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Rustic Tarts are just that-a free form easy dough that is filled with fruit and baked. It is rustic and delicious. The idea is that because it is not fancy or difficult, we will all feel inclined to pick up some fruit and throw one together. As a snack or the finish to a great soup and salad or casserole supper this is heaven!

At our farmer’s markets now farmers from all parts of the state are bringing in a wide varity of fuits.  We choose here to use  plums in our  a rustic tart but any combination of fruits or berries work. We hope wherever you are you are finding great inspiration in your markets as well!

  Types of plums to choose from                                    
            
    Italian Prune plums   Shiro
   Mirabelle                    Plulots
 Green Gage      
Santa Rosa

   Duarte
 

Some of the farmers bringing these beautiful plums to us are
Tiny's Organic
Little Wing Farm
Tonnemaker Family Orchard
Mair Farm Taki

For individual tarts use ¾ of an apple, pear, peach or nectarine per person or ½ a cup of sliced plums or fresh apricots, figs or berries-or any combination-let your taste buds rule- can be made into individual or larger tarts. Remember that if you want to transfer them off of the baking sheet use a baking sheet with no sides and keep the width of the tart to one you can easily manage!

Rustic Fruit Tart Dough

yields 1 discs that will serve about 6 people

Dough:

4 oz butter, unsalted

1 cup flour

3 Tblsp sugar

1/8 tsp salt

2 Tblsp  iced water

Fruit:

3 cups of sliced plums

¼ cup lemon juice

3 tbsp sugar

3 tsp all purpose flour

topping:

1 tsp cinnamon

1¼ tsp sugar

Procedure:

Cut butter into 1/2 inch pieces and put in freezer for 10 minutes.

Put dry ingredients in the cuisinart and pulse to mix.

Add butter, pulse until you have quarter sized chunks of butter mixed with the flour.

With machine pulsing add water and stop before you have a solid mass.

It should be crumbly and may have streaks of butter running through it..

Turn dough out on to a floured board.

Roll dough into a rough circle about 15” in diameter about ¼” thick and place on a parchment covered sheet pan .

Toss fruit in a bowl with flour, sugar and lemon juice

Mound or layer fruit in the middle of the circle with 2 inches of unfilled edges all the way around.

Fold edges over fruit to form a barrier for the juice (dough will cover only a portion of the surface of the tart).

Mix cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over the top before baking.

Bake in 350 oven for 25-35 minutes or until bubbly in the middle and golden brown on  the crust .

One treat all cooks agree on is the pleasure of having someone else cook for them. We had the extreme pleasure the other night at Staple and Fancy, the newest member of Ethan Stowell’s ESRseattle group http://www.ethanstowellrestaurants.com/. In a funky old warehouse space the the “other end” of Ballard Avenue, Ethan and Angella Stowell have created a very chic and trendy but very casual place to eat. The menu comes on a plank of wood and gives the option of paying a set sum and letting Ethan and his team create.

Well, a couple of hours and much incredible wine chosen by Perry Atkins later.Eleven of us were in food heaven. Spot prawns and beans, squid ink pasta and crab, pork fried rolls, sword fish, fried peppers,grilled baby zucchini, pork hunks too large to be called chops gnocchi with fresh corn- these are all too mundane words to describe the luscious dishes we swooned over consumed. A few felt their platter of crab on squid ink pasta was less amazing than our platter but ours was so good we would not share!

Then came dessert. Not always a must in my life-I like my sweet things in the late afternoon- but, brownie cake with grappa ice cream, Hazelnut tart-no stick chewy mess here but perfection and a light ricotta cheese cake with fresh blueberries in a light syrup disappeared faster than it was set on the table!

Congratulations Ethan, Angela, >>>>>>>>>>>>>Chris, Elwood, etc

From the Chefs table.
We love when a client asks us to take something from our repertoire and play with us. In this case our client asked us for a farro grain salad with summer flair. Seemed like a tabbouleh style salad would be a perfect match.

Of course, this meant a trip to the University District Farmers Market to the Bluebird Grain Farms table. I could, and did go on line to their great web site http://www.bluebirdgrainfarms.com I just need to see with my eyes while I hold produce in my hand and talk to someone who knows and is passionate about their product-really gets that motivation up!

I got both the Potlatch Pilaf “A northwest blend of Bluebird split farro and Oregon Jewel Wild Rice” and the Whole Grain Emmer Farro and lots of cooking tips.

The package directions or both products states that one cup of grain put in 3 cups of water with a teasp salt, brought to a boil then simmered covered on low should cook in 50-60 minutes. i found it was closer to 40 minutes. The product instructions also state that that the yield from 1 cup dry should be 2 cups cooked. but found this to be more like a cup and 1/2. Both products were easy to cook.

I mixed the Potlatch Pilaf and the Emmer Farro and turned the grains out onto a sheet pan to chill in the walk-in while I prepped the rest of the salad. The following recipe is a suggestion of things to add to the cooked grains. i really liked the combo of grains. The Emmer gave the salad a little “chew”.
Please add what ever you have from the market that strikes your fancy. This salad is healthy and delicious!
Potlatch Pilaf and Farro Tabbouleh
serves 12
4 cups cooked grains
1 bunch minced parsley
1 Walla Walla salad onion- about 1/3 cup minced
1 clove garlic minced with 1 teasp salt
1 bunch chopped mint
4 tomatoes, chopped small
2/3 c olive oil
1/3 c. lemon juice+ zest
salt and pepper to taste