FIG, HAM AND HERBY CHEESE GLUTEN FREE APÉRO TART

It's many times that on reading Dominic's blog "Dom in the Kitchen" I have felt inspired compelled to bake something he has posted straight away - or as soon as possible.  That's the case with his Boursin, fig and jambon galette which you can read about here.  

We had friends coming round for an evening BBQ and one of them needs a gluten free diet.  I had previously swooped on a pack of gluten free puff pastry in the supermarket with the idea of using it for some kind of nibbles for apéros.  It occurred to me that an adaptation of Dom's recipe would do the job really well.

I had some purple figs given to me by a friend, the right kind of pastry, some black olives and some ham in stock.  All I needed was the Boursin.  I popped into the village shop and whilst they didn't have Boursin they had their own brand herby soft cheese which worked fine.

It was a delicious tart, very simple to make and a great start to the evening.  The gluten free pastry didn't look quite the same as normal (shop bought) puff pastry when cooked but tasted fine and I would definitely use it again.

If gluten free was not a requirement I would use a pack of ordinary rectangular puff pastry and bake it into small square mini tarts which are easier to hand round and eat for people sitting with a glass in one hand!  Cutting squares from a round pack of pastry produces a lot of waste or some odd looking shapes of tart!  It also occurred to me that the filling would work well made into little filo parcels using filo pastry (known as "brick" in France).  I'll add this to the post if I do try it!

Ingredients

1 pack of ready made, ready rolled gluten free puff pastry

4-5 ripe figs, quartered

2 slices of thin ham, cut into strips

6-8 stoned black olives, halved

1 small pack of garlic and herb cream cheese

a little olive oil for drizzling

 

a little runny honey for drizzling

1 egg, beaten

Method

Take your pastry out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature, about 10-15 minutes.  Preheat your oven to 190°C / 170° fan.  Place a sheet of baking parchment on a large baking sheet.

Unroll the pastry onto the baking sheet.  Make a cut all the way around about 2cm from the edge to create a border but not going through the thickness of the pastry.

Spread a generous layer of the cream cheese over the pastry within the border.  Lay the strips of ham on top and arrange the fig quarters and black olives on top of them.

Drizzle a little olive oil and honey over the top and sprinkle with the fresh thyme leaves.  

Brush the edges of the pastry with beaten egg and bake for around 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the cheese bubbling at the edges.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cuts into 8 - 10 slices.

STALLED and biting the bullet.

Mary Berry's pear tart (with peaches).

It's absolutely ages since my last post and you may be tempted to think that no baking has been going on but that's not so!  The last few weeks have been a very busy time and we have been doing a lot of socialising which actually means quite a lot of cooking and baking, including recipes I had never tried before.  The blog is stalled for the moment but new posts will follow as soon as I have the time.

My adaptation of Dominic Franks' ham, fig and cheese tart. 

My own invention of barbecue pie.

A delicious poached nectarine trifle.

I have been chez nous uk this week and trying to eat very healthily as all that socialising and enjoying life over the summer chez nous fr has taken its toll on the waistline.  I have had huge success with poached eggs.

You may laugh but poaching eggs is, IMHO,  a black art and over the years I have tried a number of methods with mixed success.  I have tried microwaving them (Nancy Birtwhistle's method) which was a bit hit and miss, the silicone egg poaching pods (eggs stuck like glue to the pods), steaming them in a tea strainer over a pan of simmering water (stuck like Gorilla glue to that), and, most successful so far, sliding them into a large shallow pan of barely simmering water from a small cup (Nigella Lawson's method).  This would produce eggs that varied from perfect little balls of deliciousness to something that looked like a strangled jelly fish (but still tasted good).

More recently I have bit the bullet and done it the old fashioned way with HUGE SUCCESS.  Sliding the egg from a cup into a small but deep saucepan of just simmering water containing a splash of white wine vinegar has worked for me.  I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the freshness of the egg but when the white is just no longer transparent the egg seems to have that oh so perfect runny yolk we all aim for.  A thing of joy without a doubt.

Changing the subject, I have begun, for the umpteenth time, to wonder why I write this blog.  Posting recipes takes a lot of time and it's normal to have maybe up to a hundred page views but very few comments.  I have come to the conclusion that I mainly write it for two reasons; 1) that I enjoy writing it as long as I have the time and 2) as a record of what I have cooked.

However, Blogger has recently thrown a wobbly (one of many over the years) and no longer updates my reading list or my blog list and I am nervous about what might be next.  Could my record of favourite recipes disappear?  So I am intending that over the dark winter months to bite the bullet and spend some time creating some other kind of record, maybe by copying the recipes (without all the chat) into some kind of document that is forever stored on my laptop and maybe even printing them out.  I am of the generation that is suspicious of anything that is transient, i.e. not on paper!  Any suggestions would be very welcome!