How to Cook Well at Christmas with Rory O'Connell airs on RTÉ One at 7:30pm on Sunday, 22 December, and 7pm Monday, 23 December.
Ingredients
Poached Pears
- 3-4 pears, peeled, halved and cored
- 450ml water
- 200g caster or granulated sugar
- 1 lemon, thin strips peeled from zest and the juice
Flan
- 100g caster sugar
- 100g butter at room temperature
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 150g self raising flour
- 2-3 tablespoons milk
- 150g chocolate, 54% cocoa solids, chopped to a gravel type texture
Apricot glaze
- 3 tablespoons apricot jam gently melted with 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice and passed through a sieve
Homemade Lemonade
- 350ml pear poaching syrup
- Juice of 3 lemons
- Juice of 1 orange
- C 500ml sparkling water.
- Mint or lemon balm leaves
- Ice
Method
- Heat oven to 200c
- To poach the pears, place the water and sugar in a medium sized saucepan. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Add the prepared pears and strips of lemon. Over and poach at a gentle simmer until the pears are tender but not overcooked and mushy. Allow to cool completely and lift the pears out of the syrup to drain on a wire rack. Save the poaching syrup for making a home-made lemonade.
- Line the base and sides of a 28cm flan tin( with removable base) with a disc of lightly butter parchment paper. The Paper should stand 1 cm proud of the top of the tin.
- Beat the sugar and butter in a bowl to a pale, light and fluffy consistency. Beat in the eggs in increments beating well before each addition. Add in the vanilla and fold in the flour. Add milk as needed to achieve a dropping consistency – a mixture that falls hesitatingly from the spoon. Add in the chocolate and mix gently but thoroughly.
- Spread the flan mixture onto the parchment lined tin. Slice each pear into c3ml slices and lift them whole on to the flan mixture, pointed end towards the centre of the flan. Flatten a little to spread the pear and to achieve a pleasing appearance. Continue filling the pears on to the flan until the surface is covered.
- Place the flan in the oven and cook for c 30minutes. To check that the tart is cooked, insert a skewer into the flan (avoiding pear and chocolate) and the retracted skewer should be clean with no soft undercooked mixture clinging to it.
- Place the cooked tart on a wire rack to cool just a little. While the tart is still warm, paint carefully with apricot glaze to achieve a shiny, glossy finish.
- Serve while still warm with softly whipped cream.
Homemade Lemonade
- Mix the syrup, citrus juice and water. Taste to correct sweetness adding a little more syrup or water as necessary. Serve over ice with mint or lemon balm leaves as available.
