Tartology: Leek and blue cheese tart

For my birthday lunch, deferred until June (I like to spread it out), Ali served me an absolutely perfect leek and blue cheese tart. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo, but I was determined to have a go myself, so she gave me the recipe.
         Today I managed to do it. Not quite as perfectly trimmed around the edges as hers (she gives clever instructions for dong this AFTER the case is blind-baked, but I carelessly missed that bit), and it could perhaps have done with slightly longer cooking  to set the filling a fraction more - but my oven tends to run hotter than hers, so I had to take it out slightly early to stop it going too brown on top. Otherwise - well, it really was pretty good.

Leek and blue cheese tart 

(River Cottage, with Ali's tweaks)

For the pastry:

250g plain flour

125g unsalted butter, cut into little chunks

A pinch of sea salt

1 yolk of a medium egg

25-50ml cold milk (I needed slightly more to make the pastry stick together properly)

For the filling:

·        2 large or 3 medium leeks (about 500g), trimmed of tough green leaves, washed and sliced into 1cm rounds

·        A knob of unsalted butter

·        Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

·        100g good blue cheese, grated or crumbled

·         2 medium eggs

·         2 medium egg yolks 

       300ml cream

      First make the pastry: Put the flour, butter and salt in a food processor and pulse until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk, then pour in the milk in a gradual stream. Watch carefully and stop adding the milk as soon as the dough starts to come together. 

      Turn out and knead lightly a couple of times, then wrap in cling film. Chill for 30 minutes. Take out pastry and leave until you can roll it easily (but it's still firm). Line the pastry case with a big enough piece of baking paper to have it sticking out enough to lift it out easily later. On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out quite thinly and use to line a 25cm loose-based tart tin, letting the excess pastry hang over the edges.Chill for 30 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 170°C. (I set mine on Bake, without the fan, for this stage. If your oven runs a bit cool you may need to set it at 180°C.)

      Prepare the filling: Put the leeks into a saucepan with 100ml water, the butter and some salt and pepper. Bring to a low simmer, then cover and cook gently, stirring once or twice, for about 10 minutes, until just tender. Drain well, reserving the cooking liquor.   

  

     

Fill tart case with baking beans and place in the centre of the oven. Bake blind for 20 minutes. Take the tart out of the oven, remove the paper and beans, lightly prick the base all over with a fork and return to the oven for 5 minutes, until the base is dry but not too coloured. (Mine looked a bit too pale, so I shifted the setting to Fan Bake for this stage and for the rest of the cooking.) Carefully trim off the excess pastry with a small, sharp knife. 

Turn the oven temperature up to 180°C (170°C may be better if you are using Fan Bake).

Put the eggs and egg yolks, cream and leek liquor in a bowl and beat until smooth. Season to taste.

Spread the well-drained cooked leeks in the tart case and cover with the grated/crumbled cheese.

Pour the egg mixture over the leeks and cheese. Put the tart back into the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. The custard should be just set when you gently shake the tin. 

Ali and I both use Mary Berry's trick to get the outer rim of the tart case off easily. 

Let the tart cool a little. Rest the base on a flat-bottomed upside-down bowl or small saucepan, which needs to be a little smaller than the base. 

Use a sharp knife to gently free any bits of the edge that are sticking to the rim. Then ease the rim down to the bench, leaving the tart sitting neatly on its base. 

Serve warm or cool (but not chilled).  All you need with this is a simple salad, but you can add crusty bread and butter if you're really hungry. 

Between us my son and I ate half tonight, leaving half for tomorrow - brilliant.

A few of my (new) favourite things

The only thing to do with proper cooking that I can think of to write about this week has migrated over to my other blog, Elsewoman. There you'll find a post on Central Otago and wild thyme.

Some other nice little discoveries these holidays:
Elderflower cordial - made with soda, it takes me straight back to a Salisbury pub beside a millpond. And it's wonderful splashed onto summer fruits before you cook them.
A dash of pomegranate syrup with the vinaigrette - they do this at the Marche Francais, it's delicious.
Heated up slices of leftover Christmas pudding with Puhoi butterscotch custard.
Slicing tender little leeks, cooking them in the microwave with a bit of lemon juice, piling them onto thin Vogel toast, and topping them with scrambled eggs made with some scraps of smoked salmon.
Ruth Pretty's fudge - I found the recipe in the DomPost but it's online here. I'm not posting it in full because I don't think I got it quite right. I did obey her and followed the instructions exactly, except that I didn't coat it with more chocolate - I thought that was gilding the lily.
     But mine looked darker, and it didn't really set very firmly, though I could cut it into squares. However, it was beautifully rich and unctuous. When I gave a test piece to my chocoholic American visitor, she immediately told me it was horrible and she didn't think I should give it to anyone else for a present, as I'd planned, we should just keep it and eat it all up ourselves, so as not to waste it. Of course I ignored her and did give some away, with instructions to keep it in the fridge, and was rewarded later by being told it was the best fudge ever. Meanwhile I'd put the last dozen pieces (it makes a lot) into the freezer, wrapped in foil. This week I discovered I could take it out, leave it briefly to dechill, and eat it straight away, because it didn't actually freeze at all  - it just got firmer. So that was another very satisfactory discovery.

Salmon, pastry, leeks

We had K. and G., US friends we haven't seen for two years, here for dinner last night, plus their and our friend B. (who very kindly brought a marvellous apple cake for dessert, bless her). K. doesn't eat meat so we started with an antipasto of vege things, including pickled garlic and white bean dip, plus salami for the carnivores and herrings for her.

For the main course I bought a fillet of fresh salmon, creamed it in a white sauce made with wine and fish stock (French stock cubes) as well as milk, and wrapped the result in puff pastry envelopes - half a sheet, filling on one side, eggwash around the edges, pastry folded in half to make a big triangle and carefully sealed, baked at 220C for around 20 minutes.

I'm convinced, though, that my oven is quite seriously underpowered. In Melbourne I looked in Cuisine World, a supply shop for professional and serious home cooks at 245 Elizabeth Street; it had lots of different thermometers, but not one for ovens. I did get a very good baking sheet, and used it under the pastry envelopes.

To go with them, I made up a nice way of doing leeks. I cut all the tender parts into fine rings and microwaved them in half a cup of orange juice. Then I poured the leeky liquid into a small pan and reduced it with more orange juice, lemon juice, blanched orange zest, a splash of orange liqueur, and a little lump of butter. Just before serving I stirred the reduction into the leeks and reheated them. They had a lovely sweet-sharp citrusy flavour that went really well with the rich creamy salmon and pastry, and the colours looked good too. But I can't seem to take decent photos at night, everything goes yellow in the electric light.

Simply soup

It hasn't been all that cold in Wellington this week, but it's been depressingly damp and gray. Time to go back to basics. The very first thing I ever made from Mastering the Art of French Cooking was leek and potato soup. It's probably the simplest recipe in the whole two volumes.

Potage Parmentier (sounds much more impressive, doesn't it)
Peel and dice enough potatoes - preferably Agria - to get 450g.
Remove the tough outer skin of fresh, not too gigantic leeks. Slice the tender pale lower parts into thin rounds. Remove the remaining tough darker green leaves near the top, and slice the inner tender light green parts thinly. You want the same weight of leeks as of potatoes, 450g.

Put the veges into a large saucepan and add 1.5 litres of water and 1 dessertspoon of salt. Simmer, partially covered, for 40 minutes or more, until the veges are tender.

What you do next depends on how smooth you want the soup to be. Julia says you can mash the veges with a  fork or pass them through a moulinette. Or you can let everything cool and whizz it in a food processor or blender, though the resulting soup is considered too smooth and homogenous by some authorities.

Correct seasoning and leave aside, uncovered, until just before serving. Reheat to simmering point.

Either stir in, a spoonful at a time, 4-6 tablespoons of cream or softened butter, or swirl a little cream around the top of each bowl as you serve it. Scatter 2-3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley or chives over the soup in a tureen, or put a little onto each bowlful. Or you could just eat it as it is. Leeks, potatoes, salt and water.