Pear and Preserves Tart #FridayPieDay

Freshly sliced pears and your favorite fruit preserves, mingle with browned butter in a puff pastry crust to create this tasty, easy pear and preserves tart. 

It’s Friday Pie Day once again! We celebrate on the last Friday of every month by baking. This week I’m doing my annual doctors' visits and trying to work from home. It’s been crazy busy so I sent my daughter out to the grocery store and said, “Check out the fruit and bring me something I can bake into a pie, please.” She returned with four beautiful fat pears, not quite enough for a full size pie but plenty for a puff pastry tart, and then some.

Ingredients
1 sheet ready rolled puff pastry - Mine weighed 8.6 oz or 245g.
2 large pears, sliced thinly1/4 cup or 60g unsalted butter
About 1/4 cup or 120g preserves of your choice (I used my cherry lemon preserves.)

Method
Thaw your puff pastry if it’s frozen and then lay it out flat on a piece of baking parchment or a silicone liner.

Preheat your oven to 425°F or 218°C.

Score your puff pastry with the tip of a sharp knife about 1 inch or 2.5 centimeters from the edge.

Slice the pears into thin wedges and then remove the seeds.

Start laying the pear slices inside the scored line on your pastry, overlapping as you go. Depending on the size of your puff pastry sheet (and pears) you might not need all of the slices. I used about 1 1/2 pears.

Heat the butter in a small pan until it starts to bubble and foam rises to the top. Skim the foam off as it forms. Continue to heat the butter until it starts to brown and then remove it immediately from the stove. We want browned butter, not burned butter and it will continue to darken from the heat of the pot.

N.B. It was too dark in my kitchen to take decent photos but I wasn't at all worried because whenever I use browned butter in a recipe, I like to send folks over to my friend, Kayle, the Cooking Actress. She's got a great how-to for browning butter.  She puts browned butter in All The Things, both sweet and savory.

Use a spoon to drizzle the browned butter all over the pear slices.

Spoon the sweet preserves of your choice over the pears.

Bake in your preheated oven for 15-18 minutes or until the pastry is puffy and golden brown.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 20 minutes before serving, to allow the sweet runny juices to thicken up. My puff pastry somehow sprung a leak and some of the sticky juice ran out onto the silicone mat, which is why we use those things or parchment. They make clean up so much easier!

Enjoy!

My friend and creator of Friday Pie Day, Heather, over at All Roads Lead to the Kitchen has made a gorgeous blushing apricot pie with fresh apricots and strawberries to share today. You need to go and see that beauty!

I am pleased to join her on the last Friday of each month for pie and crust recipes, techniques, tools of the trade, and other inspiration.

For more information and recipes, please check out her #FridayPieDay page!

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Grilled Shrimp Corn Salad with Avocado Vinaigrette

This beautiful grilled shrimp corn salad with avocado vinaigrette can be enjoyed as a main course for two or three or as an appetizer for more. 

This week my Sunday Supper group is sharing grilling recipes. Since weather is unpredictable, the powers that be are being flexible and allowing us to use grill pans too. Or share recipes associated with grilling like sauces, rubs and spices. You will find lots of inspiration and deliciousness in the link list below. Many thanks to our host this week, Sue from Palatable Pastime.

Use your grill pan or actual grill to roast the corn on the cob and cook the seasoned shrimp before adding them to a fresh salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and feta. The vinaigrette with avocado adds a subtle creaminess that is bright with flavor. Serve the whole shebang on top of some leafy greens.

Ingredients
For the salad:
2 ears corn
1 lb 13 3/4 oz or 860g cleaned, peeled shrimp (I leave the little tail on though because I like the way they look.)
Sea salt
Black pepper
Cayenne
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium cucumbers
4.4 oz or 125g grape tomatoes
1 shallot or purple onion
6 1/3 oz or 180g goat’s milk feta, crumbled
Good handful flat leaf parsley

For the avocado vinaigrette:
3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
Few grinds black pepper
Healthy pinch flakey sea salt
1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 medium avocados

To serve: Clean mixed greens or arugula

Method
Season your shrimp with a good sprinkle of fine sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and cayenne. Add in the two tablespoons of olive oil, mix well and set aside.

Heat your grill pan till it’s smoking hot and cook the corn on the cob, turning several times until it’s got charred marks all over. Remove from the pan and allow to cool.

Add shrimp to the hot grill pan and cook for just a few minutes on each side until they are cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Halve then quarter your cucumbers lengthwise. Use a sharp knife to remove the seeds from the middle. Then cut them into bite-sized pieces.

My helper is a huge fan of cucumber innards so he’s always poised waiting for this part of the job.

When the corn is cool enough to handle, use a sharp knife to slice the kernels off.

Half your grape tomatoes, chop your purple onion and parsley. Pile them all in a big bowl with the cucumber, corn and crumbled feta. Toss to combine.

Add in the shrimp and toss again.

Add all of the dressing ingredients, except the avocado, to another glass bowl and whisk to combine.

When you are almost ready to serve the salad, scoop the avocado into the dressing bowl and stir well to coat the avocado pieces.

Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently to mix it in.

Serve as is or on top of some fresh mixed greens.

Enjoy!

Check out this great link list for grilling inspiration:

Patio Libations

• Grilled Peach and Pineapple Sangria by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks

Let’s Get This BBQ Started!

• Bruschetta with Grilled Bread by Wholistic Woman
• Cilantro Lime Grilled Shrimp with Pineapple Salsa by Taste And See
• Grilled Avocado with Cilantro-Lime Cream by Grumpy’s Honeybunch

The Main Event

• Bison Sliders with Special Sauce by Un Assaggio of Food, Wine & Marriage
• Bourbon & Brown Sugar Marinated Grilled Steak by Books n’ Cooks
• Buffalo Wing Burger by Red Cottage Chronicles
• Chicken Mazatlan by Palatable Pastime
• Greek Lamb Burgers by Positively Stacey
• Grilled Avocado with Confetti Shrimp Salad by The Weekend Gourmet
• Grilled Shrimp Corn Salad with Avocado Vinaigrette by Food Lust People Love
• Grilled Duck with a Red Wine Reduction by Monica’s Table
• Grilled London Broil Steak Tacos by The Freshman Cook
• Grilled Pork and Pineapple Salad by Caroline’s Cooking
• Grilled Ribeye with Simple Spice Rub by Cooking Chat
• Grilled Salami Sandwich by Magnolia Days
• Grilled Flank Steak with Chimichurri Sauce by Angels Home Sweet Homestead
• Hawaiian Chicken Kebabs by Moore or Less Cooking
• Grilled Honey Balsamic Chicken by Alida’s Kitchen
• Grilled Tuna Steaks with Orange Tomato Sauce by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Grilled Tuna Steaks with Strawberry Mango Salsa by simple and savory
• Honey Mustard Grilled Pork Chops by My World Simplified
• How to Grill Salmon and Shrimps in Banana Leaves by Asian In America
• Lemon Herbed Yogurt Chicken Kabobs by Momma’s Meals
• The Best Baby Back Ribs Ever!! by A Day in the Life on the Farm

On a Side Note

• Easy Garlicky Grilled Polenta by She Loves Biscotti
• Easy Grilled Artichokes by April Golightly
• Grilled Asparagus with Lemon and Manchego Cheese by Cupcakes & Kale Chips
• Grilled Cantaloupe Salad with Queso Fresco and Herbs by Cooking With Carlee
• Grilled Corn with Herb Butter by My Imperfect Kitchen
• Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad by Cookin’ Mimi

Saucy Sentiments and Rebellious Rubs

• Homemade Burger Sauce by Cosmopolitan Cornbread
• Homemade Coffee Steak Rub by Renee’s Kitchen Adventures

Finishing Touches

• Grilled Banana Boats by Our Good Life
• Grilled Blueberry Cobbler by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Grilled Dessert Pizza by Baking Sense
• Grilled Pineapple with Vanilla Sorbet by The Chef Next Door
• Grilled Strawberry & Blue Basil Granita by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Super Simple Grilled Peaches by And She Cooks

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Cajun Spiced Salmon #FishFridayFoodies

Cajun Spiced Salmon is easy to make and even easier to eat. Serve it as part of a plated dinner or atop a salad.

Both my mother and my mother-in-law are good cooks although both claim not to enjoy it. What even does that mean? What’s not to like? Anyway, my mother-in-law makes a lovely salmon dish where she covers a whole side of salmon with various spices and herbs and then cooks it in the oven under the broiler – or grill for my British readers – until it’s just done enough. The spicy herb-encrusted top gets a little bit crunchy and golden while the salmon beneath is tender and perfectly moist still.

I was chatting with her the other day and she remarked that someone had given her some homemade seafood gumbo. She wanted to share it with friends but it was only enough for everyone to have a small bowl as a starter. She was looking for advice about what would go with the gumbo for her main dish. I suggested that she make her salmon dish but with Cajun spices instead of her usual ones. As I hung up the call on Skype, it occurred to me that I had solved my own problem too.

We probably eat fresh salmon at least once a week, simply pan-fried with salt and pepper and no other adornments. It’s one of our favorites. This month our Fish Friday Foodies host, Caroline of Caroline’s Cooking wants us to put a little spice in our lives so just salt and pepper wouldn’t cut it.  So I changed out my usual spices for Cajun ones and carried on, just as I had advised my mother-in-law to do.

Ingredients
1 salmon fillet per person (About 5 2/3- 7 oz or 160-200g each)
Favorite Cajun spice mix
Olive oil for pan

To serve:
1/2 lemon
Few sprigs parsley

Method
Rinse off your salmon steaks and pat them dry with paper towels. Lay them skin side down on a plate and sprinkle them well with your favorite Cajun spice mix. Since we’re putting it in kind of thick, you’d be better to use one with more spice and less salt.

Heat a skillet big enough for all of your salmon steaks to fit without being crowded over a medium high flame.

Drizzle in a little olive oil then add the salmon steak seasoned side down. Sprinkle a little of the seasoning on the skin side.

As salmon cooks, the color changes, starting near the heat source, from bright orange to a pale peach. Cook uncovered until you see the color change on the salmon reach midway up the steaks. Depending on the thickness of the salmon steaks, this could take from 3-5 minutes.

You can't really see it in this photo but you will in person, I promise.

Turn the salmon steaks over and cook with the skin side down until the skin is crispy and the sides are completely peach colored and opaque, perhaps another 2-3 minutes.

Remove the salmon steaks from the pan and allow to rest for five minutes before serving.

Slice your lemons and roughly chop a couple of sprigs of parsley. Scatter them over and around the salmon steaks.

Enjoy!

An InLinkz Link-up

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