a lovely spinach tart

a lovely spinach tart

I had some dear friends over for a lovely evening of knitting and gabbing, and I made this spinach tart for dinner. It turned out really well, and I wanted to share it with you! It’s cobbled together from a few sources, mainly Deborah Madison’s “Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone”. Right at the front of the section on savoury tarts and turnovers, she has several recipes for yeasted tart doughs. I had been thinking about just doing a shortcrust pastry for the tart, but the yeasted pastry sounded so interesting I had to try it. Madison notes that you do need to roll the dough quite thinly or it will be bready, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing!

I served the tart with a simple tomato salad – garden tomatoes, basil, olive oil and salt. Yum!

 

Yeasted Tart Dough with Olive Oil (adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone)

Note: This makes quite a bit of dough! I made an 11″ tart and still had some leftover. If you make a smaller tart, you will have lots leftover.

2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup warm water
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups flour

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in a medium bowl and let stand for a few minutes until bubbly.
Add the oil, egg, and salt, then stir in the flour. Knead dough for a few minutes until smooth (I used the KitchenAid mixer and dough hook).
Turn the dough in an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place for about an hour. I preheat the oven for a few minutes while mixing up the dough, then turn it off and stick the bowl in the warm oven to rise.
When the dough has risen, roll it out to 1/8″ thickness on a lightly floured surface and gently line an 11″ tart pan, trimming the excess.
Place the tart pan on a sheet pan (to make it easier to handle) and place in the freezer for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400F / 200C and bake the frozen tart shell for 20-25 minutes or until firm.
It might bubble, but you can deflate the bubbles with a knife.

 

Spinach Tart Filling

One 300g package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well (or fresh spinach, chopped and wilted)
3-4 large green onions/scallions, chopped, whites and greens
a handful of fresh herbs such as basil, dill, oregano, chopped (dried is ok too, a couple sprinkles)
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup or more crumbled feta cheese (I used 100g, a quarter of a tub)
a splash of milk or cream (a few tablespoons)
black pepper

Turn the oven down to 375F / 190C. Mix all the spinach filling ingredients together, adding a little more milk or cream if it is very stiff.
Note, I didn’t use salt in the filling because the feta is very salty!
Spread the filling in the baked tart shell and bake for 35-45 minutes, until no longer jiggly, and just a bit browned on top. Let cool for a few minutes before slicing. It keeps well and is great in your lunchbox!

Random Tuesday

the tiniest pepper ever

The tiniest little bell pepper. I’m sure it’s not a hot pepper because the only hot peppers I planted are jalapenos!

colours!

Lovely Haymarket from Lorna’s Laces. I’m hard at work on a little collection using their yarns, which are so gorgeous! Starting the last sweater now.

scrappy border

Added a scrappy border to the giant start quilt to make it longer. I struggled with the backing for some reason, but it’s all settled and basted now. On to the quilting!

Fjord-ing

A finished sweater for my fall collection, in Lorna’s Laces Sportmate in Fjord. Such a nice soft colour, and I’m very pleased with how the sweater turned out!

Summer Daze

tomatoes!

Tomatoes are happening, finally. I find container gardening pretty challenging – the critters getting in, having to water constantly, having to keep adding nutrients. I think it’s finally paying off though! There have been cherry tomatoes to eat for a little while, and yesterday we harvested about 1kg (2.2 lb) of larger tomatoes. The yellowy ones are White Queen, which I think will be most of the harvest, and the little one in front is a Purple Calabash that managed to survive a flea beetle infestation. The plants seem to be coming back from that, so hopefully there will be a few more. Unfortunately, the summer squashes have powdery mildew and I’ve lost some of the fruit already. I cut off the worst leaves and sprayed baking soda solution on the plants, so we’ll see if that helps at all. I was really looking forward to garden zucchini, seriously.

giant star in progress

I started a new quilt! Okay, two. This top came together really quickly, despite the fact that I still haven’t repaired the sewing machine – I’m still sewing by hand, but I think I’m getting a bit better and quicker at it. I loved these neutral Daiwabo fabrics from the workroom, and was itching to make something on a bigger scale than the chevrons. The squares started out at 15″, cut from fat quarters, and the star is about 54″ square.

giant star in progress

While waiting for batting, I decided that I don’t want this quilt to be a square after all – I want it longer so it can go on the bed (or couch). So I started piecing up some scrappy stuff to add to the top and bottom, as well as some sashing on the sides.

My stitching is getting better, I think. This air-fade pen fades a little too quickly though!

blues and yellows

The second quilt I’ve started is mostly using the Comma jelly roll that I got in St Jacobs, though I took out the coral and melon strips. It’s going to be a simple random strip quilt with some blues and yellows added in from my limited stash.

Watching: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II is in the queue for today – I’m working through the movies for the first time, so I anticipate tears!
Reading: Rage by Jonathan Kellerman (random crime novel), City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare (part of The Mortal Instruments series, which I don’t love, but I rarely quit books).
Eating: Summer bounty, of course! And these delicious peanut butter oat cookies. Warning, use a smaller scoop or they’ll be HUGE!