A Good Friday Pie: Wild Garlic and Blue Wensleydale Tart

A Good Friday Pie:

Wild Garlic and Blue Wensleydale Tart

Tomorrow, the 18th April, is Good Friday; or, Hot Cross Bun day as I used to call it when I was little! Although many Christians observe a “no meat Friday” every week of the year, it’s probably true to say that most people regardless of their religion also adopt a meat-free meal on Good Friday, with fish being the most popular ingredient on the menu. Normally I would cook fish, and not just any fish, but a big family-sized fish pie, such as one of these recipes: Easy Cheesy Family Fish Pie Recipe for the 5:2 Diet (300 calories), Old-Fashioned Fish Pie with Cheesy Mash or Yorkshire Fish Pie with a Rosti Potato Topping. However, this Good Friday I have decided to make and share a new recipe for Wild Garlic and Blue Wensleydale Tart - a vegetarian tart made with seasonal wild garlic, fresh free-range eggs and a wedge of some gloriously creamy and mild Blue Wensleydale cheese, or Wensleydale Blue as it is also called.

Wensleydale Blue Cheese Image: British Cheese Board

Wild garlic is right on trend now, although I have eaten it in the wild since I was about six years old; on my long walk to school, there used to be wild garlic growing in profusion on the edge of the hedgerows and a small wooded area, and it was my early morning breakfast as well as tea on my return walk home in the afternoon. (Not that my mum didn’t feed me any breakfast and tea!) But, I notice that it has become uber “trendy” now and everyone is jumping on the “wild garlic bandwagon” and why not I say, after all it’s free and extremely tasty. Browse through any restaurant menus in spring, and I bet there will be at least one dish that has wild garlic in it.

Wild garlic or Ramsons Image: The Guardian

Today’s recipe was made with some wild garlic that I picked from the bottom of my garden – it’s a slightly different version to the photo shown above as it has narrower leaves, and more of a “bulb” like a spring onion. It’s just as tasty as the stuff I used to graze on when I was little however, and it makes a wonderful bed fellow for cheese and eggs. Today’s recipe would be wonderful for any meat free day menu, and it’s also fabulous picnic fodder and lunch box grub too. Out of wild garlic season, you can bake this tart with spring onions and a couple of cloves of garlic, for a similar flavour, and if you are bereft of Blue Wensleydale cheese, then any mild and creamy blue cheese will be fine as a substitute.

Wild Garlic and Blue Wensleydale Tart

Serve a slice of this tart with fresh seasonal greens and salad, or as I served it, with new potatoes and wild garlic butter – recipe for that to follow very soon! That’s all for today, I will see you over the Easter weekend with another new recipe and a giveaway, have a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend, and try not to over indulge TOO much on chocolate eggs! Karen

Wild Garlic & Blue Wensleydale Tart

Print recipe

Serves 8 slices
Prep time 15 minutes
Cook time 35 minutes
Total time 50 minutes
Allergy Egg, Wheat
Dietary Vegetarian
Meal type Lunch, Main Dish, Snack
Misc Freezable, Gourmet, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold
Occasion Birthday Party, Casual Party, Easter, Valentines day
Region British
By author Karen S Burns-Booth
A delightful seasonal tart that makes good use of wild garlic in the spring, and also uses Blue Wensleydale cheese, which is fabulously creamy, crumbly and light in flavour, compared to other blue cheeses. When wild garlic is not in season, just substitute spring onions and a couple of garlic cloves for a similar taste and flavour. Similarly, Blue Wensleydale cheese can be substituted with another mild blue cheese too.

Ingredients

a little butter for frying
1 small onion, peeled and finely diced
large bunch of wild garlic, about 75g to 100g (finely chopped)
125g Blue Wensleydale cheese, crumbled (or blue cheese of your choice)
4 large free-range eggs
300mls creme fraiche
salt and pepper
1 x 230g ready rolled puff pastry (or home-made puff pastry)

Note

A delightful seasonal tart that makes good use of wild garlic in the spring, and also uses Blue Wensleydale cheese, which is fabulously creamy, crumbly and light in flavour, compared to other blue cheeses. When wild garlic is not in season, just substitute spring onions and a couple of garlic cloves for a similar taste and flavour. Similarly, Blue Wensleydale cheese can be substituted with another mild blue cheese too.

Directions

Step 1 Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6 and grease and line a loose-bottomed flan/tart/pie dish, 8" (20cms) in diameter.
Step 2 Melt the butter over a low heat and gently sauté the diced onions for 2 to 3 minutes, so they are just starting to go soft. Add the wild garlic and allow them to wilt for 1 to 2 minutes.
Step 3 In a large jug or bowl with a pouring lip, whisk the eggs ans crème fraiche together; season to taste and then add the crumbled Blue Wensleydale cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper and mix well.
Step 4 Place the prepared flan dish on to a large oven sheet or tray and line it with the ready-rolled puff pastry and then prick the bottom with a fork. Spoon the onions and wild garlic over the pastry and then pour the cheese and egg mixture over the top.
Step 5 Carefully put the tart into the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the pastry has puffed up, the filling has set but with a "wobble" still and the underside of the pastry is golden brown.
Step 6 Take the tart out of the oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes, then carefully slide it up and out of the flan dish by pushing the loose bottom up and allow it too cool for a further 5 minutes on a wire rack.
Step 7 Carefully ease the tart off the loose bottom, and peel away the baking paper and sit it on a serving platter or plate.
Step 8 Serve at room temperature cut into wedges with salad, new potatoes and seasonal greens.
Step 9 Perfect for picnics and lunch boxes and this tart also freezes well.
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