Fried courgette flowers stuffed with spinach, goat's cheese and feta

I was really excited when I saw these beautiful courgette flowers (that’s zucchini flowers for my Aussie readers) at the farmer’s market near my work on Friday. It was a beautiful spring day so I felt it would be criminal to walk past them. 

In an ideal world I would have lightly battered and deep-fried these beauties, but I don't have a deep-fryer and I was worried about ruining them, so I decided to pan-fry them instead. The result was delicious, but quite different from what you might expect if you have ever ordered them in a restaurant. I managed to get a little crisp on them, but nothing like a batter and they were much more delicate to handle when they came out of the pan. I still highly recommend them though. 

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Regan's beetroot and goat's cheese tarte tatin

“I think that this is the best thing I've ever eaten!”

I think that this is the best thing that someone's ever said about my cooking. I have called this Regan’s tart because this is what he said when he tried it a few years ago in the South of France. 

Usually such a compliment would have had me gushing with pride, but I had to show some restraint. Regan is my cousin Kirsty’s best friend. Kirsty loves cooking to and is very good at it. He said it in front of her. He was in the doghouse.

It has been much talked about since – both Kirsty reminding Regan of his thoughtlessness and Regan angling for a repeat. In this context it was with great trepidation that I offered to make it again this weekend, not just for Regan, but for Kirsty too. Eek!

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Charlie’s olive, goat’s cheese and roast cherry tomato tartlets

Updated on Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 3:58PM by Vix

I am still trying to pin down my father for some (any) of the recipes from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. In the meantime, I have this canapé recipe from my sister. The tartlets are a little time consuming and fiddly to make, but the recipe itself is straightforward and they look great.

In the past I have found tartlets this small have not worked especially well for me because it is hard to roll the pastry thin enough so that it does not overpower the taste of the filling. For this reason, I have also found that they tend to be quite dry. Charlie has overcome these issues by using very moist ingredients, one of which – the olive tapenade – is strong enough in flavour to counteract that of the pastry.

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"The tart" inspired by Elizabeth Hodder's Tomato, onion and goat's cheese tart

On Saturday I put up a recipe for shortcrust pastry from my friend Lizzie’s book, The Book of Old Tarts. That post was really just a preamble to this most important of recipes. It is not just any old tart, it is the tart, or so it has come to be known in my household. Indeed for a long time it was the only tart I ever made, because although I was very tempted by other recipes, it was just so damn tasty I could not think of any reason to make something new. My sister loves it so much that she would brag about it to all her friends, but not a single one ever got to try it because I was not allowed to make it for guests; the tart was not for sharing.

Until this week, I had only made the original recipe once and I now feel rather guilty for having written it off so quickly. The first time I made Lizzie’s recipe I found it a little bland; this is probably because I did not season it well enough, but also because at the time I was a teenager with little appreciation for the less is more approach to cooking. Having made the original recipe for a second time, I can now appreciate that its simplicity is its most appealing quality, a perfect balance of flavours and textures. As Lizzie says in her introduction to the recipe,

Successful tomato recipes are those where the distinctive taste of the fruit surmounts the other flavours. I think this tart succeeds in this, but partly through its soft texture.

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