Holiday Memories

The jet lag has finally abated, my work in-box is looking a little more reasonable, the head cold I picked up enroute home is marginally better and the weather is, at long last, warming up and drying out!  I have tidied, slept, worked, jogged and shopped - finally my mind has turned to recording the last few days of our cooking course in Camont.  I know you've all been waiting to hear all about our Coq au Vin, Cassoulet and Confit of Duck since my last post.  And let's not forget the pate, the rillette and the fig tarts, the green bean and lemon salad, and everything that is meltingly delicious about a white bean and caramelised leek salad.

Thank goodness Kate provided us with some lighter, summery options to tide us over until cassoulet weather arrives again.  Lovely bean salads will be featuring at BBQs all summer, if I am in attendance.  But in the meantime, the sun is shining through the pinoaks outside my apartment (and they have leaves!).

The memories of Camont are taking on the golden glow of past holidays, so it's best to get them down for you all before they dim into the haziness of warm, wine-filled sunny Gascon afternoons around Kate's table at Camont.

One of the most incredible things about the trip were the farmers' markets we visited.  It seems that there was always a village somewhere with a market going on and most of our mornings featured a trip to another beautiful town to pick up fresh produce for the day's cooking.  From tiny strawberries so sweet I'll never look at a store-bought strawberry again, to every type of cheese you could possibly imagine and a range of charcuterie that boggled the mind.  My need to photograph their produce seemed to be a source of endless amusement to friendly store-owners and producers wherever we went.

One wonderful afternoon we picked the last luscious figs from the trees in Kate's backyard, some black grapes from the vines above her terrace and whipped up a beautiful rustic tart. The pastry was very simple - flour, butter, almond meal - rolled out and covered with goat's cheese mixed with egg yolk, lemon rind and a dash of armagnac (no goat's cheese for me, given my allergy to the stuff, just a layer of golden quince jam), all tucked in at the sides and baked until bubbling with sweetness. Easy peasy and so delicious.

Take me back to Camont, Kate! This sure beats my work-night dinner...

Penny's Lemon and Coconut Tart

Today's post started with an invitation to dinner at a friend's house.  I had volunteered to make dessert and thought it was time to dust off the tart cases I had purchased about ten years ago at a closing down sale and had never used.

My friend Penny makes a mean lemon and coconut tart, which she very kindly brought along to dinner at my place not long ago.  She even swore it was super-duper easy!  Suddenly I thought... lemon tart + unused tart cases = a moment of genius.  The plan also had the benefit of using shredded coconut, which is officially my new favourite thing (as you might have guessed from the number of recipes featuring coconut in recent times on Four Figs).

Penny's recipe is of the never-fail kind, something I know I appreciate and thought you might too.  It's always great to have a dessert that can be made in a pinch from pantry basics - lemons, flour, butter, sugar, eggs and shredded coconut straight out of the cupboard.  And given that this was a non-pay week, it also has the benefit of being quite an economical option.  The only thing I had to purchase was plain yoghurt.

Now, I am not much of a natural pastry maker.  As a result, I took a pastry making course at Podfood (now 3 Seeds) a while ago.  To be honest, this recipe was my first ever stab at shortcrust pastry since the class I took in November last year.  I used the 3 Seeds recipe for sweet shortcrust rather than the one from Penny's recipe largely because I had seen it made, so I thought I might have a better chance of success.  I am not sure if this was a stellar example of pastry-making skills, but it didn't turn out to be completely inedible and the only way is up from here.  The cases shrunk a little at the sides, which meant the filling dripped over the edge a little bit in places.  Not that this made it any less delicious!

The filling recipe Penny recommended came from the Marie Claire Kitchen Cookbook - and Penny was right, the filling is perfectly stress-free after the (what I regard as) stressful process of making the tart cases.  If you're after the super-duper easy version, by all means buy the pre-made pastry cases in the freezer section of your supermarket and blind bake away.  I know I had one waiting just in case the homemade shortcrust pastry completely tanked.

Lemon and Coconut Tart

Ingredients

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry Cases (care of 3 Seeds)
-  2 cups plain flour
-  1/4 cup icing sugar
-  180 grams unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
-  approximately 3-5 tablespoons chilled water

Lemon and Coconut Filling (care of Penny and the Marie-Claire Kitchen Cookbook)
-  125 grams unsalted butter, softened
-  350 grams caster sugar
-  4 eggs
-  150 grams plain yoghurt
-  3 tablespoons lemon juice, fresh (I got this from one lemon - but juiciness varies!)
-  2 tablespoons lemon zest (the zest of two medium-sized lemons)
-  1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
-  1 cup shredded coconut (you can also use the same amount of desiccated coconut)

Take out your 125 grams of unsalted butter for the filling and allow to soften on the bench.  This is also a good time to remove your 4 eggs from the fridge so they can come to room temperature.  Now, preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius and grease your tart tins (either two smaller tart cases or one large 25 cm tart tin).  I used tins that have a removable base, which really helped with getting the tarts out of their cases later on.

Dust off your food processor and set it up on the bench - the shortcrust it fairly quick when you use the processor.  The trick is to make sure the butter and water you are going to use are chilled in the fridge before you start.  Now pop your flour, icing sugar and butter in the processor and process until it looks a lot like coarse breadcrumbs.  While it's processing drizzle in the chilled water a tablespoon at a time until the pastry forms a ball in the processor.  Stop immediately once this happens.  Cover the ball in cling film and put it into the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.

Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll it out on a floured bench.  You need to put quite a bit of flour on the bench (which should be cleaned beforehand) and on your rolling pin so the pastry doesn't stick to either the bench or the pin.  Roll it out as thinly as possible, I managed about 3 millimetres.

Next, drape the pastry over the tart case/s and gently press it in until it lines the tin.  Cut off the excess and prick the base of the tart case with a fork.  Place the tart case/s back in the fridge for 30 minutes, or in the freezer for 15 minutes.  This will help the cases hold their shape in the oven, so it's worth the extra time and fuss.  Go make yourself a cup of tea or put on a load of washing.

Now, cut some baking paper to into a circle a bit wider than the circumference of the tart case and crush it up as if you were going to ball up a piece of paper to go in the bin.  I didn't do this with my cases, but read about this tip afterwards and I can see it would make it much easier.  Uncrush the paper and pop the baking paper in the cases then add rice to weight the tart case.  Bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes or until cooked through but not too brown.  Remove the cases from the oven and cool on racks.  Don't turn off the oven - you'll need it for the next step.

You can make the filling with either a hand beater or a fixed stand mixer like a Kitchenaid.  First cream the butter and sugar until its light and aerated.  Add the eggs one at a time until combined, then add the yoghurt, lemon juice, zest and vanilla paste.  Finally, stir in the coconut and then pour into the cooled pastry cases.  These go back into the oven for a further 30 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius.  You'll know when they're ready as the filling will brown on top and be firm to the touch.  Remove and cool on racks before attempting to remove from their cases.  A great tip from the Kitchen cookbook is to stand the cases on an upturned medium-sized bowl and allow the rim of the case to fall away.

I sliced the tart and served it with a dusting of icing sugar and a sprinkling of toasted unsweetened shredded coconut.  The Red Avenger contributed some delicious vanilla cheesecake ice cream to accompany the dessert which complemented the lemon-tart flavours perfectly.

Super-easy blood plum and mascarpone tart

Some days you just couldn't be bothered.  Maybe you don't have two days to devote to making the perfect ice cream.  Maybe you're tired and it's hot and you really just want to sleep in.  Possibly you have an ironing pile the size of Mt Everest and you've completely run out of clothing.  It could be a combination of all of the above.  Whatever the reason, it's great to have a super-easy "go to" dessert in your repertoire that you can whip up with very little effort but which hits the spot, sweet-wise.  This is such a recipe.

With stone fruit and berries in season at the moment, it's the perfect time for a fruit tart.  But, honestly, who has time to fiddle around with pastry?  If you are feeling super-duper lazy, you could start with a frozen shortcrust pastry base - these are readily accessible in the freezer section of your supermarket, and make for a really easy dessert (there is absolutely nothing wrong with this and I do it myself).  All you have to do is blind-bake the cases once they thaw, fill them with sweetened whipped cream and top with berries or nectarines.  Gold.

In this case, I wanted something easy but which involved a manageable amount of cooking.  I was taking the tart to a dinner party and, when your friends are making the effort to put on a Moroccan feast, it's nice if you've actually put some amount of effort into the dessert.  But not that much effort - I still wanted my afternoon nap!

So that was how this recipe was born.  I have often made crushed biscuit bases for cheesecakes, so I thought I'd use that as the base, and then jazz up the filling by doing half-whipped cream and half-mascarpone.  The blood plums I had bought from the Canberra Farmers' Market that morning were a little bland, believe it or not, so I decided to marinate them in vinegar and sugar for an hour or so, which also gave me a little sweet syrup to drizzle over the top when I served the tart.  Finally, I scattered some blueberries on top for a little colour variation.  The result was delicious, easy and very red-white-and-blue - perfect for Australia Day barbecues if you ask me!

Now, because I was putting the tart together at my friends' place at the last minute - and at the end of a convivial night with a few glasses of wine behind my belt as well - I had a pretty good inkling that I would forget to photograph the end result... and that's exactly what happened.  Luckily, realising in advance that this was the likely outcome, I made a mini-tart at home first.  This was really for two reasons.  Firstly, to photograph for you, dear readers and, secondly, so Mr J could have a taste for his afternoon tea.  You can see though, that you could quite easily convert this recipe to make a number of individual portions if you had six or so scone cutters or egg rings to use as improvised mini tart cases.

So here is the recipe.  Once you realise how easy and versatile this is, it will quickly become a favourite.  Just change the flavourings in the tart base biscuit mix (why not use cinnamon, or orange zest), or add some orange flower water to the whipped cream mix perhaps, or top with whatever fruit is seasonal - make the recipe your own.

Enjoy!

Blood plum and mascarpone tart

Ingredients

Crushed biscuit base
-  150 grams arrowroot biscuits (you could also use ginger nuts for a stronger taste, or golliwogs for a chocolate base)
-  60 grams melted butter
-  1 tablespoon lemon zest

Filling
-  250 grams mascarpone
-  250 grams whipping cream
-  2 tablespoons icing sugar
-  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Marinated blood plums
-  6 medium-sized plums, sliced
-  2 tablespoons caster sugar
-  1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (I used blood plum finishing vinegar, but balsamic is great too)

The first thing you need to get done is the biscuit base of your tart.   Start by preheating the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Now, grab your arrowroot biscuits and break them up into your food processor.  Whizz until they become crumbs, then add in your melted butter and lemon zest and whizz briefly until combined.

Now spoon your base mix into your buttered tart case (or cases if you are making individual portions) and use a small tumbler or glass jar to press the mix firmly into the base and sides of the case.

Place into the oven for only around 10 minutes, remove and then leave to cool completely on the bench. When it's completely cool, I recommend storing the base in the fridge until you are ready to fill (and eat) it.

Now, in a bowl with a hand beater or using a Kitchenaid (I love mine and it is worth every penny), whip your cream, icing sugar and vanilla extract.  When it's forming nice peaks, remove it and fold into the mascarpone until just combined.  If you are putting this together later, just pop this in a plastic container in the fridge.

Now, slice your plums, pop them in a bowl and sprinkle with sugar.  Toss until they are coated and then drizzle enough vinegar over the top to coat them nicely.  I happened to have some blood plum vinegar in the cupboard which married nicely with the plums I had, but a good balsamic vinegar will do the trick and will work wonders with the most bland of store-bought strawberries.  Leave to marinate in the fridge for up to an hour.  

Finally, you need to put it all together.  Remove the tart bases carefully from the cases.  Don't worry if they crumble a little - when it's covered with whipped cream and fruit no one will know or care!  Once the case is on it's plate, fill with cream, top with fruit and drizzle with a little of the sugar syrup if you wish and you are ready to go!

Yum.