R khooks

Open heart surgery tart and company

Recently I haven’t had much time to blog. Life has kind of been getting in the way, in a good way. Blogs are supposed to be about life. No life=no blog I guess. Anyway I happen to be very lucky to have a fellow foodie around the corner. If we’re not cooking or eating then we’ll be talking about food. Well, ok it’s not as nearly as bad as that.

A couple of weeks ago we decided to stage a “tart off” (like a “bake off”) although there was no real competition involved. It all kicked off with a trip to our local market to decide on the fillings. We needed two savoury and two sweet ideas. We took advantage with what was in season, deciding to do a mushroom tart, a pumpkin one and then going with two random ones: a fig and finally a sardine one.
So in the afternoon I set about teaching a couple of my friends the fine art of shortcrust pastry. The trick is to have “fairy fingers”, don’t overwork the pastry too much otherwise it becomes too tough and elastic which is the opposite of what you want.

After that I became more the sous chef in regards to the savoury pies. I let Shota do the savoury tarts: sardines with a green pesto and tomato base and a mushroom, shallot and herb tart… While I dealt with the pumpkin tart (roast the pumpkin, puree, add an egg, cream, nutmeg, cinammon and sugar…voilà) and the fig tart wish Shota so kindly said looked like open heart surgery (make up your own mind here).

Unfortunately when it came to photographing everything, my friends’ patience wouldn’t hold up to me taking half an hour styling, arranging, sorting out the light. Within minutes of setting down the tarts on the table, they were devoured with only a few crumbs remaining. Great compliment to the chefs, not so good for the shots.

Shortcrust pastry

200g flour
100g butter (very cold, cut into cubes)
4g salt
1 tsp of water (may need more depending on the flour)
1 egg

For the shortcrust pastry:
1. Sablage
Mix flour and salt add cubed butters. Rub flour mixture and butter together to create a breadcrumb texture. Make sure to work quickly. Add water and egg. Mix slightly.

2. Frasage
Turn out mixture onto clean surface (preferably a cool marble surface). Using the palm of your hand. Push a small amount of the mixture about 20cm along the surface of the table. Do this with all the dough. Repeat once or twice until the mixture has come together.

Chill dough for 30mins. Roll out to knife edge thickness and line already greased and floured tin. Prick base. Chill again for another 30mins. Meanwhile preheat oven to 160°c. Blindbake 20-30mins or until case is baked through.

Filling

250g chanterelle mushrooms (clean by using a pastry brush, do not wash the mushrooms. They’re like sponges and will soak up water, making them soggy)
1 shallot, finely copped
2 gloves of garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
1 handful of parsley, chopped (reserve a bit for the garnish)
Salt & pepper

Mix together the ingredients, season with salt and pepper. Pile into the tart crust and bake at 160°c until the mushrooms are softened (about 15-20 minutes). Garnish with chopped parsley before serving.