Pissaladière

Sorry for the short interruption in posting. Mr. Stripey Cat has been here and very sadly the poor old Black Cat has died. We've been a bit quiet and miserable.

This pissaladière is a variation on tradition, the well known version from Southern France includes anchovies, olives and sometimes capers on the onion topping. This one has mushrooms and some strips of roasted red pepper for garnish. It also forms another entry in my informal series of 101 things to do with a sheet of ready rolled puff pastry.

Chop plenty of onions, any sort will do and cook very gently in plenty of olive oil and a good grinding of black pepper until they are very soft and beginning to turn golden. Stir in some fresh thyme leaves stripped from their woody stalks. Remove the mixture from the pan and set aside to cool. In the same pan quickly fry off some fresh white mushrooms so that they take on a golden glow and lose a little of their moisture.

On a greased baking sheet, unroll your puff pastry. Spread the onions over it to within 25mm of the edge. Top with mushrooms. I used some lemon thyme for herby seasoning and it was o.k. but I think I'd stick to the more usual form in future.

Decorate with thin strips of roasted red pepper. If you have none you can lightly fry off strips of a fresh one before starting assembly.

Cook at about 200C for 25 minutes until puffed and golden. Serve with a green salad and a good chilled rosé.

Quiche?

This is the story of a failure, or was it a near miss? Either way, it didn't really do what I wanted it to do. It was nothing like a quiche but I suppose as a savoury tart for a change of pace meal it might yet have a place in the repetoire, although a few elements still require attention.



The recipe follows. If you make it as written it will be o.k. for supper but don't serve to those you would hope to impress.

The Pastry:

This is an olive oil based mix using a fine wholemeal chapatti flour;
265g flour
100g olive oil
90ml cold water

Put all the ingredients into the food processor and pulse until they turn to rubble. Then gather up the bits and form into a flattened ball by hand. Rest the dough for 30 minutes.

Roll out between two pieces of parchment or grease proof paper. This quantity is sufficient for a 22cm /9 inch flan. Bake blind for 20 minutes at 220C.

The Filling:

There are various tofu substitutes for eggy, cheesey mixtures around. This one is no better than most.

1 cube silken tofu- 340g
100g soya yoghurt
45g cornflour
30g tahini
12-15g nutritional yeast flakes
pinch celery seed
pinch ground turmeric

Put all these into the food processor and process to a smooth texture. I think I would add a little extra fat to this next time, but the whole thing is pretty calorific as it is. I put too much turmeric in, it's just a touch too yellow.

Fry off a medium onion in 10g olive oil and add 120g frozen broad beans or other veg of your choice. Season with some finely chopped rosemary and half a teaspoon of smoked paprika. When the beans are hot remove the mixture to a clean bowl and allow to cool.

Toast 40g of pine nut kernels until just browned and fragrant. Reserve in a separate bowl.

When the case has finished blind baking, arrange the onion and bean mixture in the bottom, cover with the tofu mixture, smooth the top and sprinkle the pine nuts over.

Bake in the hot oven 220C for another 20 minutes. Serve with salad.



Made as described each serving of six provides about 500 calories.