A quirky cookbook provides sweet - and savoury - inspiration.
Tarts have been on my mind lately, largely because of the recent gift of A Year’s Worth, Recipes from the Dunsandel Store (Mannering Graham, Juno Publishing). There is a chapter entitled “Pies, Tarts and Farts”. It’s quite possibly the most delightful cookbook I have ever read and even provides instructions on how to forage.
For many of us, the idea of foraging means nothing more than searching out the dark corners of our kitchen cupboards to see what screw-top jars and half-filled cellophane bags of frequently sticky mystery may lie there. This week was different; I actually went foraging in the truest sense of the word, in Marlborough.
To be fair, it was others who actually went and caught the freshwater salmon, sardines, blue moki and butterfish and gathered heirloom carrots, garlic and tomatoes. Somebody else harvested the apples, plums and Lisa Sherrington’s hand-made goats’ cheese. My task was to turn it all into dinner.
My own additional foraging took place in the restful quiet of Robyn Martin’s magnificent fruit, vegetable and herb garden at her home, Maison Grange, in Blenheim.
Here, flowers grew happily side by side with ripe tomatoes and genoese basil. Frames supported climbing beans, while fennel bulb and dill sprawled across two thriving and threatening jerusalem artichoke bushes. I picked handfuls of edible flowers, lemon verbena, mint and tarragon plus fat bunches of green-blue frilly kale and flowering zucchini. Two young omega plum trees were already heavy with fruit, and black boy peaches were ripening just up the valley. Could I use it all in the one menu?
When I left Maison Grange, Robyn generously gave me a parting gift – a jar of her lavender jelly, stained garnet by the addition of a couple of wild blackberries. I am determined it will not end up in the recesses of my cupboards, behind the bag of urban-foraged dried wild mushrooms that I am still to find a use for.
THE BEAUTY OF THESE little tarts is that you don’t need any tins in which to bake them. Make them in two stages – the pastry first, then the following day, the topping. It becomes less of a fuss this way.
Three-Cheese and Black Olive Tarts
pastry
300g flour
200g unsalted butter
salt
120ml water
filling
180g goats’ cheese, crumbly
150g ricotta
120g mozzarella
4 tbsp crème fraiche
parmesan cheese
2 tsp thyme leaves
salt and pepper
about 50 black olives, pitted
Put the flour, butter and a pinch of salt into the bowl of an electric bench-top mixer. Mix until it resembles fine breadcrumbs then add the water, mixing to a smooth dough. Wrap the pastry in cling film and refrigerate for 24 hours. Allow the pastry to come to room temperature and divide it into 10 even-sized portions (about 60g each). On a floured surface roll 8 pieces of pastry into a round shape roughly the thickness of a two-dollar coin. Roll out the remaining 2 pieces of pastry, dusting with more flour if you need to and cut into 8 strips, each half a centimetre wide and 3mm thick. Rim each pastry with a flat strip of pastry, ensuring the outer edges meet. Slide onto a large, flat baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
Set the oven to 200°C. Make the filling. Crumble the goats’ cheese into a bowl and mix in the ricotta. Grate the mozzarella and beat it in with the crème fraiche. Grate the parmesan, stir into the cheese mix then season with thyme, salt and pepper. Fill each tart with the cheese mixture and decorate with the pitted black olives and carefully slide the tray into the oven. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the filling looks lightly risen and the pastry is cooked through. Remove the tray from the oven – the tarts are best served when warm rather than cold or hot.
Makes 8 small tarts.
IN THIS RECIPE the middle layer of ground almonds stops the juices from the plums soaking the batter. I prefer to use a blood plum such as an omega, but a yellow-fleshed Louisa would be just as good.
Plum Cake
cake
275g unsalted butter
250g sugar
200g plain flour
200g self-raising flour
salt
3 free-range eggs
100ml milk
200g ground almonds
750-800g omega or other blood plums
glaze
125g unsalted butter
200g sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
4 free-range eggs
For the cake you will need a 28cm springform cake tin, which should be lightly buttered. Set the oven to 200°C. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then add both flours and a pinch of salt. Whisk the eggs and milk together and slowly pour into the mixture, producing a smooth batter. Pour into the prepared tin. Cover with the ground almonds.
Cut the plums in half and remove the stones. Arrange cut-side up on top of the almonds, starting at the outside edge and working towards the centre.
For the glaze, melt the butter in a small saucepan and stir in the sugar and cinnamon. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Whisk the eggs until smooth, stir into the butter mixture and spoon the glaze over the plums. Slide the cake into the oven and bake for about one hour, until the cake is cooked through in the middle. Remove from the oven and serve warm, with whipped cream or Greek yoghurt.
Serves 6.
THIS IS A FRUGAL TART, originally created to use up leftover bread, so it’s worth adding a bit of luxury. I wish we could buy clotted cream here (can anybody who makes it please let me know, because that what this tart really needs?). Instead, serve it with plenty of pouring cream or crème fraiche.
Old-Fashioned English Treacle Tart
pastry
180g flour
90g unsalted butter
2 tsp cold water
filling
2 cups golden syrup
3 cups fresh white bread
1 lemon
3 pieces crystallised ginger
You will need an 18-20cm pie tin about 4cm high with sloping edges. For the pastry place the flour and butter into a food processor and blitz until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Pour in the water and mix again for a few seconds, just enough to bring the dough together. Tip out onto a floured board and squeeze it with your hands to make a ball. Roll it out to fit the tin, pressing the pastry into the edges. Prick lightly all over with a fork then refrigerate for 20 minutes.
While the pastry rests, heat the oven to 200°C. Line the tart base with tin foil and cover with baking weights, rice or dried beans and bake for 12 minutes. Remove the foil and weights, return the pastry to the oven and bake a further 10 minutes until the pastry feels dry. Remove from the oven and set to one side.
Increase the oven temperature to 220°C. To make the filling, warm the golden syrup over a low heat. Blitz the bread in the food processor until you have fine breadcrumbs and tip into the golden syrup, stirring until well coated. Grate the rind of the lemon and add to the crumbs along with the squeezed juice. Finely chop the ginger, stir into the mix then pour into the pastry case. Return to the oven for 30 minutes.
Leave the tart for 10 minutes before removing from the tin and serve either warm or cold with the cream – or clotted cream, if you’ve been lucky enough to find some!
Serves 6.