Another Tart...Lemon!

My auntie is visiting from Melbourne, and I told her I loved to bake. She asked me to bake something for her, specifically a lemon tart. So we spent some time looking for a recipe and found this one in Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion. There were a few difficulties, mainly with the pastry, and a small issue with putting in the filling. Anyway, this is the Lemon Tart recipe.

Ingredients:

Pastry- (you can buy some, or make your own like I did)

- 180g of unsalted butter

- 240g of plain flour (I didn't put enough in at first)

- a pinch of salt

- 3 tablespoons of water

- 24cm loose-based deep flan tin

Filling

- 3 large lemons

- 6 eggs

- 250g of caster sugar

- 200ml of cream

- icing sugar (to dust)

How To Make It:

Pastry

1. Remove butter from fridge at least 30 minutes before making the pastry

2. Sieve flour and salt onto a marble pastry slab or workbench (I was a bit unsure about this, but I used my kitchen bench, just cleaned it really well)

3. Chop butter into quite small pieces and, a few pieces at a time, toss through the flour

4. Lightly rub the butter pieces between your fingers, and keep tossing the flour through them

5. Bring all the mixture together, and make a well

6. Add the water into the well, and, using a pastry scraper, or a hard spatula, continually fold mixture to a rough heap

7. Using the heel of your hand, quickly push the mixture away across the bench from you (don't overwork it, but make sure it is combined)

8. Gather together in a small ball or a roll and cover in glad-wrap

9. Put in the fridge for 20 - 30 minutes to firm up a bit

10. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200˚C

11. Take pastry out, and dust your bench top, rolling pin and hands with flour

12. Roll out the pastry until it is about 5mm thick

13. Gently lay the pastry onto the tin, and lift up the sides so that they fold into the corners.

14. Cut off the edges, but leave about a centimetre of lee-way so that the pastry has room to shrink

15. Before putting the pastry into the oven, cover with baking paper, and use pie weights (or, in my case, I just covered it in rice) to weigh down the pastry

16. Put into the oven for about 20 minutes

Filling

17. Meanwhile, zest and juice lemons in a small bowl

18. In another, large, bowl mix together the eggs and sugar until well combined

19. Add the zest and juice and stir well

20. Add the cream and whisk well (make sure you use an actual whisk!)

21. Open the oven, and check the tart (don't take it out, make sure the middle is cooked as well),but leave the tart on the shelf to cool a little

22. Pull out the shelf, and ladle the mixture into the tart.

23. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until almost set.

24. Take out of oven, and cool in tin for at least 30 minutes before serving

25. Dust with icing sugar, and serve with thick cream

Very lemony, but very nice!

Chocolate Tart & Tandoori Kebabs!

I know I haven't posted anything for a while, but it's the holidays and all my routines are stuffed up because im too busy sleeping in and eating junk. Oh well! My Mum decided to invite my uncle over for dinner, and  used it as an excuse to do a lot of cooking. She asked me to help make a desert and some kebabs she chose, so for the desert I found a lovely-looking chocolate tart. Both of these recipes are from Coles magazines, the August issue (tart) and the September/October issue (kebabs). The kebabs are dead easy, but the tart is a little more challenging (well, for me anyway)

CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY TART
Ingredients
- 250g packet of Arnott's Choc Ripple Biscuits
- 125g of butter, melted
- 250g of dark eating chocolate, chopped
- 1/3 of a cup of thickened cream
- 125g butter, extra, chopped
- 2 eggs (all of the inside of the egg, obviously)
- 3 egg yolks (the orange bits, in case you forget!)
- 1/3 of a cup of caster sugar
- 2 tablespoons of strawberry jam (try to make sure it doesn't have too many chunks in it)
- 250g of strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced

How To Make It
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius or 160 degrees Celsius for fan-forced ovens
2. Grease a 24cm (base measurement) loose-based fluted tart tin, and then place on a baking tray (Mum gave me a flan tin and said 'it's the same thing!)
3.Process biscuits in a food processor until finely crushed (be careful with those food processors, I cut my finger on the blades!)
4. Add melted butter and process to combine
5. Transfer to prepared tin and use a spatula to spread and press over the base and side (it said to use a spatula, but I just used the back of a spoon)
6. Chill for 30 minutes (which should be enough time to do everything else)
7. Place chocolate, cream and extra butter in a medium saucepan
8. Stir over low heat for 2 minutes, or until the chocolate melts (keep stirring the chocolate or it will stick to the bottom of the saucepan)
9. Cool for 5 minutes
10. Meanwhile, use an electric mixer to beat the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl for 3 minutes or until thick and creamy
11. Gradually beat the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture
12. Pour into the biscuit base
13. Bake for 15 minutes, or until filling is just set (even though that part seemed the easiest, it was the part that I stuffed up the most. My tart was in the oven for 40 minutes, instead of 15. But that may have been because it was on the bottom shelf and was sharing the oven with a big pot of curry)
14. Cool for 15 minutes, and then chill for 2 hours or until firm.
15. Place jam in a small heatproof jug/bowl with 2 teaspoons of water (this step can be done just before you take the tart out of the fridge, or whilst it is in the fridge. If you do it while the tart is in the fridge, make sure you reheat the jam to make it liquidy again)
16. Microwave in high for 20 seconds or until jam melts(i just realised that i didn't add any water. Whoops!)
17. Strain and cool for 2 minutes
18. Arrange strawberry slices on tart, and brush with jam

Ended up better than I expected!!!!

So the tart wasn't as hard as i thought it would be, and there were quite a few mistakes, along with some blood loss, but it ended up really well, and everyone enjoyed it, I think!

TANDOORI CHICKEN SKEWERS WITH HERB DIP & PICKLED ONIONS

Ingredients

- 1 small red onion, very thinly sliced

- 1 1/2 tablespoons of lime juice

- 1 1/3 cups of light Greek yoghurt

- 2 tablespoons of Tandoori Paste

- 1 kg of chicken thigh, trimmed and cut into 3cm pieces (3cm? does it matter? probably)

- 1 cup of coriander sprigs

- 1/4 of a cup of mint leaves

- 2 garlic cloves, crushed

- 1 long green chilli, chopped

How To Make It

1. Place onion and 2 teaspoons of lime juice in a glass bowl (make sure it is glass, otherwise it is bad for the pickling process)

2. Season with salt and then cover and stand for an hour

3. Meanwhile, combine 1 cup of the yoghurt and all the Tandoori paste in a large bowl

4. Add chicken and toss to coat (I really enjoyed 'tossing' the chicken)

5. Thread onto skewers, and place in the fridge to marinate for at least 15 minutes

6. Process the coriander, mint, garlic, chilli and remaining lime juice in s food processor until smooth ( mum did this part because i was trying not to bleed into the food)

7. Heat a barbecue or chargrill on medium

8. Cook chicken, turning, for 10 minutes or until cooked and lightly charred 

9. Serve with dip and onion

The skewers were beautiful and were my favourite bit of dinner, if I say so myself :)

Enjoy!