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Pear Cherry Clafouti & the NBCC

I got an invite to my coworkers cooking club, and not gonna lie, I felt pretty special. She has been talking about this exclusive cooking club since I met her two years ago and I guess I bugged her enough that she decided to let me come. There are currently six members in the NBCC (North Beach Cooking Club) and they meet every Monday night at Taria’s apartment. They switch off cooks each week, and whoever is the chef that night has to plan and prepare a whole meal that they have never cooked before. Taria,  also know as ‘Asia’ by her club members, was up to bat and I joined in to make what I make best…dessert. She was planning to make cherry braised pork, so I tried to find a complementary dessert that I had never made before. Martha’s desserts have yet to fail me, so I decided on her pear and dried cherry clafouti. I didn’t even know what clafouti was, but I planned on finding out!

Pear and Cherry Clafouti

Recipe from Martha Stewart

  • Unsalted butter, for baking dish
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
  • 1/2 cup dried cherries
  • 1 large Anjou pear, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cored
  • 3/4 cup whole milk
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 10 inch tart dish or a pie plate with butter and dust with flour.

Put cherries and a bowl and pour boiling water on top to cover them. Let them sit in the water for about 10 minutes or until they re-plump.

Cut the pear into very thin slices lengthwise and spread them like a fan around the bottom of the pie dish.

In the blender, add the milk, cream, eggs, vanilla, sugar, flour, and salt. Blend for about 1 minute and pour the batter over the pears. If you forget to add in the sugar and have already poured the batter over the pears like I did, just throw the sugar on top and stir it up. It was past my 10pm bedtime when I made this, so I was not at my prime 😉

Now that the cherries are plumped, drain and spread them over the batter.

Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool for about 15 minutes, then slice to serve.

I was honestly so impressed with all the food. To start the night off right, we had some Jameson and bailey’s pudding shots that I had leftover from my St. Paddy’s day baking extravaganza. Then, we moved on to zucchini that was stuffed and rolled with feta, sun dried tomatoes, and tarragon. Next, Taria’s boyfriend, ‘Buddy,’  was testing out sausage recipes for his future bar, so we had homemade chicken, beef, and pork sausage. The beef and pork sausages were Korean barbecue flavored and they were my favorite. For the main course, we had cherry braised pork on top of creamy leeks and fennel topped off with cherry gravy. Mmm good. I guess there was supposed to be a forgotten onion in there but it was plenty flavorful without it  (a girl with similar cooking flaws is my kinda gal). We had two courses of dessert. First, some more St Paddy’s day treats (Irish cupcakes) and we ended the dinner with the clafouti. Clafouti is like a custard with a little sweetness from the fruit. I feel like the fruits could be easily swapped to change it up

a bit…let’s put it on the to-bake list.

Overall, the NBCC is pretty awesome and I hope I get invited back again! (wink wink, nudge nudge 😉

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