Easy Olive Oil & Wine Pastry – for savoury tarts

Well behaved pastry that doesnt need pre-chilling or rolling. You can substitute water for wine.

I remember the first time I tried an olive oil pastry…I was a student and keen on experimentation. There wasn’t much extra virgin around in those days and back in the kitchen I created oily crumbs which when pressed into a tart tin promptly fell apart and tasted faintly rancid. I relegated the idea but always hoped I would find a recipe that worked.

Fast forward a year or two well Ok then a few decades…and I started tinkering around with flours and quantities and here is a recipe that is my absolute Go To for quiches. Its so clever because you dont actually need to roll it out, nor do you need to chill it and relax it you just press it into the tin as if pressing modelling clay. It is also so well behaved it never bubbles up or shrinks like regular butter based pastries can.

Ingredients

This will line a deep (4cm) 20cm quiche ring so if you have a regular slightly less deep flan tin you will have a little left over – freeze it.

175g Wholemeal flour (adds flavour)

75g polenta (adds crunch)

100ml white wine (water is fine)

80ml fruity extra virgin olive oil (it does imbue some taste so I think its worth it)

a pinch of salt if you must

1 tablespoon of poppy seeds (not essential but makes it look special)

1 egg beaten with a fork and a pastry brush

How To

Measure the oil and water/wine. Use just one measuring container and do some maths. Excess washing up is bad – bad for you and bad for the planet. I always like how the oil floats on the water…I know its nerdy but I like it.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl together and mix with a knife until a solid soft ball is formed. Yes thats right that is all there is to it! Unless you want your pastry to have the texture of shoe leather don’t over mix it.

Press the pastry into your tin gradually working from the centre out so the pastry is one thickness. make sure the rim is not paper thin using your thumb to tap it down a little.

Preparing for the Tart Filling – Blind Baking

Scrunch up a piece of baking paper (it needs to become softer and pliable)

Fill with ceramic baking beans if you own them, a mix of beans, rice and grain as I prefer or salt (which works well but if spilt makes your tart really really salty so I avoid it).

Bake for 20 minutes at 180C

Remove the beans

paint the inside with the egg – you just waterproofed the tart case to prevent a soggy bottom and we don’t want any of those

Bake again for 10 minutes

Leave to cool, fill with your chosen filling and bake gently until the filling is cooked.

Hot Chocolate Orange Fondant Puddings – a dirty little secret

We all love chocolate fondant pudding…the soft molten chocolate goo inside and the spongy crust provide for a great collision of taste sensations. Here I am using an eco friendly serving dish – the case of the orange itself which is also great if you dont happen to own ramekins or mini pudding tins. This also imbibes an extra orangey hit into the mix. I took the idea from a child’s cooking session where we baked orange cake in the shells and created this more adult version.

And now the dirty little secret…. no not that you can eat the batter direct from the bowl and never actually bother with making the puds…no something a little more prosaic… simply that you can cook these direct from frozen…hallelujah! and therefore they should be on your dinner party shortlist.

Ingredients (makes 12 halves)

2 oranges whole boiled for 1 hour starting with a level of water that almost covers them both – use up less than perfect oranges, make ahead and freeze them
6 oranges
cocoa powder, for dusting
200g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
200g butter, in small pieces plus extra if you are using ramekins or expresso cups
200g sugar
4 eggs and 4 yolks
100g plain flour (note for a gluten free version use rice flour or corn flour)
50g good cocoa powder

Gadgets & Gizmos

An electric whisk/ food mixer with a whisk attachment – unless you have Popeye biceps its not really worth whisking with a hand whisk…well I think its not!

A blender to pulp your boiled oranges.

A cup cake tin is handy

How To

If you are using orange halves no need to prepare your moulds just cut in half and use a citrus juicer to take out the juice. Now with your fingers or a teaspoon remove the pithy debris – what you want is orange halves free of the pith and segment membranes. It sounds worse than it is – its pretty easy! Cut a little of the orange away at each end so it will sit flat on a tray/ final serving plate. Place each empty half so it just rests on the cup cake hole.
If using ceramic/metal little pots/ ramekins make sure what you are using is ovenproof – expresso cups work well if you dont have ramekins. First get your moulds ready by painting them with melted butter and then allow it to go solid. Now sprinkle with cocoa powder generously, tip upside down onto a plate to remove excess. This step seems fiddly…..and it is. But the cocoa powder allows the pudding to rise up gracefully and not stick to the sides of the moulds. Same thing applies to souffles.
Cut your boiled oranges up roughly just to ensure you can take all the pips out. Blitz them up to a nice puree. It should smell like marmalade.
Melt your chocolate and butter together in the microwave (carefully and checking the rotating plate is rotating so you don’t set fire to it like I did recently…beautiful chocolate reduced to smoke and ash…) or traditionally in a bowl over simmering water.
In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and yolks together with the sugar until thick and pale and the whisk leaves a trail – if you havent got an electric whisk this is pretty daunting and I am not sure I would bother to be honest.
Sift the flour and cocoa into the egg mixture. Pour in the orange puree. Fold very gently until incorporated taking care that the orange puree hasnt all sunk to the bottom.
Pour the melted chocolate/butter into the orangey floury cocoay egg mixture in thirds, folding in ever so gently so as not to knock the air out. Again make sure the chocolate hasnt all accumulated at the bottom of your bowl.
You can tip into a jug but I hate excess washing up – I use a ladle to put into the orange halves. Fill to the brim. At this point you can freeze them. If cooking immediately it is better to chill them a little beforehand but not essential.
Heat oven to 180C and cook for 10-12 minutes until the tops have formed a crust and they are starting to come away from the sides of their moulds (this wont happen with the orange). If cooking from frozen add 6 minutes extra to the cooking time.
Serve immediately!

I think they are great with some vanilla ice cream on top or actually just as they are.

Farfalle with Parsley, Lemon & Walnut Pesto

The Parsley Pesto

This is a fabulous pesto to make in winter when parsley is abundant rather than pretending its summer and we are all “Mediterraneo” in January. It also packs a massive iron, B vits (folates and all that) and antioxidant punch too so very good for veggies too. Here I have made a pasta dish but this green and potent elixir is delish spread on crostini (OK lets admit it “toast” and a dab oh yes just a dab of mayonnaise too) and I have also massaged it into chicken breasts to great effect (but dont quote me on that).

I first tasted this when a friend made a version in Aegean Turkey and although skeptical I was blown away by the honest robust flavours and how it made the pasta sing. It has its origins in all those wonderful sauces from Turkey and the Caucasus that use walnuts such as the Turkish “tarator” and Georgian “Satsivi” as well as the Italian “Pesto di Noce”. I include preserved lemon too as i like the lemony flavour without the bitterness. If you do not have preserved lemons then juice one lemon and also zest it. Romanian walnuts are legendary and I particularly enjoy making this with the new season nuts. The best are always bought at the market and roasting not only develops the flavour but eradicates unwanted visitors hiding in the crevices!

This is one of those recipes that is not so much a recipe as a suggestion of ingredients that when combined create something magical.

Ingredients

Zest and juice of 1 lemon or half a preserved lemon skin only
Quite a lot of garlic – 5- 6 cloves
150g walnuts
2 large bunches of flat leaf parsley
Good olive oil
Salt & pepper

How To

Pesto

Blitz all the pesto ingredients together and pour into a jar. To vary the consistency add more or less oil until it is dropping consistency ie will drop off a spoon rather than stick to it when turned upside down.

Farfalle with Pesto & Green Beans/ Courgettes/ Broccoli

Cook your pasta according to the instructions (I like the bows for this recipe but I cant really explain why). I particularly love this recipe with green beans – they have an affinity with the parsley and garlic and they remind me of a dish I ate many years ago in the South of France that was garlic with green beans dressesd with olive oil…well of course it was haricots verts with garlic but you get my drift. Chop and cook the veggies until done but not mushy (Brocoli and courgettes also work just great).

Drain the pasta

Stir the pesto through the pasta (I like quite a lot of pesto but start with one tablespoon per person and adjust if it looks less than you like)

Stir through the veggies gently until also lightly coated

Serve in plates sprinkled with fresh parmesan

Shelf Life

As long as you cover with a little oil to seal the pesto and prevent oxidation this will sit happily in the fridge for approx 1 month. However it is at its best, most flavourful and the vitamins at their most potent when made fresh.

Improvs

I have actually made this recipe with almonds…I have added breadcrumbs when nut rations were low and have used sunflower oil, rapeseed oil and corn oil in place of olive oil. I have not used walnut oil although that might work when you run out of walnuts! as I prefer a hint of the walnuts as opposed to walnuts being the predominant flavour.