Having A Fine Time

My little slice of heaven...

Feeling fine with this week’s stack… sometimes fine just tastes better somehow. Here are two recipes celebrating your knife skills 🔪 (or mandolin playing). A unique take on a vegetable tart that is texturally a revelation. It’s delicious, great with anything and looks SENSATIONAL. My Zucchini & Carrot Tart is a real head turner and the fine veg peelings blend together so well, and that hint of chilli is… *chefs kiss*. The second recipe also celebrates fine work in a tart, a classic Apple Tart Fine from back in the day #bitd Crispy rough puff pastry, delicately sliced apple, baked to perfection with a sugary top. Simplicity at its best.

---

Zucchini & Carrot Tart w Harissa Butter Pastry

So happy with the way this turned out. I wanted to bring you something unique and achievable but also cheffy looking (in a good way). The tart uses two of my favourite veg the Zucchini and Carrot. Both are treated the same way, by slicing them both super thinly on a mandolin*. They are then arranged in a little equipment system I dreamed up with existing rings and tins. I used a tart tatin tin or pie tin slightly bigger than my tart ring.

I wanted to have straight sides to my tart so opted for the tart ring. With that of course I knew that butter and juices would leak out so I found my cherry pie tin to house the tart and keep it all contained. You could use a straight sided 18 cm tart tin if you had one but this worked a treat.

After brushing the insides of my moulds with harissa butter (more on that in a min), I sliced my veg. I contemplated trimming all of the veg strips to 1.5 cm in width but decided against that as I didn’t want to waste any veg. It probably would have looked super neat but I am happy with the above result and as it was built upside down it releases from the tin flat and flush anyway. As it is if you do have any veg strips left over after assembly then do what we did and have then it in a coleslaw or salad for dins.

The arrangement of the veg is the hardest part, try to push the alternating veg in to the ring as much as possible. You want to have tightly packed veg so that when it has bakes and released moisture there are no discernible gaps in your tart. So after assembly to the middle of the tart I pushed more veg into any gaps I could see.

The pastry really is so good, crumbly and butter and full of flavour. I used Cath’s amazing Harissa recipe (over on Studio Kitchen) to make a butter to flavour the pastry that is almost Sable Breton like in texture (just less airy). The butter goes well just with a slice or warm sourdough so make more if you like. Left over butter will be used to line the tart and also brush over top of the tart at the end.

The pastry is a cinch to make and you could make it with just unsalted butter if you like but I loved the chilli kick which I think goes really well with both veg. This is highlighted in Cath’s dish Carrot Salad which is dressed with a harissa vinaigrette.

The finished tart is again brushed with more of the harissa butter, with oil added for glisten! I finished with salt flakes and a fine grate of mandarin zest on top for a lift.

This tart slices so well, you can see all of the layers inside - so good. The pastry is crumbly and short with that chilli kick and the veg is perfectly cooked, not too mushy but soft for a fork. We had this on its own, but it is great for a side dish. It is perfect for a picnic and even the lunchbox next day as leftovers hold up well in the fridge. I haven’t tried it but I also reckon this is the perfect match for goats curd and you could even serve it with Dukkah crusted labne. Anyway give it a go and let me know how it turned out by posting in the chat.

*Please be careful! I actually took the top off my finger in a radish slicing exercise last week, so I have stopped being complacent. I don’t have a guard for my mandolin which is pretty silly - so I concentrated hard, please watch out 👍🏼🩸

Harissa Butter

140 g unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp harissa

1 tsp honey