FRIDAYS WITH DASH: TOMATO, ROASTED GARLIC AND QUARK CHEESE TART

Sibling rivalry has kicked in with all kinds of screaming, punching, and drama queening. Often, hanging with both Dash and Bella is so intense that I just want to hustle them to bed as quickly as possible. I'm craving time alone with each of them. Bella and I have been going out on dates to fancy dinners without Dash. Last week we sat at the bar of a very popular local restaurant called Wood Tavern. In between bites of burrata and roasted peaches, we talked about second grade, the San Francisco Giants, Silly Bandz, and what life would be like without Dash (she decided she wants to keep him around). It was dreamy.

This year Dash is in school every day but Friday. So Friday's our day. No school. No Bella. Just the two of us.  I'm hoping to do a series of posts called "Fridays with Dash" in which we do a new recipe together every week. Or maybe every other week.

From the back of the car last week, Dash announced, "We have to pass through ALL the cafés to get to school."

Dash's relationship with Berkeley is like a Chutes and Ladders board paved with cafés.

I don't know what kind of drugs you all did in high school, but I skipped class to do lattes. This early addiction lingers and I'm a much better mom when I'm caffeinated. Dash is psyched to go to a café every morning because he always scores a pastry. He went through a cheese danish phase, a pumpkin bread phase, and now he always wants cheese bread from The Cheese Board. Last week, we were lucky enough to get a table next to the cheese counter.

"Holy shit, look at the cheese!" I shouldn't open my mouth before I've had a full cup of coffee.

"Holy SHIT, Mama? Why?" asked Dash.

"Holy cow, Dash. Holy guacamole. The cheese is just so beautiful."

We left The Cheese Board with a tub of quark cheese (fresh cow's milk cheese made from sour milk). I was hoping to combine it in some killer way with the huge pile of tomatoes we had just picked with my parents over the weekend. Actually, my kids picked 3 tomatoes and my parents picked 103.

Dash and Bella jumped around gathering baskets, gloves, and clippers, but their enthusiasm was short-lived. "No farmer is she," said my dad as Bella harvested two tomatoes before complaining of the heat. Harry Potter was calling.

Dash, red-faced and sighing, heaved and hoed a bit longer than Bella.

So it's Friday and we're in the kitchen. I have quark and all the picked tomatoes and I think there might be some sort of tart to be made. When I'm trying to figure out a recipe I wander around the kitchen talking to myself. Fortunately, Dash is listening to my ramblings. "Put garlic in the tart, Mama."

So I roast a whole head of garlic. When it's soft, sweet, and caramelized, I whip it up with the quark, an egg, and some cream. Dash slurps a bunch of the mixture up like a milkshake.

 

We par-bake the tart shell, seal the bottom with a layer of mustard, and then Dash fills the tart shell with the quark mixture. He gently puts down overlapping concentric circles of heirloom tomatoes slices. 

And then Dash can't contain himself anymore so he smooshes some tomato slices between his fingers and throws them onto the tart.

"Dude!!! What a mess. Are you a big boy or a baby?"

He thinks about it for a moment and then says calmly, "I'm not a baby anymore. I broke my baby size."

 "Well, If you broke your baby size then you be a big boy and help me fix the tart."

And he does. 

THOUGHTS AND VARIATIONS:

1. I chose not to squeeze out some liquid from the tomatoes. I just didn't want to lose all the wonderful flavor. It's a very moist tart but I found that most of the liquid was reabsorbed back into the cheese base and the crust once it was done. You can certainly halve the tomatoes, scoop and squeeze out some liquid and seeds, and then slice them up.

2. Any kind of dough works for this tart. I used puff pastry once and shortcrust pastry dough another time. We're trying pizza dough tomorrow. On a pizza I would recommend slicing the tomatoes very thinly because the dough requires less cooking time. Not need to pre-bake the pizza dough.

3. Replace the quark cheese with goat cheese. Or make your own quark.

4. Top the tart with a combination of cheeses: parmesan, gruyere, piave, and/or pecorino.

5. Add niçoise or lucques olives.

6. Mix fresh herb in with the quark mixture. Or just sprinkle fresh herbs on top before or after cooking.

7. Add caramelized onions.

8. Add strips of anchovy.

HEIRLOOM TOMATO, ROASTED GARLIC, AND QUARK TART

printable recipe

If you use my recipe for shortcrust pastry dough, do the variation that involves adding the butter in 2 batches.

a recipe for shortcut pastry dough OR store-bought puff pastry

1 head garlic

1 egg

8 ounces quark

4 tablespoons heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons dijon mustard

6-8 heirloom tomatoes, cored and sliced about 1/2" thick (they will look prettier if you do horizontal slices, from the stem end to the bottom)

salt and pepper

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Make shortcut pastry dough and refrigerate for a few hours. Or remove puff pastry from the freezer about an hour before you're going to make the tart. Preheat oven to 375° F. Cut the tiniest bit of the tips off of the garlic cloves from the non-stem end. Rub exposed cloves with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Wrap in tin foil, put it in a dish, and bake until garlic is soft. This should take 45 minutes to an hour. Check often to make sure it's not burning. Set aside to cool.

Keep oven at 375° F. Roll out dough and press into a 10 or 12 inch pie plate. Bake off for 10-15 minutes until just beginning set. Remove from the oven and cool for a few minutes.

Squeeze roasted garlic (it can still be warm just not hot) into the bowl of a standing mixer. Add egg, quark, heavy cream, and salt. Beat with mixer until smooth (or mix by hand). 

Spread mustard over the bottom of the pre-baked tart shell. Evenly spread (or pour depending on consistency) quark mixture on top of that. Arrange the tomato slices in overlapping concentric circles on top of the quark mixture. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top of the tomato slices. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top of the tart. Bake. Lots of moisture seeps out of the tomatoes during the first 30 minutes. Don't worry.  It will seep back into the tart. Remove the tart when it's nicely browned. This takes anywhere from 45-60 minutes. You can place it under the broiler for a minute or 2 at the end to get the desired color. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes before serving.

MULTI-USE FETA PESTO

Here's a challenge: come up with a simple recipe that tastes good enough on its own but at the same time can be a component in many different recipes. I tried to do this by making Chunky Pesto with Feta, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Parsley, and Pine Nuts. I used it successfully in four different dishes. Plus I just scooped it out of the jar and ate it by itself. It's a deconstructed pesto in that you don't blend it. When you dump the hot pine nuts on top of the cheese mixture they sizzle like sizzling rice soup. Here are the four ways we used it:

1. On grilled bread.

2. Mixed in with pasta.

3. Served over roast chicken.

4. In a root vegetable tart.

The grilled bread and pasta dishes are straightforward (see below for simple recipes). And it is great as a topping on almost any meat. Here's the story of how the pesto ended up in a tart.

Because of our Full Belly Farm CSA box, I always have a big bin of root vegetables. Last week I had carrots, turnips, parsnips, onions, and delicata squash. I was in the mood to cut vegetables. I ended up with a huge pile of vegetables and no idea what to do with them. I figured I'd better cook them so I threw them all on a sheet pan with some unpeeled garlic cloves, herbs, salt, pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. I cranked the heat up to 425°F. About halfway through the cooking time I pulled the tray out of the oven to check on the vegetables and Dash asked, "That for a tart? Yummy tart." Great idea. So we made our first tart of the decade.

It might have been good with just the vegetables, but I was worried it would be a bit dry. Plus, I wanted it to be more of a meal instead of a side dish.  I had a big jar of chunky feta pesto that I'd made the day before. Dash smeared the bottom of the tart shell with the pesto. Then he scooped on the partially roasted vegetables.

He grated lots of parmesan cheese on top.  I told Dash he owed me a dollar because he bit off the ENTIRE tip of the parmesan cheese. He went and got me some plastic money and apologized.

Before baking the tart we made a little pile of roast garlic in the center.

"That's my tart. MY tart." said Dash.

RECIPES:

CHUNKY PESTO WITH FETA, SUN DRIED TOMATOES, PARSLEY, AND PINE NUTS printable recipe

(makes 2 cups)

-1 1/4 cups crumbled feta cheese

-10 sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped

-handful of parsley leaves, roughly chopped

-3 tablespoons olive oil

-1/2 clove garlic, minced or pressed or grated

-juice and zest from 1/2 lemon

-big pinch of salt

-a few turns of pepper

-1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted and hot 

In a bowl, mix together feta cheese, sun dried tomatoes, parsley, olive oil, garlic, lemon zest/juice, salt and pepper.  Toast pine nuts in the oven or in a pan on the stove until they smell nutty and are lightly browned. Mix hot nuts in with the cheese mixture. Taste for seasoning. Let it sit for a minute and then taste again.

4 THINGS TO DO WITH CHUNKY PESTO:

1. GRILLED BREAD WITH CHUNKY PESTO

printable recipe

-sliced bread

-garlic clove, peeled and whole

-chunky pesto

-olive oil

-crunchy salt

Toast or grill the bread. When it's still hot rub the garlic clove all over one side of each slice. The garlic will almost melt into the bread. Top with pesto, olive oil, and salt.

2. PASTA WITH CHUNKY PESTO

printable recipe

(serves 2)

-1 cup of chunky pesto

-1/2 teaspoon salt 

-1/2 pound  of pasta

-parmesan

-1/2 cup reserved pasta water

Place pesto in a large bowl. Bring large pot of water to a boil.  Add salt. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Reserve a mug of the pasta water before draining the pasta. Pour drained pasta over pesto. Add a tablespoon of the pasta water. Mix. If it's too dry add more pasta water and mix again. Grate parmesan cheese on top. Eat right away.

3. AS A TOPPING FOR CHICKEN, LAMB, OR STEAK

4. ROOT VEGETABLE TART WITH CHUNKY PESTO 

printable recipe

Many root vegetables have different cooking times. Don't worry about this. It's actually nice to have different textures in this tart. Use an 8, 9, or 10 inch tart pan. This tart would also be really good on puff pastry (easier too if store bought). My great chef friend Michael just let me know that the skin on late season delicata squash can be very tough -- use at your own risk or peel it to be safe. September/October/November delicata should be fine with the skin on.

-1 1/2 cups chunky pesto

-1 recipe basic shortcrust pastry dough (read here for tips), disc refrigerated 

-any combination of root vegetables including: delicata squash (skin on), carrots, turnips, parsnips, onions, spring onions, shallots -- (about 4 cups vegetables total)

-10 cloves garlic

-4 tablespoons olive oil

-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

-2 springs thyme

-1 sprig rosemary

-salt

-pepper

-parmesan

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Peel the vegetables (unless it's delicata squash). Chop up vegetables into chunks that are approximately the same size (about the size of a quarter). Peel and slice the onions or shallots if using them. Leave the garlic unpeeled. Toss everything together on a sheet pan. Drizzle over some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add herbs and season generously with salt and pepper. Toss again until all vegetables are coated. Roast in the oven until vegetables are just getting tender but not mushy. Toss them around every 15 minutes or so. It's okay for them to caramelize and get crispy, maybe even the tips will burn a bit. This will take 30-40 minutes.

Meanwhile, roll out pastry dough, press into a 9 inch tart pan. Trim or press off edges. Refrigerate.

Once the vegetables are out of the oven, turn it down to 350°F. When oven temperature has dropped, bake tart shell until it just starts to smell nutty and buttery (about 10-12 minutes). Remove from oven. Leave oven on. If your children are assembling the tart let it cool for a few minutes (otherwise go right ahead with the hot shell). Spread pesto evenly all over the bottom of the shell. Place partially roasted vegetables on top of the pesto. Put all the roasted garlic cloves in a pile in the center. Grate lots of parmesan all over the top of the tart. Bake for 30 minutes or so until the cheese and the tart shell are nicely browned.

RECIPE COUNTDOWN TO 2010: NUMBER 1 PLUS HAPPY NEW YEAR

Phew! I made it. HAPPY NEW YEAR.

When I told a friend 2 weeks ago that I was going to try to do a post a day until the end of the year she looked a little concerned. "Seems like a lot of work," she said. "Oh, it will be fun." I said. They will all be short."

I would like to thank Yo Gabba Gabba!, Max and Ruby, The Sound of Music, and my husband for giving me the time to do these posts.

In doing this mad recipe dash to the new year I stumbled a bit...

1. I left the sugar out of the sugar cookie recipe and put too much butter in the shortcrust recipe.

2. I stayed up until 1 am working on the shortcrust pastry post.

3. I had to get up at 5 am the morning after the shortcrust pastry post AND be a nice parent.

4. Two days ago I was officially sick of cooking. So I ate frozen pizza. But by the morning I was ready to make a pie.

5. My husband told me (lovingly) I was becoming an obsessive blogger.

On the other hand...

1. I am getting faster at putting a story together.
2. Recipes are flowing more easily now.
3. I have many new recipes that I can now call my own. Satisfying to own a recipe. Who knew?
4. Dash still asks me every morning, "What we gonna cook today?"

It really means a lot that you all are reading, commenting, trying the recipes, and giving me feedback. It feels like it is all adding up to something. Thank you.  See you in a week or so with Bella's three-tiered birthday cake. She is designing it as we speak.

Here's the list of recipes from the Recipe Countdown to 2010 in case you missed one.

10: Vanilla Bean Marshmallows

9: Caramelized Sweet Potato Tart

8: Grilled Cotswold Cheese Sandwich with Cilantro-Parsley Pesto

7: Squash and Carrot Soup

6: Cremini Mushroom Salad with Asparagus, Aged Gouda and Lemon Vinaigrette

5: Shortcrust Pastry

4: Vanilla Bean Refrigerator Cookies

3: Chanterelle and Gruyere Tart

2: Iceberg Wedge Salad with Buttermilk Roquefort Dressing

AND...

NUMBER 1: LAMB PIE

We made this pie several times over the past few weeks. Dash likes to help assemble it. We put slices of cheddar cheese directly beneath the top crust.

Make sure you use a deep pie or cake pan. Let your kids decorate the top of the pie with scraps. Here are two of the pies we made this month. You could also do mini pies in ramekins.

All the components for this pie freeze really well. You can freeze the pastry dough and the cooled lamb filling. You can even half-bake the pie, cool it, and then freeze it. Or make a shepherd's pie by omitting the pastry dough and spreading mashed potatoes on top of the filling. Bake until potatoes are golden brown.

We've put yogurt and pomegranates on everything this winter— from stews to curries to pies. There's something wonderful about the cool and sour yogurt with the sweet explosive pomegranate seeds. Our dog agreed.

LAMB PIE: printable recipe 

Use a deep pie plate or cake pan that's around 9 inches.

for the shortcrust pastry (check out tips):

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons butter, cut into small chunks and very cold
6-12 tablespoons ice water 

for the filling:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 pound ground lamb
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 bay leaf

1 can (14.5 ounces) of diced tomatoes in their juices
1 cup frozen peas

8 slices of sharp cheddar cheese (or enough to cover filling)
1 egg

1 tablespoon heavy cream or half and half 

for the dough:

Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Cut butter into 1/2 inch square chunks and toss into dry ingredients. With your fingers or a pastry cutter, incorporate the butter into the flour mixture until the butter chunks are the size of peas. Add half the cold water and mix it in with a fork. Add more water if you need to, enough so that when you squeeze the mixture in your fingers it's just moist enough to form a dough. Split mixture into 2 piles on 2 large pieces of plastic wrap. Use the sides of the plastic wrap to press each pile of dough into a 1 inch high disc. Wrap tightly and refrigerate for at least an hour before rolling them out.

Roll out one disc of dough until it's a bit bigger than your pie dish. Place shell in dish firmly (leave edges untrimmed for now) and put it the fridge. Roll out the other piece of dough until it's about the same size. Place on a sheet pan in the fridge until your filling is ready. Cover the dough with plastic wrap if it's going to be more than an hour.

for the filling:

Heat large saucepan over medium heat. Drizzle in olive oil. Add onion. Add salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes until onions are translucent. Press or grate in garlic and cook for one minute stirring constantly. Add ground lamb and break it apart with a wooden spoon. Cook while stirring until lamb is no longer pink (about 5 minutes). Add tomato paste, cumin, cinnamon, paprika, and bay leaf.  Cook for about 20 minutes to bring the flavors together and to reduce down the liquid. Remove the bay leaf. Turn off the heat and stir in the frozen peas. You can let it cool all the way and put in the refrigerator or freezer until later or bake the pie right away. The filling doesn't have to be cool when you bake the tart.

assembly:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Remove pie pan from fridge. Pour lamb filling into the shell. Place cheddar slices all over the top of the filling. Place rolled out pie shell on top of the filling and cheese. Pinch the top and bottom shells together with your fingers or a fork. You can make scalloped edges with your thumb. You can even put a fancy pattern on top of the dough with the dough scraps. Whisk egg with cream or half and half. Paint the top of the pie with a thin layer of the egg mixture. Slice a few decorative holes on top of the pie for steam to escape. Bake until golden brown and bubbling, about 60-75 minutes.

Serve just the way it is. Or serve with yogurt and pomegranate seeds.

Variations:

1. Make mini pies in ramekins.

2. To make shepherd's pie: omit pastry crust and instead cover the cheese and lamb filling with mashed potatoes. Bake until potatoes are golden brown.

RECIPE COUNTDOWN TO 2010: NUMBER 3

NUMBER 3: CHANTERELLE AND GRUYERE TART

My brother gave my parents and me a huge basket of chanterelles mushrooms for Christmas. He has some secret spot in the hills of Berkeley where he finds them. I used to worry that he might kill us all with some bogus mushrooms. But I've grown up and now I trust him. After all, he eats them every year with his friends. And with my parents. And no one has ever gotten sick. Turns out he is an expert forager.

My brother cooks his chanterelles the same way every year and he challenged us to do something different. I've never cooked chanterelles. For some reason gruyère cheese kept popping into my head. It was down to a lasagna or a tart. My mom and I decided to collaborate on a tart.

Dash and I looked at each mushroom close up. He couldn't believe how dirty they were.

Three things I learned from my mom and brother about chanterelles mushrooms:

1. To clean them just do a quick dunk in water, a brush off with the vegetable brush, and then a speedy final rinse. Dry them really well. Never soak the mushrooms.

2. Instead of chopping chanterelles you can tear them very easily along their vertical seams. 

3. Tons of liquid comes out when they're first heated up. You can do a dry sauté or a sauté in oil and onions like we did. Just take the time to let the liquid come out. You can set the mushroom broth aside and use it for risotto or soup. Or you can just reduce it down.

My brother took his first bite of the tart and looked ecstatic. After his third bite he said he thought it was so good that he might cry. Keep in mind that my brother has a new baby and he is sleep deprived. But still, I think this tart was out of this world delicious.

CHANTERELLE AND GRUYERE TART: printable recipe

Inspired by "Cozy Comfort Food" published by Sunset Magazine in 2009. 
Don't soak the mushrooms in water to clean them. They just need a quick dip in the water, a brush off with the vegetable brush, and a speedy final rinse. Dry them very well.


Ingredients

shortcrust pastry (check out tips):

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (one stick), very cold and cut into 1/4 inch square chunks

3-6 tablespoons ice water 

filling:

3 tablespoons butter

2 leeks, cleaned and thinly sliced

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1 pound chanterelles mushrooms (cleaned and dried), pulled apart at vertical seams or sliced into 1/2 inch pieces

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1-2 tablespoons madeira, sherry or dry port 

1 teaspoon salt 

pepper to taste

1 cup gruyere cheese, grated

½ cup parmesan cheese, grated

2 tablespoons whipping cream 

Directions

for the pastry:

Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Cut butter into 1/2 inch square chunks and toss into dry ingredients. With your fingers or a pastry cutter, incorporate the butter into the flour mixture until the butter chunks are the size of peas. Add half the cold water and mix it in with a fork. Add more water if you need to, enough so that when you squeeze the mixture in your fingers it's just moist enough to form a dough. Pour dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Use the sides of the plastic wrap to press the dough into a disc. Wrap tightly and refrigerate for at least an hour before rolling it out.  

Set oven for 375º F. Lightly flour a work surface and roll the dough into a 12 inch round.  Place into a 9 1/2 inch tart shell and press off the edges. Cook the shell for 20-30 minutes until golden. 

for the filling: 
Sauté the leeks and onion in the butter until soft, about 3 minutes.  Turn heat to high and add the mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms have given off their liquid, 5-10 minutes. Stir in the thyme, alcohol, salt, and pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Take off the heat. 

assembly:

Spread half the grated gruyere over the bottom of the pre-baked tart shell. Spread the mushroom filling on top of the cheese and then add then sprinkle the remaining gruyere and the parmesan cheese on top of the filling. Drizzle the cream over the top of the tart. Bake until the cheese is melted and golden, about 25-35 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

RECIPE COUNTDOWN TO 2010: NUMBER 5

NUMBER 5: SHORTCRUST PASTRY

Tomorrow I'm going to post recipes for lamb pie and chanterelles tart. But first I thought I'd talk a bit about shortcrust pastry. You can buy a frozen tart shell at the supermarket. Often they are quite good. But if you have time to do one at home it's pretty straightforward.

Kids love dough. Even when it's just flour, salt, butter, and water. It's just like working with clay. And it tastes so much better. Give your kids the scraps to taste and use to make their own mini-tarts. Last week Dash and Bella did one with strawberry jam.

For the first time in (almost) 40 years I can make shortcrust pastry dough for a tart, galette, or pie without referring to a recipe. I have my own recipe. A template. Very satisfying. I might add cornmeal and pepper to one or vanilla and lemon zest to another.  But it's basically the same each time. Here's a bit of what I've learned.

TIPS:
1. When you first start making this dough you'll learn more if you do it by hand. It's hard to overmix when you're doing it by hand. I can't tell you how many times I've over-pulsed dough with the Cuisinart. It's really hard to see what's going on in there. Get your hands into the dough instead.
2. To incorporate the butter into the flour mixture you need to squeeze the butter and flour between your fingers quite vigorously, as if you're trying to snap your fingers.
3. Use very cold butter and liquid.
4. Make the dough ahead of time so that it can chill in the fridge for at least an hour before you roll it out.

STEPS:
1. Combine the dry ingredients.
 2. Cut the cold butter into 1/2 inch square chunks. Mix in the butter until the dough looks like coarse cornmeal with pea-sized chunks.
 3. Add some of the cold liquid. Lightly mix with your fingers or a fork.  Press a bit of the dough together between your fingers. You want it to just come together into a dough. Add more liquid if it's too dry.

4. Place onto a long piece of plastic wrap and use the sides of the plastic wrap to press the dough together and flatten into a disc. Look closely. You want to see chunks of butter.

5. Chill for at least an hour. Roll out using lots of flour on the board and rolling pin. Press into a tart pan, pie pan, or place flat onto a sheet pan for a galette.

VARIATIONS:

Once you get comfortable making this recipe you can play around a bit by adding the butter in 2 batches. Add the first half of butter to the flour mixture and mix until it looks like coarse cornmeal. Add second half of butter and mix it in until second half of butter looks like large peas. This makes the dough tender and flaky at the same time. Proceed with steps 4 and 5.

Play with adding different flavors depending on the filling. To the flour you could add: salt, pepper, lemon zest, cinnamon, sugar or cornmeal. You could replace some of the cold liquid with: milk, cream, vanilla, lemon juice, or orange juice.

BASIC SHORTCRUST PASTRY RECIPE:  
This works well for any recipe that calls for tart, double-crust pie, or galette dough. Just double the recipe and split into 2 even discs for double-crust pie dough.  It freezes really well for months.

printable recipe

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (one stick), cut into small chunks and very cold

3-6 tablespoons ice water

Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Cut butter into 1/2 inch square chunks and toss into dry ingredients. With your fingers or a pastry cutter, incorporate the butter into the flour mixture until the butter chunks are the size of peas. Add half the cold water and mix it in with a fork. Add more water if you need to, enough so that when you squeeze the mixture in your fingers it's just moist enough to form a dough. Pour dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Use the sides of the plastic wrap to press the dough into a disc. Wrap tightly and refrigerate for at least an hour before rolling it out.

TWO INTO ONE

When I worked in restaurants I often cornered chefs and asked them endless questions. I was young and very new to restaurant cooking. I was a bit of a pest. I wanted hard and fast cooking rules. Their responses were often more poetic than practical.

Me: "How much salt should you put in the water when shocking vegetables?"

Chef: "Put enough salt in the water that it tastes like the ocean."

Me: "When is the lamb done?"

Chef: "When it just starts to feel like a woman's breasts. A bit springy."

Maybe a 25-year old's breasts.

Now that I'm starting to write my own recipes I'm realizing how hard it is to translate cooking into words. There are always exceptions and variations. Heat sources vary. It's hard to remember exactly what I did. What details should be included? History? Failed attempts? Seasonal obstacles? How the hell do you teach someone to cook without bogging them down with too much information?

The cookbook author Richard Olney (Simple French Food and The French Menu Cookbook) managed to beautifully, whimsically, and meticulously extract recipes out of home cook Lulu Peyraud's brain and hands. Their collaboration is a book called Lulu's Provençal Table. Lulu Peyraud was French. Her family made great wine (still does) in Bandol, France and year after year she cooked really good food for her family. We are fortunate to get a glimpse into her world because Olney happened to live near her family's winery, Domaine Tempier. They had many meals together. Olney spent two years collaborating with Peyraud on this cookbook. She cooked and talked. He wrote and asked questions. He took her culinary intuition, insight and experience and put it on the page. Olney was a culinary translator.

"To peel tomatoes, Lulu first strokes the skins with a small knife blade."

"Lulu figures that guinea fowl is about the only flesh she knows that is flattered by the aggressive presence of smoked bacon." 

There are four ingredients in the recipe for asparagus vinaigrette, but the recipe details take up two full pages. Turns out French asparagus is usually cut below the surface of the ground while American asparagus is often cut above the ground. To be tender enough, the stalks of French asparagus should be peeled quite a bit more. Did you know that large quantities of asparagus should be tied in bundles before being boiled "both for correct cooking and for an acceptable presentation"? Olney even describes how to tilt a plate in order to correctly dip the asparagus tip into the vinaigrette. (Dipping is allowed?) 

When Olney accused Peyraud of giving him different instructions from day-to-day for the same recipe she said, "Well sometimes I do it one way and sometimes another—both are good." Richard Olney was so good at expressing the fluidity and flexibility of Lulu Peyraud's cooking. His style of culinary translation has me thinking about recipes in a very different way.

While writing my next recipe maybe I'll start with the specific ingredients and then tell a story. And I've always liked the idea of encouraging cooks to stray from the recipe. I might start using more imagery—just as those chefs did with me when I was pestering them for information. A sponge cake is done when it springs back like a baby's belly. When sugar starts to caramelize it reminds me every time of cotton candy. Wait for that nutty smell when butter starts to brown.

Less about timing and precision. More about touch, smell, taste, and play. It's a good thing I'm cooking so much with kids these days because this is very much how two-year olds relate to food. They don't care how much flour goes in the bowl or how much time you need to bake the cookies. Tart dough is edible playdough. Clementines are like building blocks. It's always a combination of inspiration and frustration for all of us.

Dash's friend Lola came over last Saturday. Dash and Lola are both two. And both are a little more interested in Mr. Talking Cash Register than the tarts that I'm SO EXCITED to make. The plan is to cook a goat cheese tart for lunch and a sweet squash tart for dessert, both inspired by Lulu Peyraud's style of cooking.

First a lengthy snack of melon. They melon-ball it directly into their mouths, skipping the bowl entirely.

Then Dash and Lola play guns, swords, and guitars with rolling pins.

 

Dash shakes all the tart pans and finds his favorite. Lola grabs a very small toy knife and holds onto it until we're done cooking. It's her security knife.

I roll out the dough and they help press it into the pans. But I can see I'm losing them. Dash wants to go play trains. Lola just wants out. After a snack of some scraps and a little shadow puppetry on the tart dough, we release them.

Dandy, Lola's mom, skateboards off to get goat cheese. Yes, skateboards. She owns the skate shop 510 Skateboarding. Super cool mom.

While Dandy zips around the neighborhood, I bake the tart shell for 10 minutes. I don't know what Dash and Lola are doing in the other room. Classical music is blaring. All the toys are out. I usually watch Dash like a hawk because he tends to climb up onto windowsills, run with scissors, and collect sharpies from Bella's room. I blindly trust that everything will be fine. I'm hoping that Lola's calm demeanor will rub off on him.

Skateboarding momma returns and we throw the goat cheese, egg, and cream into the mixer.

We are all very hungry. This is when I decide I was crazy to think we could cook two tarts. So we combine the two tarts into one. We're now making a tart with goat cheese, squash, and winter greens.

I saute the onions, garlic, and squash. Lola removes the tender greens from the fibrous stalks and adds them to the squash mixture.

 

After painting the bottom of the tart shell with the goat cheese mixture, we spread on the warm squash and greens. Tons of parmesan over the top and into the oven. At this point I have no idea how it's going to turn out.

I make a quick fennel, orange and greens salad. Dandy doesn't like fennel. I sneak it in anyway, just sliced really thinly.

We sit down and have one delicious and very chaotic lunch. Dandy wonders what the yummy thin white vegetable is in the salad. I admit that it's fennel.

You know at the end of a cooking show when the host takes a bite of the finished dish and a little cheese drips down her chin, she pauses, looks at the camera and says, "Yum. Delicious. I wish YOU could taste this tart." The problem is I never believe her. It never sounds sincere.

I call Dandy a few days later to see what she thought of the tart. Without pausing she says,  "Delicious." You don't know Dandy but you should trust her. The tart kicked butt.

With cooking you move forward and then back. You change course. Just like writing. Every time I go to write down an ingredient I always want to give options and alternate paths. The trick is to cook like Lulu Peyraud and to write like Richard Olney. I'm not there yet, but I'm happy to say the tart we made the other day was born out of experience, intuition, chaos, spontaneity and a great CSA (community supported agriculture) box from Full Belly Farm.

P.S. Since we only made one tart with Lola, we have an extra tart shell. We freeze it. A few days later Dash and I make goat cheese and caramelized onion tart with olives and anchovies (my mom and I have been doing this combination for years). We use the same goat cheese filling that's in the squash and winter greens tart. Dash loves putting on all of the olives and "anchopeas."

 

DASH AND LOLA'S TART OF GOAT CHEESE, SQUASH, AND WINTER GREENS:
printable recipe
Inspired by Lulu's Provençal Table.
Feeds 4.

tart dough:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

pinch of salt

8 tablespoon (one stick) unsalted butter, very cold

3-4 tablespoons ice water

squash/greens topping:

olive oil

1 small winter squash (butternut, kabocha, or pumpkin work great), peeled and cored and chopped   into dime-sized chunks

1 small onion, diced

1 clove garlic

1 bunch of winter greens (chard, kale or collards), tender leaves only–use stalks for something else

grated parmesan
salt
pepper

cheese filling:

1 cup goat cheese, fresh not aged

1 egg

big pinch of salt

pepper

2 tablespoons cream or half and half

Make the tart dough at least an hour, preferably several hours before you need it. You can do it by hand or in a food processor. Mix together flour and salt. Cut in butter (with fingers, pastry cutter, two knives, or food processor). Stop when the butter pieces are about the size of peas. Add half of the water (leaving ice cubes behind) and pulse two times with the food processor. If you're doing it by hand just mix a bit with a fork. It should start to look a bit stringy in places with some dry patches. Add a bit more water if it looks more dry than stringy. Pulse or mix again. Dump loose dough onto a big piece of plastic wrap. Don't touch it anymore with your hands. Press the dough together into a disc with the plastic wrap.  Don't overmix. Put it in the fridge for at least an hour. If I'm in a hurry I'll put it in the freezer for 45 minutes.

Roll the dough out and press into any shape tart pan (I used a 9-inch round).  Chill for another 20 minutes.  Preheat oven to 350°F. Cook tart shell until you start to smell it and it looks less moist, about 10 minutes. Keep oven on.

Drizzle a tablespoon or so of olive oil into a saute pan and add diced onion after about a minute. Saute until translucent. Turn down to low. Grate (or thinly slice or press) in the garlic. Stir until you smell nutty garlic smell (less than a minute). Stir in the squash. Put a lid on and cook until squash is just tender. Check it every 5 minutes or so. It cooks very fast. Toss in the winter greens, season with salt and pepper, and put the lid back on. Turn off the heat. Leave for a few minutes to wilt. Stir and taste. Add more salt and pepper if necessary.

By hand or with any kind of mixer, cream together the goat cheese, egg, cream, salt, and pepper until light and smooth (3 minutes or so).

Evenly spread goat cheese mixture over the bottom of the tart shell (when the tart shell is a little warm it's even easier to spread because it melts a little bit). Place squash mixture on top of the goat cheese (it's ok if it's still warm). Spread it carefully and evenly to prevent the top and bottom layers from mixing. Grate tons of parmesan on top. Cooking time will vary anywhere from about 30-50 minutes. Check it often and take it out when the goat cheese is set and parmesan is golden brown. Careful not to overcook it. It will continue to set once it's out of the oven.

Variations: Except for the tart dough, there is a lot of flexibility with the ingredients.

• Mix two different kinds of cheese (blue and goat OR ricotta and quark).
• Use potatoes instead of squash. 
• Do 8 mini tarts instead of 1 big one. 
• Top the cheese filling with caramelized onions, anchovies and niçoise olives (my mom and I have been doing this combination for years). It's like a very rich pissaladière. I will do an entire post on caramelized onions sometime soon. If you want some good tips right away buy Lulu's Provençal Table and check out her pissaladière recipe.