Apple Tart

This is a recipe which required very minimum types of ingredient. With just pastry sheet, apples, butter and sugar (you can omit the extra ingredients in my recipe), an appetizing apple tart will be ready in short time perfect for your afternoon tea.


Ingredients:


Dough:
1 piece of 32 cm diameter puff pastry sheet

Filling:
4-5 apples depending on the size [peeled, cored (save peels and cores), and sliced]
40g unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar

Glaze:
Peels and cores from the apples of your filling
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ginger zest (optional)
1 lemon zest (optional)
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice (optional)
Few dashes of cinnamon powder (optional)


Method:

1. Press your pastry sheet against a 28 cm round baking pan. Heat oven to 210 degrees Celsius.
2. Overlap apple slices on dough in a ring up to the side of the pan. Continue inward until you reach the center.
3. Brush half of the melted butter over apples.
4. Sprinkle one tablespoon of sugar over apples before folding any dough hanging over pan back onto itself; crimp edges at 1-inch intervals.
5. Brush the remaining melted butter and sprinkle another tablespoon of sugar over dough edge.
6. Bake in center of oven until apples are soft, with browned edges, and crust has caramelized to a dark golden brown (about 45 to 50 minutes).
7. While waiting for your tart to cook you may start preparing your glaze. Put reserved peels and cores in a large saucepan along with 1/2 cup sugar, grated ginger, lemon zest, lemon juice and cinnamon powder. Pour in just enough water to cover the peels and cores; simmer for 25 minutes or until you get the result of a few tablespoons of thick syrup. Strain your syrup.
8. Remove tart from oven. Slide it out from baking pan and let it cool on cooling rack for at least 15 minutes.
9. Brush glaze over tart, slice and serve.


Do not thaw your pastry sheet too early. Only line your baking pan with the pastry sheet when all the ingredients for your filling are ready. It will be hard to arrange your apples when the sheet becomes soft under room temperature.

You may use more sugar and butter in step 3 to 5. But we find the sweetness of our reduced sugar version to be perfect.

I add some extra ingredients (lemon zest, ginger zest, lemon juice and cinnamon powder) to the glaze as I am fond of food with stronger flavour.

Do remember not to put too much water when u prepare the glaze. It will take longer time for it to achieve thick syrup form.

Let the tart cool on cooling rack before brushing your glaze. Do not over-brush your tart to avoid it turning soggy.


Adapted from:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/11/simplest-apple-tart/

La Gruyère and Montreux ~ 22.05.2011

La Maison du Gruyère, Gruyères Castle, Maison Cailler and Montreux

I have not been to La Gruyère region after almost 3 years in Swiss. So when my mum and sis came here for holiday, we finally made our way to the land of Swiss cheese and chocolate.

I will have to keep the post short as this trip was done so many months ago so I don't intend to scratch my head for all the details. Hope you will like my selection of photos below.

Posing in front of La Gruyere train


View outside the train


The production of Gruyere cheese

Will he grow up as a cheese lover like his mother?


OMG, so many racks of cheese!!!


The garden inside Gruyere Castle


Outside Gruyères Castle


Swiss cows are the lucky ones

Hot chocolate drinks in Maison Cailler, one of them is with spices

The little one showing us his evil smile


Mum, sis and Ian inside the Golden Pass train


Tulips by the lakeside of Montreux

Cheese fondue as dinner

Additional readings:
http://www.la-gruyere.ch/en/welcome.cfm?

Potato-Butternut Squash-Cheese Bake

Ingredients:

2 medium potatoes
5 tablespoons butternut squash (finely chopped/ shredded)
Grated cheese


Method:

1. Peel and halve potatoes. Boil them until cooked and soft, drain and allow them to cool.
2. Place your potatoes on a piece of aluminium foil. By using a fork, mash them.
3. Sprinkle your chopped butternut squash and grated cheese on your potatoes mash.
4. Give everything a quick stir for an even mix before wrapping up your aluminium foil.
5. Place the foil in your preheated oven of 240 degree Celsius and bake for 20-30 minutes.
6. Leave it to cool before serving.


You may opt for pumpkin or carrot if you could not find butternut squash.

As for cheese, I shredded some from my block of Dutch Reypenaer VSOP. If you have no idea which type of cheese to use, read here. For us, we will just stick to hard cheeses made from pasteurized milk as most cheeses mentioned in the article are not available in Swiss.

I did not pay special attention to the baking time as I was baking other things at the same time. But it should be ready in short time provided that the potatoes were pre-boiled and butternut squash finely chopped/ shredded. Alternatively, you can bake a bigger portion and share it with other family members as afternoon snack.

Egg Yolk-Avocado-Yogurt Mash

Feeding a baby is a tough job. Not only that they take long time to finish their meal (at least that's what my son does), the urge to prepare a balanced nutritious diet complicate the matter.

Since I don't get to try new recipes nowadays as my time was spent to cook and feed my son, I will start recording some of the baby food recipes which I found interesting.



Ingredients:

1/4 ripped avocado
1 hard boiled egg yolk
2 tablespoons plain yogurt


Method:

1. In a bowl, mix avocado, egg yolk and yogurt.
2. With a large fork, mash everything together.
3. Serve immediately.


Read more about eggs for your baby here:
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/eggsbabyfoodrecipes.html

Original source for this recipe:
Read it online somewhere