Orange Tart

I had a tin of preserved mandarin oranges lying in my kitchen for months, so one weekend when I felt like baking a light and fruity dessert I searched for a good tart recipe and finally decided to modify a few to get to this one. The tart was light and had a great citrusy punch, next time around I would probably modify the recipe to make sure the curd filling is not as runny as it was.

Ingredients

Orange curd 

Juice from firm oranges - 1/2 cup
Lemon Juice - 1/3 cup
Egg yolk - from 6 large eggs
Whole Eggs -2 large
Sugar - 1 cup
Orange zest -2 table spoon
Butter- cold,cut into small squares - 1/2 cup

Crust
All purpose flour (Maida)- 1 cup
Powdered Sugar - 2 tbl spoon
Salt -1/4 tsp
Unsalted butter -1/2 cup
Whipping cream/ fresh cream -2 table spoons
 Egg yolk -1 large

Decoration 
Orange Juice
Canned orange segments
Strawberry
Chilled fresh cream


Whisk the eggs and egg yolks for 2-3 minutes, add the rest of sugar, orange juice, lemon juice and zest and continue for another minute. Set up a double boiler by placing a vessel filled with water on the stove and let in reach boiling point, place a smaller steel vessel into the bath.
Add the butter, blend and pour into the smaller steel vessel. Constantly whisk the mixture for about 10 min or till it thickens. Remove from the bath and leave it to cool. After it reaches room temperature cover it with clingwrap and place it into the freezer for an hour or the fridge if longer.

For the crust

Pre heat oven to 185'C. Blend flour, sugar, and salt in processor (this can be done by hand as well). Add butter and cut in, using on/off turns, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add cream and egg yolk and process until dough clumps together. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Roll out dough on floured surface to 13-inch round.

Grease a 10 inch tart dish with butter and line the dough, cut the sides out neatly and pierce the surface with a fork all over.
Place the dish  in the hot oven. Bake crust until cooked through, about 30 minutes. Cool crust completely in pan on rack.

Sprinkle orange juice on the crust to soften and pour in the curd. Decorate with strawberries,oranges and cream / icing.

Chill for minimum an hour before serving.

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients
1.5 cup All purpose flour (maida)
3/4th cup Powdered sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking powder
1/3 cup Oil
1 Egg
1/3 cup Milk
Blueberries can or fresh, you can substitute with cranberry
A few drops Vanilla essence

Method

Preheat the oven to 200'C

Mix all the wet ingredients in a large bowl

In another bowl mix in the dry ingredients (you can sieve them if you want)

Add the wet mixture gently to the dry and fold in . There is no need to use a blender or a mixer. Simply use a spatula.

Leave the mixture for 10 mins. Meanwhile prepare you muffin tin, you can use a paper liner or just use vegetable oil to grease

Add the batter to the muffin cups next, I used a table spoon. First pour enough mixture to fill little less than half of the cup, next add the berry sauce or a few fresh berries.
Next add more batter to fill the cup till the brim( this will result in the muffins spilling out upon baking giving the characteristic shape). If using fresh berries add some more on the top and let them just sink a bit before transferring to a baking pan.

Bake for 15-20 mins in the oven (this time may very , just observe the muffins as they bake, pierce a toothpick to make sure its done.

Cool on a rack and serve !

Chargrilled Broccoli with Chilli and Garlic

Posting on this blog after ages, but I've decided to restart food blogging after I realized how much I enjoy it. It takes some effort to document , picture and then actually post your cooking but I guess its worth doing coz a) it gives me a chance to indulge in cooking which I love b) lets me experiment with another one of my hobby - photography.

With out further ado my newest fav dish - Chargrilled Broccoli with Chilli and Garlic
I got the recipe from gourmet traveller which in turn if from adapted from the Ottolenghi cookbook.
Ingredients
1 medium broccoli
olive oil
7-8 small garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 green chillies red chillies/jalepenos, thinly sliced
coarse sea salt
black pepper

Separate the brocolli into florets and blanch in boiling water for 2 minutes – don’t be tempted to cook longer! Remove immediately to a bowl of ice water, then drain and leave to dry completely.

To chargrill the broccolli I used a thick bottom anodized pan, Take olive oil in the pan and let it warm for a minute , toss in the dried broccolli into it and let it grill. Do not cover the dish as it will not be crunchy.

If required do this in batches so that it does not become soggy. It took me about 5 mins per batch to char grill this to medium.

While the broccoli is cooking, place some more oil in a small saucepan together with the garlic and chillies and cook on a medium heat until the garlic begins to turn golden brown. Be careful not to let the garlic and chilli burn – they will continue cooking in the hot oil even when off heat.

Pour the garlic and chilli oil over the hot broccoli and toss well. Season to taste and serve immediately or at room temperature

I served it with a tasty readymade tzatziki sauce.