Tomato and Brie Tart - perfect for lunch, supper or picnics!

I have discovered that I really like making tarts.

Doesn't matter if it's a "slab of puff pastry" tart, or a "in a tart case" or a quiche - the end result is usually double-yummy and there's something immensely satisfying about pulling a gorgeous looking pastry confection out of the oven.

It's a different kind of satisfaction to making a pie, I find, as that "reveal" moment of cutting into a pie is always fraught with anxiety as to whether the filling is cooked, too thin, too thick or has just disappeared in the process.

When you've created a tart, the "reveal" moment is all to do with the flavour and if you've paired your filling ingredients up wisely, then you're almost guaranteed to succeed.

Wise pairing of ingredients is what it's all about with this Tomato & Brie Tart that I cropped from an old copy of Delicious! magazine.  The oven-baked cherry tomatoes are like small flavour bombs that are hidden within the subtly cheesey, creamy, eggy goodness of the tart's filling.  From the high pitched explosions of tomato flavour, to the supporting cast of the chives that give the tart filling another dimension, the delicate creaminess of the Brie is there, giving good honest earthiness and a hint of expensive exclusivity.

Mind you, this tart very nearly didn't happen - and for more than one reason.

Firstly, we had a great deal of deliberation in the supermarket over which cherry tomato to buy.  Needless to say, 300g of cherry tomatoes isn't all that easy to find when packs contain 250g and there aren't any loose versions around.  Then there was the price - from £1.20 through to £1.75, I wasn't keen on spending nearly £4 simply on tomatoes!

Eventually we settled on two punnets of baby plum tomatoes, only to find - once I opened the packs at home - that at least two in each punnet were literally furry with mould.  Gross!  Not to mention the waste of money.  Odd, too, that the furry ones were directly under the label and so couldn't be seen from the outside.

The next setback was the pastry.  I'd bought pre-rolled, ready made chilled pastry - but hadn't realised that what I had was a rectangular piece.  My flan dish (as are most flan dishes) is round - not rectangular.  So, having sat and contemplated my options, I did some surgery on the rectangle and after a bit of judicious sticking down, managed to create a tart case.  I was just crossing my fingers that I hadn't left any gaps anywhere for the egg mixture to escape, or I'd have no chance of getting the tart out of the dish!

The next catastrophe was the cream.  I'd had a large container of cream in the fridge for a few days - and so bought another smaller container, just in case.  Stupidly, I cracked the eggs into the bowl and then added the cream without remembering to taste it first and check that it was still good.  The "flop" as the cream cheese lump disappeared beneath the eggy waves, alerted me to the fact that the cream was a long way from good.

So those three eggs had to go down the plughole - with the rotten cream - and I had to start again.  The waste of three eggs hurt, let me tell you.

They say that bad things happen in threes - and that was my three things over with, thank goodness.

We ate the tart with an accompanying salad of salad leaves, more cherry tomatoes, celery and marinated small beetroot (honey & rosemary).  Delicious!

I had the leftovers for lunch the following day and can confirm that the tart was as good then as it had been warm.  The brie flavour had taken something of a back seat, being cold, but it was still very much there.  From which I deduce that the tart would be perfect picnic ammunition - and with the summer hoving into view through the mist-laden Dorset hills, I'll have to remember this one!

TOMATO & BRIE TART  (serves 4-5 and is suitable for vegetarians)

Ingredients :

Ready-rolled shortcrust pastry
300g cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
100ml double cream
100ml milk
2 free range eggs, plus 1 yolk
4 tbsp snipped fresh chives
200g Brie cheese, diced small
a small handful of Cheddar cheese, grated, for sprinkling.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 200degC (fan 180degC)/400degF/Gas 6.

2.  Line your tart tin or flan dish with the pastry and trim to size.  Scrumple up a piece of greaseproof or baking parchment, then open it out and place on top of the pastry.  You'll find it will fit more easily, having been scrumpled!  Pour baking beans or rice - or whatever you prefer to use - in on top and blind bake for 15 minutes.

3.  Remove the baking beans and leave to cool.

4.  While the pastry was cooking you can have been preparing the tomatoes by halving them and putting onto a baking tray.  Drizzle with olive oil and season.

5.  Then, once the pastry is done, place the tomatoes into the oven for 15 minutes.

6.  When the tomatoes are done, remove and allow to cool a little while you mix up the egg mixture.

7.  In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, cream, milk, chives and seasoning, until combined.

8.  Place the tomatoes neatly into the pastry case, making sure they are evenly spread across it.

9.  Pour over the egg mixture and scatter over the brie cubes, then the handful of grated cheddar.

10.  Place into the oven for 25-30 minutes or until slightly risen, set and golden.

11.  Cool slightly before serving.

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Is it too early to be planning salad in the week's menu?

Goodness, but I hope it's not!  Although, having said that, it'll probably snow on every day that I've booked even slightly salad-like meals.

I don't know about you, but my taste buds are yearning for something fresh (and by "fresh", I mean uncooked!) in my diet.  Yes, we've had the occasional little bit of side salad with various dishes, but I'm definitely yearning for a complete full-blown salad that contains rather more than just lettuce, cucumber and tomato.

I haven't gone so far as to be planning a full-blown salad (yet!), but I think you'll agree that this week's menu is definitely headed that way.  Hopefully it'll be enough to satisfy the need.

So what are we (theoretically - it could change and very often does) going to be eating?

Tues : Trinidadian Prawn Curry with chapatis and rice

Wed : Spicy Pork Steaks, baked sweet potatoes and peas

Thur : Smoked Mackerel with winter couscous & mushrooms

Fri : Tomato & Brie Tart with mixed salad and marinated beetroot

Sat : Mexican meatballs with rice

Sun : Roast bacon with creamed leeks, roast potatoes & parsnips, carrots & peas

Mon : Turkey & bean enchiladas with potato wedges.

Pic c/o www.dragonchillies.co.uk

No, we STILL haven't managed to have the Trinidadian Prawn Curry - but I am completely determined to have it tomorrow evening.  I'm armed and dangerous, having bought the Scotch Bonnet chilli peppers, so I won't be thwarted - bad back or no bad back.  (I think I must have torn some muscles in my back, dragging the darned stool around the kitchen after me so that I can sit down and cook.  Either way, it hurt - and continues to hurt!).

The Spicy Pork Steaks are going to be along the lines of Galton Blackiston's Spiced Chicken Legs, except with pork.  I thought it would be interesting to see how the marinade translates to pork, particularly with half an eye towards barbecuing in the summer.  I've also got some sweet potatoes waiting to be used for something, so this seemed like the perfect match.

Pic c/o www.freshfishdaily.co.uk

Now, the Smoked Mackerel with Winter Couscous and mushrooms was sparked off by a recipe I saw in a magazine, ages ago (so long ago in fact, that I've forgotten which magazine - oops!).  Anyway, it involved flaking the mackerel into the couscous and included orange and watercress.

In my fevered imagination, that turned into a dish of mackerel fillets beside a luscious looking pile of couscous that contained the watercress, but also cherry tomatoes, red onion, some griddled strips of courgette, some squares of griddled red pepper, together with some sort of herb - probably parsley.  I'm also toying with what dressing to put on the couscous.  I'm tempted by a red wine vinegar/capers/olive oil combination.  The mushrooms will be upturned onto a baking tray, dressed with a teaspoonful of garlic and parsley butter and oven baked.  Mmmmn - in my imagination, it's fabulous!

Pic c/o www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk

Friday's dinner requires rather less imagination and rather more careful preparation.  The tart is simplicity itself, as it is purely and simply cherry tomatoes in an egg/cream base with cubes of Brie cheese.  However, it sounded absolutely lovely and just had to be done.  This recipe originated from Delicious magazine and can be found here, if you're curious.

The Mexican Meatballs is a recipe that came from a Good Food Magazine (can you tell, I've been going through the file marked "Recipes cropped from magazines") and the recipe is available on their website here.  Hopefully it'll make a nice change from a straight chilli - and be teenager friendly, as several of this week's recipes are a bit of a challenge for son & heir.

Not me - too cool, calm and collected!

Sunday's meal will be as close to a Sunday Roast as I can get, without killing myself and/or my back.  A piece of bacon is one of the easiest things to roast, the potatoes and parsnips will be happy in the oven, the creamed leeks are dead simple to make and the carrots & peas almost cook themselves.  Fingers crossed for a nice, fairly relaxed, Sunday dinner - instead of winding up limping, gasping and red faced, into the living room to eat when I feel more like laying down for a half an hour.

The Turkey & Bean Enchiladas is another Good Food recipe that I've adapted.  The original recipe says to include leftover roast chicken, but I see no reason why good old Turkey mince won't do as good a job.  I've done a bit of research into the spices required for a home-made fajita seasoning and there's nothing there that we haven't got individually in the herbs & spices collection (that now takes up a shelf of its own).  I'll just have to concentrate a bit when I'm mixing up the seasoning, to get the right balance of everything, but I'm fairly confident I can reproduce something acceptable.

Son & heir will usually eat anything contained in a wrap, whilst hubby usually will eat anything that has enough chilli involved with it - so I'm hopefully onto a winner here.  I'll either make some potato wedges or cop out in a big way with a bag of frozen wedges.  It all depends how knackered I am by Monday!

Throughout these meals, I've had half an eye to trying to provide a balance between everyone's likes and dislikes versus what they need to eat for either dietary reasons or health reasons.  Like most teenagers, son & heir would be very happy if he never saw another vegetable or green leaf appear on his plate again (as would hubby, in lots of cases!), but I can't just close my eyes to the degree of vitamins, minerals etc. etc. that he's missing out on.  Especially at a time of such growth - he's beginning to tower over me! - when he needs his body and brain to be supported in every way possible.

Damn! He got there first!

This is one of the great strengths of meal planning.  You can see what you're proposing to feed everyone, in context with what they will have had the day prior and what they're going to have on the day after.  Put into context like that, a fairly vegetable free day (Meatballs) can be offset against a vegetable heavy day (Mackerel and couscous).  A dairy heavy day (Tomato and Brie tart) can be offset against a lighter fish day (Prawn curry).  As for me, well, I just have to watch the fat, sugar and carbohydrates.  A lick of the pan should do for me ....

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