Although both my brother and sister in-law are vegetarians and have been so for decades I always seem to remember this vital fact at the eleventh hour. And so the other day when I was baking away like a crazed women preparing for Hoover's birthday party I suddenly had one of those 'crap the timpana has meat in it' moments. Meat in timpana is a good thing, but meat in my timpana meant that Lisa and Ian would be going hungry unless I was to provide them with a meat-free alternative.



Not wanting to leave the house and run up to the shops in the rain, I fossicked around the kitchen and found mushrooms (always a good start), eggs and some sheep's fetta. As luck would have it, I found a solitary packet of Carême sour cream short crust pastry buried under a stack of stuff in the freezer.

I sautéed the mushrooms in some olive oil and butter and tossed in a couple of cloves of minced garlic and a handful of fresh thyme. Once the pastry case had cooked I spread the mushrooms over the base, crumbled the fetta over that and poured over the egg and cream mixture. I can imagine the tart would have tasted lovely cold the next morning, but the tart soon experienced a similar fate to the timpana in that it was demolished by both vegetarian and carnivore alike.

Mushroom, Thyme & Sheep Fetta Tart

This is the savoury tart I made for the two token vegetarians in the family the night of Hoovers birthday party dinner. I served it warm with a simple green salad with a lemon dressing. I cut corners with this dish and used hand made sour cream Carême shortcrust pastry.
 

Ingredients

Shortcrust pastry

250g organic plain flour, sifted

125g of cold butter

Pinch of sea salt

2 tbsp cold water


Filling

500g mushrooms, sliced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Handful of fresh thyme, chopped

180g organic sheep milk fetta, crumbled

350ml thick cream

5 organic eggs, lightly beaten

Sea salt & freshly ground pepper

 
Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4

2. Place flour, salt and butter in the Magimix or food processor and process for 10-15 seconds or until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the cold water and continue to process until the pastry clings together and forms a ball. Remove pastry from the machine and knead it gently to form a smooth ball. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

3. Lightly flour work surface and rolling pin and roll pastry to a thickness of 2-3mm. Line 28cm diameter tart tin with pastry, trim the edges and then blind bake for 15 minutes until pale golden. Remove paper and weights and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes. Remove and cool.

4. While the tart shell is baking sauté mushrooms and garlic in some butter and olive oil. Toss in the fresh thyme and cook for a further 10 minutes. When done allow to cool.

5. Gently whisk the eggs and cream together and season with salt and pepper. Spread the cooked mushroom mix over the base of the tart shell and top with crumbled fetta.

6. Pour in the egg and cream filling and cook for 30-40 minutes until set and the filling puffs up like a soufflé. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.