FLOWER POT KITCHEN: RASPBERRY TART FROM THE GARDEN

12 Jul 2015

RASPBERRY TART FROM THE GARDEN

I love the beginning of every season and find that towards the end of each season I start to get excited at the prospects of the beginning of the next season, it is a wonderful ongoing perpetual circle of sort of hard work, growth, production and Mother Nature's giving and giving back to Mother Nature.

Right now I am at the beginning of summer and just getting a hint of what this season is going to produce and bring, the summer season for me is the start of the bounty to come from all of springs hard work, a bounty of beautiful free homegrown foods, today just a few strawberries are ready along with a few raspberries, blueberries, black currents and rhubarb perfect for scattering on your breakfast, making jam and pie fillings or making individual tarts.

Prep time 15 mins / Cooking time 15 mins

Ingredients

(Makes 2)

Sweet pastry

(makes extra, keep in freezer for next time)

350g plain flour

small pinch of salt

2 beaten eggs

150g softened butter

100g icing sugar

Tart Filling

60 raspberries plus

30 raspberries for the decoration

100g caster sugar

First make the sweet pastry, place the flour on your worktop and create a well in the centre, place the butter in the well and add the sugar on top, using a pecking pinching action, gently incorporate the sugar in to the butter, then add the beaten egg into this mix and incorporate into the butter mix, once incorporated flick the mixture into the flour and slowly incorporate, bring together and form a smooth ball, wrap in parchment paper and place in the fridge for one hour to chill. Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees.

Meanwhile, place your 60 raspberries in a saucepan with the sugar a gently heat through until soft and syrupy then turn up the heat and bring to a simmer to reduce the raspberries until thick enough so that you can draw a line through the saucepan and see the bottom of the pan for a split second, take off the heat and leave to cool.

Flour your worktop and roll out the sweet pastry, line your tart tins with the pastry, line the pastry with a piece of baking paper and fill the tart case with baking beans or rice and blind bake for ten minutes, then remove the baking beans and baking paper and pop back in the oven for a further three minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.

Fill your tart cases with the raspberry jam and top with the reserved whole raspberries and enjoy.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.