Whether you’re serving guests, or those at home – this delicious two-course lunch will delight the lot. Cook and food stylist Kitty Coles shares her recipes for her double cheese and green chilli tart, and her tahini, honey and lemon possets…
DOUBLE CHEESE AND GREEN CHILLI TART WITH CORIANDER AND LIME SALSA
If you’re making something that’s rich with cheese or cream, it’s important to have something to balance out the flavour. Here, I’ve used pickled chillies to cut through the cheese. If you don’t like spice, I think you’ll like this, as it’s more about the tangy flavour. If you prefer not to add them to the base, then I recommend serving the finished tart with some pickles instead.
For 4
Ingredients
• 1 x 375 g (13 1/4 oz) sheet of puff pastry
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 200 g (7 oz) crème fraîche, ricotta or cream cheese
• 2 small or 1 large garlic clove, grated
• 120 g (4 1/4 oz) Cheddar, Manchego, Parmesan, Comté or Gruyère, grated
• 1 ball of mozzarella, torn
• 4 pickled green chillies or 2 tablespoons pickled jalapeños, thinly sliced
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the coriander salsa
• 1 small onion or shallot, 1/2 small red onion or bunch of spring onions (scallions), thinly sliced
• Zest and juice of 1 lime
• A bunch of coriander (cilantro), leaves picked
• Small handful of chives, finely chopped
• 1 green chilli, thinly sliced
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan (400°F).
2. Unroll the pastry and place it on a baking sheet on the baking parchment it came with.
3. Lightly score a 2 cm (3 /4 inch) border around the pastry (making sure you don’t go all the way through the pastry), then prick a few marks into the middle with a fork.
4. Brush the border with a little of the beaten eggs, reserving the rest to add to the filling.
5. Bake the pastry base in the oven for 15 minutes until lightly golden, then remove from the oven and set aside. If the centre has puffed up a bit, just pat it down with the back of a fork or spoon.
6. In a bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients and season well.
7. Spread the mixture onto the pastry base inside the border, then bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden and bubbling.
8. Meanwhile, make the coriander salsa. Combine the onion and lime zest and juice in a bowl with a pinch of salt and massage them with your hands so the onion is coated in the lime juice.
9. Just before serving, toss the herbs and chilli into the limey onions, then pile on top or serve alongside the tart.
TAHINI, HONEY AND LEMON POSSETS
Possets have a bit of a bad reputation, but I think they’re a great, easy dessert that can be served all year round. I always seem to have a little bit of cream, yoghurt or crème fraîche left in the refrigerator, some kind of sugar and a pile of lemons or limes, so a posset is the perfect way to use up the ends of the pots. You can even make just one or two if you like. These possets are great served with the shortbread on pages 182–83 (see book reference below).
For 6
Ingredients
• 400 ml (14 fl oz/generous 1 1/2 cups) double (heavy) cream
• 100 g (3 1/2 oz/generous 1/2 cup) light brown soft sugar (this also works with caster/superfine sugar or even muscovado)
• Zest and juice of 3 lemons or 4 limes (or a mixture of the two – you’ll need
about 75 ml / 2 1/2 fl oz/5 tablespoons juice)
• Pinch of sea salt
• 200 ml (7 fl oz/scant 1 cup) plain yoghurt, crème fraîche or more double cream
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 4 tablespoons tahini
To serve (optional)
• 150 g (5 1/2 oz) strawberries, raspberries or blackberries, roughly chopped
• 1 heaped tablespoon caster (superfine) sugar
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Method
1. Pour the cream and sugar into a saucepan over a medium-high heat and bring to a steady boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring continuously so it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan, for 5 minutes until starting to thicken.
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon zest, juice and salt, then stir in the crème fraîche, honey and tahini until thick and creamy.
3. Pour the mixture into six glasses, espresso cups or ramekins or into a large bowl and refrigerate for a least 4 hours, or ideally overnight.
4. When you’re almost ready to serve, combine the berries, sugar and lemon zest and juice in a bowl.
5. Give it a good mix, then set aside for 10 minutes (you can make these up to 2 hours in advance – the longer you leave them, the juicer they will get).
6. Serve the possets or posset with the berries and let everyone help themselves.
Recipes from Make More With Less: Foolproof Recipes To Make Your Food Go Further, by Kitty Coles, published by Hardie Grant.