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Wild Mushroom Tart

July 28, 2013 by TheWhiteRamekins

Wild Mushroom Tart

Mushrooms have been our favorite family food and I have seen my mother cooking the quintessential mushroom and green pea curry, almost every week. She used to add a bit of yogurt to give the curry a richness and also a bit of sour flavor. That was one curry, which I used to love and would wipe my bowl clean with an unleavened bread.

Wild Mushroom Tart 4

My mother used to tell us proud stories, how her father {my grandfather} included these in their family food. But those were the wild variety, which would grow up during rainy season. According to my mother, my grandfather smartly knew which one  were edible and to be picked up. And those would taste far better than the cultivated ones we get normally.

Wild Mushroom Tart 3

I as a child, never got to taste those wild mushrooms, but I always thoroughly enjoyed my mother’s repeated stories about them and remained nonetheless contented. Even today, she sometimes enjoys telling those old stories. Probably, this story telling takes her back to her childhood days and she likes taking us along as well to her times.

Wild Mushroom Tart 7

Recently, I got to have wild mushroom risotto at two of the restaurants, I visited with friends and I really liked the taste of both versions. Taste of wild mushrooms really paired well with the sharp cheeses that must have gone into the dishes. If accompanied with a light salad and a glass of red wine, that could turn into one gourmet meal.

Wild Mushroom Tart 1

And that taste and my mother’s interesting food story inspired me to bake/cook something with wild mushrooms. So I baked this wild mushroom tart from Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.  Sadly I could not find fresh mushrooms and had to resort to the dried ones I found at a local grocery store, a mix of shitake and oysters.

Wild Mushroom Tart 6

The crust was perfectly buttery and crumbly, to which I had added whole wheat flour too. Mix of shitake, oyster and button mushrooms paired really well with smoked gouda and the parmesan reggiano cheeses. Mascarpone added to the richness. And the red onions brought in the sweetness to balance out the sharp flavor of cheese and mushrooms.

Wild Mushroom Tart 8

A perfect Sunday brunch tart, to be served with a light green salad and to be enjoyed with friends and family!

Ingredients

Tart Crust:

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
85 gm butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg

Filling:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
2 medium red onions, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove minced
400 gm button mushrooms, sliced
250 gm wild mushrooms (mix of shitake and oyster), sliced
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp fresh oregano leaves
1 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese {homemade recipe}
1/4 cup milk
2 large eggs
1/2 cup grated gouda cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

  1. For the crust, pulse both flours, cornmeal and salt in a food processor. Add chopped butter and pulse 15-20 times, to make fine crumb.
  2. Add the egg and pulse for another 10 times to bring the crumbs together.
  3. Place the dough between two large sheets of cling wrap to form a round disc. Roll the dough into a 12 inch circle. Peel one side of cling wrap and invert the rolled pastry loosely onto a 9 inch tart pan. Using your finger tips, gently snug the pastry into the tart pan, peel the other cling wrap. Cover with aluminium foil and bake for 10 minutes in a 375 degree C oven.
  4. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes, until tart becomes golden.
  5. For the filling, heat butter and oil in a pan. Add onions and garlic and cook on medium heat until onions become pale and translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms, oregano and thyme leaves and cook for about 10 minutes, until all the water from mushrooms is evaporated and mushrooms are cooked through. Add salt and pepper and mix well.
  6. In a bowl, whisk mascarpone with milk. Add gouda and parmesan cheese and mix. Mix in cooked mushrooms.
  7. Preheat the oven at 350 degree C. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet, fill the tart shell with the filling. Bake the tart for 35 – 40 minutes, until filling is cooked through.
  8. Let cool for 10 minutes. Serve warm.

Filed Under: Pastry, pies Tagged With: brunch recipe, Cheese, food, Mascarpone, Savory, smitten kitchen, tart, wild mushroom

Daring Bakers | Layering Mille Feuille With Fruits

October 27, 2012 by TheWhiteRamekins

It’s Daring Baker’s time of the month and they are back this time with these sumptuous buttery flaky tiny little French delicacies. Mille Feuille, literally meaning thousand layers, is a cream or custard filled slice, which is also known as  Napoleon. I had first seen this dessert a year ago on Donna Hay’s show Fast, Fresh, Simple. I was captivated by the sheer simplicity and the beauty for those petite desserts filled with light and airy whipped cream and topped with the freshness of summer berries.  They were indeed fast, fresh and simple, as her recipes claim to be.

Mille FeuilleOur October 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenely Full. Suz challenged us to not only tackle buttery and flaky puff pastry, but then take it step further and create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it!

Mille FeuilleAnd now was the time to actually tick them off my long to-bake list. Instead of doing the challenge this time at the last day, I planned to bake my puff pastry a week in advance. I have done puff pastry before, but the rough puff pastry version. I decided to go one step further. Encasing the soft beurre manié {butter & flour creamed together and chilled} inside the détrempe {soft dough made with flour, little butter and cold water}and then rolling, folding, chilling, rolling, folding, chilling, rolling … and so on, until you are done with six tours. But sadly, after spending a long day in kitchen, the end result I got in my hands was a tough, never risen long sheet of crunchy pastry. It tasted good because of all that butter which went into, but not good enough to eventually be turned into a gorgeous dessert.

Mille FeuilleFailing the new way,  I resorted to my ever reliable rough puff pastry method, which I did for these savory tomatoes and caramelized onion tartlettes {will give it a try again, when I’ll have enough time at hand}. I filled my mille feuille with vanilla mascarpone cream and some fresh fruits.

Ingredients

250 gms puff pastry {recipe here}
1 cup mascarpone {homemade, recipe here}
1/2 cup low fat cream
1 vanilla bean, seeded
4 tbsp honey
fruits of your choice
icing sugar for dusting

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven at 200 C. Dust the work surface with some flour and roll the pastry, of about 0.5 cm thickness.
  2. Place the pastry on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Prick with fork at multiple places. Bake for about 20 minutes. After first 10 minutes of baking, place an inverted cooling rack on top of pastry in order to avoid too much puffing of the pastry.
  3. After it is baked for 20 minutes, invert the pastry on the parchment paper and again bake for 5 minutes.
  4. Let pastry cool completely on a wire rack.
  5. In a bowl, whip the mascarpone with vanilla seeds and honey until smooth.
  6. In a separate bowl, whip the cream, until you get soft peaks. Fold the cream in mascarpone and let chill in the fridge.
  7. While ready to serve, cut the puff pastry into small squares, keeping in mind, you have two for each piece.
  8. Take one pastry slice and spread a generous amount of mascarpone cream mixture and top with fruits gently. Do the same with another slice and place it over the previous one. Dust over some icing sugar to give them a snowy look.

Filed Under: Creams, Pastry Tagged With: daring bakers, food, Mascarpone, mille feuille

Tiramisu Verrines

May 22, 2012 by TheWhiteRamekins

Zipping past through a very busy last week, between working late hours in office, friends visiting from US over the weekend and then rushing back home on Sunday afternoon, I somehow managed to take sometime for baking and feeding this constantly growing hunger of mine to write up this food journal. All I had to do was to timeline and prioritize the tasks. Tiramisu had been on my mind, ever since I made the luscious mascarpone at home. But I was waiting for some special moment, and what else it could be, while dear friends meeting up after almost two years. And the excitement was to meet their four months old lad. This was another reason to do this stuff well in advance, so that I could save on time to spend with the little one {did I mention that I love kids}.

I baked my ladyfingers and made Mascarpone two days in advance. And on Friday morning, before leaving for work, I whipped up the ingredients and layered them up in wide mouth water glasses and piled them up in refrigerator to set. I decided to make Tiramisu in verrines rather than a big round cake, all because the ladyfingers didn’t shape up like the ones you get from store {they were flatened a bit, as I didn’t have proper molds}. But trust me, they tasted nonetheless delicious. I was hesitating a bit in adding raw eggs to Mascarpone, so I used the store brought vanilla custard powder instead.

Lady Fingers/Savoiardi/Biscuit a la cuillere

Ingredients

3 eggs, separated
6 tbsp cornstarch
6 tbsp plain flour
80 gm superfine sugar

Instructions

  1. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with 3/4th of the sugar until firm peaks form.
  2. In separate bowl, beat egg yolks with remaining sugar until it resembles a pale yellow light mix.
  3. Mix the egg yolks to egg whites, very gently.
  4. Sift over the flour and cornstarch and fold in gently with a wooden spatula, without losing the airiness of the mix.
  5. Pour the mix in a piping bag with 2″ circular nozzle and pipe on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  6. Let stand for 2 minutes and bake for 15 minutes in a 180 degree C/350 degree F preheated oven.
  7. Remove them from the oven and let them cool a little before placing them on a cooling rack.

Tiramisu

Ingredients

200 gm mascarpone, at room temperature {homemade recipe here}
1 1/2 cup cold milk
4 tsp vanilla custard powder
80 gm powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup prepared strong dark coffee, at room temperature
3 tbsp whipped cream
unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting
10-15 ladyfingers {recipe above}

Instructions

  1. Mix the custard powder with milk and 1/3 of the sugar and simmer it for 2/3 minutes {follow package directions}, let cool and come to room temperature.
  2. In a separate bowl, beat the mascarpone with remaining sugar, vanilla essence and  custard till it becomes light and airy, almost doubles up in volume.
  3. Fold in whipped cream gently.
  4. Take one ladyfinger, quickly dip it in coffee and cover the bottom of glass with it. Add more cookies to glass, if desired.
  5. Spoon the mascarpone mix into the glass, dust over cocoa powder.
  6. Repeat the layers of ladyfingers soaked in coffee, mascarpone.
  7. Cover the glasses with cling wrap and let them sit in refrigerator for atleast 5 hours {preferably overnight}.
  8. Dust with more cocoa powder while serving.

Filed Under: cake, Creams Tagged With: biscuit a la cuillere, food, Homemade Mascarpone, italian, lady fingers, Mascarpone, savoiardi, tiramisu, vanilla custard powder, verrines

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Hi! I'm Himanshu - a home chef who loves to cook, bake, style and photo shoot... Read More…

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