Bacon, blueberry, Cheshire cheese & maple syrup American style blueberry pancakes

Yes, it's a bit of a mouthful of a name, but I couldn't bear to leave anything out.  Our favourite pancakes for today's pancake day and hubby even requested them for his birthday last year, which demonstrates how good they are!  The pancakes themselves are really light and fluffy and as the melted butter is included in the batter mix, this means you can use the lightest smear of oil (or even a low calorie oil spray, which I used) in the pan to cook them - and the butter makes them taste fab.

Hubby's birthday pancakes!

With harmonious flavours throughout, the white, crumbly Cheshire cheese lends that slightly sour, tangy but also creamy note that works so well with both the bacon and the blueberries and of course, maple syrup goes with everything.

So why spend time debating whether to serve savoury or sweet pancakes? Serve these babies and you've combined main course and dessert in one fell swoop. Plus, your family will thank you - and no messy clearing up from lemon & sugar or jam!

My Cook's Tips are as follows :

Make sure to put your bacon in the oven before you start cooking the pancakes, so that it is rendered lovely and crispy in time to be broken up over the finished pancakes. You don't want to be waiting, with pancakes ready, for the bacon to finish cooking.

Also, make sure to crumble up the cheese before you start cooking the pancakes. It's so much quicker to just grab a handful of cheesy bits and sprinkle, rather than taking time with crumbling. More to the point, your pancakes will stay hotter and fluffier!

The recipe is incredibly simple and will make six pancakes of approximately six inches each. I use a pan that is the perfect size for each pancake. It takes slightly longer doing them one at a time, but it's easier to measure out the batter and ensures one isn't burning while your attention is on another. Right then, to the recipe!

BACON, BLUEBERRY, CHESHIRE CHEESE & MAPLE SYRUP AMERICAN STYLE BLUEBERRY PANCAKES (Serves 3 : makes 6 individual pancakes)

Ingredients :

250g streaky bacon
200g Cheshire cheese (or any white crumbly cheese)
300g self-raising flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 small eggs (discard half the white of the second egg if using medium or large eggs)
450ml milk
10-15g melted butter
200g blueberries
light vegetable oil or a low calorie cooking spray
maple syrup to taste.

Method :

Begin by lining the inside of a large baking tray and the outside (or reverse) of a slightly smaller baking tray, with silver foil. Lay each rasher of streaky bacon onto the large baking tray until the tray is covered or the bacon runs out! Place the foil covered side of the smaller baking tray on top, to sandwich the bacon between the trays. Place into a 180degF/350degC/Gas 4 oven for 20-25 minutes.

Crumble the cheese into a bowl, making sure to have both larger chunks and smaller pieces.

Next, for the pancakes, place the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and stir together.

In another bowl, add the egg(s) to the milk and beat until combined.

Melt the butter in the pancake pan.

Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in half the egg/milk mixture. Stir with a hand whisk until combined, then add the remains of the egg/milk mixture. Again, stir in until combined and the batter is lump free.

Add the melted butter to the pancake batter and whisk it in until well combined.

Stir in 150g of the blueberries.

Heat the pancake pan (which should still be buttery) over a moderate heat and add a ladleful of the pancake batter, making sure to catch a good helping of the blueberries.

Wait - without poking, stirring or otherwise bothering your pancake - until bubbles have formed on the surface and you can see the edges have pulled away from the pan slightly. Insert a fish slice under the pancake and quickly flip it over. The pancake will rise as it cooks and you can slip the slice underneath and lift it slightly to check the colour. Make sure that the pan doesn't become too hot - you may need to turn it down slightly from time to time - or the pancake will colour on the outside but still be wet on the inside.

Each pancake will only take a couple of minutes on each side, depending on how hot the pan is.

Place each pancake onto a warmed plate and cover with a sheet of kitchen paper, adding the next one on top and repeat until all the pancake batter is used up.

When all the pancakes are cooked, serve two to each plate and sprinkle with Cheshire cheese, then bacon pieces, then extra blueberries from the remaining 50g.

For the final flourish, tip a good swishing of maple syrup over the lot and get stuck in!

Printable version

"Maneating" Chicken - or Chicken in a maple syrup & mustard glaze.

We were really looking forward to sampling this Maneating Chicken.  No, really!

Hubby had been browsing through Pinterest again and had been enticed by the fantastic photograph and the title of "Man-pleasing Chicken".  The photograph linked back to a lovely blog called wittyinthecity.com which has lots of interesting looking (and sounding) recipes.

The recipe was simplicity itself - basically make up a maple syrup/Dijon mustard/white wine vinegar mix to go over your chicken pieces - then in the oven they go.

The smell of the chicken cooking was completely mouthwatering and bode well for the eating.

Snuggled up in a bath of mustardy goodness

I think hubby was a little bit disappointed in the end result, as I can't help feeling that he was hoping for something more than the simplicity of the mix.  However - and this is testament to the big flavours that were going on there - when son & heir took his first taste, his brow wrinkled and he exclaimed "wasabi!".

Amazingly, I could see exactly where he was coming from with his horseradish/wasabi comment, as the combination of the slightly smokiness of the maple syrup with the warmth and earthy tanginess of the Dijon mustard had definitely combined into something reminiscent of wasabi.  Son & heir wasn't entirely sold on the idea - horseradish is a fairly new flavour for him, so he was a little bit challenged by it.

As for me, well, I loved it.  I loved the flavours, I loved the texture of the baked chicken, I loved the look of it - everything.  I'd have been very happy to have had the exact same dinner the next day, too!

Hubby cooked an interesting side dish of sesame green beans and broccoli, which I also loved and could have eaten a whole lot more than was on my plate - but mustn't be greedy.  The roasted sweet potato cubes were lovely and although it didn't look like there was much on the plate (hubby's view, not mine!), I definitely felt that I'd eaten a complete meal by the end of it.

I guess if you're a bit nervous of the "horseradish effect", the thing to do would be to substitute honey for the maple syrup.  After all, a honey mustard glaze is a classic - and done this way, just can't go wrong.

MANEATING CHICKEN  (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

3 skinless boneless chicken breasts (or the equivalent in leg pieces)
half a cup of Dijon mustard
quarter of a cup of Maple syrup
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
two sprigs of fresh rosemary, chopped finely.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas4.

2.  In a bowl, combine the Dijon mustard, Maple syrup and white wine vinegar.  Mix well.

3.  Take each chicken breast and cut into three pieces.  Place into a suitably sized oven dish that will enable the chicken to lay in a pool of the mustard mixture.

4.  Sprinkle each with a little seasoning, then pour over the mustard mixture and turn the chicken pieces, making sure that each piece of chicken is well coated.

5.  Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, basting half way through, until the edges of the meat are beginning to char slightly and the chicken demonstrates no pinkness when a knife is slipped into it.

6.  Allow the chicken to rest for 5 or so minutes before serving.

7.  Make sure to spoon any extra sauce over the top of the chicken, as it is way too good to leave in the pan!  Sprinkle on a little of the rosemary, add your choice of vegetables and serve.

Printable version
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Stilton, bacon & maple pear tart - utter gorgeousness

Where do you do the majority of your food dreaming?  We do ours in the car - usually when we're waiting for son & heir to come out of school.  Maybe you don't dream up recipes at times like these, but instead dream of beach holidays, or a fine bottle of wine!  Well, this tart was dreamt up (mostly) when we were sat in the car waiting for son & heir.

I had the streaky bacon in the fridge already, as I'd bought it with a view to wrapping the chicken with it on Sunday last, or at the very least using it to contribute some flavour to a chicken and cider casserole.  However, neither of those things happened and instead we had a lemon & thyme roasted chicken - which was okay, but nothing to write home about.

So our starting point for the tart was the sole sheet of puff pastry that was lurking in the fridge.  I'd very nearly turned it into an apple pie, only to be thwarted by the sudden onset of chauffeuring duties, so it lived to fight another day.

Hence, we'd got the pastry and the bacon - so what went with those, that we hadn't already made?  Hubby came up with the pear idea and I embellished it with the Maple syrup.  We then needed something to hold everything else together - and a blue cheese seemed the obvious choice.  Because of the bacon having the potential to be salty we decided against a creamy Danish Blue as they are often so very salty.  A nice piece of Stilton seemed the obvious choice thereafter.  

Now, what to serve with the tart?  We figured that, as the tart itself would be really quite rich, perhaps a salad would be a good idea - and opted for a mixed salad with walnuts and a walnut vinaigrette.  It sounded as though that would complement the ingredients in the tart quite nicely - and so it did.  The vinaigrette was a simple matter of crushing 4-5 walnut halves in a pestle & mortar and adding Extra Virgin Olive Oil, some of the gorgeous Maille Cider Vinegar, plus sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.  Powerful stuff - but very effective.

This isn't a meal to serve to young children, as the flavours are incredibly adult and the juxtaposition of the sweet pear, salty bacon, rich cheese and dry, earthy walnuts is not for the faint-hearted.  I was pleased that son & heir managed the whole very well, albeit he opted not to have the vinaigrette.  He did have some walnuts on his salad, though.  As a 13 year old gastronome, I think he's showing promise.  His comment was that the tart was lovely, but the sweetness of the maple pears was a bit too much for his taste.

I know that, next time I make this tart, I'll abandon the idea of the Maple syrup even though it accentuated the flavour of the pear beautifully.  Maple syrup seems to have an unwanted effect upon me, much the same as Asparagus does.  'Nuff said. Still, I don't think that the tart will notice the lack of Maple syrup.

Just look at that expanse of melted Stilton .. mmmn!

The pear I used was a Comice - an enormous Comice - which was slightly under ripe.  Owing to the fact that it was quite hard, it pan-fried perfectly.  I wouldn't want to try pan frying a ripe pear, as I suspect you'd wind up with pear mush rather than discernible slices!

As I said previously, I love making tarts - and this one was no exception.

STILTON, BACON & MAPLE PEAR TART  (serves 4)

Ingredients :

250g smoked streaky bacon, sliced into small pieces

1-2 Comice pears, peeled, cored and cut into slices 2-3mm thick

1 tbsp Maple syrup (optional)

160g sheet of puff pastry, ready rolled

170g Stilton cheese

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 190degC/375degF/Gas 5.

2.  Take a frying pan and add the bacon.  Dry fry over a medium heat, to render the fat out of the bacon and until it has just begun to crisp.  (Don't cook until crisp, or the bacon will overcook in the oven).  Remove and set aside to cool.

3.  In the bacon fat, place the slices of pear and cook over a high heat until caramelised.  Don't keep turning the slices - just leave them where they are, but check the underside until it has reached a nice golden colour - then turn.  If you are using the Maple syrup, drizzle it over the pears after you have laid them into the pan.

4.  Once the pears are done, turn the heat off and begin to assemble the tart.

5.  Take a large baking tray that is bigger than your sheet of pastry.

6.  Lay the pastry onto the baking tray and make sure it is evenly flattened out.  Then taking a sharp knife, score - without cutting through - a line 1" inside the edge to demark where the tart crust should be.

7.  Taking the pear slices, lay each one onto the middle of the tart in a pleasing and even arrangement.  Do not be tempted to pour the pan juices over, or the tart will become too greasy.

8.  Next, sprinkle the bacon pieces evenly over the pear slices, remembering to leave the crust edge uncovered. 

9.  Crumble the Stilton cheese evenly over the bacon.

10.  Place into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the crust has risen and browned to a deep gold.

11.  Remove from the oven and leave for 5 minutes or so, just to settle, before slicing and serving.

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