Taking Tarte Tatin for a ride....

(You know you want to...)

This recipe was inspired by a photo in a swiss cookery magazine that I saw at a friends house last weekend. The picture was good. The recipe was of sugar and damsons or prune plums covered with a complicated-ish batter.

I knew I wanted to try my own version instantaneously.

This is such a simple tarte to make. Give it a try and you will be surprised at how delicious it turns out.

Ingredients:
70 gr. cane sugar
zest of 1/4 orange
a dusting of cinnamon
700 gr. of damsons/prune plums (apparently Fellenberger are the best)
500 gr. of puff pastry

Preheat your oven to 200°C.
Spread your sugar evenly into your pie tin.
Sprinkle the zest and the cinnamon on top. (You really don't want much, just a hint to compliment the taste of the fruit.)
Cut in half and de-stone your fruit then arrange them cut side down into the tin. Try getting as much fruit in there as possible.
Roll out your pastry (it rises better than the pre-rolled kind) and cut a generous "top" for the tin. The pastry will shrink as it rises, so make it a little bigger. Extra tip: After you've cut it, turn it over before placing it onto the fruit. This is also supposed to make it rise better.
Place the pastry onto the tin.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and a deep golden brown color.

Take it out of the oven. Let it cool slightly then overturn it onto a serving platter.
Admire. ;-)

Serving recommendation: Still warm from the oven with a big bowl of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Gniocchi

As my work colleagues are very well aware of, I have an overly present disdain for consuming leftovers. Eating the same dish twice? Life is just too short.

Making a completely new dish out of a past meal is a completely different matter though. And this is where these pillow-y dumplings come to play...

I guess you could also make fish cakes or so out of leftover mashed potatoes... But these gniocchi are far more elegant...

Start out with a one portion amount of leftover mashed potatoes. Add an egg, about 50 gr. of semolina and however much plain flour is needed to make a pliable, non sticky dough. I can't really tell you how much that will be, as it mostly depends on how high the liquid content of your mash is... I can tell you, that it will be more flour than you anticipated. :-) Therefore my recommendation that you start out with only one portion of mash. I'm sure I used at least one and a half cups of flour...

When you have a dough let it rest and cool in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
Take it out, squeeze off one lump and form it into a roll of about a centimeters diagonal. cut off small peaces of that and "roll" it with a fork. Dipping the fork and knife into flour from time to time will prevent the dough from sticking.
And continue until done.


These gniocchi freeze very well. Space them evenly on parchment paper (multiple layers are fine), freeze and fill into a bag to store.

When your feeling hungry, boil water and add salt. Pour the desired portion of gniocchi into the boiling water, pull it off the heat and let it stand covered for two to three minutes.

Topped with sage and lemon butter this is a delicious and somewhat special pasta dinner. (Melt the butter, add the sage. When crispy add the lemon zest, a good pinch of salt and a squeeze of the juice.)

Can you say glut?

This is what my potted garden looks like these days:



All of the tomatoes seem to be in a rush, it seems. And half of the household is on vacation in Corsica!

Something had to be done to fight against this scary overload of red fruit.
This recipe, which I had tried once before, a year ago, come to mind:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/tender-chicken-legs-with-tomatoes
It's easy delicious and takes incredibly little time to assemble!
Give it a try. If you're not a huge fan of garlic, you might want to add a little less than the recipe demands....

The leftover vegetables can be heated and served as pasta sauce or topped up with stock, blitzed and served as deliciously fruity tomato soup.


Enjoy!

BLT

A Sandwich for the end of summer. When the tomatoes are deliciously ripe and the salad leaves still fresh and full of flavor.

The preparation couldn't be easier:
Fry your bacon until crispy.
Pick some red and green lettuce, as well as some arugula.
Slice a ripe tomato thinly.
Toast your bread of choice.
Mix a little bit of mayonnaise with mustard and assemble.

(The order is really of no particular importance. If your name is Julia you might want to pick out all of the arugula now. ;-) )