As mentioned in Day 34 of The Challenge
Mushroom season is here now too! (I know, so many seasons... plums, pumpkins and now mushrooms, but that is the beauty of autumn and the harvest season. My tomatoes are coming in too, as are little cucumbers on my balcony garden). Chanterelles are ridiculously over priced most of the year, but suddenly in September and October they aren't! They are almost like a normal food! So we got a little wooden basket of them from the store and made... a tart!
Ingredients:
Crust: (you can use a store bought crust if you want, but this is also very quick and easy, I promise! It is better if you have a half hour to let it chill before rolling it out, but it still works if you don't)
3/4 c flour
1/2 c cold butter, cut into pieces
pinch of salt
1/4 (approximate) water
Tart:
250g of fresh chanterelles
1 1/2 c fresh cheese (the eat with a spoon-fresh like quark or blanc battue)
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tsp of dried sage
1 tsp butter
salt and pepper to taste
4 zucchini flowers
1/2 tsp dried mint
1 tbsp parmesan
1 tsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
1) To make crust, mix flour and salt. Cut in pieces of butter and mix together with fingertips until it forms a crumb like texture. Add water and mix with a fork, then knead into a soft dough.
2) Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
3) Mix the fresh cheese, reserving 1/4 c of it, with the thyme, sage, salt and pepper. Add 1 tbsp of water.
4) Roll out the crust to approximately 1 cm thick and line the bottom of a pie plate with it, and stab with a fork to create breathing holes.
5) Spread the fresh cheese over the crust in a thin layer.
6) Sauté the chanterelles briefly in the butter to allow them to give up their liquid (we didn't the first time making a mushroom tart and it was tasty, but swimming), then drain them (reserve the liquid if you want for use elsewhere) and sprinkle them over the cheese layer.
7) Take the remaining fresh cheese and mix it with the mint and some salt and pepper. Using a teaspoon, gently fill the zucchini flowers with it.
8) Place these on top of the tart and drizzle the olive oil over them.
9) Salt and pepper to taste and bake at 200°C for about 20 minutes. Serve warm with a side salad.
Light but warm, it made a good lunch for an early autumn day, and easy to assemble too.
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