Pommes sautées et poires

For a quick and easy dessert:

Cut 3 big apples in small cubes and fry them gently in a pan. (they must roast a bit). Add piment d'espelette and cinnamon. Mix and add on top pears cut in long bands. Do not mix, leave them on top and cover the pan so they cook with vapour. Once the pears start looking more and more transparent, it is ready.

Tarte aux Pommes

That was the dessert after the main dish prepared in the earlier note.

Take a kilogram of apples and but them in small bits. In a large pot, put some butter and melt it. Add the apples (fire should be small). Add 2 spoons of honey, a little bit of cinnamon and some espelette chili (that is my personnal touch) and a little bit of rum. If you have vanilla-ed sugar (preparation is described in next note) please do. Adding a pear or two is a good idea.

Let cook for about half an hout, slowly, mixing from time to time with the pot almost fully covered.
The mixture, a compote (or apple sauce) should be kind of liquid. If too many bits are remaining, squash them.

In a pie pan, put some dough (we'll learn later how to do one), do little holes in it with a fork and put it in a pre heated oven at 200*C. When you see that it starts to get a bit hard. Add the compote, spead it over the dough but not higher than the side.
Cut two more apples in thin layer and add them in circles over the top.

Put back in the oven until the apples look cooked.

Cake aux poires, au chocolat et au rhum

That is a cake, said cake in French.

In a large bowl, put 250g of flour, 150g of sugar, salt (only a pinch) and a sachet of yeast (can get some in the Meal Shop, Rodgers& Rodgers, on South Street). Mix everything well so that it is about evenly proportioned. Then dig a well in the centre of the mixture.

Take 2 yolks (keeping the egg white aside for later use) and mix them with 0.1l of milk. Add the pears, rum and little bits of chocolate. Pour all of this in the well in the flour and start stirring until you there is no liquid left.
Melt 150g of butter and add carefully in the bowl (might have some weird things happening if the butter is too hot). Stir everything. Now take the egg whites and whip like for meringue (in snow). Add into the salad bowl and … stir again. Once everything is not quite solid but not that liquid either, pour into the cake pan (about 30cm by 5 cm) and put in a preheated oven at 160ºC for an hour and a quarter.

The cake is good when fresh but is also very nice after about a week or more waiting in the fridge which is very handy for parties as you can start preparations a week before and have less stress during the day.