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.

The Grouse Season, A Birthday & Roasted Salmon Wrapped In Parma Ham

Tags

baby potatoes, Butter, Butternut, Chefs, Country Living, food and drink, Food and Wine, Food Blogs, Gourmet, Grouse Season, Lime Jelly, Lime marmalade, limes, Norwegian Salmon, Olive oil, Parma Ham, Rocket, South African Food Blogs, Stock, Watercress

It is the 12^th of August, the start of the grouse season in the U.K and for some a prompt reminder of my birthday. My day has been flooded with telephone calls, emails and sms’ from friends and family scattered all over the world, to wish me a lovely day, and some messages from people that I have not heard from in ages.

It’s raining like mad in Cape Town, so I am rather pleased not to be going out for dinner, instead we are celebrating at Clifton House and on Sunday we have booked a table for lunch at Terroir in the Cape wine-lands.

The meal for this evening is Roasted Norwegian salmon wrapped in Parma ham served with creamed butternut, baby potatoes, a seasonal salad and a garnish of lime jelly.

Roasted Norwegian Salmon wrapped in Parma ham served with a lime Jelly

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 portions of Norwegian salmon

Parma ham, sufficient to wrap each portion of salmon

Salt and pepper

8 Baby potatoes

1 medium butternut peeled and diced

Sage leaves. A small bunch finely chopped

Olive oil

15 ml of butter

125 ml stock or water

Salt and pepper

Garnish: lime jelly, slices of lime wedges or a dash of lime marmalade

For the salad

Watercress

Rocket

Vinaigrette

Method

Set the oven to 175C

Season each portion of salmon and wrap in Parma ham, place on a baking tray and lightly drizzle with olive oil. Pop into pre-heated oven and roast for about 25-30 minutes.

Place the potatoes in a pot with sufficient water to cover, add salt and cook for about 20-25 minutes or until done.

In a large pan heat some oil and a blob of butter, add the butternut together with the sage and sauté for a few minutes, season and add a little stock or water to just cover the butternut, place the lid on the pan and cook until done, about 20-25 minutes. Once cooked, blend to a nice creamy consistency with a hand blender. Check for seasoning.

Serve the salmon with the creamy butternut, potatoes, the garnish and a side salad of watercress and rocket tossed in vinaigrette.