Free-Form Braised Leek Tart

It's no secret that one of my biggest weaknesses in life is books.  I simply love collecting them - recipe books included.  Over time though I've learned that not all recipe books are created equal.  They range from dull and uninspiring recipes, to over-the-top and impossible-to-make recipes with impossible-to-locate ingredients.  So the lesson is to choose your recipe books wisely!


I currently have two favourite recipe books, one of which I've blogged about before (Jaime Oliver) and the other is Stephanie Alexander's "The Cooks Companion".  Both of these could be seen as cooking bibles - the best of the best so to speak.  I now have a wider repertoire of dishes, and largely it has been due to these two books.  Thanks to Stephanie, I can now make the perfect hollandaise sauce!  Thanks to Jaime, I can now make a beautiful mayonnaise, and not to mention the ultimate in chocolate tarts!


The recipe I'm blogging about today, however, is an example of how recipe books can let you down, and cause a cooking nightmare!   I should have been wary of this recipe book, entitled 'Bite', from its presentation alone.  Firstly, it's way too sexy for a recipe book.  Beware the recipe book that relies on beautiful pictures of the finished dishes for every single dish.  In my experience, the best recipe books have twice as much text and fewer pictures.   Secondly, it portrays its recipes as 'really easy'.  This is the kind of recipe book designed for impulse buying - buyer beware!


It's not all bad though, I've tried a few recipes from the book, and they've turned out fine.  The Free-Form Braised Leek Tart was a different story altogether.  I should have known because I've often said how much I dislike making pastry so 'free-form' seemed too good to be true.  And also I've never had 'free-form' pastry in any restaurant.  There's a good reason, I don't think there is such a thing!  However before I start my sad story, I'll give you the recipe because it is actually good (without the free-form element), mainly because it uses one of my favourite vegetables - the humble yet glorious leek.


Ingredients
Shortcrust pastry
1 tsp olive oil
2 peeled and chopped red onions
500g Australian Leeks (cut into 3-4 cm lengths) - I bought mine from Santis Delicatessen
1 sprig of chopped Thyme
100ml of white wine
100ml of vegetable stock
55g grated parmasen cheese


Baking Cream Custard
200mls heavy double cream
4 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper


Method
Roll pastry out to about 0.3cm thick.  Line a 16cm square baking tart tin, fill with rice, and blind bake for 15 mins.  Remove weights and cool tart shell. Heat oil over low heat, add onions, leek and thyme. Cover and cook over low heat until onions are soft.  Add wine and stock, and continue to simmer until leek is just tender.  Leave to cool.


Prepare baking cream custard.  Combine cream, eggs, salt and pepper in mixing bowl and mix well.


Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.  Arrange leek in tart shell, and pour baking cream custard over.  Bake for about 20 mins or until custard is set.  Sprinkle with cheese before serving.


My sad story continued ...
Well my sad story is all about the pastry, of course.  I've changed the recipe above so that you will be using a tart tin.  The original recipe suggests you cut a 16 inch square and then bring the sides up and pop it into the oven to blind bake.  The only problem is that as soon as you put it in the oven the sides just simply fall down (butter is not very strong when it's hot after all)!  I had to resort to using four glasses to prop up the sides - it was only kind of successful though.  My leek tart had become a 'leak' tart instead!

The end result was that when I poured in the baking custard in it slowly trickled out of one of the corners and onto the floor of the oven.  In the end, my poor tart was missing half of the baking cream custard by the time it was ready to come out!!!!  As you can see from the photo of the finished tart there was still some filling left, but a very disappointing result.  Other than that it is actually a very good recipe!


I really loved the use of the leeks because it brought out their sweet flavour, and also showcased them as the main centre piece.  Too often leeks are relegated to be soup or casserole bases, and they really do have a wonderful taste all by themselves.  So this is a recipe I will try again albeit with a tart tin next time around.  Free-form indeed!!!  I'll leave that one up to the pastry chef experts!


Bon Appetit!