Nettle and sheep’s cheese tart

Starters —
Nettle-and-sheeps-cheese-tart

Serves

Six people

Ingredients

  • 1x 8″ loose base tart case

For the short crust

  • 150 g of butter
  • 300 g plain flour
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 egg yolk
  • About 150ml cold milk

For the filling

  • About 750 g of picked nettle tips that have been washed
  • 1 large organic onion finely sliced
  • 2 cloves of garlic or 3 – 6 wild garlic leaves finely chopped
  • 100g hard sheep’s or goat’s cheese grated
  • 1 pinch of dried chilli flakes
  • A good knob of butter
  • Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
  • Squeeze of lemon juice
  • 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks
  • 200ml cream
  • 100ml milk

Method

To make the short crust

Place the flour, butter and salt in a food processor and pulse to a bread crumb consistency.

Add the egg yolk followed by the milk in a gradual stream.

Stop as soon as the doe comes together.

Turn out and knead a couple of times.

Wrap and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Roll out the pastry and line your tart case. Leave the edges over hanging. (You can cut these off later. I find this eliminates the need for baking beans)

Prick the base with a fork and bake blind for about 15 mins on the floor of the top oven reading ‘HOT’. (This will help to dry out the pastry base) or until the base is dry but not coloured. Trim the edges.

The filling

Blanch the nettle tips in boiling water for 2 mins. Remove and refresh in a large bowl of iced water. Drain and squeeze excess water from the nettles.

Roughly chop the nettles. Melt the butter in a pan over heat and soften, lightly colour the onion, chilli and garlic. Add the chopped nettles and season with lemon juice salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Spoon the filling into the tart case, top with the cheese.

Combine your eggs and yolks with the cream and season to taste.

Fill the tart case with the custard.

Bake straight away at 180c for about half an hour.

The custard should be just set when you shake the tin.

Allow it to cool before you eat it. It’s much better then.

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