A SALAD AND TOMATO TARTE TATIN

Hello there. A quick post I’ve had on hold for a couple of months. There’s been time but somehow it just kept leading away from here to the printed page (check out the recommended reads at the side...). So so late, but worth trying this simple tart if tomatoes are in season in your neck of the woods. But first the salad as Blogger is stuffing with the settings and I’m done fighting it!

Warm Asparagus Salad with Walnuts, Parmesan, Lemon and Olive Oil

from Gourmet Traveller Italian Cookbook

(Serves 4 as a side)

2 bunches asparagus, trimmed and cut diagonally into 5 cm lengths

extra virgin olive oil

80g walnut halves, toasted

100g ricotta*

50g parmesan

basil leaves, to serve

juice of 1 lemon

Cook asparagus in boiling salted water for 1-2 minutes. Drain and transfer to a bowl. Toast the walnuts and then add to the asparagus. Add a lug of olive oil, and season to taste.

Transfer to your serving platter/bowl and scatter with parmesan, ricotta and basil leaves. Drizzle with lemon juice and serve immediately.

If you want this to look picture perfect, the original recipe used firm ricotta, crumbled, and shaved parmesan, of which I had neither on the Saturday afternoon I threw it together from the leftovers in my fridge.

Tomato Tarte Tatin

from Home Beautiful

(Serves 6)

8 roma tomatoes, slice into 1.5 cm slices

30g butter

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar

sea salt and freshly ground pepper to season

2 sheets puff pastry, defrosted

thyme leaves

Preheat oven to 220C. Line 2 oven trays with baking paper. Lay tomato slices flat on trays. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until slightly dry. Allow to cool on trays. Heat butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Cook onion in the pan for 6-8 minutes, until softened but not coloured. Sprinkle onions with sugar and cook, stirring for 2 minutes until onions are caramelised. Stir in white balsamic vinegar until combined. Remove from heat and turn off element.

Using a 20cm springform cake tin, layer the bottom with tomato slices until completely covered (the side of the tomato that was face up during baking should now be face down on the bottom). Season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle onion mixture over the tomatoes. Place both sheets of puff pastry directly on top of the tomato and onion and fold in the corners.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until puffed and golden. Stand for 5 minutes. Remove springform part of the cake tin. Place a plate on top and invert. Scatter thyme leaves on top. Cut into wedges and serve.

GOING WITH THE SEASON

2012 ended with a whimper, not a bang, in my house. The world didn’t end (for those who planned for it, you have a lot of tinned food to get through and a bunker to spring clean), and the eating, drinking, xmas party fatigue gave way to slothful holiday behaviour. 

I did manage to pop one eyelid half open to note that the cherry farmers were banging on about the best cherry season EVER. Hard to ignore, particularly given cherries are a must on an Australian Christmas table, and weather conditions are so all over the shop we don’t know when we’ll see a season like it again.

So, seize the day I did, or Boxing Day night to be more calendar precise. This Burnt Butter, Cherry and Almond Torte, went down a treat. According to Karen Martini, it’s just as delicious with raspberries, blackberries or figs, so you adapt it to what’s in season (fig torte in April perhaps?). This cherry-laden version is a fine end to a meal (beef fillet, stuffed onions, pumpkin and macadamia salad, and roast potatoes). *Not too sweet, though the next time I make it, I may leave out the almond essence. I felt it gave it a note of artificiality. 

One word of advice. Make it several hours in advance. A couple of stages of the recipe require you cool the ingredients to room temperature, which threw my timing.

Sorry there’s wasn’t a piece left to show you the glorious flakey cakey base. It was polished off with a lot of red wine, and family stories from the annals. Another holiday season survived, now to the new year healthy eating resolutions... 

Happy 2013. I hope it’s marvellous for one and all.  

Cherry and Almond Burnt-Butter Torte

from Karen Martini’s Feasting

(Serves 8)

cooking spray

180g butter

1 1/2 vanilla beans, split, seeds scraped and cut into fine splinters

5 egg whites

pinch of salt

340g icing sugar, sifted, plus extra for dusting

110g plain flour

100g ground almonds

1/2 teaspoon almond essence*

2 tbsp flaked or slivered almonds

300g cherries, pitted and halved

creme fraiche, to serve

ice-cream (an optional extra for those who can’t live without)

Preheat the oven to 160C if fan-forced, if conventional set it at 180C. Line a 24x5 cm fluted tin (with a loose base) with baking paper and spray with cooking spray. 

Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add the vanilla beans and seeds and cook over medium heat for 4-5 minutes or until the mixture darkens and smells nutty. Pour into a bowl and cool to room temperature. Remove some of the vanilla splinters and set aside for garnish.

Whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Add half the icing sugar and combine, then fold in the remaining icing sugar, flour and ground almonds. Stir through the burnt vanilla butter and almond essence. 

Pour mixture into the tin and scatter over almonds and cherries (reserving a few for garnish). Bake for 1 hour or until the tart is puffed and just set. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature, making sure to remove the fluted tin once it’s cool enough to touch (you can do this by placing it on an elevated base, and loosening the fluted part slowly and gently).

Dust with icing sugar and garnish with reserved cherries and, if you like, vanilla-bean splinters. Serve with creme fraiche, and if you must, ice-cream!