Recently, I've made two dishes that use some kind of alcohol as one of the ingredients. The following are recipes I've created after going through myriad versions one can find on-line (many of which are on other people's blogs). I had to alter some of the ingredients and cooking methods that others have used, given what I had here, so this is what I came up with!
Baked pears cooked in a sweet, white wine sauce, and topped with chantilly crème and dark chocolate shavings
(last Thursday of February; Gerald, Jill, and Sam)
What you'll need to cook the pears:
Pears (one per person)
Sweet white wine
Cinnamon
A baking dish or two (I found that 5 halves fit in a standard round, ceramic baking dish)
An oven
In addition, you'll need the following for plating (optional):
Chantilly crème (whipped cream)
Dark[est] chocolate possible (shaved, to garnish)What you need to do:
1) Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (350°F, I think).
2) Halve the pears keeping the stem in-tact, if possible. Face-up, sprinkle some cinnamon on each pear half.
3) Arrange the pear halves face-down in the baking dish(es). It's totally cool for the halves to touch each other; just try to make sure that the face-down bits are in contact with the bottom of the dish(es).
4) Add enough of the wine to cover the entire bottom of each dish, pouring the wine directly onto the tops of each half and letting it fall to the bottom.
5) Sprinkle a bit of cinnamon on top of each half (the wine should allow the cinnamon to stick for the moment). Then, add a bit more wine in the same manner as above. The total volume of wine in each dish should be enough so that the pear halves are submerged about 1/4 of the way in wine. For 10 halves (for 5 people), I used about half a bottle (about 37,5 cl) of white wine.
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a) The cooking time will definitely vary, depending on how soft you want the pears to be. If you're not going to serve the pears with a full-course meal, I'd estimate the cooking time at around 45 minutes. You can have your meal and by the time you get to the pears, they should still be relatively hot.
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b) HOWEVER, if you're serving this with a full five-course meal like we did: Bake the pears for about 30 minutes. Begin baking them at the start of the
apératifs, and by the time you start the main course, the pears should be done. You'll know when the pears are ready for the next step when you can just barely stick a fork easily into the pear halves. (P.S. / Watch out for the first time you open the oven door; it'll get very smokey!) Turn the heat off and let the pears sit in the heat of the oven until you're ready to serve them. About 5-10 minutes before you actually serve them, turn the heat to about 220°C just to get them warmed up again. Generally you can do this towards the end of the cheese course (our order of courses is:
apératif, main course, salad, cheese, dessert; to finish,
chocolat chaud and pain au chocolat.)
7)
Be careful when plating, as the pears can get very hot! To plate, I placed one half face-down, and one half face-up. Once all of the pear halves have been plated, I took the remaining liquid and, carefully transferring it to a sauce pan, reduced the sauce by cooking it a bit. Then, I drizzled the sauce over the pear halves. Then, where the points met, I put some chantilly crème, and finally topped the dish with freshly-shaved dark chocolate shavings.
: Fresh citrus strawberries topped with chantilly crème and dark chocolate shavings
Right: Fresh mango cooked in rum and brown sugar
(first Friday of Lent; Elise and Jane)
What you'll need for the strawberry dessert:
Strawberries (halved, with leaves removed)
Orange juice (fresh preferred)
Lemon juice (fresh preferred)
Granulated sugar
Bowl (big enough to hold all of the strawberries, whereby the strawberries don't go past the rim of the bowl)
In addition, you'll need the following to plate the strawberries (optional):
Chantilly crème (whipped cream)
Dark[est] chocolate possible (shaved, to garnish)
What you'll need for the mango dessert:
Mangoes (riper the better; 1/2 for each person)
Brown sugar
Rum (okay, really, I don't know how much I used; however, I can say I got a 20 cl. bottle and used 1 cap full for 2 mangoes, i.e., 4 mango halves)
Knife
Shallow dish
Pan
What you need to do:
A) For the strawberries:
1) Once the strawberries have been washed and halved, place them in the big bowl and cover with the granulated sugar. I'd estimate about 1/3 cup of sugar for every container (500 g) of strawberries. CAREFULLY toss the stawberries and sugar together.
2) Cover the the strawberries with the orange juice. Stop adding juice to the bowl until it reaches the top of the strawberries, not necessarily until it reach the top of the bowl.
3) CAREFULLY transfer the bowl to the refrigerator during the citrus infusion process. I prepared this before the apératifs, and plated everything during the cheese course. To plate, strain the juice from the strawberries (save it for later if serving this with the mango dessert), and distribute the strawberries evenly, topping it all off with some chantilly crème and dark chocolate shavings.
B) For the mangoes:
1) Cut the mangoes more or less into halves, trying to cut as close to the pit as possible.
2) Take the same knife you used to cut the mango, score (create a grid) the mango halves, cutting close to (but NOT through!) the skin of the mango.
3) Arrange the mangoes in a shallow dish, face-up, and top off each mango half with some brown sugar. Add a bit of rum to the top of each mango half. It's okay if the rum falls through the cracks or over the mango (that's what the shallow dish is for, to collect the sauces, etc.)
4) In a heated pan (I cooked at about 6,5/7, in terms of heat), place the halves on the pan face-down, allowing the skins to touch each other, but not overcrowding the room or the pan. You'll know when the mango is done when there's a bit of steam or in about a minute on high heat. [N.B. Some of mine actually had some charred pieces, which could easily be removed without destroying the dish.]
5) In terms of plating, see the photo above. What is also important to note is that the sauce (which you would drizzle first over the fleshy side of the mango half and then use the rest to decorate the plate) is made by adding about 3 tbsps of sugar to the combined sauces (the citrus sauce and the rum & brown sugar sauce), and reducing the sauces together.
