A Spring Lunch

Spring is well and truly upon us and with it comes an abundance of crisp asparagus, fresh broad beans, succulent lamb, blushed cheeks and ladies that lunch in pink polka dot dresses. Well, maybe that last part is just me?

Lunch in spring is always a delightful affair as the sun emerges from winter’s clasp, inspiring produce to grow and ladies to get dressed up. It’s as good a reason as any to have a glass of champagne in the afternoon and invite your friends over for a freshly baked tart.

To help you on your way I’ve put together a decadent recipe that features seasonal asparagus and also the world’s easiest dessert that can be made in less than eight minutes! The sour cream pastry included in this recipe is easy to make and is very rustic, so you need not worry if it doesn’t look perfect. The recipe is based on the lovely Maggie Beer’s sour cream pastry. Enjoy!

Three Cheese & Asparagus Tart with Sour Cream Pastry

Three Cheese & Asparagus Tart

Ingredients

Sour Cream Pastry:

350g plain flour

200g unsalted butter

100mls sour cream

* Adjust with more flour or cream if the pastry is too dry or too wet

Tart Filling:

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

250mls cup cream

150g ricotta cheese

250g brie cheese, diced

½ cup garlic chives

Season with salt and pepper

10 Asparagus, woody ends trimmed

100g goats cheese

Method:

1. To make sour cream pastry, combine flour and butter in food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Add sour cream gradually on pulse until the dough comes together, you may not need to use all of the sour cream. If dough is too wet, add more flour. If the dough is too dry, add slightly more sour cream.
3. Flatten dough into a disc, wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 mins
4. Lightly spray loose-bottomed tart pan (approx 30cm) tart tin with oil, or grease with butter then dust with flour. Alternatively cut dough into smaller chunks and use 15cm individual tart pans.
5. Preheat oven to 170 degrees
6. Place large sheet of baking paper on table, place dough in the middle of the baking paper, top with another sheet of baking paper and using a rolling pin roll out dough. Alternatively roll out dough using a floured rolling pin and surface
7. Line tart pan with dough, prick base of tart with fork, rest in fridge for a further 15 mins
8. Line tart with pastry weights or with baking paper and rice and cook for 15 mins, remove weights and blind bake for further 5-10 mins until pastry is golden
9. Meanwhile, combine eggs, yolks, cream, ricotta, brie, garlic chives, seasoning in a food processor and blitz until mixture is smooth.
10. Remove tart from oven and gently fill with tart filling, place asparagus spears on top and small dollops of goat’s cheese. Bake for further 15 – 20 mins until filling has set in the middle and is golden on top. Serve warm or at room temperature, with fresh garden salad.

Tips:

• This recipe is perfect for using up other vegetables you may have in the fridge such as capsicum and zucchini. Just dice it up and add it into the tart filling.
• With any left over sour cream pastry you might have, wrap it up in cling wrap and freeze it to use later.
• Play around with different tart pan sizes, you could make a rectangle shaped tart or make individual tarts for your friends.

Berry Meringue Mess

Berry Meringue Mess

Ingredients:

Store bought meringue nests or ‘kisses,’ broken up reserving some for garnish (yes, were cheating if we are going to make this desert in less than 8 mins!)

2 cups thickened cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups store bought or homemade vanilla ice cream (if serving immediately)

1 punnet Strawberries, washed

1 punnet Blueberries, washed

1 punnet Raspberries, washed

Mint leaves, to garnish

Method:

1. Whip cream using an electric mixer
2. Puree strawberries in a small food processor.
3. Combine half the amount of whipped cream with the half the amount of strawberry puree to make strawberry cream.
4. Combine the remaining whipped cream with vanilla extract or scraped vanilla bean to make vanilla spiked cream.
5. Using a presentation glass, make layers of strawberry puree, berries, meringue, cream and ice cream and garnish the top layer with meringue kisses, mint or anything else that you like, see below for suggestions. Serve immediately if using ice cream or pop in the fridge to serve later.

Tips:

• You can be quite creative with this desert and add lovely things like Turkish delight and Persian fairy floss or dried edible rose petals
• If you have small espresso glasses, you can make this desert and serve it as a desert canapé at your next function

Enjoy!