So I’ve been lying low for a couple of weeks. I haven’t been in the headspace for blogging for some reason. But I’ve still been cooking – pictured is a lazy Sunday breakfast we had recently.
Part of the reason for the blog quietness is that my parents are here for a visit! They arrived last week, and I was very busy trying to get the house clean and in order before they arrived. I wasn’t entirely successful (I never am) but in the 5 days since they have been here they have done 4 loads of laundry, cooked us dinner most nights, bought groceries and taken us out for meals.
Why on earth did I ever leave home???
One weekend before my parents arrived (ie when I had ownership over my kitchen) I made us a soufflé omelette for breakfast. Along with jam, I put slices of mango in the middle (my first mango this side of the year!). When I reviewed the photos, I realised that the mango looked a bit like teeth!
The souffle omelette puffed up a lot in the oven, and even after it had been out for a while, I was pleased to see that it didn’t completely deflate. It was nice and fluffy, not too sweet, but it was quite “eggy” (surprise surprise). We enjoyed it and it was easy to make – perfect for a lazy weekend breakfast!
Souffle Omelette
Adapted from Australian Table – September 2006
Serves 2
2 eggs, separated 1 tablespoon sugar 1 tablespoon cream 2 teaspoons plain flour grated rind of 1/2 lemon 15g unsalted butter 2 tablespoons jam Diced fruit (if desired) icing sugar, to serve
Preheat oven to 190°C. Combine egg yolks, sugar, cream, flour and lemon rind in a bowl. Set aside.
Using an electric beater, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold yolk mixture and egg whites together using a large metal spoon.
Melt butter in a large ovenproof frying pan on low heat. Pour in egg mixture and place the frying pan in the oven. Bake omelette for 6 minutes, until risen and golden. Slide onto a heated serving plate and spread with jam. Place fruit on half of omelette (if desired) and fold omelette over. Dust with icing sugar, and cut crossways into thick slices. Serve immediately.
The previous weekend, while I was in the middle of Super Flu 08, my pal Jo came over. Before I had succumbed to Super Flu 08, I had invited her over for tech support and dinner. By the time Saturday rolled around I mistakenly thought that I was recovering so opted to keep the date. I felt strong enough to cook, but could barely taste anything. Cooking with no sense of taste was an interesting experience!
Because I had been feeling so crap during the week, I only decided on what to cook when I woke up on Saturday morning. I went for something relatively easy.
For starters, we had mushroom dumplings. I threw together a rough filling, and sat down to pleat the dumplings (recipe at the end of this post). I watched the video below to learn how to fold them – she works quickly so I watched it a LOT, over and over, until I had figured it out. Mine didn’t look as good as hers, but I pretty much had the hang of it by the time I finished wrapping…. 50 dumplings later!.
After dumplings, we had spicy pork in pancakes (recipe below) which is eaten in the same way as peking duck. This was pretty good and I would definitely like to try it again when I’m not sick!
And for dessert, we had a Chinese restaurant special – canned lychees and ice cream! I had also made some almond jelly (recipe below), but because I couldn’t taste anything, I added more almond essence than was desirable. Judging by the way Alastair recoiled when he tried it for me, it was a bit too intensely almond flavoured! So I only served a little bit of the jelly – thank goodness for the ice cream and canned lychees.
And this is what we ended dinner with – flowering tea. I don’t own a clear teapot, so here it’s in a coffee plunger. Isn’t it gorgeous?
Mushroom dumplings
Makes about 50 dumplings
1 small onion, peeled and diced 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed 2 cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated 6 dried shitake mushrooms, stems removed and soaked in water for at least 30 minutes 220g can whole water chestnuts, drained and rinsed 300g mushrooms 1/2 tablespoon Chinese rice wine 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 egg, lightly beaten Salt & pepper 500g packet of jiaozi wrappers
In a frying pan, cook the onion, garlic and ginger on medium heat for 5-190 minutes until soft and cooked through.
In a food processor, pulse the shitake mushrooms, water chestnuts and mushrooms until finely chopped. Tip into a bowl and add the chinese rice wine, soy sauce, egg and season well with salt and pepper. Mix together.
Place a small teaspoon of filling into the middle of each wrapper (don’t add too much filling – it makes it hard to fold the dumplings). Wet the edges of the dumpling with water. Fold the dough over the filling into a half moon shape and pinch the edges to seal. Continue with the remainder of the dumplings.
Heat some oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. Add dumplings in a single layer (don’t over crowd the pan) and cook for 1-2 minutes or until brown underneath. Add enough boiling water to come 1/4 way up the sides of the dumplings, then cover with a lid and cook for a further 4-5 minutes or until water has evaporated. Serve with dumpling vinegar and soy sauce.
Spicy Pork in Pancakes From Australian Table magazine – Jan/Feb 2007
Serves 6-8
(Note: you end up with quite a lot of meat. I only cooked 1/3 of my meat and had more than enough to serve with one batch of pancakes. So you could either use less pork fillet, or make up more pancakes!)
1/3 cup (80ml) peanut oil 1 teaspoon grated ginger 2 garlic cloves, crushed 750g pork fillet, cut into thin strips 2 tablespoons light soy sauce 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine 2 teaspoons sugar 16 Chinese pancakes (see below) hoisin sauce, green onion, to serve
Heat half of the oil in a wok on medium. Cook ginger and garlic for 2 minutes, until soft. Increase heat to high and cook pork in small batches for 2 minutes, until browned. Remove and set aside.
Add soy sauce, wine, sugar and 1 teaspoon ground pepper to same pan and cook on medium heat for 2 minutes, until syrupy. Add pork and toss to heat through.
Top each pancake with hoisin sauce, green onion and pork and roll to enclose.
Chinese Pancakes
Makes 16
2 cups (300g) plain flour 3/4 cup (180ml) hot water 1 & 1/2 tablespoons sesame oil
Sift flour into a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Pour in hot water a little at a time, stirring in flour until dough forms. Knead dough for 5-10 minutes, until elastic. Wrap in plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place for 15 minutes.
Divide pancake dough into four. Roll out each piece to 5mm thick. Cut out 16 circles with a 7cm round cutter. Brush each with oil and press oiled surfaces together in pairs so they’ll cook without colour. Roll out each pair to 10cm across.
Heat a lightly greased frying pan on low. Cook joined pancakes for 2 minutes each side, until cooked but not brown. Peel apart and stack on a warm plate.
Almond Jelly
From Australian Table magazine – October 2006
Serves 4
1 tablespoon gelatine 1/2 cup (125ml) boiling water 1 & 1/4 cups (310ml) milk 1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar 1/2 teaspoon almond essence
Lightly spray ice cube trays with cooking oil spray. Combine gelatine and 1/4 cup water in a bowl. Add boiling water and stir to dissolve gelatine. Stir in milk, sugar, and almond essence. Pour into prepared trays. Chill for 2 hours, until set.
This apple pie recipe is from an issue of Delicious and is supposedly Ben O’Donoghue’s Grandma’s recipe. Now, far be it for me to question a recipe that belongs to someone’s gran (respect for your elders and all that), but it did raise a couple of queries. Normally when I make pastry, I add some water to bring the dough together. With this recipe, the pastry was supposed to come together with just the egg yolks (i.e. no water). I was dubious, but was willing to try it. Well, after trying it out, there was no way my dough was going to come together, so I had to add a little bit of iced water. Once I had passed that hurdle, I then found that I had a ton of dough! I had enough dough for two pies. I used half and stashed half in my freezer.
These little pies are from my second batch. They didn’t turn out very attractive – the pastry shrunk A LOT in the oven – but at least they tasted good! The pastry was crumbly and buttery, and somehow slightly flakey at the bottom of my pies. Maybe gran does know best after all.
Ben’s Gran’s apple pie with custard From Delicious magazine August 2008
Serves 6
1 kg Granny Smith apples 1 cup (220g) caster sugar, plus extra to sprinkle Juice of 1/2 lemon 3 cloves 1 star anise
Pastry
3 cups (450g) plain flour 1/3 cup (40g) custard powder 1 cup (150g) caster sugar 350g chilled unsalted butter, chopped 3 egg yolks, plus 1 lightly beaten egg to brush
Custard
300ml each milk and pure (thin) cream 1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped 8 egg yolks 1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
For pastry, place flour, custard powder, sugar and a pinch of salt in a food processor. Add butter and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add yolks and process until pastry comes together into a smooth ball. (Add a couple of tablespoons of iced water if the pastry doesn’t come together.) Divide into 2, then knead each into flat discs. Enclose in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, peel and core apples. Place in a pan over medium heat with sugar, juice and spices. Cook fo 10 minutes or until fruit is tender but still holds its shape. Cool, then discard spices.
For custard, place milk, cream, vanilla pod and seeds in a pan over medium heat. Bring to just below boiling point then set aside for 15 minutes to infuse. Meanwhile, whisk yolks and sugar in a bowl until thick and pale, then gradually whisk in warm cream mixture to combine (discard the vanilla pod). REturn mixture to pan over low heat. Stir with a wooden spoon for approx 6 minutes or until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Strain through a sieve. Cool, then cover surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Chill until needed.
Preheat oven to 180°C. Divide one of the pastry discs in half, and roll each half to 3mm thick, 28mm circles (the other pastry disc can be frozen for later use). Place 1 circle on a lined baking tray. Pile the apple mixture into the centre, leaving a 3cm border, then brush border with egg. Top with remaining pastry, press down border, then trim edges into a neat circle. Pinch edges with your fingers to seal. Brush top with beaten egg, then bake for 30 minutes. Remove, sprinkle with caster sugar, then bake for a further 10 minutes until golden. Serve with the custard.
The other weekend, we invited Benisa, Dany and Dany’s father over for some food and a catch up.
We started with a twice baked cheese soufflé, taken from this month’s issue of Delicious. In the magazine, it’s a goat’s cheese soufflé and served as a main (with salad), but as I’m still unsure about goat’s cheese I substituted with a sharp cheddar. Also, as we were having it as a starter, I made smaller serves.
The recipe instructs you to turn out the soufflé after the first baking. When I turned one out though, it looked terribly unattractive, so I kept them in the ramekins to serve. By the way, you should’ve seen them in the oven! They rose very high but deflated quickly on cooling. It was a shame that they didn’t reach the glorious heights on the second baking, but they were still delicious. And so cheesy.
For the spinach stuffed chicken roulade, I had an idea about what I wanted to cook, so went searching for a recipe that was similar to what I had in my head. I ended up adapting this recipe from Inglewood Farms (see my recipe at the end of this post). And, am I allowed to say that it was rather good? Well, I won’t lie. It was! (Gee, the modesty.)
And for dessert, we had coconut panna cotta with fresh strawberries. The coconut panna cotta recipe was from taste.com.au and not only was it a cinch to make, but it was delicious – smooth, creamy and fragrant. I was tempted to do some caramelised banana instead of the strawberries, but decided that it would be too rich and sweet. (I tried unmoulding one a few hours before dinner to make sure that I could turn them out okay – and since it was already unmolded it would’ve been a waste not to eat it….).
Despite the expression on Mr Onion’s face, dinner was a success. Don’t mind him, he’s such a crybaby. After dinner, Mr Onion and Mr Cauliflower came to the table for an impromptu photo shoot. Remember our visit to Blenheim a couple of months ago? I saw these in the window of a souvenir shop when we stopped in Kaikoura for some food. I’m not really a knick knack person, but I was strangely taken by them. Why? I really have no idea. I admit that they are ridiculous and kitsch! But I liked them for some reason, so on our way back down to Christchurch, we stopped in Kaikoura just so I could buy them. There were other fruits and vegetables – strawberries, watermelon, broccoli, but Mr Cauliflower and Mr Onion were my favourites. They’re very silly but they make me laugh!
Twice-baked cheese soufflé
From Delicious magazine September 2008
Serves 6 (or 8 as a starter)
You can bake these in advance and reheat before serving.
60g unsalted butter 60g plain flour 350ml hot milk 100g cheese (I used cheddar, the original recipe had goat’s cheese) 1/2 tsp paprika 4 eggs, separated 1/2 cup (125ml) pure (thin( cream 1/2 cup (40g) freshly grated parmesan
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease six 1 cup (250ml) ramekins or eight 1/2 cup ramekins (if serving as a starter). Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat for about a minute until foaming. Remove from the heat, then stir in the flour with a wooden spoon until well combined. Return pan to medium-low heat and stir constantly for 1 minute until it is a smooth paste.
Gradually add the hot milk, stirring constantly for two minutes, until smooth. Bring to the boil, then pour into a large bowl. Add the cheese and paprika, then season with salt and pepper and stir until smooth.
Using a balloon whisk, beat in the egg yolks, one at a time. In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites with an electric beater to soft peaks. Using a large metal spoon, gently fold one-third of the eggwhites into the cheese mixture (trying not to loose too much volume). Gently fold in another third of the eggwhites, then finally fold in the reminder.
Fill each ramekin with the mixture so that it is three-quarters full. Place in a roasting pan and fill the pan with enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the moulds. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 20 minutes or until golden and risen, then remove from the pan and cool.
When ready to serve, increase the oven to 220°C. If you don’t want to serve them in the ramekins, line a tray with baking paper. Run a knife around the edges of the soufflé and invert them on to the tray. Pour about 1tbs cream over the top of each one, scatter with parmesan, and bake for 8-10 minutes until the cheese is golden and the cream is bubbling.
1 bunch english spinach 1/2 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed 30 grams melted butter Small handful of basil, chopped 8 chicken breasts, skin on 6 slices prosciutto
Preheat oven to 220ºC.
Wash the fresh spinach well. Place the spinach in a large pan/pot and cook for about 4 minutes, until wilted. Squeeze the excess water from the cooked spinach and chop finely.
Place the spinach in a bowl with the pine nuts, garlic, butter, basil, and season with salt and pepper. Mix together well.
“Butterfly” cut each chicken breast. Lay a piece of plastic wrap over each chicken breast and pound it with a mallet or rolling pin until it is thin and flat.
Place a small amount of the spinach mixture on to the chicken, and roll up tightly. You should be able to roll it so the skin is on the outside. Lay a slice of prosciutto on the chicken where it is not covered by skin, and secure with cooking twine.
Heat some oil in a non-stick frying pan on a medium high heat. Sear each parcel on all sides, and then place in an oven-proof dish and finish cooking in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until cooked through.
When ready to serve, remove the cooking twine and slice into rounds. Serve with vegetables/salad.
Hallo! It’s been a while since FFOFs for us. A FFOF (Flickr Fuck Off Feast) is a meal where we cook food that that relate to a particular theme. Alastair and I missed the Greek FFOF due to parental issues (mine came to visit) so I was determined to make the next one. The theme this time was German.
I woke up on Saturday with a very sore throat – the first time that I’ve been sick this year. I had been very proud of my immune system up to that day. Bro and I headed out to pick up groceries, and I started cooking when I got home. Disaster. I haven’t had such a bad day in the kitchen for a long time! I was sick. My head was fuzzy. I broke a glass. I made the pastry for my pie, but my butter didn’t seem cold enough and I forgot to add salt. When I went to blind bake my crust, I forgot to put baking paper between the pastry and my baking weights (beans and rice). I realised my mistake after it had been in the oven for five minutes. By then it was too late – the pastry had melted just enough to trap all the small grains. #$@%$&$(*#@$@
I was not a happy baker! I must admit that I had a little tantrum and refused to start again. Fortunately, I still had the rabbit stew.
I combined two recipes that I found online ( “>this one and “>this one), but focussed on the first one. I found it a bit strange. The recipe said to mix 1/2 cup of the marinade with 1/4 cup of toasted flour. That gets added to the pot, in goes the rabbit, and it stews until the meat is tender. Well, there wasn’t any liquid in my pot after I did all that, so I had to add a fair amount of water. It made me wonder how good the recipe was.
Rhys and Kath were the hosts for the evening and they provided us with a mug of mulled wine when we arrived. Lovely! It was perfect for such a cold, rainy night. The mug on the right belonged to Kath’s grandmother – dating back to the 50s!
Jaye and Tim bought some appetizers – blue cheese with a slice of pear. I really like blue cheese with a bit of fruit.
The next dish on offer was something that I doubt will be topped in any FFOFs to come. Tim made beer soup. Yep, beer soup. It consisted of a six pack of German beer, sour cream, sugar, and cinnamon. It was really sweet, very creamy, but with a beer after taste. NASTY. It was wrong, just wrong. And what a waste of beer!
Rhys had made some nice bread rolls that we somewhat spoilt, as we ate them with the beer soup (desperately trying to mask the taste of the soup, I suspect).
Fortunately, the rest of the food was more palatable. Jaye made potato dumplings, with a peach inside. Apparently it was a side or a main – our opinion that it was dessert. The dumplings were served with a brown sugar and butter sauce, and they were rather nice, although quite heavy and stodgy.
We then moved on to my bunny stew. The bunny was okay. The recipe said that it was an acquired taste – I certainly agreed! It had a herby, spiced flavour, with a sour after taste, and unfortunately it was a rather unappetisingly beige brown. Rhys and Kath provided some “German” potatoes.
The next course was Pete’s kartoffelpuffers (potato pancake). They were fried in lard and then topped with cranberry sauce. So good, but so bad.
And finally, when we thought we couldn’t eat any more, we finished off with dessert – apple strudel – from Pete and Jodes.
Another FFOF over, and a good time was had by all. This one was particularly memorable due to the beer soup. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget how it tasted!
Is Spring coming? I walk past this tree every day on my way to/from work and noticed last week that it has started to produce flowers. There’s only flowers on this one so far – the trees next to it are still bare. I sure hope Spring is coming!
Bro and I spent some time in the kitchen in the weekend. Bro made soup and sour cream dumplings while I did some baking. I neglected to photo Bro’s creations – sorry!
I felt like making some banana bread – merely so I could use a new tin! I recently got a mini loaf tin to add to my burgeoning tin collection. In my defence, some tins were presents – at least, that’s what I say to ease the part of me that longs for an uncluttered life!
I googled for a banana bread recipe, and came across one by Bill Granger for a melt and mix banana bread (there’s also a coconut bread on that page that I’m keen to try soon). I was pretty faithful to the recipe – the only variation I made was to reduce the sugar to 3/4 cup. I was worried that it would be too sweet, but to be honest, the full cup of sugar would probably have been okay.
I found that the banana breads rose A LOT and my mini loaves weren’t so mini by the time they had finished baking! The breads were also very moist and the crunchy almond topping on top was super scrumptious. I ate all the topping that had fallen off the breads and found myself picking extra bits off!
It was a pretty good recipe, but if you have bananas lying around, I’d recommend this banana cake before it. Banana bread is pretty much cake anyway, right?
I had some cooked rice left over the other week. Normally, I would make fried rice, which is always quick and tasty. I tried something a bit different though, and tried making rice tarts with an eggy filling (like a quiche).
I mixed up the cold rice with an egg and then pressed it into large muffin moulds, using a glass to press it down nice and flat. However, my largest muffin moulds are silicon, so the rice didn’t really crisp up the way I was expecting/wanting. Actually, the rice that was next to the silicon (ie the sides and the bottom) stayed completely soft. You may notice that the tart in the background, particularly in the photo below, is a bit wonky – that’s because I had trouble getting it out of the mould without damaging it! Oh well, there’s my lesson learned – should’ve used metal moulds/trays.
Despite the soft rice, it tasted okay, although I could’ve been more generous with the salt.
Zucchini and feta rice tarts
Makes 6 small tarts or 1 large one
For the rice tarts
2 cups left over cold rice 1 egg Salt and pepper
For the filling
1 small zucchini 1/2 small capscium 2 eggs, lightly beaten Feta Salt & pepper
Preheat your oven to 200°C .
Season your rice very well with salt and pepper, then mix in an egg. Lightly oil a large muffin/tart tin. Divide the rice amongst the muffin moulds and press down well, using a glass to get it nice and flat and to help create the sides. Pop it into the oven and cook for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, grate the zucchini and capscium into a bowl. Add the eggs and mix together. Season well with salt and pepper.
Pour into the baked rice tarts, top with feta and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until the egg is set.
Brrr! It’s been cold this week. Perfect weather for soup and sitting on the couch with the heater on.
I don’t think I’ve ever had celeriac before this winter. It’s so unattractive with it’s brown knobbly surface that I never felt tempted to pick it up. Appearances can be deceiving though, and I’m glad I decided to give it a try.
Celeriac is a kind of celery that’s grown for the taproot rather than for the stem and leaves. It has a mild flavour with a cross between celery and parsnip. The first time we ate it, we had it alongside mashed potato, and I kept it separate in case we didn’t like it. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case, and the following week I picked up a large one (over a kilo!). What to do with such a big lump of celeriac? Soup!!
I softened some onion, garlic and diced bacon (probably didn’t need the bacon) in a pot, then added the diced celeriac and enough vegetable stock to cover. It all simmered until the celeriac was soft, and then I used my stick blender to puree it. After that, I seasoned it with salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice and stirred through some grated parmesan (probably didn’t need the cheese).
Here it is served up with a dash of extra virgin olive oil, and some diced celery leaves. My soup was very thick, so I found it quite filling. It was perfect for a meal on the couch!
I am normally a bit suspicious of fruit with meat. But when I invited my friend Emily and her partner Mark over for lunch a while ago, I decided to test out this recipe on them. They had no idea they were being my guinea pigs. Fortunately, despite my general aversion to the fruit and meat combo, it was delicious! Maybe I could be a fruit and meat convert after all.
Roasted grapes may sound strange but I can now vouch for their tastiness. They become tender and sweet in the oven, and also a bit tangy from the balsamic vinegar in the recipe. I served the dish with mashed potato and mashed celeriac. See the pink petal like things at the back of the plate? They were a failed attempt on beetroot chips (as they were mostly burnt).
If you’re going to try this recipe, do use a relatively good quality balsamic vinegar (though obviously not one of the highest quality!). The vinegar affects the flavour in the final dish so you don’t want to use something that tastes cheap and nasty.
Chicken roasted with red wine & grapes From Delicious magazine – March 2008
Serves 4
2 red onions, cut into wedges 350g large seedless red grapes, cut into small bunches 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, plus extra to drizzle 4 rosemary sprigs 2 tbs olive oil 3 chicken thigh culets (with skin on and bone in) 200ml light red wine (such as pinor noir or merlot) 2 fresh bay leaves creamy mashed potato, to serve
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Scatter the onion wedges and grapes in a lightly oiled roasting pan, then toss with the balsamic vinegar, rosemary, 1 tablespoon of the oil, and sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Roast for 20 minutes or until the onions are tinged golden and the grapes have wilted.
Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a heavy-based frypan over high heat and brown the chicken skin-side down for 15 minutes or until deep golden.
Add the chicken, skin up, to the roasting pan with the onion and grapes. Add the red wine and bay leaves and roast for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and tender.
Serve the chicken, grapes and onion with mash, drizzled with the pan juices and a little extra balsamic vinegar.
We had an indulgent breakfast on Sunday. I should’ve let us sleep in later to make it super indulgent. Instead, I made us get up early so I could make waffles!
Unlike the last time I made waffles, I used a recipe that had baking powder instead of yeast. It was quick, easy, and actually pretty good! I don’t think I’ll bother with a yeast batter again, not with this particular waffle maker.
I googled for a recipe that used baking powder, and settled on this one. The only thing that I did differently was to add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to my batter.
The waffles were quite light, and also a bit sensitive to being overcooked. They were best when they were golden and not too well done. They weren’t very sweet, but it was perfect with icing sugar and maple syrup.
I served the waffles with half a poached pear. I had a lonely corella pear sitting around that I knew I wasn’t going to eat. Rather than waste it, I poached it in a sugar syrup with a cinnamon quill and a couple of pieces of lemon peel. Below is the recipe that I used – increase the amount of sugar and water if making more than one pear.
If a breakfast like this isn’t worth getting out of bed for, I don’t know what is.
Thanks to Alastair for being my patient syrup pourer. 🙂
Cinnamon poached pear
1/4 cup sugar 2/3 cup water 1 cinnamon quill 2 pieces of lemon peel 1 large pear, peeled and cut in half
Mix together the sugar and water in a saucepan, and place on to a low heat.
Stir until the sugar dissolves.
Add the cinnamon quill, lemon peel and pear.
Simmer until the pear is soft and tender (about 10 minutes). Turn the pear over half way through if it isn’t fully submerged.
