Country Parish Tart

I love combing through historical recipes, …..mostly. Some have never been transcribed out of the faded, flourishing script lettering and it might as well be a doctor’s prescription for all I can make of them.

Like fashion, tastes and opportunities change but always carry something of the past with it.

This recipe, while not particularly Regency, could very well have made it’s way on to a table of Jane’s. Everything an English country garden is likely to supply. Though, it’s original base is from a WW2 Ministry of Food recipe to ensure proper nutrition, it is 100% delicious!

. It’s meant to be a pie and there are variations all over the garden map. However, I chose to make this a tart for pretty enough for tea table presentation and easy serving. Again, I tweaked a few things to taste as usual when adapting a recipe. I can’t help myself really but I like balance in food as much as I do in my tea. As it happens, I also used a tea salt blend to season it. I’ll have that recipe in another post, but you don’t have to have it to make this dish.

Although it does take a little prep, you can easily skirt around that with frozen or refrigerated precut root veg, and simply roast them in the oven to save time. We are so lucky! However, given everyone’s current situation, we have the time to cut these by hand and it really is satisfying if not downright therapeutic sometimes. Whatever stresses you less….do that version.

It’s lucky we were a small number for this tart or there may have been some less than genteel scrambling for the last piece!Here is what I came up with and it was positively addicting! Perhaps, make two.

Preheat oven 375 degree/ Gas stove 5

1 tart pan, greased

1 (savory) pie dough for a 9 inch pan

Roll out the pastry dough on a floured surface sprinkled with sage

Par Bake for ten minutes

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Saute Vegetables in butter

1 onion chopped fine

1 leek chopped well

Largely dice:

1 parsnip, 1-2 large carrot, 1 cup of butternut squash, 3-4 Red potatoes, 1 large sweet potato.

(boil these a few minutes until soft or roast in the oven for 15 minutes then saute with onion and leek). *cut and par cook your veg the day before to speed up the process on the day)

Add veg to the onion, leek and butter. To this add some freshly snipped dill and 1/2 teaspoon of dried sage, about 1/2 t dry mustard, 1/2 t of salt, 1/2 t of black pepper. Set aside.

Cheese Sauce

I used a New Zealand cheddar from Trader Joes, but any good, quality cheddar is good.

Melt 4 oz of quality butter in a saucepan

Whisk in 2 heaping T of flour

Slowly whisk in 3/4 a pint of milk, then 6 oz of shredded cheddar.

Add to this 1/2 t more of dry mustard, 1 and 1/2 t of dijon mustard, salt and pepper to taste.

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Fill the tart pan with the sautéed veg, slowly pour the cheese mixture over and around it.

Bake for 35 minutes. Wait for Mr. Collins to compliment the excellent potatoes in the dish.