Sunday Small Bites - Artichokes

The cooks on the slowtravel community forums have been working on a new cooking challenge - instead of each of us preparing the same recipe each week, we are preparing our own appetizer - or Small Bite - that uses a specific main ingredient. So far we have tackled shrimp, crab, sun-dried tomatoes, avocado, goat cheese, smoked salmon, pecans, pumpkin, olives, mushrooms, ginger, cranberries, potatoes, and brie. This week Sharon selected our ingredient and she went with artichoke. Not surprising since she leaves near one of the major artichoke growing areas in the US.

Artichokes present a wee bit of a problem for Canadians - they aren't native. Fresh artichokes that one finds in the store aren't very tasty. The bottled ones that are preserved in oil often taste salty. Because of that I don't often use artichoke sin cooking. Then I heard about frozen artichoke hearts! I picked up two bags when I was in the US on the weekend and I was good to go.

I decided to make a tart that I found on the taste.au website. I didn't follow the recipe exactly - modifying it to go with the ingredients I had on hand.

The results were brilliant - by using thawed, ready to use puff pastry sheets (dear lord, when will they bring THESE to Canada????) the tart is on the table in less than 40 minutes. The combination of olive tapenade, artichoke and feta gave this tart such a wonderful taste! Very easy, tasty and quick recipe.

This makes it a 'keeper'.

Olive, Artichoke, and  Feta Tart

1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry, just thawed
(1/2 cup) black olive tapenade 
3/4 cup cooked artichoke hearts, drained, quartered 
1/2 cup feta, crumbled
1 cup natural (plain) yoghurt
2 eggs, lightly whisked
2 tsp coarsely chopped fresh basil
Salt & freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 425. Line a fluted tart tins (9 " round or a rectangle tin), with removable bases, with pastry and trim any excess. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until pastry puffs and is golden. Remove from oven. Cover pastry with a clean tea towel and push down on the base with your hands to flatten (be careful as the puff pastry is full of HOT steam!).

Spread base with tapenade. Top with artichokes and feta.

Whisk the yoghurt, egg and basil together in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture over the artichoke/feta mixture. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until just set.

 Remove from oven. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

Comments

[Cindy Ruth]

Your tart looks great. Unfortunately, another week of not participating for me. Got back in town late yesterday, and was too tired to do anything. Just managed making the Daring Cooks Challenge for dinner tonight, which will be posted tomorrow.

[Robert]

This looks and sounds delicious and will be baked here on Saturday...perfect for a light dinner.

Next topic - are you serious in that you do not get frozen puff pastry in Canada? Or frozen artichoke bottoms? What else can't you get there (other than the frozen toasted sweetcorn)?

[Sharon]

The tart looks so yummy that I could, well, yes ... eat it! I love the combination of artichoke and tapenade flavors. I must make this during the holidays.

[JDeQ]

Thanks for selecting artichokes Sharon!

Robert - we have frozen puff pastry but it is in a brick which must be rolled . . . the stuff from the states is all rolled out. I like that.

We can't get frozen pastry thta isn't already in a foil pie shell. I like to roll THAT myself.

The never ending challenges of a cook's life. LOL