Nectarine-goat cheese galette

I ended up taking this in to work yesterday, because it was too pretty not to share with a bunch of people.

And delicious! And simple. It's really just crust, nectarines, and goat cheese. It would be even more delicious with, say, some arugula and chopped nuts sprinkled over the top; or some prosciutto; or a lemon juice-butter-herb sauce; or really anything. It's more of a savory tart, so it's easy to throw some salad or prosciutto on top and call it a meal.

From Spicie Foodie:

Olive oil pastry:
2 cups all purpose flour
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil, or a light tasting one of your choice
⅓ cup cold water, plus extra if needed
pinch salt
½ tsp sugar

Filling:
whole milk or egg wash for brushing
Nectarines cut into thin wedges, I used 5 large
1 large log of goat cheese

Pastry Instructions:
Mix the flour,salt and sugar until well combined. Make a well in center and add olive oil and water. Mix and knead into a smooth dough. Use your hands to gather the dough into a ball. Wrap with plastic wrap or place inside a plastic bag. Leave to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes of resting, preheat the oven to 375F, roll out dough to a large circle and to your desired thickness. Crumble and spread goat cheese around center, but leave about 1 inch or 2.5 cm of outer dough to be folded over later. Next arrange the nectarines on top of goat cheese, use as many as you like. Fold the extra outer dough over the toppings, like you see in the finished images. Brush the dough with a little whole milk or egg wash. Bake in center of oven for 20-25 minutes or until the dough feels crispy and is golden brown.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Golden beet tarte tatin

Pretty delicious, for just being essentially beets and puff pastry. The original recipe called for baby beets, halved, but I cut and peeled three big golden beets instead. Next time I might try a combination of beet colors.

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon canola 
or olive oil
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
2 teaspoons brown sugar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 big golden beets, peeled and cut into thin chunks

Melt the butter with the oil in a cast-iron skillet. Add the cider vinegar, sugar, and some salt and pepper, stir well, then 
add the beets and toss to coat. You want the beets to fill the pan snugly, in a single layer. Cover the pan with foil, transfer to the oven, and roast for 30 to 40 minutes at 375, until the beets are tender.

Take the pan from the oven and rearrange the beet halves neatly, placing them cut side up. Lay the pastry sheet over the beets, patting it down and tucking in the edges down the side of the pan. Return to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until the pastry is fully puffed up and golden brown.

Leave the tarte to cool in its pan for about 15 minutes, then turn it out by putting a plate over the top and inverting it. Pour any juices left in the pan back over the beets.

Potato, leek and feta tart

This is a free-form tart that comes together beautifully. If you roll the pie crust a little thick, you can eat it like a pizza.

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 leeks (white and light green parts), cut into half-moons
1/2 cup crumbled feta (about 2 ounces)
1 handful chopped fresh parsley
2 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1 pie crust

Heat oven to 375º F. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the leeks with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until just tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in the feta and parsley. Add the potatoes and toss to combine. On a piece of parchment paper, roll the pie crust to a 12-inch diameter. Slide the paper onto a baking sheet. Spoon the potato mixture onto the pie crust, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold the edge of the pie crust over the edge of the potato mixture. Bake (covering with foil if the crust gets too dark) until the pie crust is golden brown and the potatoes are tender, 50 to 60 minutes.

Rhubarb puff pastry tarts

Mmmm, rhubarb.

These are just rhubarb compote, drained of all liquid, on puff pastry squares.

Thaw two sheets of puff pastry, and cut each into four squares. On each square, place a few tablespoons of drained rhubarb compote. Fold the edges over, to make a triangle pocket, and seal the edges with a little water and a fork. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Delicious!

Zucchini and ricotta tart with potato crust

After a snowstorm last week, it's 65 degrees now. I'm hoping that was the last gasp of (our admittedly non- ) winter, and that spring is here. I'm ready for some spring vegetables!

Found some zucchini on sale, so I made this in anticipation of spring.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large potato, grated
2 zucchini, sliced
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
Italian seasoning

Coat a pie pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Squeeze the excess water out of the grated potato, and press into the pie pan to form a thin crust. Bake at 400 until crispy, 30 - 40 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 375.
Meanwhile, saute the zucchini in 1 tablespoon olive oil until just soft. Add Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste. Mix together the ricotta, cream and eggs; add the zucchini and combine. Pour into the prepared crust and bake at 375 until set but still slightly jiggly in the middle, 20 - 30 minutes. Remove and let cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Feta tart

The real gem in this feta tart is the crust. Sure, the feta part is good too--but as glorified cheese bread goes, this is pretty simplistic. The crust, though, came together with absolutely no effort. I may try to adapt it for pastry and/or pizza uses.

From Saveur:

6 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

2 tsp. vodka (I used gin, being out of vodka)

1 egg

1 1⁄4 cups flour, sifted

1⁄4 tsp. kosher salt

1⁄8 tsp. baking powder

10 oz. feta, crumbled 

2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

Heat oven to 500°. Put an 18" x 13" x 1" rimmed baking sheet into oven for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together 2 tbsp. oil, vodka, egg, and 1 cup water in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, salt, and baking powder. Pour wet mixture over dry mixture and whisk until smooth.

Brush remaining oil over bottom of hot pan and add batter, smoothing batter with a rubber spatula to coat the bottom evenly, if necessary. Distribute cheese evenly over batter, and dot with butter. Bake, rotating baking sheet halfway through, until golden brown and crunchy, about 20 minutes. Let cool slightly before slicing and serving. 

Cherry tomato tart

It finally happened. The tomato harvest came in.

I'm now hip-deep in tomatoes.

Most of them are cherry tomatoes (granted, enormous juicy heirloom cherry tomatoes), so I don't have quite enough big tomatoes to freeze/can in mass quantities. So when I found this recipe, I thought it would be a lifesaver.

Caveat: because my cherry tomatoes are SO big and juicy, this tart ended up tasting more like stewed tomatoes on crust. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and if you're using normal-sized cherry or grape tomatoes, you won't have that problem. It's just that there wasn't a lot of shriveling happening with this tart. So when it was done, I added a handful of crumbled blue cheese, to offset the tomato flavor.

Crust:
1 1/2 cups flour
7 tablespoons cold butter, in pieces
salt
1/2 cup heavy cream

Pulse the flour and salt together with the butter in a food processor until the mixture resembles crumbs. Add the cream, and pulse until the dough just comes together.

Turn out on a floured surface, and work/knead just until it resembles a ball of dough. (You may think you need to add more cream; try to resist this urge. You will be able to incorporate all the crumbs into a dough ball, I promise.) Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll the chilled dough out (it will act like regular dough now), and press into a buttered tart pan.

Tart:
1-2 pints cherry tomatoes
Basil
Crumbled blue cheese (optional)

Mound the tomatoes in the crust and bake at 325 for an hour and forty minutes. Top with slivered fresh basil and blue cheese, and serve.

Potato and squash tart

When I was a kid, summer dinners usually consisted of a) fresh tomato slices and b) fresh corn on the cob. Maybe c) salad. There wasn't a lot of meat involved, and 98% of it came from the garden.

Last night I served this potato and squash tart with a tomato salad (fresh cherry tomatoes, olive oil, feta), fresh corn on the cob, and some fresh champagne grapes.

It was just about the most perfect summer meal ever.

1 square of puff pastry, thawed
1 potato, sliced thin
1 yellow squash, sliced thin
saffron, if you have it (if not, don't worry about it)
salt
fresh basil

Boil the potato slices for a few minutes, but not until they're all the way done. Just halfway done. Drain.

Lay the puff pastry on a greased baking sheet, prick it all over with a fork, and layer the potato and squash slices in rows. Sprinkle with salt, and saffron if you have it. Bake at 350 until the edges are puffy and browned.

Sprinkle with chopped fresh basil and serve.

Caramelized onion and lavender tart

Woo! I'm getting crazy with the tarts these days.

This one uses dried lavender, which gives a lovely herbal bite to the sweetness of the caramelized onions. The original recipe used crisped proscuitto as a base (that is, proscuitto sauteed a little bit until crispy), but I used some leftover ham which I thought worked just as well. Other things you might use: country ham, crumbled bacon, or go veggie and use blue cheese crumbles.

I also used the walnut crust from the bacon and chard tart. It's my new all-purpose tart crust.

Loosely adapted from Ancient Grains for Modern Meals:

2 big onions, sliced (I used Vidalia onions)

1 1/2 teaspoons dried lavender

1 teaspoon dried thyme

4 oz proscuitto or ham or bacon or blue cheese or whatever

2 large eggs

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/2 cup milk

1 oz grated cheese (I used parmesan; gruyere would also be yummy)

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Caramelize the onions by sauteing on medium-low, in olive oil or bacon fat, for the better part of an hour. Let them get dark, the darker they are the sweeter they taste. Meanwhile make the tart crust and par-bake it according to the instructions.

Remove the onions, and saute the meat in the same pan with a little more olive oil. In a bowl, mix together the eggs, yogurt, milk, cheese and herbs.

Brust the tart crust with the mustard, layer the meat in the bottom, add the onions. Pour the egg mixture over all that, and bake at 375 for 45 minutes. Let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

Bacon, chard and walnut tart

I've never had a lot of success with tarts.

A lot of tart recipes call for complicated crusts, which turns me (and most everyone else) off. The few times I've attempted a tart, I made my standard pie crust recipe instead--which clung to the inside of the tart pan and essentially ruined the tart-ness of the tart. In later years, when my crappy yard-sale tart pan gave out, I just made the "tart" in a pie pan, with a pie crust.

Well, the other day I was at Williams-Sonoma picking up a salad spinner, and I noticed several kinds of tart pans on their sale table. It was on sale, it was good quality, I no longer owned a tart pan, so I picked one up.

And lo, this recipe for a Bacon, Chard and Walnut Tart fell into my lap.

And lo! I already had all of the ingredients! Including a brand-new tart pan!

Now I know why my tarts always failed--a flaky pie crust will cling to the inside of the tart pan. You want a more crumbly crust, like this one, which was way easier to put together than I thought it would be. This may turn out to be my default tart crust from now on.

Reprinted here, from Food52:

Serves 8


Walnut Tart Crust:

1 1/2 cup organic all-purpose flour
1/2 cup walnut meal (made from whirring walnuts in a blender until fine)
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 cup toasted walnut oil
1/2 cup ice water (you probably won't use it all)

Bacon, Chard and Walnut Filling:

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, heated in a hot skillet for a minute or two until "toasted" (be careful not to burn them)
1 cup chopped thickly sliced bacon
1 cup chopped sweet/Vidalia onion
1 tablespoon toasted walnut oil
1 bunch green chard leaves, chopped
4 eggs, preferably organic and free-range
1/2 cup organic heavy cream
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, plus more for optional garnish
1 pinch sea salt
dash of ground black pepper

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, walnut meal, and the salt.
2.Add the toasted walnut oil and mix well.
3.Add about 1/4 cup of the water, and using your hands, mix until it starts to form a dough. Add more water, a tablespoon or so at a time, and keep using your hands to mix until it comes together into a ball.
4.Roll out into a little bigger than the bottom of your tart pan on a floured surface. It's ok if it falls apart a little- it's better not to overwork it and just to press the extra pieces into the tart pan.
5.Rub the bottom and sides of your tart pan with toasted walnut oil and then transfer the rolled-out dough into the tart pan. Using the heel of your hand (or whatever that part of your hand under your thumb is called), press the dough into the bottom and half-way up the sides of your tart pan. Any pieces that broke off while you were rolling can be pressed in now. I am all for charmingly rustic tart crusts, so don't worry if it doesn't look perfect.
6.Prick the crust all over with the tines of a fork, then cover with a layer of foil and place pie weights or a layer of dried beans on top. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove the weights/beans and foil and bake for another 10 minutes or until crust just starts to brown and become fragrant. Set aside while you make the tart filling; reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
7.In a cast-iron skillet, cook chopped bacon for several minutes, until crisp. Remove bacon from pan and set aside. Pour half the bacon fat into another skillet and leave the rest where it is.
8.Add chopped onion to one of the skillets along with the tablespoon of toasted walnut oil. Cook for about 20 minutes over low heat, stirring every now and then, until well caramelized.
9.In the other skillet, cook the chard over low-medium heat for 3-4 minutes. until fully wilted. When the onions are done, combine them with the chard, the toasted walnuts, and the cooked bacon in a large bowl. Add the thyme leaves and mix well.
10.Add the eggs, cream, and maple syrup to a small bowl and whisk until blended. Add this to the bacon mixture and combine. Pour into the par-baked tart shell.
11.Place the filled tart pan on a cookie sheet and place in the oven. Bake until the center of the tart is set, about 15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before removing the tart from the outside and bottom of the pan; garnish with additional fresh thyme if desired before serving.
 
Notes: This is WAY better made ahead of time and reheated, as the filling will thicken more and the flavors will meld better. A perfect thing to make ahead for a fancy brunch.