A symphony of whales, swaying palms & dessert pastries

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Cape Town, Chefs, Clifton Kitchen - Cooking thorugh the seasons, Cooks, crème pâtissière, Dessert, Food Blogs, Food Writing, Pastry, Pâté Sablée, rasberries, Raspberry Tart, recipes

As I sit here under the sway of the palms planning the last bits and pieces for Christmas, I have a splendid display before me. In the smooth as glass Atlantic Ocean, are loads and loads of whales, blowing streams of white spray into the air. The performance, seemingly synchronised among the different pods; it is for me like a symphony playing out to the sounds of nature, just so wonderful to observe.

Back to planning; every good meal deserves a happy ending and this French Raspberry Tart will do just that. What is nice about this tart is that most of the preparation can be done the day before and quickly assembled when needed.

French Raspberry tart

Ingredients

1 x 23cm pastry case (see recipe below)

Fresh raspberries, to cover

1 recipe crème pâtissière (see recipe below)

1 recipe raspberry fruit glaze (see recipe below)

Icing sugar to dust over tart

Method

1. Bake prepared pastry case

2. Make the crème pâtissière

3. Make the raspberry fruit glaze

To assemble the tart: half fill balked pastry case with crème pâtissière and arrange raspberries in circles on top; coat with raspberry fruit glaze. Dust with icing sugar (optional) Serve chilled.

Pâté Sablée

For the pastry you will need

225g sifted plain flour

180g diced cold unsalted butter

1 tablespoon icing sugar (level measure)

A pinch of salt

1 egg yolk

A little ice water (equal to the egg yolk)

Method

Place the butter, flour, sugar and salt in the food processor and blend briefly until the mixture resembles coarse sand.

Combine the egg yolk with an equal amount of iced water; mix together and add to the pastry in the bowl. Blend briefly until the ingredients just start forming a ball. Remove and roll gently into a ball, wrap and put in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Flour a working surface as well as the rolling pin. Roll out pastry and try not to stretch it, rather gently roll out from the centre until large enough to fit the pastry tin. Should the pastry break while handling it, don’t be concerned, this pastry is so rich, that you can patch it up by pressing torn edges together with your fingers.

When sufficiently large enough, roll the pastry gently over the rolling pin and lift it over the tin, gently drop the pastry in and ease and press it loosely down into the tin, press it against the sides until it is an even thickness all round. Roll the rolling pin across the top of the tin to cut off the excess pastry. Prick the base and sides of the pastry shell with the prongs of a fork, chill pastry for 30 minutes.

Blind bake the pastry in a hot oven 230C for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 180C and bake for 30 minutes. Should the crust start to brown at the edges, cover with foil.

Crème Pâtissière

450ml milk

1 vanilla pod, split

5 egg yolks

100g castor sugar

2 level tablespoons cornflour

1 level tablespoon Butter

Method

Pour the milk in a medium sized pan, add the vanilla pod and bring to the boil over low heat. Once up to heat remove, cover and leave to infuse until needed.

In a bowl whisk egg yolks with sugar until thick and light in colour; gradually whisk in the cornflour. Remove the vanilla pod from the milk and gradually pour milk into egg mixture, whisking until blended.

Pour mixture back into the pan and bring to the boil over moderate heat, stirring constantly. Once up to the boil, simmer for about 3 minutes, beating vigorously.

Remove pan from heat; beat in 1 level tablespoon butter and continue beating for a little longer to cool the pastry cream slightly.

Put the cream in a bowl and cover with a sheet of lightly buttered paper to prevent a skin from forming on top. Allow to become quite cold then chill until required.

Fruit glaze

300ml apricot, raspberry or red currant jam

Kirsch, a splash

4-6 tablespoons Water

Method

Add 4-6 tablespoons water to apricot jam and heat, stirring constantly until liquid; flavour to taste with kirsch.

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Unctuous & Delicious Autumnal Tart

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Balsamic Vinegar, Books, Butternut, Cape Town, Clifton Kitchen, Cook Books, Cooking Through The Seasons, Cooks, Food Writing, Foodblogs, Kate Abbott, Lifestyle, Pastry, Peppery greens, Pgotography, recipes, Rocket, Savoury Tart, Tart, Travel, travel Writing, Vegetarian, Watercress

Roasted Butternut Tart Served With Salad

Its cold, rain clouds are mustering over the sea, pregnant with anticipation of what’s to come. The  mixture of slate coloured hues across the expanse of sea make me feel hungry,  I need something bright and unctuous to feed my guests. In the larder I have a good stock of butternut and in the fridge some peppery greens, perfect ingredients for a delicious flaky autumnal tart.

INGREDIENTS

Serves 6 – 8

· 1 quantity short crust pastry or pre-prepared puff pastry (recipe below)

· 5oo g roasted butternut chunks

· 20 fresh sage leaves

· 50 ml olive oil

· Salt and freshly ground pepper

· 100 g pecorino or mature cheddar

· 3 eggs

· 200 ml fresh cream

· Watercress or Rocket leaves

· Balsamic vinegar dressing

PREPARATION

Make the short crust pastry and refrigerate

Preheat the oven to 230C.

Peel and deseed the butternut and cut into chunks. Place into a roasting pan, scatter over 10 of the sage leaves torn into pieces, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about 40 minutes, until nicely coloured and cooked through.

Reduce the oven temperature to 180C

Roll out the pastry and line a 23cm loose bottom baking tin. Blind bake at 180C, for 10-15 minutes.

Sprinkle the grated cheese over the base of the bottom of the pastry, top with the roasted butternut chunks. Scatter over the remainder of sage leaves.

Beat the egg and cream together, season with salt and pepper and pour over the tart filling. Bake at 180C for about 35 minutes. The tart should feel firm in the middle when gently touched.

Serve with a side salad of either watercress or rocket leaves dressed with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Best served at room temperature

Short Crust Pastry

INGREDIENTS

· 225g plain flour

· 110g butter, cut into cubes

· 1 whole egg

· 1 pinch of salt

· 3 tbsp. of iced water

PREPARATION

Place the flour and butter (sprinkled around the flour) in a food processor.
Place the lid on top and briefly blitz the mixture using the pulse button. Be careful not to over mix it.
Add the egg, salt and iced water. Briefly pulse the mixture again, the moment it starts to become crumbly, stop.
Gather it into your hands and gently pat it together. Do not knead it. Wrap it in cling film and put into the fridge.

Something Simple & Delicious; for either dessert or afternoon tea.

Tags

Apple & PoppySeed Tart, baking, Blogging News, Books, Cape Town, Clifton Kitchen, Desserts, Food Blogs, High Tea, Life, Pastry, Photography, recipes, Travel, Writing

I love serving beautiful things for afternoon tea or desserts and when ever I travel I always visit the afternoon tea display to see and absorb what the various places choose to offer their guests. This particular recipe has been used over and over again at the  Clifton Kitchen, served either as a high tea offering or as a dessert to compliment the end of a meal.   The added bonus of this recipe is that it is of course very easy to make.

Apple & Poppy Seed Tart

Serves 8-10 slices

Ingredients

2 packs of frozen puff pastry (400 g)

1 egg yolk for glazing

2 egg yolks

50 g sugar

250 g crème fraîche

100 g poppy seeds

1 tablespoon cornflour

500 g crisp apples ( I use granny smith)

2 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoon seedless raisins, soaked in 2 tablespoons brandy

Icing sugar for dusting

Method

Set the oven to 200C

When the two rolls of pastry have thawed a little, brush each one with a little water, place on top of each other and roll out to a rectangle measuring approximately 25 x 40cm. Cut a 3cm strip off each edge.

Brush the edge of the pastry rectangle with water and press the strips that you cut off onto the edge to form a border. Brush pastry with egg yolk and dock (prick) the pastry with a fork and bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Beat together the 2 egg yolks and the sugar until creamy then stir in the crème fraîche , poppy seeds, and cornflour.

Peel, core and dice the apples and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Spread the poppy seed crème fraîche mixture on the baked pastry, scatter with the diced apple and raisins, place in the oven and bake at 200C for a further 15 minutes.

To serve dust with icing sugar

The Cape Winter A Tart & Guests For Dinner

Tags

cape food markets, Cape Town, chicken, cream, Egg yolk, eggs, Flour, free range, Lemon and Lime Tart, Lime juice, organic, Pastry

There are four of us for supper tonight and the weather is icy and blowing, so good comfort food is in order. Shopping is usually slipped into other jobs and journeys: a dash into the green grocer’s whilst on my way to a meeting; a trip to the fishmonger on my way home. But today’s shopping is thought out, with a list, a big bag and a planned shopping experience for my guests.

One of the advantages of the free range birds from the butcher is that their bones are heavy and strong; to be expected as they have had a lot of opportunity to exercise; so one of these birds it is. Their fat, sauce-enriching bones make a delicious stew. Cooked slowly, with stock, herbs and aromatics, the result is mild but meaty, which is just what one wants when the cold and wind is enough to make your eyes water.

As I am well stocked with limes, I had planned on making a lime tart but now seeing the fresh gooseberries I find myself in a quandary; gooseberry crumble, or the lime tart? A quick rethink of the dinner plan for tonight, and tomorrow scrambles through my head; I will do both, the lime tart for today and the gooseberry crumble tomorrow. I pick up a nice country loaf of bread, organic cream, milk and eggs and head for home, my guests plod off to explore Cape Town. Considering the gale force winds blowing outside I think there could be better days for exploring than today.

The wind almost rips the door from my grasp as I make my way into the kitchen from outside, while hugging my purchases tightly to prevent them from being blown in all directions, I’m pleased that I passed on  the opportunity to buy fresh flowers as they would have come off second best in these conditions.

The kitchen is lovely and toasty, a perfect day to be inside baking. After a quick warming cup of tea I check on my cannellini beans which have been soaking for a few hours, all is looking good and now it’s time to start preparing the lime tart. I enjoy making this particular pastry ,  each time adding as much butter as I dare, just to see how crisp and fragile I can get the crust.

I have prepared all the ingredients for the filling; all that is needed is the final mixing of all the items together. The crust is pre-baked, looks great and is ready for the filling which I set about doing. All goes smoothly when suddenly the wind tears several branches from the palm trees, heaving them across the courtyard with a vengeance, and in my direction. Distracted at this point I put the tart and it’s filling into the oven, as I am about to close the door I realize I have forgotten one important ingredient, the lime juice. I quickly pour the juice gently into the liquid filling already in the tart, stir and distribute it as best I can while trying not to disturb the pastry base. Fingers crossed I close the oven door and hope for the best. A little flustered I think of plan B, not to mention thing about clearing the debris from the courtyard, it is going to be a long 45 minutes.

It’s time to check the tart. I give it a little shake to test if it is sufficiently set, there should still be a slight wobble to the custard, it is set just the way I like it and it looks perfect. The quick thinking and unorthodox approach to the lime custard filling actually worked. The tart was saved.

With the tart baked and the chicken slowly cooking and doing what it should, I have time to catch up on chores, get through a bit of my work backlog and I find time to relax before dinner is ready to serve.

 

Recipe for the well-deserved lime tart

Lime Tart

Serves 8

Ingredients

For the filling

180ml lime juice

6 large eggs

250g castor sugar

175ml double cream

For the pastry

175g plain flour

40g icing sugar

90g cold butter, diced

2 egg yolks

1 tablespoon cold water

Method

To make the pastry, put the flour and icing sugar into a food processor, add the butter and blitz for a few seconds until the mixture fine resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the egg yolks and the water. Blitz for a few more seconds until the dough comes together. Gently shape into a log, wrap in greaseproof paper and pop into the fridge for half an hour. If you skip this bit the pastry will shrink.

Next, cut thin rounds from the pastry and press into a loose-bottom 23-24cm tart tin, pressing the pastry gently up the sides and over the base. Make sure that there are no holes or cracks; otherwise you will lose your filling. Prick lightly with a fork and refrigerate for half an hour.

Set oven to 200∘C. Place a sheet of greaseproof paper in the tart tin case, fill with baking beans and bake for ten minute. Remove the beans and bake for a further five, until the pastry is dry to the touch.

Turn the oven down to 150∘C; finely grate the zest from two limes. Squeeze enough limes to give 180ml juice; this could be anything from 6 to 8 limes depending on the size and ripeness.

Mix the eggs and sugar together, beating lightly for a few seconds, you don’t want it to be frothy, and then stir in the lime juice and cream.

Pour the mixture through a sieve, stir in the lime zest and pour into the baked pastry case. Bake for about 45-50 minutes. Remove the tart while the filling is still slightly wobbly and leave to cool.