Carrot and Goat Cheese Tart

We went to the weekly market again last week.  We swung by a farmer's stall where, along with the in-season Pfifferlinge (chanterelles), they convinced us to take a bunch of homegrown carrots.  "You don't even need to peel these," they boasted, "because they come right from our own soil."

The menu cards at our wedding were printed on plantable paper, seeded with carrots.  Our wedding was too late in the season to get those going, but I'm looking forward to carrots nourished by memories of our menu next summer.

This recipe asks to cut the carrot into 3-mm slices.  I misread the "mm" for "cm" and was thinking, "That can't be right," so I cut them about 1cm thick.  Still too thick.  They were crunchy.  I'll be trying the tart again this weekend and will be sure to slice the carrots thin!

Carrot and Goat Cheese Tart 

recipe adapted from Schrot und Korn

serves 2
prep time: 30 minutes
cook time: 25 minutes

ingredients:

2 sheets of puff pastry (100 grams)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 red onion
150 grams carrots (3 medium or 4 small), bonus points if in funky colors!
100 grams (1/2 cup) goat cream cheese*
1 tbsp mustard
a sliver of butter
3 sprigs of thyme
salt and pepper
1 tbsp maple syrup

*Yes, the organic supermarkets have such a thing as goat cream cheese here.  I think the goaty taste is much more important than the cream cheese texture, so try this recipe if you can't find Ziegenfrischkäse: Mix 1/2 cup goat cheese with 2 tbsp milk or cream and a pinch of salt.

directions:

Preheat the oven to 200°C/380°F.

Lightly flour a countertop and lay out the puff pastry sheets to defrost.  They don't need long, so keep moving to the next step!

Heat half the olive oil over medium heat.  Cut the onion into strips and briefly cook for 2 minutes.  Any more and it'll lose its deep coloring.

Slice the carrots into 3-millimeter slices.  Stir together cream cheese with mustard.  Lay the puff pastry sheets on top of one another and roll them a bit wider than the pan you're using.  You want a crust, after all!  Grease the pan and lay the sheets inside, pressing lightly on the edges.

Prick the puff pastry with a fork a few times.  Spread the cheese-mustard mix on the puff pastry, lay the carrots and cooked onions on top, then sprinkle with fresh thyme.

Bake in a preheated oven for 25-30 minutes on the bottom rack.  When it's done, top with salt and pepper, and drizzle with the remaining oil and maple syrup.  Serve warm.

A few weekends ago, I came across this salt in a spice stall.  Persian Blue, it's called.  I think it sounds like one of the dragons from the Triwizard Tournament - don't you?  It's too subtle to be seen much, but the blue adds a lovely tint to dishes, when you look for it.

See, there it is.