Recipes for Pies & Tarts @Not Quite Nigella

Category Archives: Pies & Tarts

Coconut Portuguese Custard Tarts Pastéis De Nata & Food Judging

coconut portuguese tart 4

It was Father’s Day again a few weekends ago and my father is always the easiest person to buy or bake for. To buy: it was a gift voucher at an arts and crafts store (he paints) and to eat no complicated cake, but rather a dozen of my finest home-made Portuguese Custard tarts please. These are the only things he will give up his strict low cholesterol regimen for.

coconut portuguese tart 2

Despite the distinctly tropical look to it, the plate is one I brought all the way back from Japan when I lived there. I adore the beautiful lines of Japanese pottery and shipped back as much as I could with me even giving up precious shoe space for some of it which shows you how much I loved the stuff. Sure it has a tiny chip in it from when it made the big journey across the ocean and seas but I adore it and have not been able to find a replacement for it anywhere.

grated palm sugar

I was sent some Carnation Soy cooking milk which is the soy version of evaporated milk but it does not separate as soy usually does when heated so I decided to give it a try on these. Everyone could tell that there was something quite different about these and perhaps I would save the Carnation Soy if I were making these tarts for someone who was dairy intolerant or on a low fat diet. If you’re not used to the regular Portuguese custard tart flavour then you may not notice such an obvious difference. However if you do want to a coconut version, just use the recipe as below using milk and cream.

coconut portuguese tart 3

And as for the judging of which I spoke in the title? Excitingly, I was asked to be part of the Carnation Soy Masterchef judging challenge where all of the magazines in a magazine house (News, Pacific and ACP) were asked to create a recipe using the Carnation Soy and two judges from Nestle and I were to judge the success of these dishes. Going to the magazine houses was always going to be an interesting occasion, especially to ACP who had threatened legal action on me very early on in my blog’s life. Nevertheless, curious about my first time food judging, I happily went along.

carnation soy delicious mag

Valli Little from Delicious: soy and White Chocolate Pannacotta and chocolate soy ice cream

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37 comments | September 25, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Meyer Lemon Meringue Pie

I had a serious case of food envy. For the past few months North Americans have been speaking of Meyer Lemons and making Meyer Lemon this and that. For fellow Antipodeans that have never heard of Meyer Lemons, they are a delicate floral breed of lemon with a sweet perfume and a sweeter, less acidic juice said to be a cross between a mandarin and lemon. You see I desperately wanted some but the shops didn’t carry them and nor did I know anyone with a Meyer Lemon tree. So I looked upon these recipes with a mixture of excitement and serious envy. Then something funny happened. I went to lunch at Greek Gardening God Costa Georgiadis’s house and took home some copies of the first few episodes of his show Costa’s Garden Odyssey.

Meyer Lemons

I watched them and what did I see but a Meyer Lemon tree in his backyard! I sat up and squealed and within a matter of days the lovely Costa had delivered me some gorgeously fragrant Meyer lemons. I picked one up – they looked just like regular lemons but when I held one to my nose I recognised that perfumeny mandarin aroma instantly. Of course as I was interviewing him a few days later I knew what I had to do – make him something to eat with these beautiful lemons and the idea of a Meyer Lemon Meringue Pie seemed the perfect choice.

The lemon curd filling is delicious with a lovely Meyer Lemon flavour. I realise I made a veritable cloud of meringue but as Mr NQN prefers the meringue to the lemon as he doesn’t like tart flavours, I made this for his taste too. The amount of filling I’ve specified actually gives enough for a jar full of lemon curd but that’s never a bad thing and of course saves you from making it again in a separate cooking session. The quantities can be easily halved if you want a more modest looking pie with less meringue and you don’t want the jar of lemon curd afterwards. When baking it I was nervous – after all I had a guest coming over and this was my first time making it. You can probably see that I made an error in judgement here. I cut it before it was chilled and therefore the lemon filling wasn’t completely set. I heard Julia Robert’s voice from “Pretty Woman” saying to me “Big Mistake! Big! Huge!” as I was cutting it but there was little I could do at that stage.

Of course if you cannot get Meyer lemons try a mix of 2/3 lemon and 1/3 mandarin juice and zest to help give that perfumey fragrance and sweetness with the tart lemon. I have now resolved to grow a potted Dwarf Meyer Lemon tree and Costa has promised to check on the status of our upcoming worm farm (which produces Worm juice, a great fertiliser).

So tell me Dear Reader, what would you grow if you could or what do you currently grow that you love? And if you’re a Black Thumb like me, come and join my club where I’ll try and grow things with Costa’s help!

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68 comments | August 31, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Quiche Not Lorraine & a Menulog offer!

I know a lot of people hate their names. I’m not really one of them. I have to admit though that I don’t really feel like a Lorraine if you know what I mean (my parents were going to name me Selina which I think suits me better). However it’s not a bad name-I could have had worse inflicted upon me. However as a consequence, I’ve been called Quiche Lorraine quite a few times which didn’t bother me as much as that Australian-ism “Lozza” which just made me cringe.

I didn’t particularly like Quiche Lorraine growing up, only because the Quiche Lorraine that I tried was the frozen type found in the freezer section of the supermarket. So I dismissed Quiche Lorraine as something watery and eggy and not particularly nice. Until I tried a good one.

This quiche is not your typical Quiche Lorraine with egg, bacon and cheese but a version made with whatever I had in the fridge before our move which happened to be leftover roast chicken, grilled eggplant and a few cheeses. So please feel free to use whatever you have to hand that you think would go well together. I’m hoping that by making Springtime and picnic friendly dishes that the weather will continue to be gorgeous. Sydney-siders be sure to enjoy the fabulous 28 degree day predicted for tomorrow perhaps with this quiche and a picnic!

And if you’re feeling like a night in I have some good news – an offer for Not Quite Nigella readers! The people at Menulog are offering you a $10 off coupon! The Australia wide website has over 600 restaurants in their delivery database delivering you food to your door so all you have to do is cue up Dexter or Mad Men on your DVD player. And how do you get this offer? Just use the coupon code “4D64FD” when making your order oneline. This is available for participating restaurants that display the “accepts vouchers” sign and is valid until November 2009. Minimum purchase $20 and for first orders. Have fun and happy feasting!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you like or dislike your own name? And have you changed your mind about it once you got older?

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42 comments | August 15, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Cherry & Rose Bakewell Tart – Daring Bakers June 2009 challenge

Don’t think I can’t see you rolling your eyes there. Another cherry item? Yes but you see, I am besotted by cherries – the black or the sour kind and when I had to select a jam to use in the Bakewell tart for this month’s Daring Bakers challenge I chose to make a Cherry Jam. Of course you might say smirkingly.

Of course you could use any flavour jam. I had intended to make a Wild Hibiscus jam but when I enquired and found it at $80 a kilo I realised that it was price prohibitive. So I tried to modify it by replacing the almond flavour with a rose water in both the pastry and the frangipane which is essentially an almond, egg, butter and sugar mix. The smell of this baking was wonderful. Tastewise, I am not a huge frangipane lover finding it a touch dry so I didn’t love this as much as others did. However, for the recipients, it was soon eaten in record time.

As I speak best through baking I decided to bake this for the nurses and doctors at Manly Hospital who looked after my husband so well on his recent stay. I figured renaming the Bakewell tart as Getwell tart was appropriate. Because I knew you’d like to see a cross section slice, I knew I couldn’t cut one slice out and then give to them so I sliced the whole thing up.

While we’re on the subject of hospitals, the night my husband went in, I was supposed to attend the launch of Table4Ten, a charity dinner held simultaneously across 50 of Sydney’s best restaurants in aid of the Prostate Cancer Foundation. It will be held at 7pm on the 22nd of September 2009 and the lineup of restaurants includes ARIA, Astral, Australian Museum, Bécasse, Beppi’s, Bilson’s, Bistro Moncur, Bistro Ortolan, Buon Ricordo, Buzo, Cafe Sydney, Catalina, Cato’s Fine Foods, China Doll, Cooking for Blokes, Essence, Flying Fish, Fort Denison, Forty-One Restaurant, Four in Hand, Grand National, Guillaume @ Bennelong, Light Brigade, L’incontro, Longrain, Machiavelli, Marque, Mezzaluna, Otto Ristorante, Quay, Restaurant Associates, Rockpool, Sean‘s Kitchen, Steel Bar & Grill, Summit Restaurant, Tetsuya’s, The Beresford Hotel, The Pier, TOKO Restaurant & Bar, Verandah, Wildfire and more.

Each lucky diner will be served a special menu including beverages and the most exciting part apart from the food? The after party at the end at a top secret location for all 500 guests to celebrate together. Tickets are $195 per head (with the option of an additional voluntary tax deductible donation of $55). See the Table4ten website for details.

So tell me Dear Reader, which charity is your favourite and why?

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75 comments | June 27, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Apple Tarte Tatins, Home Made Butter Puff Pastry & a move East!

I know I only said recently that should I ever try and make puff pastry that you should take this as sign to call the mental health authorities and in my defence Your Honour, I truly meant it. You see I had seen Delia make puff pastry on her show and it didn’t look great. Can I even say that? Will I be banned from visiting all Commonwealth countries for saying that? But to plead my side of the case, I had success with a filo pastry which I thought I’d never see occur and the natural progression is then Puff Pastry which readers and friends assured me would be ok.

The other reason why I made the puff pastry is because I didn’t want to buy any Puff Pastry as I wanted to clear out the freezer because we are moving house! Yes that’s the big news for us and if I’ve been curiously silent or busy on twitter or facebook recently (I just started this facebook page yesterday-come join us!), it’s because we’ve been busy buying our first apartment. We’re renovating our bathroom and kitchen which will be exciting but not without trepidation. For those that are familiar with Sydney, we’ll be moving from the Lower North Shore back to the Eastern Suburbs where I grew up and we’re both very excited about the move. So hopefully I’ll be able to clear out my cupboards and fridge/freezer without blogging about bizarre dishes like “What’s left in the freezer prawn head and quince paste soup” (yes I keep prawn shells to make seafood soup stock).

For the puff pastry, I used a recipe I found on the lovely blog Kitchen Unplugged which was a quick puff pastry although it still took a few hours. I rolled and rolled and rolled and even though mine didn’t look anywhere as neat as hers, when I baked it it became a golden, buttery wonder. There were so many layers I was stunned. Did I just make that? Really? I felt as proud as a new mother whose baby has just spoken a full sentence. If you do get the urge, and of course I don’t expect many of you to as it takes a long time, do try and make this puff pastry using your best butter. The supermarkets puff pastries are not usually made from butter (and if they are they’ll definitely be branded so and more expensive) and the amount of layers I got from this was simply astounding. The crunch, the butteriness and the delicious apple put rest to any apprehensions I had about it. Who knows, I might even be persuaded to make it again!

Dear Readers, if anyone has any advice on bathroom or kitchen renovations or any recommendations, please let me know!

Oh and before I forget, Every Wednesday I’ll put up a new Wallpaper picture. We all know Wednesday is possibly even a worse day than Monday as you are neither fresh and relaxed from the weekend like on a Monday nor are you tired but looking forward to the weekend like you are on a Friday. There’s a reason why they call it Hump Day. So in the spirit of trying to get over the hump, instead of changing your job, you can change your Wallpaper! Sure it won’t give you a six figure salary boost or a job travelling the world but every little bit counts right? Welcome to the first Wallpaper of Wallpaper Wednesdays!