Wood-fired!

Quinoa and long pepper - a tart to remember

June 9th, 2008

You know how you hear of something for the first time in your life and then it just keeps popping up in everything you read? Well it happens to me anyway!

I heard of quinoa flour for the first time recently - I think it was on the UK food show Masterchef. Within days I’m browsing the excellent blog La Tartine Gourmande (as much for the inspirational food photography as the recipes) and I discover a tart using quinoa flour.

The tart, Celeriac and Long Pepper Tartlet, Olive Oil and Brown Rice Flour Crust, has a crust of brown rice flour, tapioca flour (arrowroot) and quinoa flour bound with an egg and olive oil and given extra crunch with the addition of poppyseeds. I was tempted to try this and was finally sold when I realised the main flavouring was long pepper.

Long pepper is also something I discovered relatively recently. I found it when putting together the 50 whole spices for my spice sampler. So I have a large bag of the attractive little catkins but had never cooked with them.

Both ingredients were highly successful.

I am not familiar with the Italian washed rind cheese, Taleggio, that Béa used to top the tart (no doubt I will come across it everywhere now!). I used small cubes of Bulgarian feta which worked very well indeed. I omitted the hazelnut flour from the filling.

The pastry is crisp and nutty and a great base for a vegetable tart. (Also handy if I need to cook for any of the growing number of people who exclude gluten from their diet.) However after some consideration I decided the pastry would be better without the poppyseeds. They provide an interesting crunchiness that is not unpleasant but is hard to ignore. On balance for me it distracted from the lusciousness of the tart and I will exclude them next time.

Highly recommended and thanks to Béa for the recipe.

Entry Filed under: Food