Asparagus and Mushroom Tart

Nothing says the start of summer like a fresh bunch of asparagus. Of course, nowadays you can get spears 'fresh' from Peru all year round - but how fresh these are is a little questionable, and as far as vegetables go, these must have pretty high food miles. While it's great to have steamed asparagus in January and all that, there's something special about a veggie you can only get for a few weeks a year. Being to June what mince pies are to December, asparagus season totally has the potential to be a new summertime Christmas. To celebrate in this new feast, I've concocted a recipe: Uncle Boy's Deceptively Simple Asparagus and Mushroom Tart.

Ingredients
For the pastry
4 oz self-raising flour
1 oz margarine
1 oz butter (cubed)
1 splosh of water
For the filling
1 medium onion, cut in half, then sliced lengthways into 'lobes' about 5 mm at widest
2 cloves garlic, bashed then finely chopped
1 level tsp caster sugar
1 bunch of asparagus (about 20 fine spears, or 10-12 fat ones), prepared and halved*
4 medium sized mushrooms, chopped
1 tsp mixed herbs (or a pinch each of basil, thyme, and oregano)
2 tsp butter (to fry)
2 tbsp Yeo Valley soured cream (without chives!)
1 egg
Salt and pepper
2 oz cheddar cheese, finely grated

How now?
Set the oven to 200°C and make sure the rack is in the middle. Grease a cake pan or flan dish with a diameter of about 25 cm.

Make the pastry by rubbing the fats into the flour until you reach a crumble texture, then add small sploshes of water until these come together to form a dough. If you hit batter, you've gone too far.

Roll this out into a round about 5 mm thick (possibly less). It should be about 4 cm wider than the cake pan all the way round.

Put the rolling pin at one end of the pastry and roll the dough onto it (as though you were re-rolling kitchen roll onto the cardboard inner.) Lift the rolling pin and pastry over the near end of the cake pan and unroll the dough over it. (You could just grab the dough and toss it over the cake pan, but using the rolling pin is pretty failsafe.)

Gently tease the pastry into the corners of the pan, then cut off the excess pastry from around the top of the pan/dish. Pop this in the oven for 5-8 minutes, until risen and less doughy.

Fry the sliced onion and garlic in 1 tsp of butter, and add the mixed herbs. Let the onions soften, then sprinkle over a level tsp of caster sugar and let them lightly brown and caramelise. Tip the contents of the frying pan into a mixing bowl.

Add the other tsp of butter to the frying pan and gently fry the asparagus and chopped mushrooms until soft. Season, and add to the mixing bowl.

Crack an egg into a jug and add two dollops of soured cream, using a fork to mix. Pour this into the mixing bowl, and fold the ingredients together until everything is evenly distributed.

Spoon the contents of the mixing bowl into the pastry case, sprinkle cheese over, and bake for 35-40 minutes, until you can stick a knife in and move it left and right without the filling running back to fill the gap.

Serve on a bed of rocket with a poached egg and dollop of mustard.

Merry Asparagusmas to all, and to all a good night!

*To prepare asparagus, do not use a knife. Asparagus spears have tough strings near the base which a knife can cut through but which your teeth can't. Conveniently, asparagus breaks where the stringiness ends, so hold he base and snap as much of the spear off as you can.

Location:Asparagus and Mushroom Tart