Wilted green tart makes most of your garden bounty
A new cookbook tells the saga of a Vancouver woman who survived the COVID-19 pandemic by starting a garden beside her house. It's a good read and packed with information, including about how to raise chickens in your garden.
Rosie Daykin, whose previous projects include running a bakery and decorating houses, called her book The Side Gardener: Recipes & Notes from My Garden (Appetite by Random House, $45). Outstanding photographs by British photographer Andrew Montgomery show off appetizing dishes.
More than 60 recipes show how to enjoy what your garden grows: “Start by planting what you love to eat.”
Pages about recommended garden tools, insects, flower arranging, and sources make this a useful — even inspiring — book.
WILTED GREENS TART
Serves: 6
6 to 8 sheets phyllo pastry (see note) 1/2 cup (125 mL) butter, melted 2 tbsp (30 mL) butter 1 shallot or green onion, finely chopped
1 big handful of kale (1 to 1-1/2 cups/250 to 375 mL), trimmed, torn up
1 big handful of spinach
(1 to 1-1/2 cups/250 to 375 mL)
1 big handful of arugula
(1 to 1-1/2 cups/250 to 375 mL)
1 tsp (5 mL) salt 1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup (125 mL/55 g) crumbled feta cheese 4 large eggs 1 cup (250 mL) whipping cream
Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Place a piece of phyllo pastry on a work surface and paint it with some of the melted butter. Set pastry in a nine-inch (23-cm) quiche pan or pie pan, letting the border hang over the edge. Repeat with rest of phyllo, giving it a 10-degree turn every time you layer a piece. Set aside.
Melt 2 tablespoons (30 mL) butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat and cook shallot or green onion until it starts to soften. Add kale, spinach and arugula and cook until all the greens are soft and wilted. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place in prepared shell. Sprinkle feta over the greens.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, 1 teaspoon (5 mL) salt, and 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) pepper and pour over the cheese and greens.
Bake on centre rack of preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until the centre is puffed and the pastry golden brown.
Remove tart from oven and let it cool slightly before removing it from the pan to serve. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Tart will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for several days.)
Note: Substitute a regular single 9-inch (23 cm) pie shell.