Blueberry Tart--from My Tart Collection

If the name "Tartelette" was still available I think that would be a great name for my blog. Unfortunately, it is already taken and by a well known and established blog. Tarts are one of my favorite pastry and I make them very often--either savory or sweet. I made sweet tarts with almost all fruits and nuts. I like fruit tarts especially in the summer and fall when I can use fresh seasonal fruits to make them.

For last few weeks, the locally growing blueberries have been arriving massively to the food stores in my area. Today everyone is aware of their high antioxidant content and they are almost in everyone's shopping cart.

I love to eat them fresh straight from the box, put them in my kids' lunch boxes, or put them in fruit salads. Sometimes, I also make tarts with blueberries, especially when they are in their peak--large and sweet. For the crust I typically use my classic short cake recipe, but this time to make it different, I added ground almonds to the crust. I spread the crust over the tart pan, baked it for 10-15 minutes and only then I added fruits and baked it altogether for another 15-20 minutes and voilà my dessert was ready in half an hour. To me it tastes always best when it is still slightly warm.

Blueberry Tart
(For a 10-inch tart tin)

Ingredients for the crust:
1 and 1/2 cup flour,
2 sticks (about 230 g) cold, unsalted butter, cut into thick slices
1/2 cup icing sugar,
1/2 cup ground almonds,
a pinch of salt,

Ingredients for the filling:
3 six oz boxes of blueberries,
1/4 cup sugar,
2 whole eggs,
1 cup table cream.

Preparation:
1. Place flour, sugar, ground almonds, and salt in a large bowl. Mix all the ingredients.
2. Add butter to the flour mixture and working with hands break butter and rub it in the flour to form coarse crumbs.
3. Place the crust in a plastic bag and chill for at least 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 375F.
5. Butter slightly the baking tin and spread the crust over it. Press gently with fingers make sure to cover the bottom and the side walls.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the crust is gold.
7. Whip quickly sugar, eggs and cream to make a kind of custard mix. Spread blueberries on top of the crust, cover with the custard mix, and bake for about 20-30 minutes, until the topping is set.

Tip: the crust can be made ahead and stored in a refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Swiss Chard Pasta--Peppery Feast

Whenever I have no idea what to cook for dinner, pasta always comes to my rescue. Especially on a busy day, pasta seems the best idea for an easy and light dinner. Vegetable-based pasta meals are my favorites as they can be made from practically any vegetables.

It is almost impossible to come up with an idea for a pasta that the Italians have not yet come up with, but recently I heard about pasta with Swiss chard. I ate Swiss chard a coupe of times, also in Indian dishes, but never with pasta. The idea seemed tempting, as Swiss chard is inexpensive, available most of the year, in particular in the Asian food stores, and healthy as a source of vitamins K, A, and C, and thirteen antioxidants. All in all pasta with Swiss chard seemed like a desirable addition to my pasta menu.

I noticed that Swiss chard has been very popular recently and, especially on many food blogs, people are trying to come up with new ideas on how to use that healthy vegetable.

So when I saw beautiful bunches of colorful Swiss chard in a grocery store I visit weekly, I bought one of them. For the first time I cooked Swiss chard myself and for the first time I made pasta with chard, inspired by a recipe from Metropolitan Home. The recipe called for adding a tbsp of Aleppo, Maras, or Urfa pepper, or pimento de la Vera, but I omitted that step as pasta with such spices could be to strong for kids, but it is said that those peppers will add a lot of flavor to this already well-defined, peppery tasting dish.

Swiss Chard and Olives Pasta
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
1 bunch of Swiss chard,
1 lb (one box) Ziti pasta,
1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced,
5 garlic cloves, sliced,
10 to 15 black olives, cured in brine, sliced,
3 tomatoes chopped,
1/2 cup basil or flat leaved parsley, chopped,
1/3 cup olive oil,
1/4 cup toested pine nuts,
salt and pepper,
grated Parmesan,
1 tbsp Aleppo, Maras, or Urfa pepper, or pimento de la Vera.

Preparation:
1. Cut out leaves from the stalks and blanch them for about 1 minute in a large pot of boiling water. Drain, chop, and set aside.
2. Cook pasta in a pot of 4 quarters of water with a tbsp salt, until al dente.
3. Meanwhile. heat the oil, garlic, and onion over medium heat in a large saute pan stirring constantly for 5 to 7 minutes, until slightly brown.
4. Add to the pan blanched chard, olives, tomatoes, basil or parsley, pine nuts, salt, pepper and Aleppo paper if used.Cook stirring until mixture is just bubbling,about 3 to 4 minutes.

5. Drain the pasta, add to the pan with chard mixture and stir to combine.
6. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve at once.

Salad Dressings--And the Benefits of Rice Bran Oil

When I was a child, ready-made salad dressings were simply unavailable in Polish stores. Later, I have learned from French and Italians cookbooks, that dressings are one of those culinary condiments that you can always make at home and they taste best made that way.

I am sure anyone has his favorite dressing recipe. And although I will share some of mine, the true reason for this post is not to post dressing recipes, but to introduce a rice bran oil, which I have just discovered.

We all have heard about the benefits of the extra virgin olive oil, especially the cold pressed variety, which is claimed to be the main reason for the good health and longevity of the Mediterranean people who have been using it for ages. Since extra virgin olive oil is already widely used there is no point in my trying to popularize it.

But recently, when I bought a bottle of rice bran oil, I started to read about its amazing health benefits. The more I have read about it the more I have been adding it to different dishes and now, I add it almost daily to my green salads.

Rice bran oil is easily available and inexpensive. You can buy it at Whole Foods, or at Asian food markets where you can get a quart of it for just $6. It has been long appreciated in the Asian cuisine. Japanese women use it as a beauty product to cleanse and purify their skin. Japanese also claim that it has many medical benefits, among others it helps regulate hormonal imbalance, lowers cholesterol, heals stomach ulcers and upset stomach, and benefits the nervous system. All that thanks to the vitamins K, A, and C, but most of all due to a high content of gamma oryzanol, a powerful antioxidant.

Rice bran oil has also a very high smoke point which makes it excellent for deep frying. Recently, I have been using it for all frying.

Here are the simplest dressings that I make daily, using this so called "world's healthiest oil".

Lemon Garlic Dressing for Boston Lettuce

Ingredients:
1 head Boston lettuce,
juice from half a lemon,
1 garlic clove,minced
1 tsp sugar,
1/4 cup Rice Bran Oil,
sea salt and fresh coarsely ground pepper to taste

Preparation:
Mix sugar with lemon juice,until sugar dissolves. Add garlic, salt, pepper, and oil. Using a small whisker mix all the ingredients and pour over salad.

Mustard and Vinegar Dressing for Mixed Salads

Ingredients:
4 cups of mixed lettuce leaves,
1 tbsp yellow mustard,
1 tsp sugar,
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar,preferably di Modena,
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil,
2 tbsp bran rice oil,
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Preparation:
Pour mustard in a small bowl. Add sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper, and whisk until it makes a sauce. Add both oils, mix again and pour over salad.

Both dressings can be made in double amounts and stored in a refrigerator--one with lemon can be stored for up to two weeks and the one with vinegar for up to one month.