Recipe: Thanksgiving sweet potato tartlets (savoury)

We had thanksgiving dinner at Challie's on Saturday. There was A LOT of food. Notice those yellow plastic cups in the picture? Or the pumpkin print napkins? They sure travelled a loooong way to be in London that night. You can't disposable cups THAT size at your local Sainsbury, that's for sure. Come to think of it, almost everything had been lovingly "shipped" (via various people's suitcases) to London for this very occasion.


Anyone who has ever roasted a turkey will certainly kowtow and appreciate the effort Challie put in, she who roasted not one but TWO turkeys.


Introducing... our chef for the night. See her blog for other exploits with dumplings and washing machines.

These were my contribution: Thanksgiving sweet potato tartlets (and cornbread muffins in the background). The idea originally started with Elise's creamy sweet potato soup, and gradually evolved into sweet potato custard and then... the rest is history. These tartlets are slightly different from your traditional sweet potato casserole with marshmellow topping. For one, they are savoury and meant as an appetizer, not dessert. And it was yummy - this is one experiment that's going to be repeated!


RECIPE: THANKSGIVING SWEET POTATO TARTLETS

Filling
A - Aromatics
2 tbsp butter
2 medium onions, chopped (makes approx. 1 cup)
2 celery stalks, washed and cut to 1 inch lengths
1 leek, washed and cut to 1 inch lengths
(The way to wash leeks is to make an incision lengthwise from the white part of the stalk towards the green leafy end, fan out the leaves and run under a cold tap to get rid of any dirt and soil trapped in between.)
1 garlic clove, chopped

B - Soup base
8 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed (makes approx. 5 cups)
4 cups vegetable stock

C - Seasoning
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp maple syrup

D - Custard
1/2 cup butter
1 cup light cream
1 cup milk
6 eggs, beaten
1/4 tsp baking powder


A - Melt the butter is a cassrole or soup pot. Saute onions for 5 mins till soft. Add celery and leek and saute for a further 5 mins. Then add garlic clove and saute for a further 5 mins still.

B - Add sweet potatoes and vegetable stock, and bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered for 20 mins, until the potatoes are tender. [Make pastry at this point, while the soup is cooking.] Blend using the food processor and return to the pot.

C - Stir in cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple syrup. Salt and pepper to taste.

Pre-heat oven, 180 degrees celcius.

D - Add cream and milk. Take care that the mixture does not boil. Lower fire to the smallest flame possible. Slowly add eggs, stirring continuously until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pot slightly (approx. 10 mins). The idea is to make sure that the eggs don't scramble in the soup mixture, which will happen if the heat is too high. Turn off fire and pour the soup custard mixture into the prepared tartlet cases. Slide in oven and bake for 45-60 mins.


Pastry
4 oz. plain white flour, sifted
1 pinch of salt
1 oz. margarine
1 oz. lard (I used goose fat)
3 tbsp water

Rolling pin (I love my red sil-pin for this)
Round cookie cutter with serrated edge
Tartlet mould

Sift flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Cut margarine cubes into the flour and, using your fingers, work the margarine into the flour until you get a crumbly mixture. Make sure your fingers are cold and that the room itself is cool. Wash hands. Add lard and, using a palette knife, work the fat into the crumbly mixture. Add water a little at a time, and use the palette knife to work into a dough, taking care to incorporate all the floury bits. Work into a ball of dough. Do not knead. Wrap in saran wrap and rest in fridge for 30 mins.

On a floured surface, press pastry ball down flat and roll out using a rolling pin. Using a round cookie cutter with a serrated edge, cut out rounds - they should be 1 inch bigger in circumference than each tartlet mould. Lift one round using your rolling pin and place over one mould, pressing the sides in so that they lay flat in the mould. Make sure there is no air trapped underneath. Prick the base with a fork. These steps should avoid the need for blind-baking (i.e. baking the pastry first without the filling). Repeat for the other moulds.

Making tartlet pastry and trying to ease them into the tartlet moulds is VERY fiddly. So for my leftovers, I decided to make one big tart instead:


THANKSGIVING LEFTOVER SWEET POTATO TART

I had some leftover custard, and as part of my thanksgiving leftovers drive, made this big tart using the same method. You can see where I ran out of dough. Anyway, the cool discovery was that bacon makes this tart taste even better! I had fried some pancetta cubes till crispy and sprinkled them on the pastry base before adding the custard. The deep saltiness of the bacon contrasts beautifully with the sweetness of the potato custard and maple syrup. I've just had a slice for lunch while typing this - YUMS!