridge. Now my flatmates are always happy when they see this happen as they know exactly what it means, it’s banana cake time!

My friend Claudia is the person who originally gave me her banana cake recipe but it’s different every time I make it now. I’ve realised it doesn’t really matter how much of anything you put in it as long as you have walnuts, cinnamon and honey.

This is a really healthy cake and is perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack. I’m going to guess the weight of the ingredients I used, but please feel free to change them.

What you will need:

2 very ripe bananas (the blacker the better)
3 tbl of honey
50 grams of melted butter
150 grams of flour
½ tsp of baking soda
2-3 eggs
A big handful of walnuts
1 tbs of cinnamon powder
(you can also add raisins)

Pre-heat your oven to 180C. In a large bowl add the bananas and mush up with a fork and add in all the ingredients, there really is no order. You just need to make sure that you mix in the baking soda with the flour. Mix everything together with a spoon.

I usually use my bread tin but I couldn’t find it last night, instead I used a small ceramic oven dish and it rose more than it usually does, I’m definitely going to use that again.

Butter your dish and slightly powder it with flour, add you batter and leave in the oven for about 20 –  30 minutes depending how moist you want your cake.

PS: If your batter is too dry you can add a little milk

Have fun and let me know how yours goes.

Mel

Lamb with cinnamon and prunes

11 Wednesday May 2011

Posted by in Lamb

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There’s a fantastic butcher by my work and so after Live Below the Line I decided to treat myself. I ended up getting some lamb scrag (on the bone) and only spent £4 for three big pieces of meat. So I left there quite happy.

I decided I’d try a lamb tagine (though without the tagine).

 So what you will need:

For the lamb (feeds three)
Lamb scrag on the bone (one per person)
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 carrot
Half an aubergine
10 prunes
1 cinnamon stick
1 vegetable stock cube
1 tablespoon of butter
Salt and pepper

For the couscous
Couscous
Olive oil
Chilli flakes

Mix the stock cube with about 300ml of boiling water in a bowl. In a big pan add the butter and brown the lamb and onions. Add the water and all chopped vegetables, cinnamon and bring to a boil, add water so that it nearly covers all the meat, cover and simmer for about 30mins. Add prunes and cook for another 15mins. Depending on how you want the liquid to be, remove the lid to reduce 10mins before it’s cooked. Total cooking time should be about 45mins.

About 10mins before your lamb is ready put some couscous in a bowl. Add a tablespoon of oil, chilli flakes (add to taste) and salt and pepper and mix. Add the appropriate amount of water and cover until it’s ready.

 This is an incredibly easy and scrumptious dish!

Mel

Cinnamon and Prosecco pork

24 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by in Pork

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This was a new one for me last night. I fancied drinking some Prosecco but was cooking pork loin which I usually use white wine for. But I thought what the heck why not use Prosecco! I brought the leftovers to my lunch club today and it got the thumbs up which is always a good sign for me.

What you will need:
1 pork loin
Bottle of Prosecco
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
Afew spring onions
A nice dollop of golden syrup (or honey)
1 cinnamon stick
1 vegetable stock
2 handfuls of mushrooms
A few twigs of thyme

A side of new potatoes and green salad

I cooked it in my pressure cooker but you can probably cook in a pot roast style in the oven or one the hob. I started by goldening the sliced onions and the pork loin before adding in some crushed garlic and some chopped spring onions. I then added a nice dollop of golden syrup (because I’d run out of honey) over the pork. I then popped the cork and added about a glass of Prosecco and a cinnamon stick. I also used one vegetable stock cube with a glass of boiling water, some chopped mushrooms and thyme from my hanging basket. Then all you need to do is put the lid on and cook it for about 30 minutes. I boiled some new potatoes to go with and had a salad on the side. (if you’re not using a pressure cooker check your pot from time to time to make sure it has enough liquid, if not add as necessary).

I know it’s an unusual sounding dinner and lunch but one that was quite tasty. You can of course like most my meals mix and jazz it up with any other ingredients you might have in your fridge or cupboard.

Why don’t you try it out and let me know how it goes. Bon appetit

Mel