Tartelette with peas, ham and cheese

Simone (junglefrog) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:54:09 +0000

Hmmm, maybe my plan on eating healthy is not exactly eating anything with puff pastry now is it? Lovely buttery and slightly unhealthy puff pastry… O well, on the plus side; I ate only one of these little darlings! Yesterday I finally received my brand new Macbook pro so I love new toys and I have been playing around with it, transferring files from one computer to the other etc. It’s always amazing to me how fast time flies when you’re behind the computer!! Ooo and in addition to the new laptop I also bought a Apple Cinema LED display 24″. Can I just say…. wow… what a difference!! Now my ‘old’ display is really quite old, so colors were not that vibrant anymore and it really was in need of replacement. And I totally love it. And how big is 24″ compaired to the ‘old’ 19″… VERY big!!

Anyway, I will not bore you any longer with tales of my new computer stuff, so instead I would like to share my lunch of today. After being behind the computer yesterday for most of the day I was really in need of a lovely little indulgence for lunch. Tonight is already our very last cooking lesson… so sad… The last lesson is about venison and other game, so I am little scared of what we are going to find when we enter the kookstudio. I hope that it’s not an entire deer!! There are limits to what I can take!

Anyway, for lunch I made little savoury tartelettes using storebought puff pastry. I love those little things as it is so easy and you can basically throw in whatever you want and still have a lovely little pie. In these I used (frozen) peas, ham, egg, cherry tomatoes and some leftover cheeses I had such as gorgonzola and brie. In terms of looks; the brie looked better, but in terms of taste the gorgonzola had a little more punch, so if you can’t decide and pretty looks are not important, go for the gorgonzola!

Oooo and I got to share something as well; Tom had a cooking workshop with some colleagues from work yesterday and he ate something (I can’t even remember what it was that he ate) containing gorgonzola and he actually liked it!!! Maybe I should not cheer too soon as I know that gorgonzola can loose quite some flavor when warm, but maybe there is still hope for my cheese-hating husband… (in case you didn’t know; Tom and I are not married, but we have been living together for 18 years so instead of calling him boyfriend all the time, I like to just call him my husband to make life a little simpler.. Boyfriend somehow always feel like someone you’ve only recently met… That’s probably silly but now you know!)

Ok, so what is in these little darlings:

Qty’s for 4 people

Puff pastry sheets, defrosted

150 gr of frozen peas

100 gr of hamslices

100 gr of cherry tomatoes

2 eggs

gorgonzola or another cheese to your liking

Preheat the oven to 200C. Use little tartelette forms with bottoms that can be taken out as those are easiest to use. Whisk the two eggs together in a bowl and add the peas and ham to it. Stir until well combined. Season with salt and pepper. Line each pie form with a puff pastry sheet and press into the form. Once done, dock the bottom by pricking it with a fork.

Distribute the egg mixture into the four forms and put the cherry tomatoes on top (cut in half). Add little blobs of cheese in and around the tomatoes and put in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Enjoy!

Veggie wellingtons with a little chicken… :)

Simone (junglefrog) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:36:40 +0000

I had a serious amount of puff pastry left over from something I will tell you about in a few days… and I wanted to use it. I am not going in putting stuff in the freezer. I usually end up forgetting completely I ever made anything that went into the freezer. You see our freezer is usually stuffed to the brim with fishfood. For when Tom decided he wants to go carp fishing, so the little space that is left goes to things like peas and maybe some fries or meat I bought.

Anyway, I saw a recipe for vegetarian wellingtons in the Good Food and decided to change it a bit to be a little less vegetarian (but you could easily make it a veggie version if you like) as I had some leftover chicken that I wanted to use.

It’s actually a really easy recipe; if you have either storebought puff pastry or homemade puff pastry you can easily fill this with anything you like. I used spinach, mushrooms, chicken and cheese and rolled out the pastry with some thyme which is also sprinkled a bit on top to give it a bit added flavor. To be honest I thought it was lovely but quite heavy on the stomach. No wonder really with all that pastry made with loads of butter, so if you’re on a diet (as I should be!!) don’t go for this dish! But it’s lovely and quick (apart from the needed time in the oven)

WELLINGTONS

Chestnut mushrooms about 200 gr sliced

4 tbsp olive oil

1 garlic clove, chopped

100 gr chicken cooked or smoked, shredded or chopped

300 gr spinach leaves

a bit of flour for rolling the pastry

1 tbsp of picked thyme leaves

350-500 gr puff pastry block

140 gr cheese (use one with a bit of sharp taste. Stilton would be nice but I could easily see any blue cheese go well here too)

1 egg, beaten for the eggwash

1 Heat the oven to 200 C. Clean the mushrooms and slice. Heat the oil in the frying pan and sizzle the mushrooms for about 3-4 minutes untill golden and cooked through. Lift them out of the pan and let drain on kitchen towel.

2. Place the pan back and add the rest of the oil. Fry the garlic briefly before adding the spinach in the pan and stir for about 2-3 minutes untill it’s completely wilted. Season with salt and pepper and leave to drain thorougly! I actually squeezed most of the water out with my hands once the spinach got a bit cooled down.

3. On a lightly floured surface sprinkle the thyme leaves and the roll out your puff pastry block to about a dollar coin thickness. Using two round shapes cut out 2 circles and then 2 circles that are about 10 cm wider then the first.

4. Place the smaller circles on a baking tray and carefully arrange your spinach, mushrooms, cheese and chicken on top making sure you leave space around the edges to place the larger circle over. Brush the border around your filling and then gently stretch the larger circle over the top of your filling making sure not to trap any air.

Press the edges with a fork. Trim the edges with a knife if you want to, then brush them both generously with eggwash. Bake for 40 minutes untill golden, then leave to cool for a few minutes before serving.

Ofcourse the size of your pastries determines for how many people this recipe is. I made two but you can make four smaller ones or 1 large one. That’s up to you!

Junglefrog Cooking » pies

Tartelette with peas, ham and cheese

Related Posts:

Veggie wellingtons with a little chicken… :)

Related Posts: