Yesterday I admitted to stealing a couple of cookbooks from Jacqueline's book shelf last week. Although I swiftly returned A Cooks Companion back to her on Sunday I decided to hold on to Ottolenghi as I have no intention of returning it to her any time soon. If truth be told I'm hoping that if I keep it long enough she will just forget about it.

As far as I am concerned both Yotam and Sami are the most unique and imaginary artisans I have come across in a long while and I want to try all 140 of their recipes. Consequently I had an Ottolenghi food feast over the weekend. I tried out a number of vegetable and pulse dishes which got the thumbs up by Mr Man and Hoover and have easily earmarked another twenty for the coming weeks. After studying the 'baking and patisserie' section in great depth I decided to make the 'semolina and raspberry tart' on Saturday afternoon. Needless to say it was beyond delicious and tasted even better the following morning.


Semolina and Raspberry Tart

Adapted from Ottolenghi the Cookbook 2008


Ingredients

Shortcrust pastry

115g of unsalted butter

1/3 cup castor sugar

1 organic egg yolk

½ tsp vanilla extract

185g plain flour, sifted
 

Filling
 
200ml pure cream

320ml organic milk

100g unsalted butter

1 organic egg

60g castor sugar

60g semolina

150g organic raspberries

½ vanilla pod

50g apricot jam, optional

Icing sugar, to finish
 

Method

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

2. Place flour, sugar and butter in the Magimix or food processor and process for 10-15 seconds or until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add egg yolk and vanilla extract 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. To make the filling put the butter, cream, milk and sugar in a non-stick saucepan. Slit the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrap out the seeds and then drop the seeds and pod into the saucepan. Bring to boil and let it simmer as you gently whisk in the semolina. Continue whisking until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat whisk in the egg and remove the vanilla pod.

5. Pour semolina mixture into the tart case. Push half the raspberries inside the semolina mixture allowing them to show on the surface. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the filling is a light golden colour. Remove tart from the oven and allow to cool before removing from the tart tin.

6. Put the apricot jam in a small saucepan with a tablespoon of water and bring to boil. Brush the tart with the apricot glaze and then pile the remaining raspberries over the tart. Lightly dust with icing sugar before serving.