Summer Tart

 Summer has once again blessed us with her bounty.  The backyard has yielded an abundance of raspberries, and strawberry picking is winding down after a great season.  Vegan Son #1 and I collaborated on this dessert.  He helped make the pastry cream and designed the layout of the fruit for the top of the tart.  I made the dough.  The trick with the pastry dough is to be patient and gentle when bringing it together.  Only use as much water as is necessary--too much will make for a harder final product. 

Tart Dough
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup Earth Balance margarine (1 baking stick)
- 200g (1.25 cups) cake and pastry flour (or all purpose)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp vegan cream cheese
- 3 tbsp ice cold water (more if needed)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

METHOD
1. Place margarine in the freezer for 30 mins.
2. Meanwhile, whisk together flour and sugar in a medium bowl.  In a separate small bowl, whisk together cream cheese, water, and vanilla until smooth.  Place in fridge until needed.
3. Grate cold margarine into the flour and gently work with your fingers until it resembles coarse bread crumbs (it should not take too long).  Add cream cheese mixture and use a fork to bring together into a dough.  Add a few drops of water if needed.
4. Immediately roll out into a 12 inch circle on a floured surface and transfer to a 9.5 inch tart pan.  Gently press dough into the bottom of the pan and trim to allow 1/2 inch overhang.  Fold overhang back into the pan and press into the sides.  Refrigerate until firm (30 mins).
5. While dough is chilling, preheat oven to 375 degrees with rack in the bottom third of the oven.  Cover dough with foil and half fill with dried beans.
6. Bake for 20 mins, then lift up foil to see if crust is light golden and no longer wet.  Return to oven for a few mins if it is not.  When crust if light golden and dry, remove foil and beans and bake for another 5-10 mins, or until golden.  Allow to fully cool on a wire rack.

Summer Tart
INGREDIENTS
- 1 tart shell (above)
- 1 recipe pastry cream, cold
- summer fruit of your choice (halved strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries is what I used)
- 1/3 cup apricot jam

METHOD
1. Remove tart shell from pan and place on a serving dish.  Fill with pasty cream and smooth.  Top with fruit.
2. Heat apricot jam in a small saucepan over medium heat until runny.  Strain out chunks then brush fruit with the jam to glaze.  If jam gets too sticky, just return to heat until it is runny again. 

Strawberry Pie

Sorry for the lack of posts, kids, I have been very busy with research and writing this summer.  I had great success at the Massachusetts Historical Society, and am getting ready for a conference in Baltimore (do any SHEAR members read this blog?) and a stint at the Library of Congress.  I am glad that I was back home for the last week of strawberry season.  Of course, that meant strawberry pie!  Last year I made a Glazed Strawberry Pie with Shortbread Crust (which is fabulous), but this year I wanted to try my hand at a more traditional pie.  I would like to improve my pastry skills, so this was an experiment in ingredients and method to produce a flaky crust and a gooey but not runny filling.

Pie Dough (makes two crusts)
INGREDIENTS
- 2.5 cups (400g) all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup Earth Balance vegetable shortening
- 1/2 cup Earth Balance margarine
- 6-8 tbsp ice cold water

Filling
INGREDIENTS
- scant 5 cups hulled and quartered strawberries
- 2 tbsp instant tapioca
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 cup sugar

METHOD
1. Place shortening and margarine in the freezer for 30 mins.
2. Meanwhile, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt.  Prepare the filling by whisking together tapioca, cornstarch, and sugar, and then gently tossing with the strawberries to coat.
3. Grate shortening and margarine into the flour.  Gently work into the flour with your fingers until it resembles coarse bread crumbs (it should not take long).
4. Mix in enough water with a fork to bring together into a dough.  Don't over mix.
5. Divide dough in half and shape into two discs.  Immediately roll one out on a floured surface into at least a 12 inch circle and transfer into a 9" pie pan, trimming it to leave 3/4" of overhang.  Add filling and shape into a dome.
6. Roll out top crust on a floured surface and lay over top, trimming to leave 1" overhang.   Fold top crust overhang under bottom crust overhang and press to seal.  Crimp or flute the edge as you see fit.  Cut designs into the top crust to allow steam to escape, refrigerate the pie for about 30 mins, or until the crust has firmed up.
7.  While pie is chilling, heat oven to 350 degrees with a rack in the bottom third of the oven.  Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until crust is golden both top and bottom and the filling is bubbling.  Let cool before serving.

Smoked Tofu Pizza

This is my favourite new pizza.  It's kind of a version of Pizza Alla Pugliese, a sauceless pizza with smoked cheese.  Instead, I use smoked tofu (another new favourite thing) and Daiya.  I'm usually not the biggest fan of too much ye olde vegan cheese on pizza, but this particular combo strikes me as delicious.  Use as much or as little as you see fit.  

INGREDIENTS

- pizza dough

- sweet onion, halved and sliced

- smoked tofu, grated

- Daiya 

- olive oil

METHOD

1. Saute onions over med-hi heat in some olive oil until lightly browned.  Place as much onion as you see fit on a pizza crust, top with as much grated smoked tofu and Daiya as you like.  Drizzle some olive oil over the toppings.

2. Bake on a pizza stone at 500 degrees until crust is done.

Ancho Corn Chowder

Every time we have Mexican food I make some kind of corn soup.  There have been many variations over the months, but this is the one that I think is blog-worthy.  Here's why: 1. the ancho chiles provide some heat (add more if you like it hotter), colour, and wonderful flavour.  2: cilantro root!  I hope your grocery store sells cilantro with the root still on because it totally makes this soup (unless you hate cilantro, then forget it).  The roots packs all the flavour of the leaves but with a little more earthiness, and without adding green to a red soup.  3. Tomatoes: I've always loved tomatoes and corn together--I still make corn as a side dish when I serve pasta marinara because I loved it as a kid.  I used the chopped tomatoes I had frozen from the garden last summer and they worked perfectly.  Use fresh corn if you have it, but frozen works too.

INGREDIENTS
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 sweet onions, diced
- 3 celery stalks, chopped
- 8 cilantro roots, well-scrubbed, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 2-3 dried ancho chiles
- 2.5 cups chopped tomatoes
- 2 cups veggie broth, or water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 4 cups corn, divided
- 1/4 cup soy creamer (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste

METHOD
1. Heat oil in a stockpot over medium heat.  Saute onions, celery, cilantro roots, and garlic for 5 mins, or until onions start to get translucent.  Stem chiles and rip into large pieces into the pot (seeds and all).  Saute for another 5 mins.
2. Add tomatoes, broth, sugar, and 2 cups of the corn.  Bring to bubbling, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15-20 mins, or until tomatoes well-cooked and breaking apart..
3. Blend mixture very well in a blender (in batches) or with an immersion blender right in the pot.  Make as smooth as possible.
4. Return mixture to the pot over medium heat and add remaining 2 cups of corn.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Cook until corn is soft.
5. Remove from heat and stir in creamer.  Serve.

Lemongrass Ice Cream with Pineapple Compote

This was the final dish for the Thai inspired dinner party I threw yesterday (I will blog about that another day).  The lemongrass adds a nice finish to this basic vanilla ice cream recipe, and is not overpowering.  A bite starts off creamy and slightly sweet, and ends with that refreshing trademark scented tang.

INGREDIENTS
Ice Cream
- 2 stalks of lemongrass
- 1 400 ml can coconut milk
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp corn starch or arrowroot powder
- 1 cup soy milk
- pinch of salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract

Pineapple Compote
- 1 pineapple
- 1/4 cup margarine
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- juice of 1 lime

METHOD
Ice Cream
1. Trim lemon grass stalks and slice lengthwise down the centre.  Bruise the stalks by bashing them with a rolling pin, then cut into whatever size will fit into your saucepan.  Add coconut milk, sugar, and salt and place over medium heat.  Bring it to just bubbling, then reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 mins, or until lemongrass is wilted and translucent.
2. Strain coconut mixture through a fine sieve to remove lemongrass.  If needed, add more coconut milk or soy milk to make 3 cups.  Return to saucepan over medium heat.
3. Whisk cornstarch or arrowroot powder into the 1 cup of soy milk to dissolve, then whisk into coconut milk mixture.  Bring to just bubbling, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
4. Let mixture fully cool in the fridge before making it into ice cream as per the instructions for your machine.

Pineapple Compote
1. Trim and core the pineapple and cut into 1/2" chunks.
2. Heat a large frying pan over medium high heat.  Add margarine and when melted, add pineapple.  Cook for about 15 mins, stirring regularly, or until the pineapple begins to lightly brown.   (The pineapple will release its juice, that will cook down, and then the pineapple will start to brown up.)
3.  Add sugar and lime juice to the pan and cook/stir for 1 min, making sure the pineapple is nicely glazed.  Serve warm with the ice cream.