This great recipe was put together by by wife. A simple to make yet delicious dish. I’m assured the pastry is incredibly easy to make, and I can definitely confirm it tastes every bit as good as it looks!
Asparagus & Chilli Tart Ingredients
Pastry
- 220g plain flour
- Large pinch of salt
- 100g Butter (cold)
- 3 tbsp water
Filling
- 20 asparagus tips or 12-15 larger ones
- 3 large eggs
- Pinch of chilli (flakes or chopped fresh ones)
- 50g of a hard cheese (like Parmesan or hard goats cheese)
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 100ml of milk
Method
Pastry: Put flour, salt & butter in a food processor or rub in by hand until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add water & bring mixture together (either in the processor or by hand) – do not overwork – just bring the mixture together till it forms a dough. Chill for 30 min in the fridge. Then roll to half a cm thick & lay in a 20cm round pastry/ flan dish. Blind bake the empty pastry case for 30 min at 160C.
Filling: Chop asparagus into inch long pieces. Blanch for 1 min then rinse in cold water to stop them cooking anymore. Beat three eggs in a bowl with the milk, add seasoning, cheese, chilli & blanched asparagus to the egg and milk mixture.
Fill the blind baked pastry case with the mixture and bake for 30-40 min at 170 until cooked through and golden on top but not burnt. You’ll know when it is done when the middle has just a very slight wobble left. Eat it hot or cold, perfect with a splash of tabasco on top!
I was taking a few pictures of this years first batch of seedlings when i saw something worrying…
..what caught my eye is the dark lumps on the under sides of the leaves. Aphids.
Unfortunately when growing chillies, battling aphids seems to become an annual battle. I’ve explained before about my regular 4 point plan against aphids however this early in the year none of these options is viable as the seedlings are inside 24/7 so encouraging natural predators or deterrents aren’t really an option.
The only way to battle aphids indoors is to manually remove them and/or spray them. You need to be very careful when removing the aphids form young seedlings like these. I do this carefully using jus my finger tips.
Unfortunately when you remove aphids manually, they will almost have certainly already laid their eggs. As a result you’ll need to keep rechecking the plants every few days to make sure you catch the young as they hatch. It may take a few weeks to fully get rid of an infestation like this however persistance is the only way to succeed.
In addition to manually removng the aphids I also spray them with an organic pesticide – just to be sure the spray you use is safe to use with edible plants.
The Serrano seeds from Wahaca that I planted in the first week in January are looking really healthy.
As mentioned before i wish i’d only planted one seed per cell as I don’t enjoy thinning out seedlings. As you can see in the shot below some of the Wahaca seed sticks had up to 5 seeds each. With almost 100% germination rates culling some of the weaker seedling is the only option.
Rather than trying to separate out the roots i’ve decided to take a pair of scissors and snip out the weaker looking stems, leaving just one seedling per cell. This will allow the remaining seedlings to maximise their root growth and grow strong without having to compete with neighbouring plants.
Here are the poor soldiers that didn’t make it. It seems harsh but the remaining plants will thank me with higher yields come the summer time.
