Tomato & Potato Phyllo tart

This is an old recipe with a new jacket on! (Sounds a bit like me in winter…lol!)

The original recipe calls for Puff pastry which taste really, really good!. Now I don’t have to tell you how much fat there is in puff pastry do I?. So because I’m such a good girl I’ve decided to use phyllo pastry instead.

This tart is best served hot from the oven to the plate. The leftovers however do not taste nearly as good as the phyllo pastry gets a bit soggy from the tomato and onion sauce.

If you don’t have enough people to feed at once rather make a smaller tart by dividing the recipe by half.

2 potatoes

1 onion

5 ml dried Marjoram

Salt and pepper to taste

3 tomatoes cubed

1 tsp sugar

2 tbs tomato puree

90 ml water

+- 4 tbs butter melted

5 sheets of phyllo pastry

1 cup of grated Mozzarella cheese.

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees and grease a baking sheet.

Peel and cut the potatoes in thin slices and cook in salty water until soft. Strain and set aside to cool down. In the meantime fry your onions in a little olive oil with the dried Marjoram until soft. Add the tomatoes stirring continuously. Add the tomato puree, sugar and water cooking it for a minute or two until most of the liquid has evaporated and a thick sauce have formed. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Lay  a sheet of phyllo pastry on your baking tray and brush with the melted butter, add another sheet of phyllo pastry, continue with the process.

Smear the phyllo pastry base with the tomato and onion sauce and layer the sliced potatoes on top. Sprinkle the grated Mozzarella cheese over the potatoes and bake in the oven for +- 15 – 20 minutes until golden brown. Serve hot.

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Quick Savoury tart

This is the quickest savoury tart that you will ever make! Great for lunch and even greater when you have unexpected quest.

It’s great for the children’s lunch boxes and sophisticated enough when cut it into bite size diamond shapes top with a dollop of mustard and served on your best plates.

175 g Spinach chopped

1 small onion diced

1 punnet button mushrooms

3 rashers of bacon (cut into strips)

1 tin of white asparagus drained

250 ml Cheddar cheese grated

Egg Custard

150 ml Milk

2 eggs

30 ml flour

3 ml salt

2 ml pepper

5 ml mustard

Olive oil for frying

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease a small pie dish.Fry the onions in the olive oil and fry until translucent. Add the mushrooms and bacon to the onions and fry for another minute or two. Ad the spinach to the pan and fry for 3 minutes until the spinach has wilted. Place ingredients for filling into the pie dish. lay the asparagus over the spinach filling.

Add all the ingredients for the custard together in a separate bowl or a measuring jug and whisk.

Pour the mixture over the spinach filling and top with the grated cheese. Bake for +- 30-35 minutes until set and golden brown.

Enjoy hot or cold.

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“Braai tart” – Polenta, Mushroom and Bacon tart

Like every other Saturday my husband have the urge to “braai”. This ritual starts in Spring and continues well into the winter. Yip that’s my hubby! , facing the icy cold winters of the Highveld armed with his beanie, winter jacket and a scarf and his bottle of mixed spices turning ordinary lamb chops into succulent little dreams.

Unfortunately the side dishes is not his forte’, instead he likes to order me around. His favorite would be “pap tert” (a maize meal tart).

I decided it is about time that we jazz up the old maize tart a bit, you know, making it a bit more sophisticated, so instead of using ordinary maize meal in boring layers I used Polenta instead.

To all the vegetarians out there, feel free to remove the bacon from this recipe, I would’ve but my husband is a carnivore and he tends to get a bit grumpy if there is no extra meat in a savory tart!

 

Serves 8

Polenta crust

Polenta ( about 1 cup cooked in 4 cups of water, should be a spreadable consistancy)

2 tbs garlic butter

salt to taste

Filling

125 g white button mushrooms (1/2 punnet)

125 g Portobello mushrooms (+- 4 large)

1 Onion – sliced

Olive oil for frying

a pinch of dry thyme

100 g bacon bits

2 tbs tomato puree

1/2 tsp of sugar

100 ml milk

1 egg

2 heaped tbs of flour

2 ml salt

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup Gouda Cheese

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Rub your pie dish with butter. Cook polenta, stir in the garlic butter and set aside keeping the lid on your pot to keep the polenta warm.

Fry the onions and mushrooms with the thyme in olive oil. Add the bacon bits and fry for another minute. Add the tomato puree and the sugar, fry for another minute.

In a measuring cup add the flour and salt to the milk and mix, add the egg mixing it again.

Use a the back of a metal tablespoon or a spatula to spread an even layer of polenta to the bottom of your pie dish covering the sides as well.

Add the mushroom filling on top of the polenta and pour the milk mixture over it.

Top with the cheese and bake for +- 15 -20 minutes.

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(Almost meat free) Cheese and Vegetable tart

So I’ve cheated with 6 slices of ham in this recipe. In my defense it was not on purpose. I’ve opened the fridge and there it was! I realized it is Saturday and no one is having sandwiches over the weekend.  So my conscious told me to add it to the Veggie tart instead. It was either in the tart or to the dog, and no matter how much I adore my dog I was sure as not going to give him the ham, maybe if it was Christmas morning but not on a September afternoon, such action would qualify as “spoiling the dog”.

Anyway, this tart don’t need ham or any other meat, it is really good on its own. At first I thought there is too little moisture in this recipe but something magical happens between the natural juices of the veggies and the cream cheese.

Recipe

3 extra-large eggs

200 g fat-free cottage cheese (1 tub) smooth or chunky

5 ml parmesan cheese, grated

1 garlic glove chopped

Freshly ground pepper to taste

500 g Fresh or frozen veggies of your choice

For this recipe I’ve used:

1/2 onion finely sliced and 1/2 punnet of chopped brown mushrooms.

1/2 bunch of spinach chopped finely, 1 grated carrot, 2 grated courgettes.

60 g Mozzarella / Matured Cheddar cheese.

1 tsp Robertson’s veggie spices (optional)

2.5 ml Paprika

2.5 ml Salt

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.  Spray a pie dish with non stick spray.

Saute’ the onions and mushrooms in olive oil, add the veggie spice and salt.

Mix the eggs, cottage cheese, parmesan cheese, garlic and black pepper.

Mix all of the vegetable together and add to your pie dish.

Pour egg and cottage cheese mixture over veggies and add the grated cheese evenly over the top.

Sprinkle with paprika and bake for 25-35 minutes until golden brown.

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Tips

This is a great low-fat, high protein meal.

Each portion is equal to 2 veggies, 2 lean protein portions, 1/2 low-fat dairy and 1/2 fat.

Add ham!

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