Tomato tart with gruyere pastry
We are supposed to be at Kirstenbosch Gardens having a birthday picnic with our friend Sarah, but alas I am having an acute and sudden dose of pollen allergy, so I don’t think that an afternoon in the botanical gardens in spring is such a good idea.
However, our contribution to the picnic was going to be a baby tomatoe tart with gruyere pastry, which Lois still made for lunch.
It is really simple to make and very yummy. Here is the recipe:
- Fry 1 chopped onion and 4 cloves chopped garlic
- Mix about 800 g baby tomatos with 1/4 cup salt, 1/2 cup chopped basil, 1.5t sugar, and a little salt and pepper
- Mix in the onion/garlic mixture
- Put the tomatos mixture into a ceramic pie dish
- Cover dish with puff pastry from the supermarket
- Brush some egg over the pasty
- Finally sprinkle about 1/2 cup finely gruyere cheese over the top
- Bake at 180 for about an hour, and leave to stand for a few mintues before cutting
Serve hot or cold. Yummy indeed!
Artichokes for lunch
My local fruit and vegetable shop had a whole basket of fresh artichokes, so guess what I am having for lunch today? Yes the look weird to eat, but they are excellent!
Instructions:
- Boil until the other leaves are soft.
- Pull the leaves off
- Bite into the fleshy bits of the leaves and eat (a bit like you would eat an unpeeled roasted clove of garlic)
- When you get to the inside, scrape the hairs off and eat the heart, which is the best bit.
Great with a vinaigrette or melted butter.
New York Cheese Cake
When we were in Delaware, we had an amazing cheese cake for dessert one night. Pam, who made it could not join us because she was receiving some “hurricane refugees” at her house. But on the night of Hurricane Irene, I met Pam, and she gave me the recipe. It is easy to make, unhealthy and good. I tried it out last night at a friends birthday dinner and it was excellent.
Although it uses a lot of cream cheese, it feeds about 10 people, so there is plenty to go around.
Here is my metricated and slightly modified version of the recipe:
Use a 24cm Spring Form Pan
Crust Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp of vanilla
- 2 egg yolks
- 3/4 cup butter
Place butter into mixing bowl. Pour flour and sugar on top of butter. “Fork-In” flour and sugar into butter. Add Vanilla and Yolks.
Roll dough into ball and place in refrigerator for 1 hour.
Roll out 1/2 of the dough (OR I JUST PRESS THE DOUGH WITH MY FINGERS ) on the greased Base of the Spring Form Pan, and the rest on the sides of the pan.
Bake 220 degrees for 8-10 minutes until slightly golden brown.
Filling Ingredients
- (allow the below ingredients to sit at room temperature for 1 hours)
- 1kg Philadelphia Cream Cheese (4 packets)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 Tablespoons Flour
- 1/2 tsp of Vanilla
- 5 Whole Eggs
- 2 Egg Yolks
- 1/4 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
DO NOT OVER WHIP THE BELOW
Put cream cream Cheese in mixing bowl.
Add Sugar and mix well.
Add flour, mix well.
Add vanilla.
Add 1 whole egg at a time and blend well.
Add 1 Egg Yolk at a time and blend well.
Fold in Heavy Cream.
Pour batter into Spring Form Pan
Bake 180 degrees for 20 Minutes then drop temperature to 140 degrees for 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
When cooled…place fruit topping of your choice…
Lunch – food from the market
Fresh bread, home-made gouda cheese, rocket and Spanish sausage, all from the Earth Fair Market in Tokai.
Yummy lasagna for supper
The best way to warm up on a cold winder’s evening is to eat some yummy hot food! So I made lasagna for supper. Of course Lois got a vege lasagna (carrots, brocelli, tomatoe, asparagus, chilli and garlic), whereas mine was the regular traditional mince (with lots of chilli and garlic as well). And of course lots of red wine in both.
And one of the best things about cooking lasagna is that it is so easy to make extra, so our freezer is now crammed full of home-made instant food :-) If you don’t know how to make a vege lasagna, exactly like a meat lasagna, just stir fry the veges a little beforehand, add the tomatoes (and lots of red wine), and the rest is the same.
Yummy!
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