Broccoli and Gruyere Tart

Broccoli and Gruyere tart: oven ready

Yesterday (23rd January) I made broccoli and Gruyere tart using the recipe from Norfolk's Own Cookbook: Everything Stops for Tea. The listed ingredients for the filling include eggs, cooked broccoli, grated Norfolk Dapple or Gruyere cheese, chives, double cream and mustard powder. The spouse is on a weight loss maintenance programme in advance of a family wedding later this year. I'm sure he'll appreciate that I substituted yoghurt for double cream. I couldn't get hold of fresh chives so used parsley instead.

I made the pastry in the food processor. I don't mind making it by hand. I was thinking of the woman who taught me how to make pastry. She was a friend of my parents. My sisters and I were staying with her one summer. She lived in Cardiff near a park that I now know is called Pontcanna Fields. She brought us to Porthcawl, Barry Island and up into the Brecon Beacons. I've always used her method for making pastry by hand: 16oz flour, 5oz butter/margarine and 5oz cooking fat, crumbled together, bound with water and cut through with a knife rather than kneading unnecessarily.

Nowadays I roll out the excess pastry, smear it with chocolate spread, roll it up, cut it into slices and bake biscuits. The younger offspring loves them.

The instructions in the recipe for the broccoli and Gruyere tart were a little confusing. The listed ingredients included cooked broccoli, but then the method instructed you to cook the broccoli after you prepared the pastry case. Anyway, I'm a big girl and the tart turned out all right.

Date and Cinnamon Flapjacks

I adapted this recipe from one cut out of Good Housekeeping (March 2011).

200g (7oz) butter
150g (5oz) demerara sugar
4 TBS golden syrup
1 teasp ground cinnamon
Finely grated zest of 1/2 - 1 orange
400g (14oz) oats
100g (3.5oz) dried dates, chopped

Pre-heat oven to 190'C (170'C fan), mark 5. Grease and line a 20.5cm (8") square baking tin with baking parchment.
Melt the butter in a large pan and add the sugar, syrup, cinnamon and orange zest.
Stir and heat gently until the sugar dissolves.

Remove pan from heat and stir in the oats and dates.
Press into the tin and bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly golden.

Leave to cool before cutting into squares.

Just what I needed for an energy boost after a busy week at work.

Minnie

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