Tamarillo Tarts with Honey and Ginger Mascarpone

We celebrated our wedding anniversary this week. Isabella and I got busy to cook a special dinner to celebrate. We had goats cheese and red onion tarts as a starter (sorry, no recipe...I just improvised with this), Chicken with Chorizo and Olives and this tart as a dessert.

We had spotted the tart in the most recent Cuisine magazine and decided to halve the recipe for the three of us. We served it with ice cream...I'm sure the mascapone would have been really yummy but ice cream was the best I could do...avoiding a trip out on a very cold wet and windy winter night!

I was amazed at how easily the tamarillos pealed with the method suggested in the recipe - a good trick to remember when using them in other dishes!

I added a thin slice to cover most of the top of the tart - the tamarillo flavour was a bit lacking - I'd probably layer the fruit on top a bit more next time...or follow the recipe better and make them a bit thicker! It was nice though to have the almond mixture showing through and getting bit browned.

The pastry was a bit undercooked on the bottom...I'd leave them in a bit longer next time.


Tamarillo Tarts with Honey and Ginger Mascarpone

Ingredients
1 x 350g-500g packet pre-rolled, made with butter puff pastry
200g butter, at room temperature
200g caster sugar, plus extra to sprinkle
3 large eggs
200g ground almond
80 grams flour
6 tamarillos
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon ground ginger
150g mascarpone

Method
Spray 6 individual 11 cm tart moulds with oil. Cut circles from the pastry sheets to line each mould. Refrigerate.
Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.
Beat the butter and sugar until incorporated and slowly add the eggs one at a time, while beating.
Fold in the ground almond and flour. this is the filling.

Immerse the tamarillos in bolding water for 10 seconds, then plunge into cold water.
Peel  and cut into 5mm slices.
Remove the tart moulds from the fridge and half fill each with the filling.
Arrange the tamarillo slices on top and sprinkle with caster sugar.

Put tarts on a banking
tray and bake for 30 minutes until the base of each tart is golden (check by gently lifting each tart out from base). Dust with icing sugar.

While the tarts are baking, whisk the honey and ginger into the mascarpone. Taste and add more honey or ginger if desired.
Serve the tarts warm and topped with a dollop of the mascarpone.

Fig, Ginger and Walnut Chutney

A couple of years ago I was given the most amazing fig chutney. I think it had walnuts in it and possibly ginger. I asked the person who made it for the recipe but the recipe she gave me didn't match what I had in my memory.
I hunted and hunted for a recipe that included figs, ginger and walnuts but couldn't find one so I've made some changes and additions to a basic recipe based on those I have read and the finished chutney is amazing!

If you have got lots of figs to use, check out these two recipes too...Fig and Apple Chutney and Figs Poached in Vanilla

Fig, Ginger and Walnut Chutney

Ingredients

• 15 fresh figs / two bags of dried figs
• 150ml balsamic vinegar
• 100ml white wine vinegar
• 300g soft brown sugar
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 2 red onions finely sliced
• 1 chilli deseeded and cut into slithers ( optional)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 10g fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste.
• 1/2 cup of chopped crystallised ginger
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method

Finely slice the red onion, peel and grate the ginger, remove the stalk from the figs and cut them into quarters. Zest and juice the lemon. Heat the oil in a large heavy based pan over a medium heat and then put in the red onion. Fry the onion for 5 minutes until it has slightly softened and turned translucent, it should be slightly caramelised.

Add all the other ingredients to the pan except for the figs, then season with salt & pepper to taste. Bring it up to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook for a further 30 minutes. Once the liquid has reduced to a syrup add in the figs, crystallised ginger and walnuts and cook it for a further 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour the chutney into jars, seal and allow to cool.The Chutney can be kept unopened for up to six weeks and opened as long as it’s refrigerated for 3 weeks. 

Feijoa Ginger Sponge Pudding

Our feijoa crop is nearly over. A very limited amount of fruit due tot he drought we experienced over summer this year. I was still determined to get a few new feijoa recipes made though.

We are all quite keen on ginger so this recipe seemed like a good one to try. It was either that or a feijoa cobber which is a real family favourite.

This recipe was a hit with the family and our dinner guest. It will be one I make again although in a smaller dish to ensure the sponge topping is a bit thicker...or maybe I will double the sponge?
The topping is a little bit like a ginger steamed pudding.





Feijoa Ginger Sponge Pudding

2 1/2 cups peeled and chopped feijoas
125 g brown sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tspn ground ginger
50 g butter
125g golder syrup
1 egg, beaten
75g g=flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger

Mix together feijoa, brow sugar, lemon juice and ginger and spread evenly across the base of a buttered baking dish about 20cm diameter.
Bake at 180 degrees C for about 15 minutes.
While fruit is cooking, cream butter and golden syrup in a food processor and blend in the egg.
Add flour, baking powder and ginger and process until combined.
Spread the sponge mixture evenly over the hot feijoa and bake for about 30 minutes or until the sponge topping is cooked through.
serve still warm with whipped cream (I used ice cream).