Almond Tart with a Spiced Sauce

Possibly one of the crumbliest pastries ever?

Buttery and flakey!

Tart and sauce



It looks a tiny bit like a Crema Catalana...

Ingredients

Pastry

150g plain flour

140g diced unsalted butter

35g caster sugar

Almond Mixture

110g ground almonds

100g caster sugar

3 eggs

70ml double cream

30ml milk

Sauce

3 teaspoons of camp ( a coffee and chicory essence)

1/4 teaspoon of cinammon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons of caster sugar

40ml double cream

20 ml milk

Method

Preheat a fan oven to 200°C, and butter some tins for the tarts- I used Yorkshire pudding tins which are quite flat, but give a very even bake.

Stir the flour and sugar together and rub in the butter until you have a crumble mixture. As this dough is very buttery, it probably won't need any liquid, but if it does, use an egg yolk or a few drops of milk.

Cover the ball of pastry dough in clingfilm, and leave to harden in the fridge.

Whisk together all the ingredients of the almond mixture until it is thoroughly combined and it has increased in volume slightly.

Roll the pastry on a floured surface to a thickness of about 0.75 cm.

Cut the pastry into shapes, place in their tins, and prick the pastry bases a couple of times.

Give the almond mixture another quick whisk in case the ingredients have separated, and pour into the lined tart cases. Pour the mixture to the same height as the pastry, or even a bit higher.

Bake in the oven until the almond mixtures have set and turned a golden colour.

Turn the tarts out onto a wire rack and leave to cool down.

Whilst the tarts are cooling down, mix together the cream, milk and camp.

Add the spices to the liquid and beat.

Pour the mixture into a presentable jug.

Serve the tart warm with the sauce as a dessert, or with a summer fruits compote for breakfast.

Or...

use chestnut flour in the pastry to make the tart even more nutty!

add poached cherries to the almond mixture

swap some of the ground almonds for polenta

add a drop (or two) of rum to the sauce

Sticky ribs

Nothing like sticky ribs in the Winter to remind you of Summer!

800g pork ribs (most people tend to use baby pork as they're more tender)
5 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
pepper
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp reggae reggae sauce
3 crushed and finely sliced garlic cloves
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp herbs
4 tbsp orange juice
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 tbsp chinese five spice
1 tsp crushed chillies (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200C.
In a bowl, mix together all of the ingredients.
Rub the marinade all over the ribs and put in a hot baking tray.
Cook the ribs for an hour.

Notes
Try tea-smoking the ribs as well as using the marinade for a quirky flavour.
Put the ribs on a rack which is sitting on a baking tray with tea leaves. Rub the tea leaves before using.

Don't marinate the ribs overnight unless you have a subtle rub because there is not much meat on the bone, and the taste of the pork will be overridden.