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Saturday, June 28, 2014

Sunburst VegetableTartelettes

Nothing screams summer like feta, olive oil, basil, and vegetables bursting with sunshine.  All those things in a mini buckwheat crust tart, and you've got yourself something tasty and cute.  I'd always gone for the "normal" sized pie before, but it is more complicated to eat as finger food, and every slice is exactly the same.  The advantage of making tartelettes is that you can customize some of them.  I added tahini and lemon to some, went all zucchini or all tomato in another, and mixed everything in the rest.
Oh and did I mention there is eggplant happening tonight?
Ooo I hope nobody's hungry tonight so I can eat them all!
I had originally intended to make this mini quiches, but then had this marvelous idea to make deviled eggs with dill and capers alongside the tartelettes.. which would mean too much egg in one sitting.  I'm quite happy to have made these all veg.  The creamy eggplant just melts into all the nooks and crannies in a way that satisfies me so.
Unfortunately, I completely failed my deviled eggs... having missed my friday morning market (since I was out of town) I bought "other" eggs that were much much bigger and so I messed up the cooking time.  I steamed them for 8 minutes, but instead of hard boiling, they were soft boiled, and completely unusable for my deviled eggs.. so now I have a 6 egg sort of cucumber caper dill dressing just sitting in a tupperware...really pissed off.
Anyway, the tartelettes were enough to fill the guests, who didn't even notice half of the happy hour plan went down the drain, which is always a victory.
Yield 12-14 mini tarts (almost bite sized)
Ingredients
For the Buckwheat Shortcrust:
125g (4.4oz) buckwheat flour
125g (4.4oz) whole wheat flour
100g (3.5oz) room temperature butter
1 Tbsp yeast extract (non active)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp thyme
1 egg yolk
approximately 5 cL water
use the method, then divide into the number of tarts you want to make

For the Filling:
1 spirelli'd zucchini
1 medium eggplant, cubed
2 chopped tomatoes
2 loves garlic, minced
handful chopped basil
about 1 Tbsp crumbled feta per tartelette
random squeezes of lemon
few random tablespoons tahini
few pinches fleur de sel
couple grinds of black pepper
some olive oil

Directions
1.  Season the vegetables separately with some fleur de sel, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.  Squeeze some lemon juice on the eggplant as well.
2.  Find whatever moulds you can to make a small enough sized tartelette.  I used silicone muffin moulds and then some cookie cutters and then some flat round dish I found.  You can also be a normal person and use tartelette tins.  Press the dough into each mould.  Do not precook the dough.
3.  In each mould, place a bit of basil, garlic, and then whatever order of veggie you want.  I made some with a zucchini contour and tomato and eggplant center, covered with feta and drizzled with olive oil.  In others I did eggplant with a bit of tahini, lemon, feta, and olive oil.  In another, only tomato, in another, only zucchini.. etc.  Fill each mould completely and press everything in so it is nicely packed.
4.  Bake at 180°C 350°F for about 1 hour, then remove and let cool at least 15 minutes.

These almost bite-sized little wonders are the definition of summer.. especially with that light crunchy buckwheat crust that makes them so easy to pop you just can't stop!
Welcome to the beginning of Summer.
I don't know why but I feel this one is going to be spiritually memorable...

1 comment:

  1. La Spiritualité est la nourriture de l'Âme , votre Gastronomie est celle du Coeur...

    ReplyDelete