Pears go glamour: poached with spices and served with orange butter

Pears, often considered the humble cousins of apples, shine with their own talents and  have a lot more to offer than meets the eye.

Provided with a delicate aroma and natural sweetness, they are one of the most versatile fruits.

Today I would like to  present them with a touch of glamour.

Poached in spiced syrup and served with a delicate orange butter they show their real star quality at summer parties.

Ingredients:

6 pears

1 lemon

the zest of 1 orange

the zest of 1 lemon (I used lime, because lemon is hard to get in Peru)

water

600g sugar

3 cinnamon sticks

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

4 star anise

4 cloves

mint leaves for the decoration

Orange butter:

500ml of freshly pressed orange juice

3 spoonful of caster sugar

140g ice cold butter, cut in small cubes

3 spoonful of Cointreau

Method:

Peel the pears, leave the stem.

Peel the orange and lemon carefully with a zester (without the white part of the  peel because it gives a bitter flavor)

In a large pot, put water, sugar, the orange and lemon peels and the spices. Boil up, then lower temperature and let simmer.

Add the peeled pears.

Let simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes or until pears are soft.

Set aside and let the pears cool down in the syrup.

Orange butter:

In a small pot bring the orange juice and sugar to a boil, then let simmer until the liquid is reduced to about a third.

Set aside and one by one add the ice cold butter cubes, stirring constantly until dissolved 

and the mixture gets a creamy and shiny texture.

Add Cointreau and stir again.

Place the poached pear on the orange butter and decorate with a mint leave and orange zest.

Serves 6.

Enjoy!

See you next week!

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Italy meets China: Wan Tan Raviolis With Ricotta And Spinach

I do  agree completely with a comment my blogger friend Tricia wrote :
"So many wonderful dishes- so little time!"
This is why this weeks recipe is a delicious treat but very easy to do and not time consuming at all.
You will have great tasting (nearly) home made ravioli with a light and fluffy "pasta" and a great filling- all done in just a few minutes.

Ingredients:

1 packet ( about 16 pieces) of Wantan wrap
500g    fresh Spinach
1 garlic  clove, finely chopped
2 scallions, finely chopped
3 spoonful of good quality Olive oil
250g ricotta
1 egg yolk
1 egg white
30 g freshly ground Parmesan cheese
salt, pepper and nutmeg

Preparation:

Wash the spinach and in the meantime boil water in a large pot. Cook the spinach for only 1 minute.Once done,drain the water and press out excess liquid from the spinach, chop roughly.

Heat olive oil in a large pan and sauté scallions and chopped garlic until glazed.

 

Mix the spinach with ricotta ,scallions, Parmesan and egg yolk. Add salt,pepper and nutmeg.

place a Wantan wrap and

  


cut the dough into circles with a round cookie cutter or a ring mold

Wet your finger with a bit of egg white and rub it along the inside edge of the dough so the edges will stick together.
Place the filling in the center.

·   

Carefully fold over the circle with the filling into a semi circle 

Crimp down the edges with a fork.

Put 1 spoonful of oil in the water.
Drop the raviolis in abundant boiling, slightly salted water until the float on the surface ( it will not take long, about 1 to 2 minutes).

Drain well and dip into a warmed large serving dish.

Top with sage butter. ( melt butter until foaming and fry some sage leaves in the butter, add salt and pepper) The sage butter adds great flavor to this dish. You can as well sprinkle grated Parmesan over the raviolis. I personally prefer to use  only sage butter for its delicate flavor will not overwhelm the taste of the ravioli. 

 Decorate with fresh tomatoes and Basil leaves.

Serves 4.

Enjoy!

See you next week.

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Fresh And Delicious:Tomato Mousse With Basil Sauce

As summer is approaching everybody is looking  for fresh, more vegetable based dishes.
This Mousse is a  recipe  generously shared with me by my friend Isabelle, and is one of my favorites for summer parties.
You can prepare it 1 day in advance, so it's ideal for a relaxed party organization.
It's easy but a bit messy  (at least when I prepare it, maybe you my friends, are more organized :) ) but it's worth it because it literally melts in your mouth  and I bet your guests will love it.

This is what you need:

For the tomato mousse:
250 g ripe, red tomatoes
4 leaves of gelatin
1/2 cup of heavy cream
4 spoonful of tomato ketchup
Salt and pepper
For the Basil sauce:
1 1/2 cup of fresh Basil leaves
1 cup of fresh  flat parsley leaves
3/4 cup of green onion (only the green parts)
2 teaspoon of fresh pressed lemon juice
1 cup of light cream
1/2 cup od sour cream
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
Salt and pepper
Put all  ingredients in the blender and puree them until obtaining a creamy sauce.

Method:
-Clean tomatoes and put them for about 1 minute in boiling water, this will help to peel them easily.

After peeling halve them and remove the seeds,

than quarter them and take out the remaining seeds.

Uff, a lot of seeds have been removed! :)

-Put the tomatoes in a blender and puree them.
-Strain the mixture through a colander. Set aside.

-Soak the gelatin leaves in cold water until soft.

-Warm 1/2 cup of the tomato puree, remove gelatin leaves from water and squeeze out well.
Dissolve them in the warm tomato puree and strain the mixture through a colander  ( to avoid gelatin crumbs)then stir the gelatin tomato mixture well into the tomato puree.

Add ketchup, stir well. Set aside.
Beat heavy cream to soft peaks and add delicately to the tomato mixture.

Add salt and pepper.
Grease 2 3/8 "id (for about 2.75 fluid ounces) ramekin molds with olive oil and fill them with the tomato mixture. If you don't have ramekin molds at hand, see presentation proposal at the second picture below.
-Refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
-Remove from molds and garnish with Basil sauce.

Or serve the mousse  in a Martini glass and top with the Basil sauce

Basil sauce:
1 1/2 cups of fresh Basil leaves
1 cup of fresh flat parsley leaves
3/4 cup of green onion (only the green parts)
1 cup of light cream
1/2 cup of sour cream
2 teaspoon of fresh pressed lemon juice
1 teaspoon of sugar
Salt and pepper
Put all  ingredients in the blender and puree them until obtaining a creamy sauce.
Serves 4,  Enjoy!

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Surprising Sunday

This weekend we decided to make a little excursion to  down town of Lima (centro historico).

During the week it’s a chaotic place, the narrow streets jammed with hawkers trying to sell their goods, cars everywhere and the air  filled with a rather unharmonious concert of  horns.

But Sundays this place belongs to the people that are not  coming to work here, but to the ones that live in the center and life takes a different rhythm.

We encountered a procession and to our surprise there were colorful groups of dancers, dedicating their performance to the “ Senor de Torrechayoq de Urubamba” in whose honor the procession was held.

Following the procession

Joyfully greeting the onlookers

Devoted dancers

 A colorful hat decorated with fresh flowers

A moment of rest

Asking me to pose with them and honoring me with one of the beautiful hats from Cusco.

After all the excitement: Having seafood for lunch at a beachside restaurant.

 The colorful yellow vegetables are glazed sweet potatoes
( here I need you to help me out: Do sweet potatoes count as vegetables???)  , surrounded by different kinds of ceviche and  octopus carpaccio in black olive sauce.

Quite strong tasting, but delicious: Leche de tigre  (Tigers milk)

Is this called “Tigers milk “ because it turns everyone into a tiger after drinking this??

It is actually the  juices from ceviche (fresh pressed lime juice, juices of the fish marinated in lime juice, chilies , cilantro and a shot of vodka!)

Boy, after this you go whether  through the roof or you sleep for 3 days J

Thank you for accompanying me at this surprising Sunday.

See you next Tuesday!

 

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(Nearly) Guilt- Free Pleasure : Apple-Grape Streusel

Desserts and guilt- free are words that do not always go  hand in hand.

Most of the luscious, wonderful desserts I like unfortunately are loaded with cream, chocolate and sugar .

So I started to experiment a bit,  trying to prepare a sweet treat that has more fresh  fruits and less dough and white sugar and still tastes great.

The result was quite a hit among our friends and the gals loved it for tea time!

For the Apple Grape Streusel you need:

1kg (2.2lb)  apples, peeled, cores removed

½ kg (17.6 oz.) red grapes , halved and seeds removed.

2 spoonful lemon juice, freshly squeezed

For the Streusel:

190g (6 oz.) flour
190g (6 oz.) ground almonds
200g (6.4 oz.)  caster sugar
225g (7oz.) butter
1/2 spoonful cinnamon

Preparation:

Halve apples and cut them  in thin slices.

Sprinkle with lemon juice.

Wash grapes carefully, halve and remove seeds.

Combine apple slices and grape halves.

Mix flour, almonds, sugar and cinnamon

Melt the  butter and with the help of 2 forks add bit by bit to the flour-almond-sugar mixture.

The mixture should be crumbly.

Grease a rectangular Pyrex  and add the apple grape combination.

Top with the crumble.

Preheat oven at  200C° (380F)

Bake for about 1/2 hour or until slightly golden brown.

Let cool down and sprinkle with a bit of icing sugar before serving.

Serves 12- 14.

Enjoy!  See you next Tuesday!

The result of a nightly excursion to the fridge :)

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