Hello Feeder gang!
I have a deep love of tarts. In part because The Wyburd Tarts is the name of my extended family Whatsapp group (the tarts being the affectionate name for the partners of all my sisters), but also because there aren’t many better vessels for food than crisp pastry. If you are not a pastry lover, I’m not really sure that we can be friends.
This week’s newsletter brings you a dead easy puff pastry number, in the form of a pepper pissaladière (think peppers, onions, olive and anchovies), as well as a Vietnamese coffee tart for the paid subscribers, inspired by a very good coffee I couldn’t get enough of in Vietnam back on my honeymoon last year. A classic custard tart, but enriched with coffee, and topped with a salted whipped cream. Paid subs will also receive the breakdown of what I cooked on a hen do weekend, some lampshades I have my eye on and a recommendation for a beloved restaurant.
Enjoy!
Sophie x
The Recipes
Pepper Pissaladière
I love a traditional pissaladière, a tart from the south of France made with bread dough, and topped with caramelised onions, olives and anchovies. It makes a great nibble to kick off a meal when you cut it into squares, or can form part of a bigger spread alongside salads, charcuterie, cheese and good bread. We made them as bar snacks when I worked in the kitchen at Quo Vadis, though we did it with puff pastry instead of dough, and I loved baking off the scraps to nibble on during service.
It may seem extra to cook the onions for this long, but you cannot rush a perfectly cooked onion, and I promise you that the wait is worth it. I’m having a bit of a love affair with peppers at the moment, specifically Romano ones, and think the pop of sweetness they add here to offset the salty olives and anchovies is really such a touch. The onion and pepper topping can be prepped up to 2 days in advance, so you can whack this together as a very speedy lunch or dinner on hot days.
On soggy bottoms - if your oven has good convection, you shouldn’t have to worry about this, but if you know it to be an issue, I would preheat a second large baking tray in the oven, and add your tart tray on top of this to bake. The bottom heat from the hot tray beneath should help to crisp up the base.
Serves 6 with sides, 4 on its own
3 large onions
3 romano peppers
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
a handful of fresh basil leaves
120g anchovies in olive oil
5g pitted wrinkly black olives
320g ready rolled sheet of puff pastry
1 egg
salt and olive oil
Peel and finely slice your onions.
Heat a generous amount of olive oil in a small saucepan over a low-medium heat and add the onion. Add a good pinch of salt, and cook for 30 minutes until soft. Turn up the heat a bit and cook for another 15 until caramelised.
Heat your oven to 200°C fan.
Finely slice the peppers, then add these to the onion pan. Cook for another 10 minutes until totally softened. Add the red wine vinegar, and cook for another minute until totally reduced. Allow to cool to room temperature (or keep in the fridge for up to 2 days).
When you are ready to eat, unroll your puff pastry, and get it onto a large baking sheet. Score a border about 2cm around the edge, then spread your onion and pepper mix evenly across the centre. Arrange your anchovies in a criss-cross pattern diagonally across the surface, and pop an olive into the centre of each square.
Beat your egg in a bowl, then egg wash the edges of the tart with it.
Place your tray in the middle of your oven, then bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is puffed and golden, and the base is crisp.
Cut into slices and serve it up with salad, bread and cheese.
Vietnamese Coffee Tart
On my honeymoon in Vietnam last year, I fell head over heels for the kinds of coffee you can get out there. The coffee itself is STRONG, and I don’t normally drink much caffeine, so I was limited to one a day, but the toppings they added to them were just magical. One favourite was a Vietnamese egg coffee, where they top black coffee with a thick layer of custard made with eggs and condensed milk. When you stir it through the coffee, it tastes like a tiramisu. Another was a salted coffee, where they top black coffee with salted whipped cream.
This pudding is an amalgamation of these two things, to bring you a classic custard tart with some fun lil twists (funnily enough, another dish I learnt to cook whilst working at Quo Vadis). If you think a custard tart seems scary, fear not! Here are my top tips for you: