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.

Fig and date halwa

This was a very middle eastern inspired halwa. It turned out to be super sweet and uber yummy like most middle eastern desserts. Next time I'm going to try reducing the amount of sugar because the figs as well as the dates are both laden with sweetness.


5 big dried figs (chopped)
8 medium dates (pitted and chopped)
1/2 a stick butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried shredded coconut
7-10 Elaichi(cardamom)




1) Add the frozen butter stick in a non stick pan to melt slowly on medium
2) Meanwhile make a coarse wet paste of the dates , figs and half the coconut.
3) Add Sugar to the butter, take care not to burn it, cook for 3-4 mins
4) Add the paste and elaichi powder
5) Just when the butter gets incorporated in the halwa add the rest of the coconut
6) Serve warm or cold.


So this was my a fabulous meal> I hope to create something similar soon.