Don’t worry I still have a kitchen, I haven’t burned anything down… It’s just been a hectic few weeks of guests, travel and work believe it or not, and so my poor old food posts have been put on the back burner (ha!) but I shall attempt to rectify that over the coming weeks, with a few Expat Essentials posts perhaps making a come back too…
Firstly on to matters of shopping here in Bavaria. If you want to look like a complete auslander(in) (foreigner for those of you without a German GCSE – myself included!), then might I suggest that whilst in a supermarket situation you offer up your place in the queue to the person behind, with far less shopping than you have. That person may well be so taken aback, they go bright red, thank you profusely in their best holiday English (having clocked that’s where you are from – no doubt thanks to the terrible German used to invite them to their premier queue position in the first place…), and then as an extra thank you – present your Nine Year old with an apricot. An apricot out of a “tear off the reel” plastic bag, with contents that they have yet to weigh and pay for.
Such situations back at home would not of course present me with any kind of semi-awkward scenario, but when around 99% of the time you feel like a fish out of water, this particular scene left me a little flustered as to what to do next. Now the Nine Year old is an honest little thing, and this singular fruit situation bothered her intensely, so much so that her not so hushed tones of “WE HAVE TO PAY FOR THE APRICOT MUMMY” could probably be heard in the garden centre opposite. So whilst my original plan had been to go back and select a few more apricots of my own once the gift-bearer had been “processed” through the check out, all eyes were by now, on me. I therefore had little choice but to unload my own shopping before finally adding the singular fuzzy little apricot to the conveyor belt, which slowly trundled along towards the lady on the till. Its arrival then prompted a telling off, as the offending fruit obviously hadn’t been weighed and I had committed the mortal sin of not putting it in a bag!! I will never take super-market shopping for granted when we live in England again one day, believe me.
Thankfully this troublesome fruit was enjoyed on the way home by the 9 Year Old, who put in a request for a full bag of the tiny orange globes at the next shop (which I did of course weigh and pay!), and which is how we ended up with a few left over, once the apricot frenzy amongst the minors in our house had worn off, and I couldn’t face another raw either. I wasn’t about to chuck them away, so here’s what we did with them…
Apricot & Bailoni Tarte Tartin – Ingredients
50g unsalted sliced butter;
80g sugar;
1tbsp Bailoni (apricot liqueur) (optional;
The seeds of one vanilla pod;
10-12 small apricots, halved and de-stoned;
Good quality puff pastry
Preheat the oven to 200DegC. In a 20cm oven proof frying pan, add the slices of butter, sugar and the vanilla seeds, before placing the halved apricots face down on top. If you are using Bailoni or another Apricot liqueur, add this too, before cutting out a square of pastry slightly bigger than the pan itself, and neatly folding the edges in (well as neatly as you can anyway!)… With a fork, prick the pastry a few times to allow the air to escape whilst cooking, and place the pan over a medium-high heat for 5 minutes until the butter and sugar melt together and begin to caramelise. Wait for the toffee to start bubbling, and place the pan in a the oven for around 35-40 minutes (it could need slightly longer depending on your oven!). Remove, leave to cool for ten minutes and turn out onto a plate. If the tarte is firmly stuck, just put it back onto the hob for a minute or two and give it a shake. If you think it needs a little more caramelisation, return it (the right way up this time!) to a hot oven for a few minutes longer.
Serve with cream or ice cream. Or both.
Love the back story behind this and can just imagine your daughter piping up! Thanks for entering Simple and in Season (the round up is now live).
That’s great. Thanks Sally! :)
What a palaver! Did make me laugh though.
The Lidl and Aldi checkouts are speedy affairs here too – do they get paid by number of customers per hour do you think?
I think they might you know! Thanks Trish! :D
I can just imagine my daughter saying that too! Having said that, if the person who ‘donated’ it had pre-weighed and labelled their bag of apricots before giving you one, wouldn’t they have paid for it anyway?
Thank you.. I know, I did think that too, but his wife seemed very much in charge, and from what I could see and hear he didn’t mention it and I didn’t want to be accused of not paying for it! That’s the problem when you don’t speak a language fluently enough to ask! :D
this reminds me of when we were in the USA at a supermarket in a predominantly black neighbourhood. A nice little old lady offered us her place in the queue while her daughter went to get something. On coming back the daughter gave us a real serve for “stealing” her mother’s place in line. The little old lady just smiled to herself and did not tell her daughter that she had offered us her place! oh what an evil little old lady after all!:)
I bet she had great fun doing things like that though! :D Thanks Sherry!
Oh dear – I did chuckle though, I love those sorts of slightly awkward social situations with kids!
That tart looks scrummy, and I happen to have bought apricots this morning… hmmm *makes note to self to buy ready roll puff pastry*
And there are so many of them when you are foreign! :D Thank you… Enjoy the tarte! xx
Oh stop with the teasing . I LOVE apricots
Thanks Becky! :D
Ha! Just laughed out loud. The tarte looks delicious though, well worth it in the end!
Definitely worth it in the end! Thank you S! :)
That will teach you for trying to be nice won’t it ;-)
I’ll definitely have a go at making your tarte though.
Thank you… I know. Sometimes I wonder why I bother! :D
He he! Now that tart looks amazing. My Dad was telling em to go buy apricots and now you show me THIS, must go get me some today!
Thanks Penny! :)
YUM! Need to make some of this after all i have an apricot tree in my garden! Thank you for sharing your recipe and if you feel like it pls pop by and link it up with my Friday Foodie linky xxx
Lucky thing Otilia! Thank you! :) xx
Ooh! I’ve pinned this so I can find it easily when it’s apricot season here – looks delicious.
Supermarkets are one of those places where cultural differences seem to really bubble to the surface, don’t they?! I still haven’t got used to having my bags packed for me, I just stand and look awkward, and feel a bit grumpy when the assistant doesn’t pack it the same way that I would! Haven’t had any near-shoplifting experiences yet though ;-) x
No such thing as bag packers here, instead we have check out staff that seem hell bent on throwing your goods as quickly as they can through the till. If you aren’t packing as fast as they are chucking, then you are very obviously not from these parts!! :D
So true!!! When my brother visits me in England he cannot get over the chatting check-out staff at our local supermarket, who all enquire after the baby and how she liked the juice she bought the last time … Back home in Germany they would have been sent to speeding-up school!
This made me laugh… Thanks so much for commenting! :)
I had to laugh at the scenario Emma, yoru poor little one, being given the sinful apricot! Your tarte looks great. Mich x
Thanks Michelle… We were in there again yesterday. I wasn’t offering my place up to anyone! :D x
Oh gosh poor you. I am glad it all ended ok with such a lovely dessert.
Always a silver lining J! Thank you! :)
I love the story of the apricot! How funny, I’m sure the lady didn’t think about the fact that it hadn’t been paid for. That tart does look gorgeous though.
Thanks Nikki, it was a guy, his wife knew nothing about it, she was busy unloading the shopping whilst he was giving away their fruit! :D
This made me chuckle :o)….. I have this comical image in my head of the lone apricot trundling along the conveyor belt. And that tart looks divine. X
It was worth it for the tarte! :D Thank you xx
yum – utterly delicious. Your shopping story did make me laugh though!
Thanks Sally! :D x
Mmmmmm – what a hilarious scenario resulting in a such delicious pudding! Wish I was there to enjoy it with you. x
I will make it next time you are over xx
LOL, I would NEVER survive as an expat. You poor thing. Tarte looks awesome, as ever.
Aw thank you. I am not sure how I have survived for so long! :D