Cherry Tomato Tart

Thank you so much for those of you who commented on my previous post, it really means a lot to me and moreso that I do still have loyal readers of this much neglected blog.

I would like to say it is because I am busy at the cafe with customers and trade is doing well.  The truth is, yes I am busy but not necessarily because of customers.  I am literally, literally doing everything at the cafeteria myself: the cooking from scratch, the making of fresh salads for the chiller cabinet; and the baking.  Afterall I have to have something to sell if I want people through the door.  Then after that there is the cleaning, the management, stock-taking, ordering, shopping,..  I have a couple of part-time staff who are employed only for front of house during business hours, but when they are gone I am still working away clearing up and cleaning up and then preparing for the following day.  Its like being on a permanent conveyor belt.  The bums on seats part is still way off, I find Fridays for a few hours the busiest of days, even Saturdays are a bit of a slump.  Saying all this, I am enjoying it and I have learned so much in such a short space of time, but there have been and are some downs that I will share with you maybe later when they have been sorted out.  I found August a month of anxiety and September has begun with some stress and its only the start of it, so feel a little disheartened. 

Okay before I go and enjoy the rest of my Sunday, I thought I would share a recipe I made a little while ago for a Summers evening.  Its just a simple Cherry Tomato Tart.

I would love to say that these are made with my home made tomatoes, but sadly not.  Regardless this still tasted pretty good.

Cherry Tomato Tart

Serves 4 –6 with accompaniments

Ingredients

For cheddar crust pastry

175g plain flour

85g butter

85g cheddar, grated

1 teaspoon thyme

1 egg, beaten

For the filling
400g –500g cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
200ml milk
2 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
Sprig of thyme

 

Method

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 3. Blitz the flour, butter and cheddar in a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then add the egg and blitz until it forms a ball.
Lightly dust a cool surface with flour and roll out the pastry. Line a 20cm- 24cm loose-bottom tart tin with the pastry, then chill for 10 minutes. Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper, fill with baking beans and bake for 15 minutess. Remove the paper and baking beans and continue to cook for a further 10 minutess, then remove from the oven.
Arrange the tomato halves in the pastry case.   Sprinkle the thyme over and season with ground black pepper. Mix together the grainy  mustard, milk and eggs and pour over the pastry base. Return the tart to the middle of the oven and cook for 30 minutes.  

Serve warm or at room temperature.

My neglected blog

I am sorry to say that my growing antics have been stalled because of work commitments that has totally taken over my life in every aspect.  I am up most days at 6am and back home at 10.30pm.  I really don't find a moment to myself, except surprisingly today as plans to go out somewhere today did not go ahead.  So I thought I would commit a little time to my much loved and recently neglected blog.

I do have a lot to share - some highs and lows, but today I will just give a little up-date.  Firstly regarding the garden vegetable plot and what I had planned to grow this year.  Early this afternoon, I hovered in the garden for about 40 minutes, pulling out weeds and my goodness there are so many of them.  I barely harvested my own homegrown broad beans which have turned black like tamarind pods and everything else such as the brassicas, the pods and so on, never got transplanted into its growing space, except for the tomatoes many of which are still green and baby carrots in hanging pots. and some blueberries that I have frozen  Everything else has spurted or gone to the slugs of which there are many here, due to the wet summer rain.  I am really disappointed and totally gutted as I was so excited to have begun growing again and so looking forward to some homegrown produce, especially the likes of Rainbow Chard.  Also the seeds sent to me with much love and heart by some garden friends have been lost to the slugs due to work distractions. I hope my garden friends will forgive me.

Onto cooking and baking: well as you can imagine I have been cooking and baking a lot, especially as it is now part of my new accidental career. I have made lots of salads, sorbets, pies, pastries, savoury and sweet tarts and plating them up beautifully, but sadly I have not been getting round to taking photographs and sharing the recipes with my much loyal readers.  However, here is one recipe I have been making the past month, pretty much on a weekly basis and that D managed to snap a picture for me a couple of weeks ago.  It is Rhubarb and Rosewater Bread.    

I have been making individual loafs.  You can find the recipe here if you wish to make it home.  It really is a lovely cake.  Almost like a digestive biscuit cake.

Well I hope not to leave it to long for the next time I blog.  I do have lots to share, but maybe next time.  I off now to spend a little time today to play catch up on some of my blog reads.

Balsamic Roasted Beetroot Dyed Pasta

For the past month or so, I have been making this Balsamic Roasted Beetroot Pasta.  I created the recipe quite by accident really.  I had some left over roasted Balsamic Roasted Beetroot based on a recipe by Denis Cotter, which I then just simply grated and added to cooked pasta.  Not only does the roasted balsamic beetroot enhance the flavour of the pasta, it brilliantly naturally dyes the pasta in such a vibrant colour that every one who sees it stops to stare and sometimes braves to try.  And when they do, they are so pleased with the earthy sharp and sweet flavours. 

The pasta that I had originally used was farfalle - the bow-shaped pasta which looked so pretty like a colourful pink butterflies.  I thought it was so apt because farfalla in Italian means butterfly.  I didn't get round to taking a photograph of the farfalle balsamic beetroot pasta, instead I used another pasta type to hand which in this case was mafalda corta, a ruffle shape found typical in the Campania region of Naples, Italy. 

This Balsamic Roasted Beetroot Pasta is actually quite a tasty pasta dish and its great cold for lunch. 

I am sharing this at Presto Pasta Nights (PPN). PPN was founded by Ruth Daniels of Once Upon a Feast and each Friday night a different host posts a roundup of pasta dishes submitted by bloggers from around the world. This week PPN #276 is actually being hosted by Ruth herself.