Ya Tart

Hi Friend!

  We have begun a love affair with tomatoes.  Roasted, fried, raw, sun-dried, in salads, as sauce, green and cherries. Absolutely everything we can imagine- tomato juice, tomato pie, tomato ice-cream (James actually did make a tomato sorbet once, it was a bit weird). We had a beautiful tomato and goat's cheese tart at a friend's house and I've been trying to replicate it ever since.

Foraged tomatoes, gooseberries, rockets, sage, asparagus and zucchini from the Community Gardens

Frying up some cherry tomatoes for a tarte tatin

  James is also back at Uni and I've taken a year off, hoping that I will be suddenly struck by the meaning of life, so I am dedicating my days off to being the ultimate time-waster. Exerting myself in life changing vocations such as finally cleaning out my closet and making sure we have a years worth of toilet paper at our fingertips. It's awfully tiring being the best house-wife ever. I've even bought an iron, and occasionally I even use it. Well I used it once and burnt the table.  Anyway, pursuing great tomato recipes is also on my list. And this one is quite gorgeous. Thanks Rachel!

Our lovely pan

A tomato, bocconcini and sage pissaladiere

Rachel&James' Tomato and Goat's Cheese Tart

Pastry:

200gms plain flour

50gm ground almonds

120gms cold butter

1 tsp pepper

1 egg

A good pinch of salt

Filling:

200gm cherry tomatoes

150gm goat's cheese or fetta

3 eggs

300mls cream

5tbsp chopped parsley

2tbsp chopped spring onion or chives

Preheat ye old oven to 180 degrees celsius and butter up a 25ish cm tart tin or just a cake pan with a removable base. For the pastry combine the flour, almonds, butter, egg salt and pepper in a food processor or by hand until it all comes together to form a ball. Don't be tempted to do too much. The recipe doesn't actually call for the pastry to be rested or blind baked so feel free to skip both but I like to. Should you like to as well, press the pastry into your prepared tin after resting the dough in the fridge for 15-30mins. Cover it with baking paper and pour over your pastry weights, these can come in the dignified form of old rice or beans.

My mother's beautifully made pastry weights

 Bake for 10mins with the weights in and another 3-5 without the weights or the paper. Cool the pastry case for a wee bit, 20 minutes or so, and meanwhile mix together the cream, eggs, parsley and spring onion for the filling. Season with salt and pepper or it will no longer be a tart but downgraded to a quiche. I couldn't actually tell you the difference between the two (I think if you blind bake it is a tart?) mostly I just think of one as nice and one as something I avoid at Christmas.

In a bit of a rush I overlooked the pastry shrinking, make sure you overcompensate

   By the by - scatter the goat's cheese and the cherry tomatoes evenly around the case and pour over the filling. Bake for 30 minutes. It should be soft to the touch but still spring back when poked. Wait for a little before cutting it and lifting the tart out of its tin.  Serve hot or cold on a picnic!

Thanks Friend!

All the leaves are brown

Hi Friend!

 It feels like ages since I blogged but I've been re-inspired by James' parents who are keeping a travel blog, and write in it nearly EVERYDAY. Got to keep up with the Jones' so here I am.

 My other reason for writing is because I love Autumn, and Autumn cooking just as much. I'm guessing it's a lot more spectacular in the other hemisphere, when I say 'All the leaves are brown' I meant all of them on one deciduous tree that I sought out. Though everything in Newcastle feels so crisp and clear at the moment I'm willing to forgive the trees. The bounty of Autumn goods is what really makes me wildly excited; parsnips, figs, plums, nectarines, peaches, garlic, apples, grapes, pears, quinces...figs... 

    

   We've been cooking to keep toasty, even though I'd be surprised if the temperature has dropped below 15 degrees. We are both just so excited at the prospect of coldness that the second an Autumn breeze blows we're roasting parsnips, wearing our cashmere scarves and braising chuck steak. By the time we actually achieve these things the oven has warmed up our tiny house so much that we have to eat them in the nude with the fan on. I still have my scarf on as a testament to the season.

We've taken on some of ol' Renee Redzepi's tricks from Noma. In a 'Bon Appetite' interview he was singing the praises of vegetables (which is mostly why I like him ) saying that we all better get used to cooking with them because the luxurious excess of meat won't always be around. He also says to treat vege's as you would meat. If you're wondering why your microwaved broccoli doesn't taste great think of what it would taste like if you cooked a piece of steak like that. So when we roasted up some parsnips we sloshed them with wine and butter, added whole cloves of unpeeled garlic, rosemary, peppercorns, salt and then covered them with foil like you would with a dear little leg of lamb. 

We didn't have a plan for these 'snips past roasting, but then, fate intervened and gave us a cold day. So James baked up some bread and we made soupeh!  We peeled off the rougher parts of the skins (NB) after a good hour bake and plopped them into a pot along with the peeled garlic (the whole head) that we roasted with it. I added some sweated onions, vegetable stock, a large sprig of rosemary (whole so you can just fish it out later), a couple of boiled potatoes that I had cut up (there should be a 1-4 ratio with the parsnips happening) and simmered it merrily away. Then fish out the rosemary and blitz it all up into parsnipy submission. Chuck it back on the stove for a wee bit before serving, season whole heartedly (if your arm isn't tired and you're using one of those ridiculous, little grinders you aren't there yet, or you just have stronger arms than me) and throw in a dash of cream if you so feel. Chop of a good amount of parsley (none of this 'garnishing' that Masterchef promotes, if I see another lonely parsley leaf sitting on top of some already beautiful food I will kick the next T.V set I see) and serve atop with yummy bread.  Wear minimal clothes so you're really cold and can truly appreciate the warming effects of soup! 

 The NB is about the parsnip skins, I froze them and then pulled them out and added them the next time I was making vegetable stock, quite delicious! 

Also, because this has such a lovely amount of garlic and you might be trembling in your boots, especially if you're making it for a first date, or you're Bella Swan (in which case, get out of here) I just thought I'd tell you that the garlic does mellow right down when it's baked in its skin. I like to use a shogun garlic (because I love garlic and I think James knows who I'd pick if I had to choose between the two of them) but for a more subtle flavour use Russian garlic.