G: Goat Cheese, Leek, and Walnut Tart

My travels abroad have so far consisted of one week in London where I was staying with my friend Sarah, and the rest of the time in Edinburgh where I have started studying. Thankfully I was able to find an apartment a few days after I arrived here and, even better, it has a kitchen that is sufficiently equipped for my cooking and baking needs. There is an oven, a gas stovetop, adequate counter space, and some other convenient odds and ends.  When I was still in London I was not sure what kitchen conditions to anticipate in Edinburgh.  I thought it would be wise to get a couple of recipes under my belt before I left the comforts of Sarah’s flat so a big thanks to her and her mum for letting me do so.

 This tart (from Maxine Clark’s Tarts: Sweet and Savoury) was so flavourful and delicious and went perfectly with a nice green salad. It was very garlicky but I have a feeling I put an extra clove in (my bad) so it was good that everyone present tried a slice. There were some slight changes I had to make to the original recipe due to the absence of ingredients or tools but they had no major effect on the final result:

1) Extra virgin olive oil was used to replace the walnut oil but I am curious as to how the flavours would compare

 2) I was able to find a log of goat cheese but it had no rind. The exterior was very soft and this made it difficult to slice the cheese in symmetrical circles as the original recipe suggested. I ended up crumbling the cheese which would only be a problem if you are serving the tart to guests who are extremely picky when it comes to presentation...if that is the case I recommend rolling out some interesting shapes from any leftover puff pastry (eg. the letter G, dollar signs, a self-portrait..) to distract them from the cheese's dishevelled state J

3) When I prepared the walnut paste, I used a blender instead of a food processor.  The flat- bottomed shape of a food processor bowl and the length of the blade help evenly chop and combine all of the contents. Instead, the blender combined about half of the content into a paste and left the remaining nuts still coarsely chopped. I thought it was nice having some texture in the paste so I just gave it a stir to even it out.  If you would rather have no crunch, try chopping the walnuts as finely as possible before putting them in the blender. If you have neither a processor nor a blender, chop the nuts finely and perhaps use a little less oil.

Ingredients
8 oz frozen puff pastry, thawed
4 Tbs butter
4 small leeks, trimmed, well washed, dried and sliced
8 oz goat cheese log with rind, sliced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 oz walnut pieces (about 1 ¼ cups)
3 garlic cloves, crushed
⅓ cup walnut oil (olive oil works too)
3 Tbs chopped fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 400F/200C. Roll out the dough thinly on a lightly floured work surface and cut out an 11-inch circle using a dinner plate as a template. Set on a baking sheet and place in freezer for 15 minutes.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the leeks, stirring to coat. Add a few tablespoons of water and a teaspoon of salt, and cover with a lid. Steam very gently for at least 20 minutes until almost soft. Remove the lid and cook for a few minutes to evaporate any excess liquid. Let cool.

To make the walnut paste, blend the walnuts and garlic in a food processor with 2 tablespoons of water. Beat in the walnut oil and stir in the parsley. Spread this over the dough, avoiding the rim.

Spoon the leeks into the pie crust base and top with the slices of goat cheese. Sprinkle with any remaining walnut paste. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbling and slightly brown.

Sprinkle with leftover parsley and serve immediately. Serves 4-6.