Milwaukee Irish Fest and Late Summer Disappearing Roasted Tomato Tart

The kids love these hats and gloves. I actually want one of these hats for myself!

This weekend is Milwaukee Irish Fest! I have a love-hate relationship with Milwaukee Irish Fest due to Paul’s OBSESSION with it. He made us schedule our wedding and shorten our honeymoon so that we could be back in time for the fest. As we speak, my brother-in-law has a moving truck in the driveway full of all of the stuff they need for their booth. My sister-in-law is staying in Milwaukee so she can work with her brothers all weekend. It truly is a family affair.  Despite all of the hard work, long nights, and, in previous years, long drives back-and-forth from Chicago to Milwaukee, it’s Paul’s favorite weekend of the year. He will be in the store this weekend but at the fest each evening after he closes so be on the lookout for him if you go! I’m happy that we are so much closer now and I’m glad the festival is back. 

This one’s definitely my child.

Unlike my relationship with the fest, I unequivocally LOVE this time of year.  As a sun worshipper, late August is probably the best time of year for me, weather wise. But it’s also bittersweet because the school-year is approaching and everything is about to become more scheduled, the days will be shorter, the cold will come. I try to set these things aside and just soak in the last of the summer. As part of that, I usually go crazy with summer produce, canning and freezing and trying to preserve a tiny bit of summer that can be pulled out of the pantry in the dead of winter. I also try to make my favorite summer foods before it’s too late. 

And do I love any food more than a savory tart? I love that you can make them ahead. I love that they always taste best at room temperature. I love that they transcend seasons and  “meal times” and are good any time. I love that they travel well.   I love that they aren’t fussy, you can cut off a wedge and eat them out of hand. I love that they are easy to make. I love that they don’t need meat to be delicious. I could go on and on. In late summer, I also love tomatoes. People say they get sick of them, and I guess I get it, when you have a garden and they all come at once or all come for a long time (I’m looking at you, people with longer growing seasons) you can get inundated with them.  How much caprese salad can a person eat? Well, I can eat a lot actually. But, I also love to take some of that bounty and roast it.  I slow-roast cherry and grape tomatoes this time of year and freeze them to toss with pasta or throw into soup once it starts getting cold outside. 

The other day, I married two of my favorite things, roasted tomatoes and savory tarts. As expected, I was in heaven.  Admittedly, the recipe is sort of involved, the kind of recipe I usually don’t like, too many components, sub-recipes (ugh), too time consuming. I get it. But, none of the elements require a lot of hands-on time, and when you make most of them ahead, it only takes a few minutes to throw together and bake. I had the pastry dough and caramelized onions in the freezer, so that part was done. And I roasted the tomatoes a few days before so I was able to roll out the dough, top it, chill it and pop it in the oven, get on a conference call and pull it out to cool before my next meeting.  

All I could think about during that second meeting was lunch. The smell of this tart cooling in my kitchen was highly distracting. By the time the meeting was over all I wanted to do was eat. It's no wonder I didn’t take a photo of my masterpiece, eh hem, the tart. It was SO good. The next day, I had another slice for lunch. An hour later, it occurred to me that I hadn’t taken a photo of the tart since it came out of the oven. But when I went back to the kitchen, the rest of the tart was gone. The kids had eaten lunch already and left with the babysitter. No one was even home! I searched high and low, wondering if I accidentally put it in the freezer or the pantry or somewhere it didn’t belong. Nope. It had literally vanished into thin air. I was less worried about the fact that this could mean someone was in my house unbeknownst to me, than the fact that the rest of the tart was gone. If I had criminal leanings, I would definitely steal a tomato tart over the tv so I knew this thief  and I would get along just fine. 

When Paul got home from the store, he brought the remaining piece of the tart with him. I was so happy to see him it.  As it turned out, when Emmett was “working” at the store that morning, Paul asked him to bring him some lunch after he got home. So Emmett brought him the tart when the kids left the house with the babysitter.  Mystery solved. But the fact that two people can almost finish this tart in just two days is evidence that it does, in fact, disappear. I know it’s asking a lot, all of the steps, the roasting, the dough etc. but you should really give it a go. The roasted tomatoes are good on their own so if you have a lot, I highly suggest doubling or tripling the amount. They freeze well. I throw a few over a bed of arugula and eat them with creamy burrata and a drizzle of olive oil for a fancy yet super-quick working-from-home lunch. They taste like the last, most special part of summer. 

The tart definitely doesn’t need the ham. Next time I will leave well enough alone!

I will also add even more basil. I added caramelized onions that I had in the freezer . In the instructions, I streamline this process by adding the onion/shallots to the roasted tomato mixture.

This is what the roasted tomatoes should look like, still soft, not too shriveled or dry but not juicy like raw ones either.

It’s a galette, I don’t think it’s supposed to look perfect. Personally, I never try to make it look uniform which starts with the fact that I don’t worry much about the edges when I roll it out, but if you are more of a perfectionist, you can roll it into an actual circle and crimp it all over in a more symmetric way.

Don’t forget the egg wash! It gives your crust color.

Crust 

• 2 cups All-Purpose Flour

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 16 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold

• 1/2 cup sour cream, cold

• 1 egg (for egg wash)

Tomatoes

• 2 lbs fresh tomatoes

• 1 small onion/2-3 shallots (optional) 

• ¼ cup olive oil

• 1 tbsp combination of fresh thyme and rosemary

• Salt to taste

Filling

• 1-2 cups roasted tomatoes

• 1 cup shredded cheese (white cheddar, gouda, whatever you like)

• ⅓ cup sour cream or creme fraiche

• ¼ cup caramelized onion or shallot

• 2 tbsp or more chopped fresh basil

• 2-3 slices of ham (optional)

Roast the tomatoes (and onions/shallots)

Preheat oven to 250 F

Cut tomatoes into ¼ inch thick slides or halves if you are using cherry or grape tomatoes. 

Cut shallots, if using in thin slices

Toss tomatoes and onions/shallots (if using) in salt, olive oil and fresh thyme and rosemary

Spread tomato mixture on a large baking sheet and roast for 2-3 hours until there is no longer liquid pooling on the baking sheet but tomatoes are still soft to the touch.

Make the crust

Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add the butter, working it in to make a coarse/crumbly mixture. Leave most of the butter in large, pea-sized pieces.

Add the sour cream, and stir with a wooden spoon until it starts to come together. 

Dump it out on a floured work surface and knead until you can form it into a ball. 

Shape the ball into more of a square and roll it out until it’s about half an inch thick. Then fold it in three, like a letter. 

Flip the dough over, turn it 90 degrees and roll it out again into a large rectangle.  Fold it in three again.  

Fold your letter of dough in half once more so it is basically a rectangle and chill for at least 30 minutes before using. 

Assemble and bake

Heat oven to 375 F and put oven rack on lower middle half of the oven

Roll out dough into a rough circle

Sprinkle with cheese (and pieces of ham if using) leaving a 1 inch border all around where you will fold over the edges later

Add basil to sour cream and spread over cheese

Top with tomato mixture

Sprinkle with more cheese

Fold up edges of dough to form a border of crust

Whisk egg in a bowl and brush onto crust

Put tart in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to resolidify the butter in the crust. This prevents it from melting, which would allow the water in the butter to interact with the gluten in the flour, resulting in a less-flaky, more bread-like dough

Bake for 35-45 minutes until crust is brown and cooked through - use a spatula to lift galette and take a peek at the bottom of your crust to make sure it’s golden before removing from the oven. 

Be warned. This will literally disappear.

Dead Simple: Parsley Sauce for Your Saint Patrick's Day Meal

Hi there. How are you? I'm having a hard time believing that March is around the corner. Where did the last few month go? I am totally looking forward to the days getting longer and longer and  it warming up around here.  Plus, we are all psyched that the next major Holiday (besides Emmett's birthday, as I am reminded EVERY.SINGLE.DAY) is Saint Patrick's Day!

Spring means mixing things up with evening trips to the park, more eating out (even though that has been scaled back by the arrival of this), and possible getting the grill out. But for the next few weeks it's business as usual around here.

My father-in-law, Paddy, and I take turns hosting Sunday dinner. It’s an informal affair, just Paul and I, the kids, Paddy and my brother-in-law, John.  Nothing fancy, more often than not, dinner is just what we would normally have.  But, it’s nice to sit down to a meal together, and it’s a part of the week that we all look forward to. Last week, Paddy and John did more than their fair share. They drove to our house so we wouldn’t have to get the kids bundled up AND they brought an Irish bacon. There really wasn’t much for me to do to make dinner happen.

We typically eat our Irish bacon (and corned beef for that matter) with Coleman’s mustard on the side.  But since I was only responsible for vegetables, I decided to make some parsley sauce to go with the bacon.  This sauce is a basic bechamel with chopped parsley and lemon juice mixed in. It goes great with bacon and would probably be nice with fish (fish Friday idea!) or to spruce up some simple steamed broccoli or spinach.

You can make this sauce in the time it takes to cook some carrots and cabbage on the stovetop. I will definitely be making it again with my corned beef on Saint Patrick’s Day. With some Coleman’s mustard on the side, of course.

Parsley Sauce

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1 ½ cups whole milk
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• Salt to taste

Place butter and flour in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat.  I like to use a high quality salted Irish butter, such as Kerrygold, for this.  If you use salted butter, you won’t need to add much salt at the end.

Stir butter and flour together until if makes a homogenous paste and bubbles but does not brown, about 2 minutes.   

Pour milk in slowly and cook, whisking constantly, for 4 or 5 minutes, until sauce thickens.  I add milk a little at a time, keeping in mind that sauce will be slightly thicker when taken off the heat. You may or may not use all the milk.

Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and parsley.

Season to taste.  

To say I love Irish bacon would be an understatement.  If you are looking for something to do with leftover Irish bacon, look no further. 

I've used it in all of these: 

Bacon and Pea Risotto

In soup with white beans

In split pea soup

Dublin Coddle

and, it makes a regular appearance at our house in fried rice, sandwiches, scrambled eggs, even biscuits, cornbread and scones. Bacon is my weeknight, breakfast, anytime hero.

Soda Bread Crumbs

My brother and his girlfriend have been visiting this week from Saint Martin and it has been so nice to catch up with them.  The kids especially love it when they are here. Every moment ends up being an opportunity to try to steal their attention and impress Uncle Mark and Aunt Jenn.  This state of affairs is, of course, fine with me and Paul.  Increasing the ratio of adults to little kids is always a good thing, especially when those adults are Mark and Jenn.

Mark and Jenn are both great cooks and have taught me much of what I know about cooking and feeding people. Their first night here I wasn’t sure how hungry everyone was going to be or what they would be up for. I ended up sort of paralyzed with indecision and without a dinner plan.  Fortunately, just before it was time to head to the airport, I decided to make some garlic bread crumbs out of the soda bread hanging out on the counter.  I figured, if we didn’t go out for dinner, I could use them to whip up a quick pasta dish to serve with a salad and grocery store rotisserie chicken.

I toasted the bread, whizzed it in my food processor with a few cloves of fresh garlic and toasted the whole lot in butter and olive oil on the stovetop. You know how people say that if you want to sell your house you should bake chocolate cookies? Well, I think you should make these bread crumbs.  They smell toasty, nutty, garlicy - like something delicious is in your future. When the bread crumbs were reasonably cool, I tossed them with grated Parmesan, minced parsley and lemon zest. Then I seasoned them with a tiny bit of sea salt, nutmeg and black pepper and headed to the airport.

We ended up using them to make this simple pasta dish with some fresh pasta.  But honestly, these would be good on anything. I’m thinking of making some more to use instead of panko for this Ina Garten recipe. Or as a topping for baked fish. I usually add nuts to this sort of thing but I found that the nuttiness of the soda bread provided what I was looking for and the texture was light and perfect.

Oh, and by the way. Turns out a simple pasta dish, rotisserie chicken and a big salad can be company worthy. It made the perfect family dinner that everyone could enjoy.  

Soda Bread Crumbs

• 5-7 pieces of soda bread, about 3 cups crumbs
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• Pinch of salt
• 1-2 tablespoons butter
• 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
• ¼ cup minced parsley
• Zest of one lemon
• ¼-⅓ cup grated Parmesan
• Sea salt, nutmeg and back pepper to taste

 Toast soda bread and add to food processor along with peeled garlic cloves and a pinch of salt. Pulse until the bread turns into coarse crumbles.

Add oil and butter to large frying pan and heat over medium high heat until butter is melted.

Add garlic-bread mixture and toast, stirring constantly until bread crumbs are fragrant and brown. I turn the heat down at the end since the crumbs can go from toasted to burnt easily.

When the crumbs have cooled add the parsley, lemon zest and Parmesan and stir thoroughly.

Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.