One more month flew by us! Last Monday of April, first Secret Recipe Club of a favorite season, Spring!  I was paired with the blog Food Baby Life, and had a blast browsing Susan’s site. She has a well-organized index which makes life a lot easier for the stalker.  Being a busy mom, many of her recipes are compatible with our own life style. You know, that life style in which the day doesn’t seem to have enough hours, and each night we ask ourselves “why isn’t tomorrow Saturday instead of Tuesday?”   😉    I had quite a few recipes on a list of favorites to choose from, including her  Spiced Meatball Wrap, but settled on this tart because of the unusual crust: instead of butter, olive oil. Instead of white flour, a combination of 50/50 white and whole-wheat. A few modifications of my own for reasons specified in the comments, and there you have it: a Leek and Kale Tart with Olive Oil Crust!

LEEK AND KALE TART WITH OLIVE OIL CRUST
(adapted from Food Baby Life) 

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll out to fit the tart pan. Transfer the dough to the pan, trim the edges and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

While the pastry is chilling, make your filling. Melt the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks and garlic and cook, stirring often for about 10 minutes, then add the kale and cook for a few minutes more, until wilted. Season with nutmeg and remove from the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes or so. In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs and milk along with salt and pepper to taste.

Blind bake the pastry for 10 minutes lining it with parchment paper and filling it with beans. Remove the beans and paper and bake for a further 10-15 minutes or until the edges are golden and the base is totally dry to the touch. Remove and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

To assemble the tart, fill the pastry shell with the cooked leek and kale mixture, sprinkle over the cheese and then pour over the egg mixture. Bake for approximately 25 minutes. The filling should be just set and the edges of the pastry a deep golden brown. Cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: What’s life without a little adrenaline rush? You would think that by staying away from cakes I’d be safe, right?  Not so fast.  Things were going quite well up to the moment of adding evaporated milk to the game. I grabbed my can opener, a little gadget that works like a charm, smooth, graceful, leaving no sharp edges. It usually performs a little magic around the edges, so that you cannot quite tell the can is open, but it is.  Or is it really?  Something about the edge of the can of evaporated milk simply would not cooperate and it refused to open.  I had a second can in the pantry, tried to work on it,  again no luck. I searched everywhere for an old-fashioned type can opener, but apparently ours was lost during the move.  A few slammed doors and drawers, a few words not fit to print, I finally had the brilliant idea of pairing an oyster knife with a hammer.  Punched a square hole on top of the can, and back in business I was.  (BTW, I don’t recommend doing that, it is both messy and dangerous).

To add a little more emotion to the day, I forgot to buy Cheddar cheese for the recipe!  I had no cheese around, except for three little triangles of “Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss Cheese”.   I ended up mixing it as well as I could to the evaporated milk, and that was that. Finally, If you followed the original link to Baby. Food. Life, you will notice that she removed the excess dough after covering her tart pan, for a very polished look. I don’t know what I was thinking, but obviously I went into a different direction.  Oh, well…   What matters is that this crust might very well become my default recipe from now on.  We both absolutely loved it, it does have a more rustic quality thanks to the whole-wheat flour and the olive oil.  Plus, making it in a bowl using just a fork and your hands was awesome!

Susan, it was great to meet you and your blog through The Secret Recipe Club, we loved this recipe, enjoyed it three days in a row, it only got better and better!

For those who want to see what my fellow friends from group D cooked up this month, don’t be shy, just click on the blue frog at the very end of my post, and happy browsing!  And those who are curious to see which recipe was chosen from my blog, and who had it, jump here for a fantastic article by Fran!  She made a favorite of ours, Vietnamese Spring Rolls.

ONE YEAR AGO: Secret Recipe Club; Triple Chocolate Brownies

TWO YEARS AGO: Shaved Asparagus Salad

THREE YEARS AGO: Indonesian Ginger Chicken