Tag: pears

Shavuot Ideas -Baby Lettuce Salad with Pears, Blue Cheese and Candied Walnuts

Cheese Fruit Salads Shavuot Baroness Tapuzina

We served this salad between the amuse bouche and main course as a light refresher, but you can also serve this before the dessert course. Irene chose Dalton Winery, Fume Blanc, 2008 to serve with the salad. This wine is aged in oak barrels and was a lovely crisp wine that I have also served with a fish course.

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Baby Lettuce Salad with Pears, Blue Cheese and Candied Walnuts
Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon minced shallot
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons walnut oil or avocado oil
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 bag assorted baby lettuce
  • 1 bunch of arugula rocket, trimmed
  • 1/2 cup whole walnuts
  • 2 tablespoons date honey silan
  • 1 medium Bartlett pear--halved cored and thinly sliced
  • 1/2 cup crumbled Maytag or Danish blue cheese
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Place the walnuts on a baking tray and drizzle the date honey over the nuts and mix until they are completely coated. Add more date honey, if necessary. Bake for 5 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside to cool.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the vinegar and shallot. Whisk in the olive and walnut oils and season with salt and pepper. Add the lettuce, arugula, walnuts and pear slices, season with salt and pepper and toss well. Crumble the blue cheese on top and serve.

Shana Tova u’Metukah

Fruit Dessert Rosh Hashana Baroness Tapuzina

I have been busy preparing for Rosh Hashana and have finally completed everything I intended to make for Friday and Saturday.

I made 4 round challot, one plain and three with dried apricots, dried cranberries, raisins, dried cherries and dried apples. I used the new Kitchenaid to knead the dough and I am very happy with the results. I am back making challah like I used to make in the States. I finally learned how to braid a round challah from this website. I found the website by chance and called Mr. BT to come to my study so I could butter him up to help me with the braiding. He said, “It looks a bit complicated, maybe you should just do it the way you always do.”. I said, no, I would like to give this a try and if we start bickering over it, I will go back to the old way. Well, we figured it out and we didn’t fight about it. Happy days!

For dessert, I am bringing poached pears and Mr. BT’s pomegranate sorbet. We decided to do a light dessert this year. The pears are not too sweet and have a lovely spicy aroma that permeates from the kitchen. I think they will be a big hit.

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Poached Pears
Ingredients
  • 1 bottle semi-dry white wine such as Emerald Reisling
  • 1/4 cup brandy
  • 1/4 sugar
  • 2 strips of orange zest
  • 1- inch piece of fresh ginger peeled and sliced
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 10 whole cloves
  • 8 firm ripe pears
  • Juice of 2 oranges
Instructions
  1. In a pot big enough to hold the pears snugly, put all of the ingredients except for the pears. Bring the liquid up to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the pears, cover the pan, and gently poach the pears for about 30 minutes until the pears are soft, but not mushy. Turn off the heat and let cool.
  2. The pears can be poached up to 2 days ahead and kept in the poaching liquid in the refrigerator.

Saturday, I am serving chicken soup with kubbeh which I will blog about in a few days and Sunday, I am making a surprise, so you will have to wait.

Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova u’Metuka to you and your family.

May you all be inscribed in the Book of Life and we hope you have happy, healthy, and prosperous new year.

Chag Sameach,

Mr. BT and Baroness Tapuzina