Recipe from BBC Good Food.
Today we went to the Marylebone Farmers market and got some wonderful carrots and yellow tomatoes, so we came home and set to work finding a recipe in which we could use them. Furthermore, it was a rainy Sunday so we were after something which might take our minds off the rain which was lashing down outside.
The recipe was for the most part easy to follow, with the notable exception of step 4 which had obviously been overlooked by whoever was meant to be proof reading. The prep mostly involved sweating some onions and then boiling some whole potatoes – our ‘medium sized’ ones were still like bullets after 10 minutes so they were on for at least 5 minutes more.
When assembling the tarts we didn’t bother going for rounds; it was much simpler just to cut the piece of pastry in two instead of trying to be artistic with a knife. We oiled the tray before putting the pastry on it as we’ve had bad experiences with things being difficult to remove and put on the plate before. We skipped over putting the olives on top as neither Kitty nor myself are a fan of them.
Once in the oven there was a slight dilemma with the baking tray bending due to the heat and this pushed the two tarts dangerously close together. An executive decision was made to put them back in the oven despite them touching but eventually after 10 minutes we tried to put them onto a sturdier baking tray. Some advice if you find yourself in this situation: don’t be as foolish as us. Eventually one made it onto the new tray and the other stayed where it was and after 25 minutes they were both cooked.
In case you were wondering what happened to the carrots I mentioned at the start, we served them alongside the tarts instead of the rocket and green bean salad.
After all the hassle of trying to separate the tarts we wished we’d gone for something a bit simpler but in actual fact they turned out rather well. The tomatoes were sweet, the cheese had started to bubble and the pastry had puffed up perfectly. Kitty was also impressed and I think that despite the issues encountered when cooking, we might try it again but with some different toppings.
Overall the preparation stage took a while longer than the recipe said, but it took less time to cook. Maybe they count cooking the onions/potatoes as cooking time, although I’d argue preparation involves everything up to putting the finished thing in the oven.
Preparation time: 1 hour.
Cooking time: 25 minutes.
Total time: 1hr 25minutes.
Ratings:
Difficulty: very easy / easy / moderate / a bit tricky / very difficult
Taste: disgusting / edible / average / tasty / delicious
Cook again? Maybe.