Baking Ploughmans Tart

Anyone else been watching Nadiya's British Food Adventures on BBC2? I watched the first couple and bought the book that goes with the series. Last night I was up while the rest of the house was asleep and was watching the third in the series.  Nadiya made a 'Ploughmans Cheese and Pickle Tart' I knew last night today was going to be a baking day for this alone. I don't like pickle, there is no way I am eating that much cheese and pastry but the man in my life loves all these things so it just had to be done.

I am so kicking myself I didn't take a photo of the first disaster, and I was lucky it was the only disaster, where I lined the tart tin with pastry and chilled it, dropped in on my foot, then put it in the oven without blind baking it with baking paper and my baking beans.  By the time I realised, it had literally melted down sides of tin and was a mess. So whipped up some more short crust pastry and started again.  My only defence was my daughter was visiting and I wasn't paying enough attention to the instructions, to busy chatting. Apparently you can always tell when I am chatting according to the Mr. as my eyes will be open! And yet I still bake for him, I wonder why some days.

The basis of this Tart is pretty simple and only a few ingredients that we usually have on hand.

 Good strong cheddar, 

small chunk sandwich pickle, we used Branston Pickle

Milk

Eggs

shortcrust pastry

and paprika for jazzing up your store bought pastry, I

I made my own pastry though

Once I read instructions properly and blind baked my pastry, I realised I had some serious side cracks in 2 places. I artfully spread out the layer of pickle and 'cemented' the cracks with a little of the pickle.  It worked so well and I only had minimal seepage and no soggy bottom.

Lots of good strong cheese went on top. I found a really lovely Wookey Hole strong cheddar and used that. 

I beat the eggs and added the milk up and mixed together.  Carefully poured over and carefully placed in the oven.  Nothing complicated and even I was impressed it was going well.

It came out of the oven with a very slight wobble. and looked and smelt amazing.

I think the hardest bit for me was waiting for it to reach just warm temperature before I sliced it open to see if the layers worked OK and to make someone eat some to get a verdict. It went down really well with even talk of eating the remainder for breakfast tomorrow. 

I'm impressed I still have the baking knack and am looking forward to trying more recipes out of this book.  Anyone else watching the series and planning on trying any of the recipes? 

Take care

Jules 

pasta cake??

Someone posted a video on Facebook a few weeks ago and although I can't find it now I remembered it mostly so gave it a go on Monday night. I boiled up some pasta tubes to just cooked and drained them and added them back to their cooking pot and stirred through a big handful or so of grated Parmesan type cheese. Then taking a spring release type of cake tin I then stood the tubes upright in the oiled tin until it was full.  As I had some pasta left over I lined a loose bottomed 4 inch pork pie tin with the pasta as well.  Didn't actually take that long at all really.

While I was making the pasta I had taken the home made bread out of the oven, It was so good but to more ish. We had this along side the pasta and salad.

I had precooked a thickish meat sauce like for spaghetti bolognaise and spread this on top of the pasta. It should go into the tops of the tubes so doesn't need to be to dry.

Then I added lots of lovely grated cheese on top. and baked in a moderate oven for around 25 minutes until the top was bubbling and everything was piping hot.

Then the exciting bit taking it out of the tins. The small one worked the best.  How impressive does this look?

And from the top. Taste good to.  Although I think the base needed more cheese as it was a little bland, but once mixed with the sauce when eating it didn't matter.

The big one however as you can see was less sturdy and a lot of it fell over. So no pretty plate photos.

All in all was a pretty standard mine and pasta recipe elevated to new heights with the 'cake' idea. Would I make it again? Yes more than likely just to see if I can get them all staying stood up enough to slice and serve next time.

Take care 

Jules xxx