Beetroot & Goats Cheese Tart

What is the difference between a savoury tart and a quiche? Something I am sure you will all ponder over for many hours...

This is a terribly simple recipe which not only looks impressive (purple food always does) but tastes brilliant too. If you cheat and buy pastry (I'm not telling anyone) then it is even easier.

I have discovered some wonderful goats cheese recently, from the excellently named Wobbly Bottom Farm, they do a range of goats and cow cheeses made from goats and cows on their own farm. My favourites are the soft flavoured goats cheeses, rolled in all manner of lovely things such as piri piri seasoning, black pepper or herbs. Yummy!
For my readers in Cambridge, they sometimes appear at local markets but the cheese is also stocked at the Cambridge Farmers Market outlet on the corner of Lensfield Road/Regent Street.

Beetroot & Goats Cheese Tart
makes one 28cm round tart

First of all either make your pastry, or roll out a sheet of bought shortcrust pastry. Oil or butter your tin, mine was non stick anyway but I have pastry paranoia so I greased it anyway. And then line your tart tin with your pastry. Leave about 1.5 inches overhanging, line with tin foil and fill with dry beans or rice. Blind bake for 15 minutes at gas mark 5 / 180c.

Whilst the pastry blind bakes make your filling.
For the filling you'll need:

3 small beetroots - peeled and grated
3 medium eggs
about 50g of parmesan, finely grated
50ml of milk
1 teaspoon of creamed horseradish
small handful of chopped parsley
seasoning
About 75g of soft crumbly goats cheese

Whisk your eggs in a bowl and then mix in your milk. Then add in the rest of the ingredients except the goats cheese and stir to combine.
Remove the pastry from the oven when it is light golden brown and nearly cooked all over (keep the oven on), remove the beans/rice and the foil. Whilst it is still fairly warm trim the excess pastry from the edge of the tin. Leave to cool slightly for 5 minutes before adding your filling in, hot pastry and cold eggs don't mix too well! Scatter the crumbled goats cheese over the top of the tart, or slice into rounds and place on top.

Return to the oven for 15- 20 minutes until the mixture has a slight wobble in the centre, but is cooked everywhere else. Cool for as long as you can bear before eating it!

P.S. I am sorry for the Instagrammed photos, normal properly taken photos will return some day, probably when the light levels are better.

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Chocolate Beetroot Cupcakes

I think my life may be complete, I have made a purple cake batter. Purple is my favourite colour, some of you may have realised this already - purple clothes, purple food, purple sheets ;)

I was given some beetroots from my colleague who grows them, I was a bit stuck for what to do with them in a savoury way. I remembered the lovely recipe featured on River Cottage for beetroot brownies. Instead I popped the nice fresh beetroot into a nice chocolate cake batter and studded it with blackberries and raspberries. Purple batter!

You can still taste the beetroot in this recipe, some people may not like this but I think it is unusual and very yummy. Beetroot is mainly used in cake and brownies for moistness, and that definitely was there too.

You can adapt this recipe and use courgettes as well, we have lots on our plant at the moment so this is something I am definitely going to try. Of course the batter won't be purple though ;)

Chocolate Beetroot Berry Cupcakes
makes 12 muffin/cupcake sized cakes

150g butter
150g brown or white sugar
2 large eggs
3 medium sized beetroots, peeled and grated
100g good quality cocoa powder
50g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
berries, about 2 or 3 per cupcake.

Cream together your butter and sugar then add in the eggs one at a time and beat until fluffy.
Sift in your cocoa powder, flour and baking powder. Then fold in your beetroot carefully.

Spoon one heaped tablespoon into each cupcake case, pop a couple of berries in and then spoon over another tablespoon of mixture. Add another berry on the top.
Bake in a preheated oven at gas mark 6 / 200c / 400f  for 15 - 20 minutes until cooked through.

These are gorgeous whilst still warm, very chocolatey, because they are fairly moist they don't keep for more than a few days, but I don't think that will be a problem in any household! ;)

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