Life

James Street South Cookery School: Tasty tarts with local ingredients

Niall McKenna's Plum Lattice Tart – serve it with freshly made custard or ice cream
Niall McKenna's Plum Lattice Tart – serve it with freshly made custard or ice cream Niall McKenna's Plum Lattice Tart – serve it with freshly made custard or ice cream

WE ARE lucky to have some amazing flour producers such as O’Neills and Andrews in Northern Ireland. This week’s recipes are all about marrying the world-class quality of our local flour with amazing locally grown fruit.

We have a long and proud history of fantastic breads and desserts and are renowned for our great baking skills, whether that be Master Baker Robert Ditty’s shortbread, Krazi Baker’s soda bread or Paul Rankin’s range for Irwins.

For me, the greatest pleasure, besides popping to the local bakery, is baking at home. It does take time but it is one of the most rewarding, and calming, of activities, and it ultimately results in something tasty to eat at the end.

February is LoveLocal month during the north’s Year of Food and Drink and our free cookery demonstration this month at the Cookery School will be showcasing how to make the best use of some fantastic local ingredients.

We are looking forward to the Focus on Food Conference at St George’s Market towards the end of this month which will allow representatives from across the industry to learn, network and share our views and experience as we build a recipe for tourism success.

PLUM LATTICE TART

For the pastry base:

225g plain flour

100g butter

25g caster sugar

1 egg

Milk to bind mix

For the lattice top:

225g plain flour

100g butter

25g caster sugar

1 egg

Milk to bind mix

For the almond filling:

225g butter

225g caster sugar

4 eggs

175g ground almonds

50g plain flour

12 plums, destoned

To make the pastry, place all the ingredients into a food processor, using the milk to bind the mix, and make a soft dough. Remove from the food processor and wrap in clingfilm. Place in fridge for 30 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Roll out the pastry and place in a 20cm greased tart tin.

Cover the pastry with greaseproof paper, pressing it into the tin and add baking beans to weigh the paper down. Bake for 15 minutes and then remove beans and paper. While out of the oven, wash with beaten egg to seal the base; pop back into the oven and bake for a further five minutes until crisp and dry. Take out of oven and leave to cool for 20 minutes before filling.

To prepare the filling, cream the butter and sugar then add the eggs one at a time. Add the flour and almonds and mix well.

For the plums, de-stone and cut into eighths. Place the butter filling in the bottom of the cool, dry tart case in an even layer and right to all the sides. Place the plums on top.

For the lattice top, repeat the making of the pastry and once bound together place in between sheets of greaseproof paper and roll out until half an inch thick. Place in the fridge in the greaseproof paper for 30 minutes.

Once rested for 30 minutes, cut into strips 2cm wide by 22cm long, which makes sure it can be tucked into the tart case. Start at the left hand side and weave one strip of lattice on under and then the next strip on top. Continue until covered.

Brush with the remaining beaten egg yolk and bake for 20 minutes at 180C. Remove from oven and serve warm with either freshly made custard or ice cream.

APPLE AND RHUBARB CRUMBLE TART

8 Armagh Bramley apples

6 stalks rhubarb

1 vanilla pod

100g caster sugar

Peel, core and chop the apples into eighths and place in a saucepan; split the vanilla pod with a sharp knife, scraping all the seeds into the pan. Peel the rhubarb and chop to 1 inch thick pieces; add into pot. Add the sugar and cook on a simmer for up to five minutes until soft but not mushy. Taste for sweetness – add a more sugar if needed. (Personally, I prefer this quite tart, excuse the pun.) Remove the vanilla pod.

For the topping:

150g porridge oats

175g plain flour

200g unsalted butter, room temperature

100g caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180C. Toss the flour and butter into a bowl and crumb together using your hands; add the sugar and oats and mix until forming small clumps. Do not overwork the mix.

With the same method as previous recipe, bake a tart base; once cool, add the apple and rhubarb and place the crumb on top making sure it goes right to the edge of the tart case.

Bake at 180C for 20 minutes. Serve with custard.