An article in the Torygraph today reminded me of a nickname I was given at school following a track & field try-out. All the kids were shown the proper way to perform the approach, take-off and flight. I paid due attention to the Phys Ed teacher (ie none). My approach was fine, and so was take-off. It was the flight aspect that eluded me. Instead of flopping over the bar in the usual fashion, I pulled my legs into a cross-legged sitting position to clear the pole, and ended up on the mat, sat like a Buddha. It was henceforth known as doing a Buddha Jumps over the Wall.

Blackcurrant frangipane

Originally uploaded by framboise.

We bought some peaches on the way home from the Andy Warhol exhibition last weekend, and they felt just about ripe enough today. But instead of eating these juicy peaches raw, I thought could try a frangipane flan, similar to one K&M made for us a couple of Saturdays ago. I couldn’t find a frangipane recipe in any of my many cookbooks, so checked out BBC’s food pages. I don’t usually rely on Ready Steady Cook baking recipes, as they’re not as precise enough to be repeatable, but I thought I’d just give this a try ‘cos I wasn’t planning on making the frangipane hold any weight. I tripled the recipe, but had quite a bit left over, so mixed up the leftover with a handful of our blackcurrant crop from last year and baked that in ramekins. My rigged recipe for just enough frangipane for a 9″ flan dish follows.

Ingredients:

• 110g butter
• 4 tbsp caster sugar
• 200g ground almonds
• 4 tbsp self-raising flour
• 2 eggs
• 5 peaches, halved and stoned
• shortcrust pastry (shop-bought pre-rolled, poor quality, but convenient)

Method:

1. Roll out the shortcrust pastry onto a flan dish and press into the sides. Cut off excess pastry.
2. Cut a circle of baking parchment (I use some pre-cut silicone circles from Lakeland Limited), and pour in some dried beans (like adukis or peas). Bake blind for 15 min in a 180 degC oven.
3. Allow the pastry to cool a little, remove the beans and circle, prick the bottom of the pastry and bake for another 10-15 min.
4. While the pastry is baking, make up the frangipane. Cream the butter and sugar. Then add the ground almonds and flour in small batches. Stir well, then beat in the eggs, one at a time.
5. Spread the frangipane on the pastry, then embed the halved peaches, round side down, in the frangipane.
6. Bake for 40-50 min in a 180 degC oven. (The blackcurrant frangipane ramekins took about 20 min. Just watch for the frangipane rising and turning golden brown.)

Peach frangipane tart	Baked for a bit too long	Blackcurrant frangipane	Baked ramekins

The blackcurrant frangipane was a bit on the tart side, and could probably have done with a touch more sugar. What pigs we are… We now have a whole peach flan and 2 other ramekins to scoff. What are the chances of finishing them off by the end of the weekend?

08 May ’05 edit: The peach flan has a bit too much frangipane, and not enough peach. Probably best to smear a centimetre or two, rather than the four or five that I used in the flan. I’d also squeeze another peach on somehow next time.

Technorati tags: flan, frangipane, peach, recipe.

Crab and courgette gratin

Originally uploaded by framboise.

Bought some lumaconi pasta from Sainsbury’s last week. It’s a rather large pasta, perfect for stuffing. We thought the recipe on the back of the packet sounded better than usual, and tried it out. The recipe suggested using broccoli florets, but we haven’t had any in the last couple of veg boxes, so used courgettes instead. The first time I cooked this, I added a handful of toasted pine nuts to the mix, but P forgot to do that tonight. I think a touch of toasted nut adds a bit of texture and contrast to the smooth crab/mascarpone. Here’s my version of the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 10-12 pieces of lumaconi pasta, cooked for 12 min and drained
• 1 tin of white crab meat (~170g)
• half a small tub of mascarpone (~125g)
• 1-2 courgettes, cut into small chunks
• handful of toasted pine nuts (~100g or more… I like my nuts)
• 1 tbsp of chives, chopped
• a few tomatoes, either to stuff or as garnish
• shavings of parmigiano reggiano (parmesan)

Method:

1. Mix the crab meat, mascarpone, nuts and chives in a bowl. You can mix in the courgettes and tomatoes in at this stage as well, but it’s easier to portion out the veggies fairly on their own.
2. Stuff the lumaconi and shave some parmigiano on top. (We’ve finished our massive chunk from V&C, so had to do without.)
3. Bake in a 180 degC oven for half an hour, or until the mixture is warmed through and the cheese starts to brown slightly.

We found that however gently we simmered the lumaconi, a few pieces fell apart every time. So cook a few extra just in case. What we did to salvage the situation was layer the larger bits with crab mix in a ramekin, kinda like a mini lasagne.

We’re also trying to get through our small wine cellar (really a cheap plastic wine rack plus the bottles from Virgin Wines that couldn’t fit in). We’ve been looking foward to our final bottle of Cairn O’ Mohr: the elderberry one. It’s a very pleasant, if slightly sweet, wine. They describe it on the label as port-like. That’s a pretty accurate description. But I’d probably call it “port-light”. 😉

Before baking	Wine while waiting	After baking

Technorati tags: courgette, crab, gratin, lumaconi, recipe.