Pastry

Mediterranean Tart

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A simple summery tart for supper! What more can you want? Courgettes, tomatoes, cheese accompanied by new potatoes, make this a tasty weeknight supper.

Serves 2

Ingredients: 200g potatoes, 150g cherry tomatoes, 3-4 baby courgettes or 1 courgette, 2 shallots, a few stems of oregano, small bunch of chives.

From the larder: 1 roll ready-made puff pastry, tomato purée, 100g goat’s cheese or 1 ball mozzarella, 1 tbsp olive oil.

Instructions:

  • Preheat oven to 200 degrees and bring a pan of water to boil for potatoes.
  • Slice the tomatoes, courgettes and shallots and chop oregano leaves.chopped veg 600px
  • Unroll the whole roll of pastry onto a baking tray. Leaving a 1cm border, spread with tomato purée, and sprinkle with the oregano.pastry with tom puree + oreg 600pxpastry with veg + moz horizontal 600px
  • Cover with the chopped tomatoes, courgettes and shallots and tear over the mozzarella.
  • Place in the oven and bake the tart for 15-20 minutes, or until golden.tart close up
  • Meanwhile, halve potatoes and boil for 10-15 minutes. When soft, drain them and chop chives. Mix together with a splash of olive oil and season to taste.
  • Remove tart from the oven when puffed and serve with potato salad.plate plus tart.jpg

Christmas Parcel With Flower Sprouts

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A Christmas Pastry Parcel for the week before Christmas. This pastry is packed full of warm Christmassy flavours created by the parsnips, squash, allspice and rosemary and is accompanied by our favourite flower Sprouts.

Ingredients: 1 Shallot, 250g butternut squash, 4-5 baby parsnips or 1 normal-sized parsnip, handful of kale, 4-5 chestnuts, sprig of rosemary and 100g flower sprouts.

From the larder: 1 roll of ready-made puff pastry, 100ml cream, 1 egg, butter, ¾ tsp allspice, oil, salt and pepper.

Instructions:

  • Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Peel and chop the butternut squash and chop the parsnips all into 1cm pieces. Toss in olive oil; place in a roasting tin and roast for 20 minutes.
  • Pierce the chestnuts with a skewer or cut a line in the chestnut shells and place on the baking tray in the oven. Roast for 8-10 minutes and then remove from the oven. Peel the chestnuts or scoop out their flesh and chop into pieces. Set aside for the pie filling later.
  • Chop the shallot and rosemary and sauté in a large sauté pan until shallots are soft. Finely chop the kale and add to the sauté pan.
  • When the squash and parsnips are soft, remove from the oven and mix into the sauté pan along with the chestnuts. Beat together the allspice, egg and cream. Remove the sauté pan from the heat and stir in the egg and cream mixture.
  • Unroll the pastry and place the whole sheet on a baking tray roughly 20cm x 30cm. Place the filling along the centre of the pastry lengthways. Lightly wet the edges with water and fold the pastry around the veg into tube. Brush with milk or left over egg. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes until pastry is golden and crispy. While baking, steam the flower sprouts for about 3-4 minutes.pie-filling-in-pastry-unrolled-600px
  • Serve the Christmas parcel with the flower sprouts and enjoy!

Leek and Mushroom Pie

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Ingredients: 2 cloves garlic, ½ the shallots, 1 leek, 40g chestnut, 30g button mushrooms, sprig of lemon thyme, 125g purple sprouting broccoli.
Larder: ½ a roll of ready-made puff pastry, 45g butter + a knob of butter, 5tsp flour, 300ml milk, ½ tsp nutmeg, salt, pepper, optional egg.

Instructions:
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Thinly slice the mushrooms and the leek, strip the thyme leaves from their stems, mince the garlic and chop the shallots. Gently sauté all the veg and thyme in a knob of butter until soft and leeks transluscent – about 7 minutes.
• Meanwhile make a white sauce: melt 45g butter in a sauce pan on a low heat. Stir in the flour and cook for about 2 minutes stirring constantly so that it makes a paste or roux. Pour in the milk slowly, whisking continually until smooth. Bring to the boil, continuing to stir as the sauce thickens. Add the nutmeg and simmer gently for about 5 minutes.
• When the white sauce and the veggies are ready, mix together and season in the pan and then transfer into a small pie dish or loaf tin.
• Cut the pastry slightly larger than the tin you are using, place on top of the tin and press down around the edges. Fold any extra pastry over on it’s self. Make 2-3 slits in the pastry to allow steam to escape. If you have an egg, whisk and brush onto the pastry top.
• Place the pie in the oven and bake for around 25 minutes until pastry is puffed, golden and crisp.
• Just before the pie is ready, chop and steam the broccoli. Serve together.

Patty Pan Tartlets

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Ingredients: 200g Potatoes, 1 clove of garlic, 1 courgette, 3 patty pan, 4 shallots, 2 carrots, small bunch of tarragon, very small bunch of chives.

Larder: 1 roll of ready-made short crust pastry, 50g cheddar cheese, 1 tsp lemon juice, 2 eggs. Or make your own pastry using 175g flour and 85g butter – see recipe step email.

Instructions:

  • Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease 6-8 holes in a muffin tin. Roll out the pastry and cut circles slightly to big for the holes. Press into the holes with pastry slightly oversized to allow for shrinking. Place a circle of tin foil or baking paper on top of the pastry and weigh down with dry rice. Bake blind for 10-15 minutes.
  • Chop the shallots and mince one garlic clove. Finely dice the patty pans, courgette and tarragon leaves.
  • Sauté the shallots and garlic for 3 minutes, and then add the patty pans, courgettes, tarragon. Season and cook until just turning brown.
  • Remove pastry from oven. Remove baking paper and rice. Fill pastry cases with patty pan mixture. Beat the eggs in a bowl and pour over the tartlets. Top each tartlet with grated cheese. Bake for 5-10 minutes, until cheese is golden and tart filling puffed up.
  • While tartlets are baking, boil potatoes until soft and when cooked mix in chopped chives. Grate the carrot and mix with lemon juice.
  • Serve tartlets with the potatoes and grated carrot.baked-tarts-close-up-cropped