I saved up September's calendar recipe so that it'd fall outside VeganMoFo. It's basically a quiche, though it has some interesting touches - the base is full of wholegrains and carrots, while the filling is dominated by beetroot.
The base is certainly something I'd try again. It's a little thicker and more wholesome than your average quiche, albeit still packed with butter. This recipe doesn't include instructions to blind-bake it, and I think that's a mistake.
It's a mistake because it turns out that grated beetroot gives off a lot of water when it's baked. This tart never really set, with the smallish quantity and eggs and milk totally overwhelmed by the beetroot juice. The juice soaked into the crust and flooded the dish each time I cut a crumbling slice. It tasted fine, but the ingredients didn't work together well and the texture was entirely out of whack.
I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to rework this filling - less beetroot, or pre-cooked beetroot? More eggs and/or milk? I'm sure I'll think of something to fill that carrot crust.
Carrot-crusted beetroot tart
(presumably sourced from BBC GoodFood)
175g wholemeal flour
100g rolled oats
100g butter, cut into small cubes
100g carrots, grated
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 large onions, sliced into rings
3 medium beetroots, peeled and grated
3 eggs
250mL milk
salt and pepper
Place the flour, oats and butter in a food processor and blend them together until they resemble coarse crumbs. Add the grated carrot and process further until the mixture forms a ball. Set out a large piece of plastic wrap and transfer the dough onto it, folding the wrap over the top of it. Roll the dough out to fit a pie dish, unwrap it and ease it in, trimming the edges as needed.
Pour the oil into a frypan over low heat, add the onions and cook them until soft and browned, at least 20 minutes.
Preheat an oven to 180°C. Spread the beetroot out across the base of the pastry.
Arrange the onions over the top of the beetroot. Beat together the eggs and milk, and season with salt and pepper; pour this over the tart.
Bake the tart for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 160°C and bake for a further 40 minutes, or until the eggs are set. I found that the onions browned rapidly and so covered the tart with foil from the 15 minute mark onwards.
What a fabulous idea that is! Despite needing a bit of re-working.
ReplyDeleteI reckon I'd try blind baking the pastry, so it forms a less permeable crust. And I'd then quickly pan-fry the grated beetroot, on a high-ish heat, before adding it to the tart.
I regularly make a beetroot frittata and do exactly this, before adding the egg. It dries the ebeetroot out quite considerably and, because you're using grated beetroot only takes a few minutes.
That's what I'd try anyway. Lovely, lovely idea though.
Hi Kathryn! Thanks for this advice. Chucking the grated beetroot into the pan won't be too much extra effort so I'll definitely give it a shot next time.
Deletesounds great but soggy quiches are frustrating - if you had the time then roasting the beetroot might help as roasted veg seem to be less watery than raw
ReplyDeleteit just occurred to me that I had made a carrot pastry crust very similar to this one and I did bake it 15 to 20 min before adding the filling http://gggiraffe.blogspot.com.au/2010/05/case-of-disappearing-tart.html
ReplyDeleteHi Johanna! Wow, that crust in your recipe bears a striking resemblance to this one. Glad to get reinforcement that blind-baking is likely to help.
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