A good, filling tart, this. I was inspired at the market, as I often am, this time when I visited the Italian van which stocks lots of goodies like Parma ham, parmesan, finnochiona, poncey balsamic vinegar and the like, as well as some French and Swiss cheeses.
So I bought some deliciously creamy (I think I could even say unctious) Brie de Meaux and then clapped my eyes on the black ash rind of the cheese that ended up in this tart, because Anouk and I couldn't physically eat it unless it was cooked. Afer tasting a morsel of it, I had to buy some, but I knew I would probably end up turning it into a tart, so I bought some fennel, too. The shallots just happened to be in the cupboard at home - onions would be fine, I reckon. The cheese isn't actually Vacherin, but I can't remember its name and I think a Vacherin on the turn would be a great equivalent.
I made a basic shortcrust, just flour, butter and water, and baked it blind while sorting out the filling - boiled some chunkily sliced waxy potatoes and fried a couple of shallots with a touch of nutmeg and a pinch of aniseed before adding two bulbs of fennel, thickly sliced. They need to sauté gently for a while, in plenty of butter. Then I whisked up two eggs, one egg yolk, 250ml sour cream and some black pepper, diced about 100g of the crazy cheese and stirred it into the mix with the fennel. I arranged the spuds in the base nicely, poured the rest in, chucked a few more dice of cheese on top and baked for 40 mins at 180 C.
It was pretty good. :)
By the way, have the rest of you not actually eaten anything in the past week?
M
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