Cauliflower and Green Pea Tartlets

I've been experimenting a lot with vegetarian tarts (ha!ha! I am tickled silly by the double entendre here), trying to figure out how to make really tasty vegetable pastries without using eggs. I do love quiches and custardy tarts but there are many in my family and some among my friends who do not eat eggs. 

It isn't difficult to make a tasty tart (I'm still chuckling). Once you get the crust right - sturdy and yet crumbly, buttery - the fillings are just a matter of matching flavours that go together. Mushroom and onion, leek and potato, broccoli and cheese, beetroot and ricotta .... it's pretty straightforward. 

The real challenge is making these ingredients come together or rather, bind so that they don't just fall out of the crust as you bite or cut into it.  Most of the time, I rely on an egg custard to do this. 

Soft cheeses are great binders: mix ricotta/cream cheese/goat or cottage cheese with some herbs (and seasoning) and spread in on the base of the tart and the vegetables will be anchored on securely, for example. 

But what if you don't want so much cheese. Cauliflower, pureed into a thick, chunky paste, is a delicious alternative - this I discovered this morning. 

I had a whole head of cauliflower that had been sitting in my fridge for about a week. I was going to make a mash with it but then I looked at a ball of frozen shortcrust pastry sitting there too and decided today would be the day for using up leftover ingredients.

It turned out to be a really good idea: the past week has been a really busy one at work and as a result I didn't cook much at all. Actually, I didn't eat much either, although, unfortunately this hasn't translated into looser clothes or a lighter me. Grrr.

Anyway, I ended up with three ingredients: the cauliflower, frozen green peas and oyster mushrooms. There was also a couple of sprigs of thyme and about a two-inch slice of Gruyere cheese in the chiller.

I couldn't believe my luck. These were perfect for a tart!

I borrowed a rectangular tart pan from Jane of The Wayward Oven because, well, it looks so elegant and I wanted to make elegant tarts (still a little funny ...no?). As a result, I had a little extra pastry which I used to make some mini tartlets ,,, you know, one-bite (or two) wonders?

I pureed the cauliflower with some cream, cheese and some mushroom stalks, diced and sauteed in butter - I added these in last as I wanted them to be a little chunky in the puree. I seasoned with puree with salt and pepper and this was the binder. 

I steamed some green peas and stirred half the amount (about a half cup) into the puree and left the rest (coated with a little butter) for the topping. 

I also chopped some toasted walnuts and added it into the puree, just for some crunch.

The heads of the mushrooms (I used oyster mushrooms), I shallow fried till they were almost crispy and then placed on top of the tart to bake. They ended up crunchy and, dare I say it, meaty. 

To my joy, the tart turned out really good. The cauliflower puree (which I was afraid would be too mushy for a tart) was yummy and the peas, nuts and mushrooms just added texture and also flavour. 

Cauliflower and Green Peas Tart

500g cauliflower
3 tbsp cream
1 cup green peas
1 cup oyster mushrooms
1/3 cup Gruyere cheese, grated
handful of walnuts, toasted and chopped
2 springs thyme
salt and pepper
knob of butter
olive oil
1 tbsp plain flour

For the pastry.
300g plain flour
150g butter, chilled and cubed
pinch of salt
4-6 tbsp ice water

Start with the pastry. Whisk the salt and flour together. Add the cold butter and rub into the flour (or whizz in the food processor/mixer) until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the water a little at a time until it comes together as a ball of dough. Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 mins.

Boil/steam the cauliflower till soft. Drain and toss in olive oil. Roast (200C) for about 20 mins or till the tops start to brown. Remove from oven and let cool.

Steam the peas till cooked.

Separate the stems of the mushrooms from the tops. Dice the stems. Lightly coat the tops with the flour. Heat about 2 tbsp oil in a skillet and, when hot, fry the mushrooms (a little at a time) till they are almost crispy. Drain.

With the remaining oil, saute the stems until they are nice and brown. Drain.

When the cauliflower has cooled, puree it with the cream. It should be a little thick. Add the stems,half the peas and the cheese and pulse a couple more times. Season and stir in thyme (leaves only).

Coat the remaining peas with softened butter.

Preheat the oven at 180C.

Roll the pastry out thin and mould it into the tart case. For mini tartlets, cut circles out and then mould.

Using a fork, puncture the base of the pastry. Blind bake the pastry shell for about 12-15 mins, till the base is firm but not golden.

Remove from the oven.

Spread the puree into the tart case. Top with the fried mushroom tops and, if you like, grate some more cheese on top.

Bake for about 20 mins or till the puree starts to set.

Remove and let cool. Garnish with the remaining buttered peas, and, thinly slice red radish slices.

Mad about Tarts

I think tarts are just so elegant, both savoury or sweet. Oh except in Bridget Jones Diary. I must say, that movie kinda messed with my appreciation of tarts as an elegant pastry. You remember the scene, right? The one in which Renee Zellweger shows up at what she thinks is a 'tarts and vicars' costume party in a bunny-girl outfit (you know, like a playboy bunny) not realising of course that the theme had been scrapped. Yeah, so now every time I hear the word tart, I think of her slightly plump person in that costume. Funny scene, funny movie but not a terribly elegant image. 

Ok, I need a minute to get that image out of my head. Today, we're talking about pastry. Tarts. 

I love tarts. I especially love how tart pastry is so buttery and delicate that it literally crumbles once it's safely in your mouth (not before, God forbid). I also love how versatile a tart can be. Add some sugar in the pastry and fill it with fruit or custard or chocolate and it's a perfect dessert. You can also add cocoa into the pastry in which case you get a chocolate-crusted tart. Or coconut, even. Alternatively, for a savoury tart, mix in herbs, spices or cheese for a delicious tart crust that's extra tasty. 

This weekend, I went tart-mad! I made one large batch of pastry and five different savoury fillings to go in them. 

There are two components to making a good tart: the pastry and the filling. 

First: the pastry. Making short crust pastry isn't difficult. Gently rub cold butter into a bowl of flour (generally the ratio of flour to butter is about 2:11/4) until it resembles crumbs; add just enough ice cold water to bind the mixture together to form a ball of dough. Chill. Roll and bake. For sweet tarts, you'd add a little bit of powdered sugar to the flour; for savoury tarts, add some salt: a large pinch will do. 

That's he basic recipe which I learnt to make years ago. Since then, I've come across variations to the recipe, some that have worked amazingly, others that weren't too spectacular. Basic variations include swapping the ice cold water for ice cold milk. Or, you could replace about 1/4 of the flour with ground nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds or peanuts). Or, replace 1/4 of the plain flour with wholemeal flour or oats. Adding a couple of tablespoons of cocoa to the flour. Add a little more flour and an egg yolk to the dough. These are the variations that I love. 

Today, I added toasted caraway seeds into my pastry and it was fantastic. 

Next: the filling.

I had a few ingredients to play around with: beetroot, ricotta cheese, Gruyere and cheddar cheese, organic mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, parsnip and cauliflower. I mixed and I matched and I came up with five different fillings. Some worked — the Mushroom and Cheddar Tarts, the Zucchini, Ricotta and Parsnip Tart and the Peppers and Cauliflower Tarts and some needed more work (the Beetroot and Ricotta Tarts). 

I'll include the recipe for the Mushroom and Cheddar Tart.

Pastry

(makes 30 mini tarts)

120g plain flour

65g cold butter, cut into cubes

pinch of salt

2 − 3 tbsp ice cold water

11/2 tsp caraway seeds, toasted. 

Mix the flour, salt and caraway together. Using your finger tips, rub the butter into flour mixture, gently lifting the mixture up as you rub. Once the mixture begins to look like breadcrumbs, add the water (a tbsp at a time) and bring the crumbs together to form a ball of dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 mins. Once it has chilled, roll the dough gently but swiftly and mould it into the tart tin. Using a fork, poke holes on the base of the tart to allow steam to escape (this way your pastry won't shrink when you pre-bake it). Bake it in a preheated oven (170C) for about 15 mins. (You don't need to add pastry weights since you have poked holes all across the base). 

Filling:

1 cup cauliflower florets

1/2 cup milk

1 cup mushrooms (I used oyster), diced

1/2 cup cheese, grated (Gruyere and/or cheddar)

chives, chopped small

olive oil

Toss the cauliflower in some olive oil and bake for about 20 mins (170-180C) or until the florets start to get golden. Remove and place in saucepan with 1/2 cup milk. Cook on low heat until the milk starts to boil and the cauliflower gets soft. Season with salt, pepper and chilli flakes. Remove from heat and puree till smooth. 

Put a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and gently saute the mushrooms till they are lightly browned. Season. 

Mix the pureed cauliflower, half the mushrooms and half the cheese together.

Assembling the tart

Spoon the cauliflower puree to fill half of the pre-baked tart case. Top with the remaining mushrooms and then the cheese. 

Bake for 10-15 mins. Remove and garnish with chives.

Battered cauliflower

Don't you hate it when someone yanks the carpet from under you?

You see, I recently got crazy-addicted to a cauliflower side dish sold at an Indian restaurant near my workplace:  spicy, lightly-battered and deep fried, I used to buy a couple portions of the cauliflower dish two or three times a week for dinner. It was sooo good. Crunchy on the outside, soft inside; spicy outside and deliciously mild inside.

Then last week, I noticed that the dish looked a little different. The batter was thicker and I could see that it was seasoned differently.  I tried it. It was still tasty but it wasn't as good as the original. Too much batter. Not crunchy enough. Couldn't taste the cauliflower.

Sigh.

I consulted the proprietor and he explained that he had hired a new chef and this was his recipe. "Whhhyyyyyy," I cried. No really, I did.

Accck! Carpet. Pulled. From under me.

I was devastated. What was I to do now? Sulk, sulk, sulk.

I had no other choice but to try and make the dish myself. I knew it was a fairly common dish in Indian establishments and so I went online to see if I could find recipes for it. Basically, what I needed was a recipe for the batter.

Yup, there were many, many recipes online. I printed out a couple of recipes and bought 1kg of cauliflower on my way home from work.

First batch: batter was just too eggy.

The first recipe I picked looked great online. It was spicy (cardamom, cinnamon, cumin) and it was enhanced with some chopped parsley and chilli. Sounded promising. But, there were some problems:

* The recipe for the batter also called for six eggs. SIX eggs for a large head of cauliflower (unfortunately the recipe didn't indicate how many grams a 'large' head of cauliflower was).  Six eggs sounded too much and so I reduced it by half and added some light stock to keep the consistency of the batter. Despite cutting down the eggs by half, the batter was still very eggy. No go!

*  The recipe also called for a teaspoon of baking powder into the batter: this made the batter kind of fluffy instead of crispy. No go!

I didn't think I could finish the entire bowl of the eggy-battered veg as is and so I made myself a healthy yoghurt dip to go with it. It was slightly better but still eggy.

I decided that the next batch of batter I made would not have a single egg. I settled on a recipe from Jamie Oliver. His batter was akin to that used in Japanese tempura: light and crispy.

Yes! I decided to go with it, adding a little more spice to suit my palette.

The result: SUCCESS. It didn't taste like the dish I bought from the shop but it was so terribly tasty that I didn't care.

The beer makes the batter light and crunchy (some use sparkling water) and it also gives it a really nice colour -- a vibrant yellow.

The secret ingredient

I followed Jamie's advice and included some other vegetables as well: flat-leaf parsley (isn't the green so lovely) and some carrots too.

I was happy. I still intend to recreate the dish from the restaurant but until then, this would more than suffice.

The good and the not so good: Jamie's beer batter (left) was light and bright; see the contrast with the too-eggy batter? 

Cauliflower, battered and fried.


450 g cauliflower, cut into florets
1 cup flat-leaf parsley, leaves only
11/2 cup all purpose flour and 2 tbsp more for dusting

200 ml ice-cold beer

1 tsp roasted ground cumin

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp salt

5 whole black peppercorns, crushed and pounded

Steam cauliflower florets for about 10 mins or until slightly tender (till you can poke a fork through them).

Make the batter: mix the flour, salt, pepper, spices together. Add the beer, a little at a time and stir till all ingredients are well incorporated. It doesn't matter if the batter is slightly lumpy. The consistency of the batter should be like that of double cream. Add more beer if necessary.

Lightly dab the cauliflower florets with a clean dishcloth and dust them with the 2 tbsp flour. Dust some flour on the parsley too.

Head about 2cm oil in a skillet. When hot, dip the cauliflower in the batter and then slide it into the oil. Keep the bowl with the batter close to the skillet so you don't drip the batter on your counter top.

Fry for about 2 mins or so per side or until the batter turns a lovely, golden yellow. 

Drain on paper towels and repeat. Do the same with the parsley but be mindful that these cook quicker than the cauliflower.

Dust with some sea salt. Jamie squeezes a lemon over them but they taste great even without the lemon. 

A case for the cauliflower

The cauliflower is not a favourite vegetable among most of my friends. Except perhaps when it is coated in a spicy chilli-flavoured batter and deep-fried. Anything deep-fried is nice, after all. But on the rare occasion when there is a when there is a cauliflower on the table, I find myself the only one excited. What's not to love? Crunchy or soft, the cauliflower is truly  adaptable. Honest. It's wonderful in a curry/masala as it absorbs the flavours well. As mentioned above, its delicious when deep-fried (after dousing it in boiling water to soften it a little). It's nice au Gratin too. I even like it steamed (with broccoli and corn) and seasoned with just salt and pepper. But what I really like is mashed-roasted cauliflower! It's way better (and healthier) than mashed potatoes - yes, even better than the Colonel's mash.

I decided to test out my theory (that mashed cauliflower beats mashed potato) on some cauliflower hating friends. I didn't reveal the main ingredient of the dish as, all mashed up, it kinda looked like potatoes anyway.



Here's what I did. First, I steamed the cauliflower till it was nice and soft -- about 20 mins. Then, I mashed it with a fork. Easy.

Preheated my oven to 180C.

Next, in a small pan I melted some butter and  sautéed some garlic, minced fine. I added the mashed cauliflower and added about 1/4 cup milk (or cream if you prefer). I let the mixture simmer (low heat) till there was no more liquid and then I added about 1/2 cup cheddar.

I then seasoned it with salt and pepper. As the cheddar was pretty strong, I didn't need that much salt.

After about 2-3 minutes, I transferred the mash into a bake-safe dish, sprinkled some cheese on top and let it bake in the oven for about 10-15 mins or till the top began to get golden.

Remove, scoop out, garnish with coriander and serve.

OK, the results. My  unsuspecting dinner guests loved the mash but they also kinda guessed it wasn't mashed potatoes. They were not able to guess what it was though. the nuttiness of the boiled and then roasted cauliflower kinda made them think they were eating mashed beans -- they weren't too thrilled at this thought. When I revealed what it was, there was silence. No, they didn't become cauliflower converts but admitted that they wouldn't mind seconds of my mash.

I'd call it a success. After all, they ate so much I had to chance to help myself to seconds! Backfired? Perhaps!