Leek Tart - a case for poireaux!

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I am the picnic’s most dedicated fan. I’ve been known to picnic in rain and snow. The weather doesn’t matter so long as I have a beautiful view, a dry place to sit and something delicious to eat.

A leek tart is perfect picnic food!

Excellent picnics have included:

·                    Glendalough in Co. Wicklow – bypass ‘picnic central’ near the car parks... try not to get distracted by picnic envy... there’s a thousand wonderful meals covering the wooden outdoor tables and spicy barbeque aromas rise into the air to tantalise... keep walking... find spot near lake... lay out picnic blanket. Eat, relax, sigh, and think “heaven!”

An unexpected companion at a recent picnic...

·                    Sittin' on the dock of the bay / Watching the tide roll away”, feet dangling in the water at the edge of Sausalito, with the obligatory ‘Californian’ on rye from a nearby Deli, a Coke and a smile.

Not a great day for a picnic but pretty view of Dalkey Island from Killiney Beach

·                    Hardboiled eggs washed down with red lemonade on Killiney beach, Co. Dublin, following a swim in cold, cold water with a view to rival the bay of Naples.

The best picnics are those shared. I wait with eager anticipation as the treasures concealed by picnic baskets are finally revealed and laid out on table or blanket ready to be handed around.

My favourite picnic items – apart from the obligatory nostalgia of hardboiled eggs dipped in sea salt – are pies and tarts. Sweet or savoury, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that they are simple and tasty - like this leek tart – or Tarte aux Poireaux if you want to get fancy. Crumbly pastry, rich savoury filling, great company - sunshine is optional. Buy decent ready-made pastry for even less effort, however the pastry given below is very well-behaved so even if you are a pastry virgin why not give it a whirl.

For 4 tarts you will need:

Shortcrust Pastry

110g plain flour

a pinch of salt

½ teaspoon paprika

75g butter

1 egg yolk

a little iced water

1                    Place the flour, salt, paprika and butter in a food mixer or processor and blitz until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.

2                    Add the egg yolk and as much iced water – a tablespoonful at a time - as it takes to bring the mixture together into a soft (but not sticky) ball of pastry.

3                    Flatten the pastry into a disc, cover and refrigerate while you make the filling.

Luscious leek filling

50g butter

450g finely shredded chopped leeks

4 egg yolks

200g crème fraiche or 200ml fresh cream

50g Gruyere cheese

½ teaspoon sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

a further 25g Gruyere cheese for sprinkling over the top

1                    Melt the butter in a large frying pan over a gentle heat. Add in the shredded chopped leeks. Stir to coat the leeks in the melted butter, then cover and leave to cook without colouring for about 10 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. When the leeks are meltingly tender, take them off the heat and transfer to a mixing bowl to cool.

2                    Meanwhile mix together the egg yolks, the crème fraiche or fresh cream, 50g Gruyere cheese and sprinkle in the salt and pepper.

3                    Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (350°F).

4                    Roll out the pastry to approximately the thickness of a 20c coin (GB 2p coin/USA 5c coin) and use to line 4 mini-quiche dishes or flan tins.

5                    Now add the eggy cheesy mixture to the cooled leeks, mixing well.

6                    Spoon the mixture into the pastry cases and sprinkle with the remaining 25g Gruyere.

7                    Bake in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes or until the mixture is light golden brown and the cheese has melted.

That’s tonight’s supper for two sorted! It’s going to be served warm with a green salad. The remaining two tarts will accompany me on a picnic tomorrow – even better served cold somewhere the view will add a little alchemy of its own.

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When Life Gives You Sausages, Make Sausage Rolls

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Sausage rolls - when they are good, they are very, very good... 

A couple of years ago, I was on my way to South Ann’s Street Post Office to mail an entry form for a competition. I was only about a hundred metres from my destination when I was stopped in my tracks by an almighty bang as a delivery lorry backed into one of the beautifully decorative street lamps.

The cast metal pole shattered on impact. The entire structure keeled over like a felled tree and I could feel the breeze as the whole weight of it whistled past about a metre from my face. Luckier still, it buried its massive lantern in a huge municipal flowerpot, which cushioned the impact and absorbed the glass as it shattered into smithereens. The driver leaned out the window, asked “Alright luv?”, and drove off at speed when he could see that he hadn’t flattened me. I think a whole lot of my good fortune was used up in one go as an astonishingly lucky streak came to an end for a couple of years.

I seem to be back on form now though. I entered a competition recently with a very attractive top prize of €3,000. All you had to do was come up with an idea for a new sausage to commemorate 30 years of stunningly good sausages from Irish supermarket, Superquinn. I came up with the all-in-one breakfast sausage, containing three important components of the legendary Full Irish Breakfast: black pudding, white pudding, and of course excellent sausage meat.

Can you believe it? I was the lucky winner of ... a year’s supply of sausages. Well when life gives you sausages, make sausage rolls.

For 12 delicious rolls you will need

... to pre-heat the oven to 180°C when you reach step 4

Pastry

165g (5oz) plain flour

a pinch of salt

75g (3oz) butter, from the fridge

75mls (3 fl oz) iced water

A small bowl of cold water for sealing the pastry

Egg wash

A little beaten egg mixed with a pinch of salt

Filling

12 good-quality pork sausages (chipolatas)

6 slices of air dried ham such as Prosciutto, Serano or Bayonne

Ready to rock and roll...

1    First make the pastry: put the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and grate in the butter. Rub the fat into the flour by lifting large pinches of the mixture and rub quickly between your thumbs and fingertips fingers, letting the mixture fall back into the bowl. You want to end up with a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs. (This can be done in a flash using a food processor or food mixer if you prefer, and in fact can give better results as warm hands can melt the fat resulting in a tough pastry.)

2.   Add the water a little at a time until the mixture comes together in a ball, leaving the sides of the bowl clean. Flatten the ball of pastry into a flat disc and wrap in clingfilm or a ziplock bag and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes while you make the filling.

3    Meanwhile prepare the filling: Cut each slice of ham into 2 long strips and wrap a strip around each sausage. Place in the fridge until the pastry has been chilled.

4.   When the pastry has been in the fridge for 30 minutes, place it on a lightly floured work surface and using a rolling pin, roll into a rectangle about the width of 3 sausages laid end to end, about 40cm in length and about 3mm thick - roughly the thickness of a euro coin. Now cut the pastry into 3 long even strips. Divide each of the strips into 4 equal pieces.

The Fall collection for the well dressed sausage...

5.   Taking one pastry piece, place a ham-wrapped sausage on the end nearest you, about 4cm from the edge of the pastry. Fold the nearest edge over the sausage and moisten the along the top with a little cold water. Roll the pastry over the sausage to enclose it and transfer to a non-stick baking tray, with the pastry join underneath. Repeat until you have used up all the sausages.

6.   Brush with beaten egg. Using a sharp knife, slash two or three diagonal cuts into the top of each roll.

7.   Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool a little before serving.

Tip

Leave the backing paper on the air dried ham and use a scissors to cut it into strips. Peel the backing paper off before wrapping the sausage in the ham.

If you like, you can freeze the sausage rolls once they have been assembled but before you have egg-washed them. When you want to use them, simple pre-heat the oven. Place the frozen sausage rolls on a baking tray and proceed from Step 6

Variation

For bite sized sausage rolls, cut each into 2 pieces before baking.

Replace the short-crust with a good-quality all-butter frozen puff pastry. Remove it from the freezer about 30 minutes before you need it.

Spread a ½ teaspoon of good quality tomato chutney underneath each sausage before enclosing in the pastry for a little added zing.

That’s a dozen sausages taken care of. Now for the other 820 ... anyone any bright ideas?

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