What a fun theme
week this is with all the hidden treasures and occasional terrors found in the
back of the cupboard, pantry, freezer and wherever. Need some detective work to use those odd ingredients? That's what we're here for. I have been taking note of everyone's great ideas and plan to try them all. Isn't necessity the mother of invention?
 |
| VICTORIA ABBOTT FEARS NO CUPBOARD |
We are nothing if not
resourceful. It’s the perfect month for
this challenge because for the second Mystery Lovers Kitchen recipe this month, we’ve been stuck at home because
of dangerous road conditions.
That meant I (MJ here) had an extra reason to check out
what was in the back of the freezer. I
was on a serious quest for a ‘just before grocery day’ meal made of ingredients
that we actually had.
Turns out I
found a package of frozen puff pastry, hiding in the bottom of the freezer. The pastry was rapidly approaching its Best Before
date. I don’t even remember why, when or even IF I bought it, but it wasn’t long for
this world.
In the
fridge I had a pound of uncooked asparagus that had been forgotten two days
earlier when we made a salmon dinner. Asparagus is not a forgiving vegetable
and something needed to be done ASAP.
Luckily, some detecting turned up a
recipe for Asparagus Tart with Puff Pastry from a Foodland Ontario's website. Of course, it’s not asparagus season in Ontario now (ahem),
but we do have an excellent local supplier of mushrooms which is one of the
reasons we always have them. I had to
improvise a bit on other ingredients because we didn’t have shallots (local or
otherwise) which the recipe called for. I
used a small onion, caramelized it, and upped the garlic.
We didn’t have Ontario Havarti either,
although I love Havarti and I will try this the next time. I fiddled a bit with the cooking times and
added a bit of extra oil and butter. Not
only did we have a storm but in the storm immediately preceding it, our
basement flooded. The emergency clean-up crew was there as I was preparing
that. They were worried about the drive home!
By the way, you could
reduce the amount of oil or butter if you want because the pastry is quite rich. You could probably
use a bit of stock to pre-cook the veggies. Go ahead and use a salt substitute too.
I was glad
to discover the Foodland Ontario site, because it does have great recipes for the
kind of fresh ingredients we can easily find in the province, as long as we can
get out the door. They also have a great recipe calendar.
Asparagus Tart with Puff Pastry, Cheese and Mushrooms
Ingredients:
- 2 tsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp butter
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1 ½ cups sliced brown mushrooms
- 1 lb sliced asparagus, snapped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper
- 1 sheet (225 g) butter puff pastry, thawed
- 1 tbsp (15 mL) Dijon mustard
- 1 1/4 cup (250 mL) shredded cheese. We used Black Diamond medium cheddar.
- seven or eight chopped chives
Directions:
In large skillet, heat oil and butter over
medium heat. Add chopped onion and cook for about twenty minutes over low heat.
Add additional tablespoon of oil and
mushrooms; cook for 5 minutes.
Add asparagus and garlic; cook for 5 minutes,
stirring often. Remove from heat. Season.
Unroll puff pastry and place on parchment
paper-lined baking sheet.
Brush Dijon over surface.
Poke entire surface with
fork. Arrange asparagus over pastry and top with mushroom mixture, leaving
1/2-inch border.
Sprinkle with the grated cheese.
Bake in 400°F oven 20 minutes or until pastry
is golden brown. Let stand on sheet on wire rack for 5 minutes before cutting
to serve.
The
results: The surprised husband (who doesn’t
care for pizza and up until this point had been saying “So is this some kind of
pizza?” changed his tune to: “Wow, this is really delicious!”
We loved it
and will make it again. It will serve
four as a light lunch with a salad or maybe six as an appetiser. We may try it for brunch too. You could easily pre-cook the veggies and
just add in time for baking.
You
probably know that we Mary Jane and Victoria Maffini are actually
VICTORIA ABBOTT, author of The BOOK COLLECTOR MYSTERIES, But in case you
don't, we thought it worth mentioning again.
So thanks to
this fun theme week and some rotten weather, Victoria Abbott has new favorite lunch. We also have a new favorite cover: The Hammett Hex has now been revealed.
TA DAH! Just click this link because it's NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER
TA DAH! Just click this link because it's NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER
