Chard, cheese and ham tart

I'm alive! Sorry, I was kidnapped by University. We returned to classes 2 weeks ago and I'm flooded in work already. We are growing tomatoes in a laboratory class, and today I went to see the sprouts. They are 5 days old. We were lucky there is no pollution in our growth, and that all the seeds germinated. Here is a picture of my babies:

 

 We need to check them again, make sure there is no pollution caused by spores, and measure the height of the sprouts. I hope we get nice tomatoes <3

About the recipe, I like challenges. I love when someone says "I don't like this ingredients" or "I can't eat this thing", etc. My mom is on a diet, and there are certain ingredients she is not able to eat, so she has been eating salad, because she doesn't know what else to cook. I decided I would try to make something interesting with the things she can eat. So I came up with this tarts.

Ingredients:

Crust:
1 1/2 cup multi cereal flour (contains whole wheat flour, whole corn flour, oat flour and flax seed flour).
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup + 1 tbs skim milk
1 egg yolk
2 tbs coriander (I wanted to use basil, but I hadn't. You can use whatever you want, and as much as you like)
salt to taste

Filling:
1 cup chard, chopped.
4 tbs chopped ham (you can add as much as you like, this is just an approximation of how I made them)
2 tbsp cream
1 egg white
2 tbs shredded cheese
salt to taste
More cheese to top them.

Preparation:

Crust:
1. Preheat oven to 180° C. Mix flour, salt and coriander. Make a well in the center.
2. Add olive oil, milk and egg yolk in the well you made to the flour mixture.
3. Mix with a fork at first, and then work the dough with your hands until it's soft.
4. Roll out the dough and put it in greased  a tart mold.
5. Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Take them out and let them cool slightly while you make the filling.

Filling:
1. Mix all the ingredients.
2. Fill the crust. Put some cheese on top.
3. Bake 15 minutes.

They aren't hard, they don't take much time, and they are healthy and delicious! I hope you try and enjoy them. I baked the crusts in my muffin pan, I got 12 shells, and a little dough left over, which I used to make some crackers.

Raspberry and lemon cream pudding mini tarts

First recipe, a simple one. I'm in the south hemisphere, so here is summer. A really hot summer. Perfect time to get loads of berries, which happen to be my favourite kind of fruit. Blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, but above them all,  raspberries. I always find people selling them by the side of the roads, but never dare to buy, because I thought that first, they don't have them refrigerated, and second, they could mash on the bus as I get home. But one day I was with my boyfriend and saw a guy selling raspberries. They looked so beautiful! Their color, they shapes (they are all nearly same size, and big in comparison to the frozen ones I had bought before), they made me want to buy them. I passed trough and said to my boyfriend "I want those raspberries", and he replied "Then buy them". So I did. I don't regretted it. I am so happy with the beautiful little fruits. I eat really little each time, sometimes  a tablespoon with cereal and milk as breakfast, sometimes I put a few on a smoothie, but I'm making them last. I could eat them all in one day! But I want to really enjoy them.
I put this tarts together using a lemon cream pudding recipe posted by The alchemist. It is really subtle. Not too sweet, not too tart. Perfectly balanced. I used a Linzer cookie recipe for the crust. I intended to use lemon zests to give it flavor, instead of the vanilla extract the recipe called for, but as I made the dough I completely forgot about my plan. The crust is a good match anyway, buttery and just a little bit sweeter than the filling. I had thought making a meringue to top them, because the linzer cookie recipe asked for one egg yolk, so I would be left with one egg white. But there were no eggs in the house, and since I love baking at night I was not able of go buy some. I added milk to make up for the lacking moisture, and opted for the raspberries to top the tarts. I made 10 tarts and a dozen cookies. I had left over pudding, so I filled two glasses with it, and topped them with raspberries too, making a nice dessert.

Ingredients:

Lemon cream pudding


2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest


Linzer cookies

2 cups flour
100 g butter (room temperature)
70 g powdered sugar
2 tsp white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk


Preparation:

Lemon cream pudding

1. Put cream and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring frequently. 
2. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. 
3. Remove from heat and add lemon juice and lemon zest.
4. Stir and let it set for about 30 minutes. Stir again, pour on a mold, cups, glasses, etc... In this case you can put it in anything you want, no need to portion it, because then we will fill the tarts with it. In case you will use it as a dessert alone, you can pour it in nice ramekins. You need to let it cool on the fridge for at least 5 hours. I put mine away on the fridge as I made the tart shells and then poured it into them, to get them into the fridge to sit overnight.


Linzer cookies

1. Preheat oven at 170° C. Beat butter until creamy.
2. Add sugars and vanilla extract and beat until they are incorporated (really low speed at first or you and your kitchen will end up covered on powdered sugar).
3. Add the egg yolk and beat until incorporated (in this case I didn't add the yolk, but added 1/4 cup + 2 tsp milk).
4. Add flour and form a ball with the dought. Let is sit in the fridge at least 1 hour.
5. Roll out the dought and place it in the mini tart pans, or cut out as cookies.
6. Bake for about 8-10 minutes.


Put the tarts together:

Fill the crusts with lemon cram pudding and let them sit on the fridge for 5 hours or overnight. Put some raspberries and chocolate shavings on top and enojy!