Winter Foliage

Oh man, we're having a lazy blogging/email week around these parts. That's what happens during a busy work week ~ so much time spent looking at the screen that I can't bear an extra minute.

Anywho, in the evenings we've been cooking up a storm : salmon salads, slaws, and seaweed salads {our most exciting find of the week}. But this post is all about fungi for the fun guys. yep

When we were in Philly a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned a delicious mushroom tart I had at Parc. It's on their appetizer menu, but I ordered it as my main course for brunch, and it knocked my socks off. The crust was flaky pastry dough, on it was a layer of cooked mushrooms that were chopped so fine it could have been a paste. The mushrooms were topped by a layer of gruyere cheese then a layer of sliced mushrooms. The finishing touch was a drizzle of truffle oil.

I thought about that tart every day for about a week after eating it {not even joking}. This is my lazy man's rustic mushroom tart.

I began by making a basic pie crust. I make mine in the food processor, and recently read a tip that makes remembering the ingredient ratios so easy : 3, 2, 1. Three parts flour, two parts butter, one part water. I didn't even roll out the pie crust, I just pressed it into my 8 inch cast iron skillet.

I then chopped up some mushrooms, sautéd then in butter, and at the very end added just a dash of water so that I could deglaze the pan and keep all the good flavors. That process was repeated with the sliced mushrooms for the top layer. Fresh thyme and rosemary were added to the chopped mushrooms. I then layered everything into the pan: chopped mushrooms, grated gruyere, sliced mushrooms. Here's what it looked like before baking ::

It was baked at 350F until the cheese was bubbling and the crust was nicely browned. When it came out of the oven, I topped it with some fried sage leaves {We were having fun picking and using fresh herbs for this recipe. Mint went into our mojitos and basil in our salad.} and a few nasturtiums.

My mom asked if I added any eggs for binding. I didn't, but I might add one next time, especially if I make the chopped mushroom layer finer. This particular version turned out perfect without anything binding it together. We were even able to pick it up and eat pieces from our hand without it falling all over the place. You may have noticed that I forgot the truffle oil. It was delicious without, but I can guarantee that there will be another mushroom tart in the oven this weekend with truffle oil.