Pear sauce with a bite...

This sauce is great with roast chicken, leg of lamb and pork roast. My gran always used to make pear sauce for Christmas lunch but I never liked it. It was only after she passed away that I made it myself and actually tried it on gammon and chicken. She just always made her pear sauce without the chilli!

Preperation time: 15 minutes
Serves: approx 7-8

Ingredients:
4-5 pears peeled and cut into cubes
40g butter or margarine
pinch of chilli powder
pinch of cinnamon
3 tbsp brandy (recipe says Calvados, but normal brandy is fine)
5ml lemon juice
300m vegetable stock

Method:
Fry the pears in butter or margarine until soft.
Add chilli, cinnamon, lemon juice and brandy and cook for approx 5 mins.
Blend until smooth and add to vegetable stock in a saucepan.
Heat for approx 5 mins and serve hot!

Enjoy, till later...

Don't be a fruit cake!

My first attempt at baking a fruit cake produced a really large, dry brick because I thought that I was really clever and left it in the oven after baking it to keep it moist!!! This method will work only if you let the cake (and the oven) cool down first!

This recipe comes from a Moir's cookbook and is really easy and tasty if you do not leave it in the oven after baking it!!
Ingredients:
375ml (1 1/2 Cup) Fruit mix
125ml (1/2 Cup) chopped red/green glazed cherries
150g butter or margarine
125ml (1/2 Cup) brown sugar
5ml (1tsp) mixed spice/cloves
250ml (1 Cup) orange juice
2 eggs
375ml (1 1/2 Cup) Flour
15ml (3 tsp) baking powder
10-15 peacan nuts halved

Method:
Add fruit mix, cherries, butter, brown sugar, mixed spice and orange juice to a large saucepan.
Bring to the boil stirring continuously for about 4 min. Leave to cool down.
Mix flour, eggs and baking powder until smooth. Mix with saucepan mixture and pour it into a cake pan (20cm in dia)
Bake at 150 degrees for 1 1/4 hours.
Leave to cool down (outside the oven!) for 10 minutes and turn out onto a cooling rack.

Well, I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you would like to spice it up a little, add a dash of brandy to the fruit cake everyday before Christmas!!!

Till later...