Welcome

Friday, July 20, 2012

Rocket Leek Tart with a Touch of Parmesan

Time for something savory again!



Home sweet home indeed! I'm back to my growing library and today I found this little recipe for a nice savory tart! I have to admit that I was quite excited preparing this tart, because it's one of the first times that I prepare the dough by myself. I also really like the rectangular base, it changes a bit from the round ones and I find it gives the tart a little something. For the shooting however I had the impression that it was a bit more difficult to get a nice composition.


I took a lot of cookbooks to Belgrade, but most of them convinced me with their lovely desserts and not with their savory dishes. But well.. at some point there is enough sugar and you need something salty. Since I've not done a lot of savory tarts in my life so far, it was a nice challenge for me. I can say that I am satisfied with the result, but next time, I'll do some minor changes with the rocket-leek mix. I will definitely add some pine nuts, because they go very well with the rocket salad. And for the salt lovers among you I highly recommend to add some salt. For me it's not so much of a problem, I'm not a huge fan, but I can imagine that for others something might be missing.


The good thing about savory tarts is that you can enjoy them in summer and in winter. And even if the weather doesn't really know whether to spoil us with sun and heat or to upset us with rain and cold, you can always enjoy a savory tart. This one is quite light, so ideal for summer.





















               



I'd say rocket salad is one of my favorite salads because of it's unique taste. It's spicy and adds a certain something to your salads or dishes. The italians for example add rocket salad to their beef filets when they serve it as a Tagliata. The French like to serve them with Roquefort, pine nuts and strawberries. There are a lot of combinations, but the rocket salad-leek one convinced me in particular.

























For 4-6 servings you need:

Dough:

185g flour
125g butter cut into small cubes
1-2 tbs cold water

Filling:

150g rocket salad
1 tbs olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 white portion of the leek
2 eggs
125 ml milk
125 ml cream

decoration:

parmesan cheese


Preheat the oven to 210°

For the dough:

Put the flour into a middle-sized bowl. Cut the butter into little cubes and mix with the flour. Mix with your hands until it looks like little bread crumbs. Add the cold water (really cold water!) and mix again. Now start kneading the dough (still with your hands!) for around 20 seconds until it gets very soft. Form a little ball out of it, wrap it into cling film and refrigerate it for 30min.


For the filling:

In a large frying pan heat the oil, add the 2 crushed garlic cloves and the chopped white portion of the leek. Brown them for 5 minutes. Then add the rocket salad and cook it for one more minute. 


Let the filling cool down until it's time to get started with the tart. Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out. Now transfer it to your tart base. I used a rectangular one and it's a bit more difficult to get it into the base, but don't worry it's absolutely manageable. The easiest way is to take baking paper and to transfer it like that. Cover the dough with baking paper and put it into the oven for 10 minutes. Afterwards remove the baking paper and bake for another 5 minutes.

Now it's time to put it all together. Take the rocket leek mixture and put it onto your dough. In a small bowl whisk the eggs, the cream and the milk together. Pour this mixture over your vegetables and put the tart into the oven. The temperature needed for the baking of the tart as a whole is only 180°

Bake for 50 minutes in the oven.

Now you can put some parmesan pieces on the hot tart, they will melt and add an additional flavor to your tart.

Enjoy!!! 









Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Chocolate - Speculoos Cupcakes

Spartacus by Chloé S.


It's been a while since I last posted on my foodblog. This is not due to a lack of motivation, but I was traveling a lot during my last month in Belgrade. Moreover the extreme heat in general and the high temperatures in my flat, didn't motivate me to put something into the oven. As our air conditioner couldn't handle the natural heat I didn't really dare to test its competences with artificial heat. But now I am back in Luxembourg, home sweet cold home!

























My love for cupcakes started when I went to see a good friend in Paris back in 2010. She really loves cupcakes too and took me to that lovely little cupcake place near Pigale called Chloé S. As pink is one of my favorite colors I liked the place immediately. From the counter to the cutlery everything is pink. It's a really cosy place and the staff is really friendly. You can also buy cupcake accessories in the shop.
Chloé S. has become really successful with her little cupcake shop. She published her first book in March 2012 and I couldn't wait to buy it.

This is only the first cupcake recipe of a long long long long series!!

               























For 20 cupcakes you need :

140g flour
6 eggs
1/2 bag baking powder
160g sugar
400g dark chocolate
240g butter
1 jar of speculoos spread


For the icing you need:

250g soft butter
3 tbs icing sugar
1 tbs speculoos spread
5 speculoos biscuits



Preheat the oven to 165°

Dough:

In a middle-sized bowl whisk together the flour and the baking powder. In a large bowl beat the eggs and add the sugar. Melt the chocolate over a hot water bath, then add it to the eggs and sugar mixture. Mix the three ingredients very well and add the butter. Finally add the flour & baking powder mix.


Place the paper muffin cups into the mold and add 1tbs of dough. Then add a tsp of speculoos spread onto the dough and fill the muffin cup 3/4 full with chocolate dough again. Bake the cupcakes for 15 to 20 minutes.


Icing:

Mix the soft butter and the icing sugar until you get an even mixture. Then add the speculoos spread and mix again. Fill this mixture into a pastry bag and start decorating your cupcakes. Place a piece of speculoos biscuit on top of every cupcake.

Enjoy!


 photo s_04.jpg  photo s_05.jpg  photo s_06.jpg