Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2012 | Page 126

Iain Cowcher's

Pear tarte tatin with blue cheese rocket
& walnut salad
Ingredients

50g Stilton or other hard cheese
if preferred
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tspn pink peppercorns
1 knob of butter

1 comice pear
45g sugar
1 sheet ready rolled puff pastry
1 small bag rocket leaves
6 walnuts
Peel, quarter & core pear. Place in
saucepan with sugar. Cover with
cold water, bring to boil & simmer
until soft. Butter two 4 inch flan
rings-be generous with the butter.
Arrange two pear quarters in each
flan ring. Cut 2 round disks from
pastry slightly larger than the flan
rings and the tarte will have a nice
raised crust. Lay pastry over pear
quarters arranging excess to form
the crust. Place in oven at 200

degrees C, gas no 6 until risen &
golden-appx 10-15 mins. To make
salad, put washed rocket in a bowl
and crumble in the stilton (or
other cheese e.g. fresh parmesan).
Add pink peppercorns, chopped
walnuts and olive oil and toss
together. Once the tarte tatins are
ready turn out pastry side down
and arrange stilton & rocket salad
on top.

Bryn Edward's

Rack of lamb
Ingredients

2 lamb racks French trimmed
2 large potatoes
2 large handfuls
of calvo nero
cabbage

1 large butternut
squash
A few sprigs of
mint
Red wine
Salt
250g butter

For the squash purée, peel and dice the
butternut squash into small chunks,
cook in boiling salted water until
fully cooked and tender. Strain the
squash and discard the liquid. Place
the cooked squash in a food processor
and blitz until smooth. Add in a little
butter and a drop of water until you
achieve a silky smooth texture. Taste,
season if necessary, and reserve for
plating.
For the potatoes, wash, peel and
rewash the potatoes. Using a melon
baller cut out balls from the potato
(until you have as many balls as you
can get). Blanche the potatoes in salted
water until almost cooked (less than
five minutes). Strain off the water. Add
a little vegetable oil to a small frying
pan. Dry off the potatoes and carefully
place the potatoes in the heated pan.
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Rosemary
Lamb stock
1 shallot
1 onion
1 carrot
Tbsp Marmite
(yeast extract)
Fry, moving the
potatoes as often as
possible to achieve a
nice golden colour all over. When you
have almost finished add a little butter
and a tablespoon of marmite to glaze
and flavour the potatoes.
For cabbage, simply remove the stem
from the cabbage and cook in salted
boiling water at the last minute. Finish
with a little butter (optional).
For the lamb, heat a large frying pan
with oil until smoking hot, season the
lamb and rub with some crushed fresh
rosemary. Add the lamb racks to the
pan carefully skin side first. When
golden brown colour, flip the racks
and repeat on the other side. When
completed, remove the lamb from the
pan and place in a roasting tray with
a few sprigs of rosemary. Add a little

oil and place into a preheated oven
at 200 degrees C. Cook for 15- 20
minutes depending on your taste. In
fifteen minutes you should achieve a
medium rare lamb rack. You can check
the temperature using a food probe (if
you have one). The core temperature
for rare is 55.
For the sauce, dice one shallot, one
carrot and one leek and add to the
same pan in which you cooked the
lamb. Return to the heat and sweat
the vegetables until golden brown.
Add the red wine - about 250ml red
wine and 250ml lamb stock, reduce
by about ¾ - check consistency. Add
a handful of sugar and a few sprigs of
mint and simmer for a few minute.