Chard and Cheese Tart

I am home alone this weekend which means eating , sleeping and after a couple of glasses of wine manic cleaning which leads to clearing out the fridge.  I find tarts or quiches are a great way to use up food from the fridge you just need some eggs and a little pastry which I can whip in seconds.

The first use-up ingredient was a bag of chard , I have a terrible history with chard, once a month a huge bag arrives in the vegebox, Despite its beauty, I always picture eating it as a  cow chewing through cud, so terrible vegebox confession one in three packets turns to slime .

Also in the fridge a block of very smelly cheese , a Munster from Natoora parcel some months ago . I do not belive in sell-by or use by dates , I think they improve with age.

Reading Nigel Slaters recipes in this weekends Observer he includes hemp seeds in a recipe and I remembered we had a packet for making flapjacks , I figured they would make a delicious addition to pastry and they definitely added a nutty crunch.

The result was a light tart/quiche the strong cheese heated through deliciously with the chard without any bitter green taste , the pastry falling apart.

Chard and Cheese Tart

5 handfuls of chard ( I used rainbow) finely chopped
3 eggs
75g of flavoursome cheese ( mature cheddar, stilton)  roughly chopped
100ml of milk
Salt and Pepper

Wholemeal Pastry

100g of wholemeal flour
2 tbp of hemp seeds
50g of butter
20ml of water
Pinch of salt

1. Line an 8inch diamter tart case with greaseproof paper
2. Make the pastry , crumb together the wholemeal flour , hemp seeds salt , and butter
3. Add the water to form a dough
4. Roll out to a few millimeters thick and line the tart case

Filling

1. Beat together the eggs and milk
2. Add the finely chopped chard and cheese
3. Season with salt and pepper
4. Pour into the tart case
5. Bake at 180degC for 25 minutes until the filling is set

Blackberry and Apple Galette and Cake

Managed a lovely walk not to far from home on Saturday, just round the corner in fact. I busied myself picking blackberries. Growing up I was regularly press-ganged into service,  gathering blackberries, fungi , mussels , bricks from skips and I expect a level of foraging focus, with no thought for personal safety this is perhaps why my lower legs are now covered in bites and nettle stings. Is it wrong I am starting to get a slight buzz from the nettle tingle.  LBF has a more relaxed (less obsessive) approach proferring just a few handfuls of berries and  observing the native wildlife.

I was so busy giving my foraging work ethics lecture that it was up to LBF to spot a  fruit laden apple tree on the way home and filled the rest of my bag with apples, avoiding the wasps eating the rotten apples

Perhaps it was the excitement of some fresh ingredients but I woke up very early on Sunday morning before dawn in fact , but after sunrise I sat on the patio peeling apples, drinking tea and catching up on the Archers. By the time LBF surfaced at 11.30am I was a picture of domesticity and had decided to make a couple of cakes, one to take down to the folks next weekend and one for us should I need a sugar hit in the week.

Apple and Blackberry Galette

Galette is a pie for those that cannot make pies all it requires it the ability to gently gather together pastry and pinch, the result is attrative money bag shaped pie this works for soft fruits like nectarines , peaches and plums too.

Pastry
200g of plain flour
100g of butter
40ml of cold water

1 egg yolk to glaze

1. Rub the butter into the flour to form breadcrumbs
2. Add the water slowly to form a dough
3. Place in the refridgerator for at least 20 minutes

Apple and Blackberry Filling

200g of apples
200g of blackberries washed
2 tbsp of demara sugar
1 tbsp of cinamon

Peel the apples , core and finely slice
Mix with the cinmon and sugar and leave for 20 minutes

To form the galette

1. Roll out the pastry in a disk shape til 5mm thick, lay onto a flat baking sheet onto a sheet of baking paper
2. Place the apples into the centre of the disk and pile high with the blackberries
3. Gather the pastry up around the apples a pinch at the top forming an open sack
4. Brush the pastry with the egg yolk
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180degc for 40 minutes

Blackberry and Apple Cake

Blackberry and Apple Cake , I used this recipe from BBC Good Food , but I trippled the amount of apple, though I thought this might make it too moist it worked fine. I love these kind of cakes , thick slices with cups of tea.

Bacon and Leek Quiche

Lots of leftovers from the weekend , bacon and eggs from cooked breakfasts. They needed using up so a quick quiche for the freezer made with granary flour pastry which gives a nutty edge

Bacon and Leek Quiche

100g of granary flour
50g of butter
20ml of water

2 medium sized leeks
3 rashers of bacon
2 medium sized eggs
50ml of milk
Salt and Pepper
2 tbsp of fresh parsley finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 175degC
2. Crumb the butter into the flour to form breadcrumbs slowly add the water.
3. Place in the fridge for ten minutes .
4. Meanwhile gently fry the leeks with the bacon.
5. Beat together the eggs , milk, parsley seasoned with salt and pepper.
6. Roll out the pastry line a 30cm diameter quiche dish.
7. Fill with the leeks , bacon and pour over the milk and eggs.
8. Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.

Fish Pie

Finally after weeks of craving and with enough time for this dish in several steps

Would serve 6 normal people with some peas and vegetables , but 4 people like me who if they really tried could eat the whole dish over the course of an evening

Fish Pie

500g of fresh fish ( I used 500g of fresh salmon , smoked cod )
750g of potatoes

Milk half a pint
White wine – 1cup
Onion – 1 roughly sliced
Garlic 3 cloves finely chopped
Parsley
Thyme
3 eggs boiled and quartered

1. Boil the potatoes drain and mash with plenty of butter
2. Add the milk to saucepan with the onions garlic and fresh herbs
3. Bring to the boil and add the fish on a gently simmer for 5 minutes
4. Remove the fish and check through for bones , place the fish in a oven proof dish with the boiled eggs
5. add a knob of butter to saucepan , add a tablespoon of plain flour
6. slowy add the milk/herb mixture forming a roux sauce , whisking well
7. Add the white wine and season with salt and pepper
8. pour the sauce over the fish
9. layer over the mashed potato and bake at 190degC for half an hour

Sunday Shepherds Pie

A nice alternative to a Sunday roast is a tasty pie its a good thing to heat through after a long walk and can be made entirely in advance .If I can’t make it out walking on a Sunday lazing around with books and papers comes a close second .

Shepherds Pie does ever so slightly remind me of school dinners , the peas and carrots in the filling probably hark back to that but I like the pop of a pea in my mouth .However with the addition of red wine and plenty of garlic its a pretty sophisticated dish .

Shepherds Pie

Pie Filling

400g of lean lamb mince
1 large red onion finely chopped
100g of frozen peas
100g of fresh carrots , diced
5 cloves of garlic
300 ml of red wine
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
Handful of fresh thyme
Salt and Pepper

Potato topping

400g of maris piper potatoes
1tbsp of butter
Salt and Pepper to season

Method

1. Gently fry the lamb mince , onion,thyme, garlic ,carrots together, until the mince has browned
2. Add the wine , peas and worcestershire sauce and simmer on a very low heat while you make the topping, this should ensure a tasty gravy
3. Place the filling in a pie dish and prepare the topping
4. Chop the potatoes , you can peel them , but with most thinly skinned potatoes its not necessary
5. Boil the potatoes in a little salted water until soft
6. Drain the potatoes add the butter and mash til smooth
7. Spoon the mash over the pie filling and create a rough surface with a fork , this will mean you get some crunchy brown topping
8. Bake at 180degC for 25 minutes, til the top is beggining to brown & some gravy will also begin to bubble up. Alternatively you could leave the dish now and heat it through at 180deg C same temperature for a longer amount of time 40 minutes

I am not sure this even requires vegetables with the peas and carrots inside , but had some nice cabbage around

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Pizza

I had never made a pizza until about a year ago, watching the guys flipping pizza dough always made me feel it was beyond the reach of the home cook , however it is really very easy and both the base and sauce ingredients are all things I keep in stockThe secret seems to be making sure the pizza dough have time to prove , only 40 minutes which is usually enough time to prepare the sauce and toppings

Clockwise from left more pizza toppings, directions for pizza dough and sauce follows 1. Mozarella , Anchovies and Olive Pizza , 2. Wilted Spinach , Feta , Roasted Pepper and Pine Nut Pizza, 3. Leek , Walnut, & Goats Cheese Pizza, 4. Mushroom , Broccoli , Pine Nut and Goats Cheese Pizza

Pizza Dough

200g of plain flour
1 tsp Yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp of olive oil
150ml warm water

Mix together the flour and yeast in a bowl
Dissolve the salt in the water add with the oil to the flour and yeast
Mix to form a dough
Cover the leave in warm place for approx 40 minutes.

Meanwhile make the sauce

Pizza Sauce

400g of plum tomatoes
1 small onion finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 tsp of balsamic vinegar
Mixed herbs
Salt and Pepper

1. Gently fry the onion and garlic in a saucepan
2. Pour over the tomatoes and vinegar , simmer until the tomatoes have formed a sauce consistency
3. Season with the herbs , salt and pepper.

Putting together a pizza

1. Roll out the dough to approx 3mm
2. Spread the sauce over the base
3. Lay over the pizza topping .
4. Bake a 200deg C for approx 25 minutes

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Happy New Year 2008

1. Wild Garlic and Chicken Soup, 2. Coarse Pork Terrine, 3. Spinach and Wild Garlic Pesto Soup, 4. Rosehip Syrup Cakes, 5. Lime Tart, 6. Salmon with Garlic and Dill Aoili, 7. Fennel ,Pancetta, Walnut and Goats Cheese Salad, 8. Rhubarb Tart with Elderflower Cream, 9. Cauliflower and Toasted Walnut Soup, 10. Wild Garlic Pesto, 11. Watercress , Roasted Butternut Squash , Stilton and Walnut Salad, 12. Rabbit with Spring Vegetables, 13. Smoked Salmon and Beetroot Salad, 14. Smoked Mackerel Pate, 15. Chargrilled Vegetable Kebab, 16. Tomato Tart, 17. Stawberry Frangipane, 18. Pear Tart, 19. Pomegranate Jewel Cake, 20. Cabbage Rolls, 21. Not quite Nicoise Salad, 22. Lamb and Cauliflower Salad, 23. Borscht, 24. Kohlrabi and Mackerel Salad, 25. Seared Salmon & Pea Puree, 26. Its spring chicken, 27. Green Tea and Cardamom Madeleines, 28. Lentil and Parsley Soup with crispy Pancetta, 29. Butternut Squash and Leek Quiche, 30. Banana and Rum Cake

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
Its a very busy year cooking wise if you want to see all the food from 2007 is available in my set on Flickr

I am immensely proud of my growth this year in photographing the food that I cook , Flickr has been a wonderful source of inspiration and this blog has given me the chance to talk about the food I love .

Thank you to everyone who has viewed my blog in 2007 and I promise it will get even better in 2008 where my New Years Resolutions include trying even more new foods, being more personal , better spelling and grammar ( I am dyslexic , but I do try, ) , more pictures assisted by the brilliant Christmas gift of a Joby Gorillapod a tiny lightweight tripod, which should make it even easier for me to take pictures and may even mean the lovely boyfriend gets hot food.

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Pear Tart

Very Very easy but tasty, not to sweet , I like it cold but you could have it hot with a little vanilla ice cream. This works with apples , peaches or apricots.

Pear Tart

250g of Puff Pastry
4 medium conference pears
4 tbsp of caster sugar

1. Core the pears and finely slice , place in a bowl scatter over two thirds of the sugar
2. Preheat the oven to 200deg C
3. Roll out the puff pastry , into a rectangular shape approx 0.5 cm thick
4. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes
5. Fork the centre of the rectangle layer over the pear slices
6. Return to the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes
7. Remove from the oven , scatter over the remaining sugar and leave to cool.

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Mushroom ,Bacon, Spinach , Stilton and Walnut Quiche

Quiche is just one of those great foods for using up ingredients when you don’t really have a lot of each one you can just throw in lots of different flavours and assuming you have some eggs and milk your set. Shortcrust Pastry is easy so long as you follow the 2:1 flour to fat , in this case the flour is a nutty spelt flour ,the fat butter .

I think quiches and tarts also have that wow factor for presenting at dinner parties and even petter keep well for leftovers or midlight stacking – a bit like cake – one more sliver to even it up and suddenly half the dish is empty

Though this looks like a lot of step its probably all done in less than a hour including cooking and cooling, you could leave out the bacon if you are vegetarian perhaps replacing with some roasted squash , the cheese is also not essentail but it does add richness , any melting hard cheese is suitable e.g. cheddar goats cheese

Mushroom , Bacon, Spinach , Stilton and Walnut Quiche

Pastry Ingredients

200g of spelt flour
100g of butter
Pinch of salt
20 ml of water

Filling

Handful of spinach – finely sliced
Three rashers of bacon – roughly chopped
3 handfuls of fresh mushroom sliced
1 tbsp of walnuts – roughly chopped
1 small onion
3 cloves of garlic
Few sprigs of thyme
1 cup of milk
2 tbsp of stilton crumbled ( can also use cheddar or goats cheese )
2 large eggs
Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180degC
2. Line a 23cm quiche tin with greaseproof paper
3. Rub the butter into the flour and salt until it resembles fine bread crumbs . Altrnatively pulse in a food processor .
4. Add the water until it forms a dough
5. Place the dough in the fridge to rest while you prepare the filling
6. Gently fry the onions , garlic walnuts , mushrooms and become until they have cooked down
7. Remove from the heat and add in the thyme and spinach.
8. Season with salt and pepper
9. Roll out the pastry and line the quiche tin pricking the pastry with a fork , place the
10. Put the dish in the oven for approx 10 minutes , remove and fill with the mushroom mixture
11. Beat together the eggs , milk and stliton and season well
12. Pour over the mushroom mixture
13. Return to the oven to bake for a further 20 minutes
14. Serve with salad

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Rustic Wild Mushroom , Caramalised Onion Butternut Squash and Goats Cheese Tart

Its definitely autumn there is a real chill in the air and for once I spent Sunday inside clearing out cupboards. Stunningly I have begun Christmas shopping (- thank-you Ebay ) not yet the Christmas cooking though. I never manage to shop this early but there can be no last minute gift buying this year because we are heading for rural Wales . Living in a small flat I have discovered I have nowhere to stash gifts til Xmas so I need a big clear out tonnes of paperwork hit the recycling

To calm me halfway through made the above tart to provide lunches for a week working at home and to use up the wilds mushrooms and a pile of onions from the vegebox.

The combinations of mushrooms and squash if certainly one I have tried before with Butternut Squash studded with mushrooms , stilton bacon walnuts and herbs or leek , garlic wanuts fennel and goats cheese and in Hedgehog Fungus and Squash Risotto

Although for tarts I have often used ready made puff pastry this tart was made using short crust pastry and mine is always the shortest crumbliest the good thing abotu this is the rustic look works

Rustic Wild Mushroom , Caramalised Onion, Butternut Squash and Goats Cheese Tart

For the pastry
100g of Plain Flour
50g of Butter
10ml of Water

Crumb the butter into the flour until you get a breadcrumb consistency
Add the water slowly to form a a dough
Leave in the fridge

Meanwhile prepare the filling

3 large onions
1tbp of butter
4 large handfuls of wild mushrooms
3 cloves of garlic
4 sticks of thyme dried or fresh
10 slices of roasted butternut squash ( Thickly slice a roast at 200deg for 20 minutes)

Finely slice the onions
Slowly cook the onions in a pan with butter
approx 10 minutes on a mediums heat they should beging to gently caramalise
In a seperate pan cook the mushrooms with a little olive and garlic , once they have softened and any water is reduced add the butternut squash and thyme
Mix the onion and mushroom mixture together gently

Roll out the pasty into a circle to a couple of millimeters thick
Place the filling in the centre of the circle and gather the pastry around
Scatter with grumbled goats cheese
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180deg for approx 25 minutes

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