It wasn’t until a little while back, at one of my pop-ups, that I started cooking with cardamom, and now I love its distinctive fragrance and warm nuttiness.
Ingredients
- 7 oz 1 cup (200 g) brown sugar
- 4 pears, peeled, cored and cut into 5 mm (¼ in) slices
- 2 balls of stem ginger (crystallised ginger in syrup), thinly sliced
- 1 vanilla pod (bean), cut in half and seeds scraped
- 1 roll (320 g/11¼ oz) ready-made puff pastry
- 1 tablespoon ground cardamom
- 10½ fl oz (300 ml) double (thick) cream or whipped cream
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/gas mark 4).
- Put the brown sugar in a baking dish or ovenproof frying pan and place over medium heat until the sugar has completely melted and caramelised. Do not move the pan or stir the sugar during this time – and don’t be tempted to dip in a finger to try it, as the caramel gets seriously hot.
- Arrange the pears neatly on top of the caramelised sugar, then sprinkle over the ginger slices and vanilla seeds and tuck in the vanilla pod. Cook for 5–6 minutes or until the pears start to soften.
- Meanwhile, fold the ground cardamom into the cream.
- Remove the tarte tatin from the oven and let it stand for 30 seconds, then carefully turn out onto a plate. Serve in generous slices, with even more generous dollops of cardamom cream.
