Sauce au poivre vert & Apricot chicken tagine

Excellent "sauce au poivre vert" for about 3-4 steaks....

Ingredients

2 cloves garlic, unpeeled

100ml white wine

150ml beef stock

3 teaspoons green peppercorns in brine (see photo above), drained (you can leave a bit of brine

for extra flavour)

3 teaspoons Dijon mustard

40ml cream (crême fraîche if possible)

a bit of oil

Method

1. Pierce garlic cloves, place in a baking dish and drizzle with a little oil.

2. Bake for 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. Peel and mash when cool enough to handle.

3. Add wine, stock and peppercorns to pot and simmer until liquid is reduced by half.

4. Stir in garlic, then turn down heat to low.

5. Add mix of mustard and cream. Keep on very low heat! If it starts to boil, the fat will separate....

Serve with nice juicy steaks.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apricot Chicken Tagine

Ingredients

serves: 4

2 tblsp olive oil

knob butter

1 large onion, finely chopped

A couple sprigs of rosemary, 1 finely chopped, the others whole

A ping-pong ball-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped

3-4 dried red chillies (depending how hot you want it)

1 cinnamon stick

8 chicken things/similar quantity of breast

180g dried apricots

2 tbs clear honey

400g can of tomatoes

salt& pepper

small bunch of basil

Method

1. Heat oil and butter in tagine or heavy based casserole.

2. Stir in onion, chopped rosemary, ginger and chillies and fry gently until the onion begins to

soften.

3. Add the chicken thighs and brown them on both sides.

4. Toss in the apricots with the honey, then stir in the tomatoes with their juice. (Add a little water

if necc., to ensure there is enough liquid to cover the base of the tagine and submerge the

apricots.) Stir in the rosemary sprigs and the cinnamon stick.

5. Bring the liquid to the boil, then reduce the heat.

6. Cover with lid (if not using a tajine dish, put lid on an angle) and cook gently for 35-40 mins.

7. Season to taste with salt& pepper.

Sprinkle basil over the chicken and serve the dish immediately with couscous/saffron rice and a leafy salad.

Tarte aux Champignons

1 sheet puff pastry (frozen)

1 big onion

2 cloves of garlic

500g mushrooms

3-4 bacon rashers

1 bottle of white wine (Riesling or Gewuerztraminer if possible)

About 100ml of crème fraiche (or the closest you can get)

2 bay leaves

Parsley

Butter

Salt, pepper

Open the bottle of white wine and check if it's alright by having a glass.

Chop onion (finely), mushrooms and bacon. Crush, then chop garlic cloves.

Simmer onion, garlic, mushrooms and bacon in pan with butter and bay leaves until nice and brown.

While the mushroom mix is simmering, prepare the pastry: Put puff pastry into baking form with baking paper, then use fork to make a few holes in the pastry, preventing it from raising too much when pre-baking.

Preheat oven to 200C, then have a glass of white wine while you pre-bake the puff pastry in the oven. Check if it doesn't raise too much (poke more holes with a fork if required), it is ready when the pastry is "dry". Take out of oven and let cool on bench.

Season the mushroom mix with salt and pepper. Then, while drinking a glass of white wine, add some to the pan (about half a glass) and stir until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add crème fraiche and chopped parsley to the mushrooms at the last minute (do not boil the cream!).

Put the mushroom mix into the baking form, bake for about 15-20min while drinking a glass of white wine. Optional: you can add grated cheese (ideally Comté) for a "gratinée" version.

Serve with a glass of white wine.

X.

Pear Brown Sugar Pie

1 X 30 cm (12in) pie dish with the base lined with baking paper
(You can use a slightly smaller pie dish if you like)
Sweet shortcrust pastry (enough for the base and the top)
6 or 7 Beurre Bosc pears, peeled, each cut in to 8 wedges and cored
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice (you can use lemon juice)
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
3 Tbsp plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
Small pinch of sea salt
½ cup of brown sugar
13g (1 Tbsp) butter cut in to large cubes
1 large egg beaten with 1 Tbsp warm water
1 Tbsp raw sugar


Preheat oven to 200°C (425°F)

Place the pears in a large bowl and add the lime juice and vanilla bean paste, mix through gently.

In another bowl whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and brown sugar.

Add to the pear mixture. Gently fold through and let stand for 5 to 15 minutes.

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to around 50 cm for the bottom and another piece for the top.

Place the first piece of pastry in to pie dish.

Add the pear mixture

Dot with butter

Top with the other piece of pastry and trim the edges so there is a 1or 2 cm overhang. Press together gently and roll under or over. I then use a fork to make a pattern around the edge.

Cut 3 vents (around 2cm) in to top of pastry.

Brush with egg mixture and sprinkle with raw sugar.

Place in the oven on a hot baking sheet for 20 minutes

Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (375°F) and bake for another 40 minutes or until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling.

Cool to room temperature (around 2 hours if you can wait that long).

I serve this with Jocks cinnamon ice cream but of course cream would also be good!

Taken from http://www.rrr.org.au/playlist/8175/

Z.