Hot summer nights and our thoughts turn to fresh, clean eating. Weekdays, a quick salad or barbecue will generally suffice, but when you've a little more time up your sleeve it's nice to break things up with a classic quiche or savoury tart.
While the options for fillings are virtually endless, another fun ways to mix things up is to play around with the pastry. Working from a mustard and parmesan base, which I expect would go wonderfully as a classic eggs-and-bacon number, I instead chose to keep things summery with a sprinkling of feta and some lightly braised leek.
Piled high with smoked trout and slivers of raw fennel it was clean and comforting, and enjoyed best with a glass of chilled white in the setting rays of a warm summer sun.
FENNEL & SMOKED TROUT TART WITH A MUSTARD CHEESE CRUST
(with recipe inspiration from Tim Wilson & Fran Warde's Ginger Pig Farmhouse Cookbook and Rodney Dunn's The Agrarian Kitchen)
For the pastry:
- 200 g plain flour
- 40 g corse polenta
- 150 g butter, chilled and diced
- 1 tsp English mustard powder
- 50 g parmesan, grated
- 1 egg
For the filling:
- 1 leek, finely sliced
- 50 g feta, crumbled
- 4 eggs
- 70 g cream
- 50 g parmesan, grated
- 1 small fennel bulb and some smoked trout, to serve
To prepare the pastry, rub together the flour, polenta and butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir through the mustard powder and cheese, then add the egg and gently bring together into a dough. Press into a flat disc, wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200°C and roll out the pastry to line a 26-cm diameter tart tin. Prick the base with a fork and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes or so. Blind bake the pastry case for 20 minutes, then remove the weights, reduce the oven temperature to 170°C and bake for a further 20 minutes, until golden. Allow to cool while you prepare the filling.
Sauté the leeks until soft and cool slightly. Spread the leeks over the pastry base and then crumble over the feta. Whisk together the eggs, cream and parmesan, season with salt and pepper and pour into the pastry case. Bake at 150°C for 35-40 minutes, until lightly golden and just set. Arrange some flaked smoked trout over the tart and scatter with finely sliced fennel*, to serve.
** Slice the fennel with a mandoline and toss in lemon juice to prevent any discolouration.