A bit of a failure of an Asparagus Tart - but then, Cheese straws!

Definitely not enough bacon or asparagus

As you probably know by now, I do like to both make and eat tarts.  Doesn't matter whether it's a puff pastry tart (as this was) or a quiche-type tart, I like them all.  I've done many variations over the years and they've all been brilliant.  (Well, apart from a Lentil tart which I made aeons ago and is probably best kept there).

I'd seen, in the back of a BBC Good Food magazine, a puff pastry tart made by laying asparagus spears across several other ingredients.  It resembled a louvre door and looked very interesting.

So I got to thinking about making a tart like that and pondered on what to use for the other ingredients.  Some sort of cream cheese is always a good base, as it doesn't go all wet and soggy in the baking and forms a good stage upon which the other ingredients can play.  I looked at Asda's online shopping website to see what sorts of cream cheese they were offering (as we were ordering online, that particular Tuesday) and spotted their Sundried Tomato & Basil Philadelphia.  Seemed like a good start - now I just needed something salty to balance the richness of the cream cheese and bring out the flavour of the asparagus.  Streaky bacon was the immediate answer to that question.

Busted! Yes, those are shop-bought salads. Oh, the shame!

When it came to the making of the tart, for some reason, I included some fresh tarragon on top of the cream cheese and before the bacon.  It didn't detract from the other flavours, it just sort of disappeared!  Either I didn't include enough, or it couldn't make itself heard above the sundried tomato and basil.

Don't get me wrong, the tart was nice in that the flavours were pleasant - but no more than that.  Also it was a little bit light in the foodstuffs bracket, i.e. you didn't really feel as though you'd had a main course, it was really more of a starter.

I think, to have made it into a much nicer proposition, I'd have used a lighter weight of cream cheese (Philadelphia is really quite a heavy cream cheese) without the additional flavours, used LOTS more streaky bacon and two bunches of asparagus - and crammed them in - instead of the one.

The asparagus was cooked through, but hubby wasn't impressed by how it went somewhat fibrous and stringy.  I drizzled it with extra virgin olive oil before baking and this helped, I think.  To be honest, I felt that the asparagus was the best part of the whole tart - so it just goes to show how different people's preferences can differ!

I wasn't at all happy with this one, so won't be passing on the recipe.

However, there was a bright spot on the horizon, in that with the offcuts of pastry I made some little cheese straws which were yummy to the max!

Cheese straws!  We are saved!

I just rolled the offcuts out very thinly, grated on some strong cheddar and added a few grinds of black pepper, then folded them over - side to side - and rolled them out thinly again.  I grated on some parmesan and pressed it into the top of the pastry, then cut out the straws and baked them at 180deg for around 25 minutes, or until they were golden and risen.

The straws made a lovely "naughty nibble" for persons passing through the kitchen for the next two days!

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Cheese Straws

Bet they'll be gone before they've cooled down!

As promised earlier in the blog, here's Hubby's recipe for the Cheese Straws, which are singularly different to the Bread sticks, or Grissini.

Personally, I prefer the Cheese Straws - and have very great difficulty leaving them alone once they're baked!  LOL  I defy anyone to eat more than one at any one go.

CHEESE STRAWS  (makes around 20, depending on how big you cut them)

Ingredients :

50g Self Raising flour
25g softened butter
80g grated mature Cheddar
20g grated parmesan
pinch of smoked paprika
A little milk if needed to bring the dough together

Method :

Heat the oven to 200deg C.

Put a pinch of paprika into the flour and then rub in the butter.

Put the cheeses into the bowl and incorporate with the flour, using a little (tiny amount) of milk if the mix is too dry.

Roll out onto a floured board to about 3mm thick & then cut out fingers to your desired size.  Alternatively, use small shaped cutters for variety.

Place fingers/shapes onto a tray lined with baking parchment and place into the oven
for ten minutes, rotating the tray halfway through if your oven has hotspots.  Once cooked, cool on a wire rack.

For extra lovelynessess, brush with milk & dust with more parmesan or sea salt, prior to baking.  Personally, I adore the sea salt versions.

Note : "Hotspots"  - this is where an oven has areas which cook the food more quickly then others.  In our oven, the very front of the oven space will brown food far more quickly than the back, which I take to be because our is a fan oven.  Hence, we always need to turn our baking, in order to achieve an "all over" browning.

Grissini

While I was at work yesterday, hubby was busy in the kitchen working on a new bread product - Grissini.

Now this is his first go at Grissini and he's not terribly happy with the results, but I am!  I ate four (at least) of them last night, as did our son.  I can understand his dissatisfaction with them, as being a bit of a perfectionist ~koff - putting it mildly - koff~ the fact that they wound up slightly hard rather than crisp, wasn't how he imagined they would result.  However, I could very easily see them working beautifully well with a pot of Green Pea Dip, or Hummous - one of those rather more substantial dips that wafer-like dipping equipment quail at.

I'm sure he'll have another go, as he definitely won't be beaten by a Grissini.  However, until then, here's the recipe if anyone wants to have a try :

GRISSINI (Breadsticks) Makes 20 x 6" grissini

Ingredients :

200g white bread flour
50g Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary or ½ tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2  tsp pepper
7g of fresh yeast or 1/2 tsp easy-blend dried yeast
140ml lukewarm water
4 tbsp semolina or polenta
1 tsp olive oil

Method

Dissolve the sugar into the water and then mix in the yeast.
Add the remaining flour to form a soft dough then dust a work surface with flour.
Turn the dough on to the floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic, working in more flour if needed, to keep the dough from sticking.  Cover with a damp tea towel and rest for 10 minutes.
Cut a sheet of greaseproof paper and sprinkle with 1 tbsp semolina or polenta.
Roll out the dough into a large rectangle, then fold in four and repeat four or five times.
Finally, roll into a large rectangular sheet 3mm thick.  Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes or until doubled.
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F, gas mark 6). Line a baking sheet with baking parchment and sprinkle with semolina or polenta.
Cut the dough sheet across into 20 equal strips. Holding each strip by the ends, twist and stretch until it the desired shape is reached. Place the twists on the baking sheet. Leave to rise, uncovered, for 10 minutes.
Lightly coat the strips of dough with cooking spray or a little olive oil. Bake for 10 minutes.
Remove the breadsticks from the oven and lightly coat again with cooking spray or brush with a teaspoon of olive oil. Bake for a further 8 minutes or until golden and crisp. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.Mix 100g of the flour with the parmesan, rosemary and pepper in a large bowl.