One of the nicest types of cooking is the using seasonal ingredients sort, the grow it, pick it, cook it and eat it sort and at this time of year we are just going from the winter growing crops into the early spring ones.
Buds are shooting, nettles and other foragable bits appearing with fresh leaves (Foraging based recipes soon) but right now, one of the nicest seasonal cross over combinations has to be this one, putting together leeks that have been growing for ages, surviving the winter cold and now laid side by side with purple sprouting, I have been watching this plant and waiting...
The tips are tender, and just keep coming. If it is something you feel you don't like either because its greens or because its broccoli, give it a second chance, cooked in the right way (not boiled to bitterness and a soggy ending) it is lovely and so so healthy. As it is coming into season it is on offer in a couple of the supermarkets, so go on, give it a go.
Like I said earlier, I have teamed it up with leeks for his recipe. My leeks have done well this year, they may not have been of the prize winning size or looks, but they are garden heros, surviving when most other veg have died from cold! I have souped them, baked them, covered them in cheese sauce and put them with mash and cabbage in colcannon. But one of the nicest ways to eat them is sweated in butter (the leeks that is, not the eater.) That is how they have been treated for this recipe and having just polished of the tart I feel well rewarded.
so...
Ingredients
1 quantity of short crust pastry made with 8oz of plain flour, 4 oz butter, a splash of water and a pinch of salt
10 small purple sprouting tips
1 small leek
A large knob of butter and a splash of oil for frying
4oz/100g Cheese - I used 75g mature Cheddar, 25g feta and then a crumbling over the top of Stilton
1/4 pint milk
2 eggs
salt, pepper
Method
Oven on to Gas5/200'c
1 Make up pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour, and pinch of salt, to make a breadcrumb texture. then add cold water a dessert spoon at a time until you can combine the mixture into a dough. Remove from bowl, wrap in cling film and refrigerate to rest it for about 20 mins
2 Roll dough and either use the whole amount to make one large tart or divide between four tartlet cases. Prick the bases a few times using a fork. Don't worry about neat edges, you can sort it out afterwards, or just go for the more rustic look and enjoy the extra pastry :)
3 Bake blind in an oven for about 15 minutes, until dried a little but not browned
4 Whilst it is baking, chop your leeks and sweat them until soft in a frying pan with your oil and butter.
Don't let them brown or that is all you will taste in your tart
5 When your tart case(s) have baked, add the leeks to them
6 Then add your purple sprouting (Note-If the stems of your spouting are much thicker than the tips it may be worth cutting them off and boiling them for a couple of minutes first so that they cook through properly)
7 Then add your cheese
8 Whisk your eggs into your milk, add the seasonings and the carefully pour into the tart case over the top of the other ingredients
9 Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes for small tarts or 35-40 minutes for a large one. You will know that it is cooked when it is golden brown and if you very gently wobble your tart dish the contents stay put and don't run
10 When cooked , leave to cool for 10 minutes before serving, they hold heir heat quite well and the resting period allows for a better set on your tart. Plus, to be fair, who is going to be able to see what it tastes like if you are to busy burning your mouth.
11 Serve with a green salad
Hints and Tips
Obviously the variations of ingredients you could use for fillings would make for an encyclopedia sized list, however trying to keep things seasonal means that you won't be eating the same thing time and again.
The pastry cases could be made and baked blind the day before needed and then cooled and put into an air tight container.
Baking blind - This is when you bake the empty pastry cases to dry them out and ensure the pastry cooks and doesn't go soggy, some people uses baking beans to do this, but I never bother.
If time is tight, a shop bought pastry would be fine, in fact you could abandon the short crust type and pop it all onto a puff pastry instead.
The feta cheese worked well because different cheeses have different melting points, the feta softens, but holds its shape, and adds a lovely salty hit which goes fantastically well with the purple sprouting.
This tart would be nice with bacon too
I was going to do two tarts this week, one savoury and one sweet with my Rhubarb, but that will have to wait until next week as the rhubarb isn't quite ready :)
I hope you enjoy this recipe, I would love some comments...
Yours, proud to be tarty,
Ruth
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