So my Dad is re-learning how to cook.
I have very strong memories of my Dad making certain food stuffs, mostly bread, sardines, and an exciting afternoon when he attempted pasta. But most of these are from the distant past.
But times change, and now my Dad is relearning how to cook.
This has involved several email chains and phone calls as I point him in the direction of certain recipes. And several emails and phone calls when he’s shown off things he’s cooked. One of which was a very lovely looking tuna tart.
Which in turn inspired us to make a tart.
A cheese and bacon tart. With a little green thrown into make it borderline healthy. We used peas because frozen peas are the most easily accessible greens in the universe and, currently, the work life balance thing has become a trifle not balanced.
Obviously there is mint with the peas. Because that is the natural order of things.
This will be a recipe of shortcuts.
Currently having both of us in the house at the same time is a bit of a luxury, so not even we want to spend all our time together cooking.
Also a Wagamamas has opened in town.
We are doomed.
But enough of our various excuses and on to a delicious and easy tart.
Cheat number one is using ready made short crust pastry. We used Jus-rol and it is surprisingly good!
We greased a 24cm springform cake tin and lined it with a circle of pastry a good inch bigger than the tin. We pricked it with a fork and then we stuck it in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Whilst the pastry was chilling, we heated up the oven to 200°C and put a heavy baking tray in to get hot as well. The heaviness is important – a lighter tray, such as a crisping tray, will lead to the ever dreaded soggy bottom.
In fact the heavy tray is proably cheat number two. It means we don’t have to blind bake the pastry.
Whilst everything was either heating up or cooling down, we started on the tart filling.
We fried 200g of bacon lardons until golden and slightly crispy. Then we added 2 finely chopped shallots and 2 finely chopped garlic cloves, and cooked until slightly softened. Finally we stirred in 350g of thawed peas and set the lot aside to cool slightly.
In a large jug we combined 6 large eggs, 300ml of double cream, 100g of grated mature Cheddar and a good handful of chopped mint. Once the eggs so longer looked, well, eggy, we added the pea mixture, stirred, and poured it all into the chilled pastry.
Very quickly we put the tart on the hot tray and into the hot oven for 45 minutes. About half way through we covered it with foil to stop it from catching.
Then we let it stand for at least half an hour before releaseing it from the tin.
We think it’s actually nicer cold than hot and it defiently made a lovely packed lunch.
thegreedyguineapig 