Vegetarian Tart with Cheese Pastry

As this is my last day before returning to work tomorrow I thought I would try and catch up with one more of my recent makes that I promised to share with you.

We are not a vegetarian household but there are some things I like to make that are and this is one of them.

I said in my previous post on Potato Pastry Quiche that there are two types of pastry I like to make for savory dishes and this is the second one. This pastry is a cheese pastry, I'm afraid there are few of my recipe's that are for those on a diet most are very calorific and this is no exception.

You will need a quiche/flan tin and a baking sheet to put it on, other than that its just a bowl, a grater and a set of scales.

For the pastry you will need


225g/8oz plain flour
175g/6oz butter
2tsp of paprika
115g/4oz Parmesan cheese grated
1 egg
1 tbsp of cold water

• To make your pastry sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs, now stir in the paprika and Parmesan cheese.
• Beat together the egg and chilled water. 
• Make a well in the centre of your breadcrumb mixture and add the egg and water and bring together to make a soft dough.
• Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.  

For your filling you will need

25g/1oz butter

1 onion finely chopped

1-2 garlic cloves, crushed

350g/12 oz mushrooms (I tend to use chestnut mushrooms) roughly chopped

2tsp of dried mixed herbs

1tbsp fresh parsley chopped

50g/2oz fresh breadcrumbs

1tbsp of Dijon mustard

salt & ground black pepper

• Melt the butter in a pan and add the onions and cook out until tender. Add the garlic and mushrooms and cook for a further five minutes stirring occasionally. If necessary increase the heat to evaporate any excess liquid.

Now I still have this nifty little gadget from when my kids were small. I used it when it came to weaning them so its quite ancient now but you can still get them but these days I use it when I need to chop small quantities of things and and it is great at making breadcrumbs so in this instance I put the bread and the fresh/dried herbs in to make the breadcrumb and herb mixture. But if you don't have one of these  or something that does the job equally as well, then chop up as finely as you can. 

• Remove the pan from the heat and add your herbs and breadcrumbs and season with the salt and black pepper and allow to cool.
• Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5 and put your baking sheet in the oven at the same time to get hot.

• On a lightly floured surface roll out your pastry and fit to your quiche/flan tin but don't trim yet and return to the fridge to chill. 

For the cheese topping

25g/1oz butter

25g/1oz flour

300mls/1/4 pint warm milk

25g/1oz Parmesan cheese grated

75g/3oz cheddar cheese grated

1/4 tsp English mustard powder

1 egg separated

• Melt the butter in a pan and add the flour and cook for 2 minutes.
• Having warmed your milk through first to prevent lumps gradually add to the butter and flour mixture and blend together stirring constantly. Once it has reached just below boiling point remove from the heat.
• Stir in the cheese, mustard powder and the egg (yolk only) season and beat until smooth.
• In a separate bowl whisk the egg white until it holds soft peaks, then fold into the cheese mixture. 

To finish off

• Remove the pastry case from the fridge. Spread the Dijon mustard over the base of the pastry case. 

• Spoon in the mushroom mixture 

• Pour over the cheese topping and trim the excess pastry from around the edge. 
• Placing directly onto the hot baking sheet, bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes until golden.

And there you have it, a lovely summer tart to have with salad and new potato's and of course a nice chilled glass of wine or beverage of your choice.  It's another one that you can prepare in advance and keep in the fridge until needed and can be eaten hot or cold.  If you're wanting to prepare in advance but eat hot, keep in the fridge overnight take out of the fridge and allow to come up to room temperature (so probably 15-30 minutes) whilst the oven is getting hot not forgetting to put your baking sheet in at the same time so it gets hot too and then bake your tart for 35-45 minutes and serve hot.

Enjoy

Mx