Tuesday Try-Out - Garden Vegetable and Goats' Cheese Tart

For far too long I have been in a huge rut on the daily cookery front.  We eat the same things all the time and I rarely venture into the utility room to pick up a recipe book and find something new and delicious to present to my nearest and dearest.

In January, one of the resolutions I didn't make 

(because I knew I would break it, which is the reason I never make ANY resolutions!) 

was to try out a new recipe each week.  Just one.  

That wouldn't be too hard.  

I'd post it on my blog, as an incentive.  

I even got as far as selecting the first four recipes I was going to try out, but that was as far as I got. 

Anyway, I am now resurrecting my 'resolution' in an attempt to liven up our dinner plates, and give me something to put on my blog (because, hey, I've been struggling on that front too!)

So here I present a rather nice savoury tart.  It is a little more effort to make than what I'd normally do for a weekday dinner (it was actually for a big family get-together), but it was what I was making when the camera was nearby. The recipes I plan to make will mostly be just ordinary dinners.

First, line a 24cm tart tin with 500g chilled shortcrust pastry.  You could buy this, but I made mine in a flash courtesy of my food processor with 150g butter, 300g flour and 4 tablespoons of icy water - oh and a pinch of salt.  I then let it rest in the fridge for about twenty minutes, 'cos that's what the proper cooks do on 'The Great British Bake-Off'. Oh, and look, I let my pastry hang over the edge.  That's rather professional looking, dontcha think?

After chilling said lined tin for 20 minutes, I lined it with greaseproof paper and chucked in my random mix of dried beans, rice and lentils.  If I were a proper cook I would probably have 'ceramic baking beans' like wot they sell in Lakeland and kitchen-y shops, but I'm too tight-fisted to splash out £4.29,so will continue to take a risk that my bean-y mix doesn't conduct the heat quite so evenly as the 'superior and virtually indestructible'  ceramic impostors.  

I baked the tart for 10 minutes at 220 degrees/220 Fan Oven/ Gas Mark 7, then whipped off the greaseproof (without sending the beans into orbit) and then baked for a further ten minutes, till golden brown.

After it cooled a little I knocked off all the overhang, so it looks all neat and stuff.

Then I turned the oven down to 190 degrees/170 Fan Oven/Gas Mark 5.  

Next I melted 50g butter...

 ...gathered together 75g frozen peas (or 'petits pois' if you're posh), three runner beans (85g roughly), 3 salad onions (85g roughly) and a small courgette...

...washed and sliced the courgette...

...washed, halved and chopped the runner beans...

...washed and removed the hairy end from the onions, then sliced 'em up...

...tipped them into the melted butter and cooked them gently for about five minutes, until slightly softened.

Then I chucked in 50g plain flour and stirred in to make a vegetable-laden roux...

..and then I poured in 300ml of milk.  

I stirred this over a gentle heat till it had thickened...

...then left it to cool for  about five minutes, whilst I beat up 2 large eggs...

...quartered 3 small vine-ripened tomatoes and crumbled a 100g log of soft goats' cheese. 
(Now where do you put the apostrophe there?  I put it after the s because I believe very firmly that the cheese is the magnificent product of many a goat, not just one, but I know that when I see it printed, most often the pesky-so-oft-misused punctuation mark  is before the s, implying that a mere one goat produced it.  Well, I am astounded at her productivity if that is the case!)

I added the beaten-up eggs to the veggie mix and beat it in thoroughly, tipped this into the pastry shell...

...then scattered the tommies and the cheese on top.

This was baked in the oven for 40 minutes till golden, set  and scrummy-looking.

It was delicious, even getting a thumbs-up from Miss U-t-B who has never tried anything goat-y before.

Next week, I will be sharing Oven Baked Chicken with Garlic Potatoes. I'm off to put the ingredients on my shopping list.  There, I have to make it now!