Bacon & Blue Cheese Filo Tart - quick, before the sun disappears!

In actual fact, this tart isn't reliant upon sunny days.  We've eaten it with potato wedges instead of salad in the middle of winter - and it was just as good.

However, in this instance, I served it with a Melon & Cucumber salad - the sweetness of the Canteloupe melon went so well with the salty bacon and blue cheese.

I've been making this dish for quite some time now and when I remembered it the other day, I looked back across the Recipe Index and was surprised to note that it wasn't there.  Mind you, this was cause for some celebration because it meant that I could tick off another "bloggable" dish on the menu - one which I had done countless times before and was not only easy but reliable!

You might think that, being made with Filo pastry instead of shortcrust or puff, this might be a low-calorie, "good for you", healthy option.  I have very great delight in putting you right where this is concerned and would quite categorically state that there is very little about it that is good for you - apart from being good for your soul.  You will very definitely feel downright spoiled, indulged and maybe even a little bit naughty when eating this tart.

You see, fundamental in the creation of the filling is the use of 300g of your best, creamiest, rich and delicious Philadelphia cream cheese.  Oh, don't suck your breath in like that - the wind might change and you'll stay looking like it.  Yes, I know I could have used low fat Philadelphia - but why?  This tart is supposed to be rich and delicious - and nothing but the full fat version will do.  If you're so bothered about it, don't make it very often and don't eat a huge piece - but do make it, and do cut yourself a generous piece.  Go on - you're worth it!

One word of warning as regards the ingredients though.  The Rocket is absolutely essential.  I can remember baking this tart once in the past when I had forgotten to buy some Rocket.  "Oh, it can't make THAT much difference, surely!", I thought.  Wrong.  So wrong.  This is one of those tart fillings that something magical happens to when it goes into the oven.  One of those clever chemistry things.  Now obviously, the eggs are there to bind it all - that's a given.  However, the Rocket seems to act as some kind of subtle scaffolding that provides aeration as well as flavour.  When you first start mixing it in, you don't think it's ever going to lay down and behave - but it does.  Then, once it has baked, it emerges with no discernible Rocket.  It's there, doing a valuable job, but quietly and in the background.  The one time I tried to make the tart without it was an utter disaster as the filling was too rich, too thick, too claggy and just, well, too much of everything.  So - don't be tempted to leave the Rocket out.  I've tried it and it's not good.

One more thing - when you are shopping for ingredients and if you shop at Sainsbury's, do try their common or garden "English Blue Cheese" which is vaguely red coloured (not unlike Shropshire Blue) and completely unassuming.  I picked some up purely because of its price (it was the cheapest blue cheese I could find - it was the end of the month and money was a little tight) and was surprised to find that it is actually very palatable indeed.  Perhaps a little on the salty side - but knowing how salty some of the Danish blues can get, we can forgive it that.  I think it did a sterling job at being crumbled on top of the tart - and is responsible for that deep yellowy orange hue.

If you're curious about the Melon & Cucumber salad, it was a simple matter of getting a bowl and putting into it some rocket, some Canteloupe melon balls (cubes would do fine, if you don't have a melon baller), some finely sliced cucumber that had been skinned and had its pips removed and several sliced cherry tomatoes.  Once served onto the plate, I added a couple of marinated Sweetfire beetroot, which provided the zing! to the melon's sweetness and the saltiness of the tart.  We didn't bother with a dressing, as the melon provided plenty of juice.

I like to think of it as a beautiful partnership.  The incredibly unhealthily rich and delicious tart, paired up with a very healthy sweet and sour salad.  Delicious.

BACON & BLUE CHEESE FILO TART   (serves 4-5) 

Ingredients :

4 large sheets of filo pastry, cut in half to make 8 individual sheets
extra virgin olive oil
300g (or slightly less) of lean back bacon, diced
3-4 spring onions, sliced finely
2 eggs
300g tub soft cream cheese
2 large handfuls of rocket leaves
50g (approx) blue cheese
2 tbsp pine nuts.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas4.

2.  Taking a spring form tin, lightly brush some oil around it.  Then, brush the first sheet of filo pastry lightly with oil and lay it into the tin, sticking it to the oiled sides.  Continue with the other sheets of pastry, brushing with oil and laying into the tin, until the tin is completely covered and the edges are stuck to the sides.  These edges will be turned down and form the "crust".

3.  Place the bacon pieces into a heated but dry frying pan and cook over a medium heat until any water has been removed and the bacon is just beginning to brown.  Hopefully any fat should have rendered out by now.

4.  Add the spring onion to the bacon pieces and continue to cook until the onion is wilted.  Remove from the heat and set to one side to cool a little.

5.  Taking a large bowl, add the cream cheese and crack in the eggs.  Using a hand whisk mix lightly together until all the lumps are removed.  Season with a good pinch of pepper but do not use any salt - the bacon will be salty enough.

6.  Add the cooled bacon & onion mixture, leaving as much of the bacon fat in the pan as is possible.  Add the rocket leaves and the pine nuts.  I usually chop the pine nuts just a little before adding to the mixture.  Stir until everything is combined, then pour into the filo pastry case.

7.  Break the blue cheese into pieces and scatter them across the top of the filling mix.

8.  Turn down the edges of the filo pastry neatly (I usually roll them), to form a crust around the edge of the filling.

9.  Place into the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until the centre of the tart is firm to touch.

10.  Give the tart some 5-10 minutes to cool before turning it out and cutting.

Serve.

Printable version
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Courgette, Prosciutto & Blue Cheese Tart - dinner in a hurry!

This last Tuesday marked an important day in the calendar of our family, for this was the day that son & heir's first "proper" (aka "almost adult") school stage production got under way.

A much-shortened version of "We Will Rock You", it featured songs from the show (which is  based loosely around the songs of Queen) together with individual numbers from both groups and soloists.  Son & heir was appearing with his embryonic band "Black Ice" and would be playing his much loved bass guitar to "Another One Bites The Dust".

Assembled and ready to bake

Well, it all went swimmingly.  Nobody fell over and pulled the drapes down, the stage didn't collapse and no emergency services were required - which makes it a resounding success, in my book.  In fact, both hubby and I enjoyed ourselves enormously throughout the evening.

However, fitting the conundrum of eating into the evening was a little tricky.  For son & heir it was easy, as we took him a packed sandwich supper when we delivered his costume to school at 3pm.  For us, well, we had to condense our early evening into three hours or so - which wasn't that difficult but meant that the catering had to be of the simple kind.

Out of the oven and looking satisfyingly delicious

The weather having been unseasonably warm, my mind immediately turned to salad, but I felt that as we were going to be out in the big wide world (also known as the school hall), perhaps we needed something hot to eat before we left.  Yes, I was channelling Mum-ness.  I admit it. 

Anyway, that Mum-ness resulted in a quite lovely (and supremely quick to create and bake) tart.

Take a sheet of ready made, ready rolled puff pastry.  Draw a line around the inside of it, then cover the area inside of the line with ribbons of finely sliced (I used a veggie peeler) courgette that have been tossed in extra virgin olive oil and seasoning.  Next, lay on rumpled and torn pieces of Prosciutto bacon, then into the hollows and hills, sprinkle cubes of a soft, mild blue cheese.  Admire, then bake.

Served with some shop-bought pre-prepared salads, for speed - just perfect.

The end result was that the courgette ribbons cooked beautifully, all were soft and tender.  The Prosciutto crisped up perfectly in the oven and the soft creamy blue cheese melted and ran in delicious rivers all around the other ingredients.  Lush.

The tart really was completely flipping gorgeous - as indeed it was the following day, when we had the remainder for lunch.

COURGETTE, PROSCIUTTO & BLUE CHEESE TART  (Serves 4)

Ingredients :

1 sheet of ready made, ready rolled puff pastry
1 large courgette
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
75g pack of Prosciutto
150g French creamy blue cheese.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 200degF/400degC/Gas6.

2.  Lay the pastry out onto a flat baking sheet and lightly score a line approx 1" in from the edge, all the way around the pastry.  This marks the crust of the tart.

3.  Take the courgette and cut off both ends.  Then, using a vegetable peeler, carefully peel away long thin ribbons of courgette and place them into a bowl.

4.  Sprinkle a little extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper over the courgette and mix to combine.

5.  Take the strips and arrange them roughly onto the pastry, making sure they aren't all laying down flat and are inside the line for the pastry crust.

6.  Next tear pieces of Prosciutto and lay them roughly on top of the courgette.

7.  Trim off the rind of the blue cheese (if it has one!) and cut into small dice.  Sprinkle these across the surface of the tart.

8.  Sprinkle a small amount of extra virgin olive oil across the tart surface.

9.  Place into the oven for 25-30 minutes.

Serve with salad. 

Avocado & Stilton Dip

Unfortunately not my dip - we were far too
keen to eat it - but one that looks like mine!

I was sitting in the living room, considering the shopping list for tomorrow and beginning to feel rather peckish.

As part of my consideration (of the shopping list), I had pondered on whether the avocado in the vegetable drawer of the fridge would be too old for use in a salad on Sunday.  I decided it was.

So I made Avocado and Stilton Dip with it instead.  It was beautiful with oatcakes and according to Hubby, went admirably well with Kettle Chips, too.


AVOCADO & STILTON DIP

Ingredients :

A ripe avocado
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp greek yoghurt
A 2cm square cube of blue cheese - I used Stilton
1 tbsp mayonnaise
salt & pepper to taste

Method :

1.  Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone and skin, then dice into a bowl.

2.  Add the lemon juice and mash with a fork.  It is not necessary to eliminate all lumpiness, because of the lumps of blue cheese.  If lumps bother you, them prepare in a blender.

3.  Add the greek yoghurt and stir to combine.  Then crumble the cheese in and stir to combine.  Next, add the mayonnaise and stir to combine again.

4.  Taste, which will help you to decide how much salt & pepper you prefer.  Season and stir one last time.

Break out the crudites!

This coming week's meals - better late than never.

When I left you last, I believe it was Sunday and we'd just had a lovely Gammon pot roast.

Well, I sort of fell apart over Sunday evening and on into Monday morning, in that the sudden attack of "meh!" that had got me earlier in the week turned into stomach pain and an overwhelming desire to vomit.  Not good.  So not good, in fact, that I didn't go to work on Monday.  Bringing a sickness bug to a Hotel is not a good idea.  As it was, after I'd taken son to school and crawled back into my bed for another hour or so's nap, I took some Milk of Magnesia and almost immediately began to feel better.  After a couple of hours, I could even face a scrambled egg - and so began the climb back to the pathetic level of health that I attempt to maintain.  I'm still not quite right - I couldn't face a curry quite yet - but with some skillful  planning, I'll get there.

So, Monday's lovely prawn risotto that Hubby had planned had to be jettisoned in favour of plain old grilled sausages with vegetables and gravy.  The boys, of course, had waffles and baked beans - but I couldn't face the idea of a greasy waffle.  I opted for a medley of fresh vegetables (leftover bits from the weekend, in fact) which sat a lot more easily in my stomach!

Tuesday is the first day of our new week and, because I was still feeling a tad delicate in the tummy department, I was luckily able to plan accordingly.  So, we had a lovely Macaroni Cheese.  We should have had salad, but again, salad was a bit of a stretch for me so we opted for some garlic bread.

My Macaroni Cheese is made with mature cheddar, onion, streaky bacon, English mustard and cayenne pepper.  Now you would think that the cheese would be too heavy, or the pasta, or the bacon - but no.  Nor is the mustard or the cayenne too much.   On the schedule of "things to eat to make you feel better" - a.k.a. "comfort food" - I think you'll find that Macaroni Cheese (or Spirali Pasta Cheese, as this one was!) is around no. 2, with Shepherd's Pie at no.1.

I did manage to get out to the supermarket on Tuesday, so we are all geared up for this week's meals.

Wednesday (or tonight, as I write this), we had something we haven't been able to have for over a year.  A classic old English Beef Stew, with dumplings.  In the past, stewing beef has always come in as too expensive for us.  However, with the supermarket's special offer help, I picked up some lovely shin of beef.  I made some Parsley dumplings - with fresh Parsley - which were delightful and took the place of potato (you will recall Hubby's strange antipathy towards the humble spud) admirably.

Thursday is the night that the Prawn & Little Gem Risotto makes a comeback - and hooray for it!  I'm really looking forward to trying this - and the wait has made it all the sweeter.

Friday and we're having a blast from the past - Kedgeree.  Now I love kedgeree and it's something I've made for years, perfecting the recipe as I've gone along until we've now got a deliciously dry, spicy confection of smoked haddock, hard boiled eggs, curry and rice.  Personally, I prefer to eat it with a side salad dressed with lemon juice and olive oil - but it would seem I'm alone in that!  That's okay, however, because I can soon rustle up a little salad just for me.  Yum!

Saturday needs to be an easy meal that can be eaten whilst watching t.v.  So this Saturday - thanks to Sainsbury's marked down Springform tins - we're having an old favourite which is "Bacon & Blue Cheese Filo Pie" with salad.

We'd stopped having this one for two reasons.  Firstly, my old Springform tin fell apart and secondly, son demonstrated an allergic reaction to blue cheese.  However, this time I'll prepare the pie with a blue cheese free quarter - and have the antihistamine to hand, just in case!  It's a lovely recipe, using layered filo sheets into which you put a mixture of cream cheese, beaten eggs, ham, rocket and pine nuts.  You then sprinkle over some crushed up blue cheese (I usually use Stilton), then fold the filo in to make a crust and bake.  Gorgeous with salad.

Now, Sunday is very exciting.  We're going over to New Milton to see my Parents and they've offered to take us out for lunch at the Fisherman's Haunt in Winkton.  I've had a peek at their menus and everything looks very tempting - so I expect a review will be forthcoming, in due course!

Not one of our Cottage Pies - but it looks nice,
all the same!

Owing again to the supermarket having some very affordable lamb mince, Monday is looking like Shepherd's Pie day.  Lovely!  Hubby is in the kitchen that day - and he makes an amazing Shepherd's Pie.  It will be extra-nice to have a proper Shepherd's pie, rather than the beef version - Cottage Pie.  So, if I'm not fully recovered by Sunday - I certainly will be, by Tuesday morning!  Shepherd's Pie is akin to medicine, in our house!

Lastly - I'd just like to know whether this qualifies me as a real cook.

Circled - just in case you missed it.  :)

I burned my hand on the cooker shelf when I was retrieving the roast potatoes on Sunday.  Yes, I know it's not a BAD burn - but I'm wearing it like a badge, that says "I cook!".  *smile*