Tag Archives: tart

Hot March, cool lychees, seeds & lemon tarts

On air on bayfm 99.9 in Byron Bay on March 5, 2012

 

Today two of our regular guests visited the belly kitchen, Alison Drover of Fork in the Field, a.k.a. Miss March, and our baking bellysister Deanna.  Miss March gave us lots of ideas on using luscious lychees, and talked about the importance of seeds.  More from her soon.

 

In Part 2 of our “Easy as Pie” series with Deanna Sudmals,  shortcrust pastry and some variations you may like to try.

 

You will find Part 1 and the basic shortcrust pastry recipe here.  If you would like to try the vodka variation, just substitute water in basic recipe with vodka.  Deanna warns that she got a lot of shrinkage with the vodka shortcrust (maybe too much raw dough tasting?).  The alcohol evaporates during the cooking process.

 

Maggie Beer’s Sour Cream Shortcrust pastry – recipe here

 

 

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry with Egg

 

250g plain flour

2 tbsp icing sugar

125g cold butter, chopped coarsely

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp ice water or milk

Process flour, sugar and butter until crumbly. Add egg yolks and enough of the water to process until ingredients come together. Knead on a floured surface until smooth. Enclose in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Note: for savoury version omit icing sugar, add a pinch of salt, and use water not milk.

 

 

Deanna's Lemon Tart

 

LEMON TART – by Deanna Sudmals

 

1/12 cups (185g) plain flour

1/3 cup icing sugar

¼ cup almond meal

125g cold butter, chopped coarsely

1 egg yolk

Filling:

1 tbsp finely grated lemon rind

½ cup (125ml) lemon juice

5 eggs

¾ cup (165g) caster sugar

1 cup cream

 

Blend or process flour, icing sugar, almond meal and butter until crumbly. Add egg yolk; process until ingredients come together. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth. Enclose in plastic wrap; refrigerate 30 minutes.

Roll pastry between sheets of baking paper until large enough to line 24 cm round loose-based flan tin. Lift pastry into tin, ease into base and side; trim edge. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200 C/180 fan forced.

Place flan tin on oven tray. Line pastry case with baking paper. Fill with dried beans or rice. Bake 15 minutes. Remove paper and beans; bake further 10 minutes or until browned lightly.

Meanwhile, whisk ingredients for lemon filling in a medium bowl; stand 5 minutes.

Reduce oven to 180 C/160 fan forced.

Strain lemon filling into pastry case; bake about 30 minutes or until filling has set slightly. Refrigerate until cold.

 

Optional: Dust with icing sugar and/or decorate with fresh berries. If you are really feeling fancy, you can coat with icing or caster sugar and using a crème brulee torch, create a brulee crust topping.

 

 

July 19 radio show: tasting the Byron Bay Writers Festival

Today Srs T and B were having such a good time talking with the Director of the Byron Bay Writers Festival and the Northern Rivers Writer Centre, Jeni Caffin, that we ended up spending most of the show with her.  It turns out that the whole staff of the NRWC (about 4 people who work enough for 20) are completely food obsessed – that explains all the great food events at the festival.  And the way they make sure the many volunteers get tasty and healthy food on their shifts.  And Jeni’s 19 year old cat wears a small tea cosy as a hat right through winter – who knew?
The 2010 Festival will include breakfasts lunches and dinners with writers, a cooking workshop with the Red Lantern’s Luke Nguyen, a book launch by popular local food writer Victoria Cosford, and plenty of sessions that touch on food, especially “Eat me: writing food, glorious food” on the Saturday.  Jeni’s advice is  to look out for these authors : Monica Trapaga, Ramona Koval, Luke Nguyen, Victoria Cosford, Juanita Phillips, Joanna Savill and Simon Marnie.
Go to the Festival site for author biographies and details of all the events.
And of course here’s the eggplant tart – a tartless tart, well tested by everyone at the writers centre, guaranteed to work and be delicious.

Jeni's glamorous cat, Perfect Tiger, recommends wearing a stylish tea cosy in winter

EGGPLANT TART


For a round tart made in a dish about 8 inches across and about 2 inches
deep you will need approximately:
3 medium eggplant;
2-3 large brown onions;
a little balsamic vinegar and sugar to taste to caramelise the onions
a large cup of grated parmesan;
herbs to taste, whatever you like, I use basil and parsley
olive oil with crushed garlic in it, to taste
Cut the stem end off and slice the eggplant in 5mm widths lengthways,
discarding the first skin slice on each side. Brush both sides with garlic oil
Put baking paper or alfoil down and grill each side till lightly golden and
transparent
Cook the onions, balsamic and sugar slowly till caramelised. Lightly grease your tin
Lay the eggplant slices, overlapping to fill gaps,
Put caramelised onion, cheese and herbs mixed in between each layer of eggplant
Press down firmly each layer of eggplant. Last layer should be eggplant slices
Bake in moderate oven for 45 mins, allow to cool down to eating temperature
before putting a plate on top and inverting it.