INGREDIENTS
PASTRY
• 250g plain flour (plus a little for ‘dusting’)
• pinch salt
• 35g unsalted English butter, chilled
• 70g lard, chilled
• 150 ml vegetable oil
• water, to bind
• 1 large free range egg, for glazing
TART
• 950g mussels – cleaned, bearded, soaked
• ‘fist’ sized bunch of parsley ,chopped
• 8-10 small shallots
• 6 garlic cloves
• 40g unsalted butter
• bottle of dry white wine (eg: English – Chapel Down, Kent)
• 6-8 egg yolks
• 320 ml double cream• freshly ground sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
MANGO, ROCKET AND WATERCRESS SALAD.
• 1 large mango, peeled and stoned
• 1 lime
• 20g watercress
• 20g rocket
• 30 ml extra virgin olive oil to drizzle
• pinch chopped parsley to garnish
• freshly ground pepper
METHOD
PRE HEAT OVEN TO 190 DEGREES CELSIUS
1. For the pastry, sieve flour into bowl. Work in the butter, lard and oil until a fine crumby mix is achieved. Add water gradually and keep gently mixing until a smooth dough forms.
2. Gently kneed the dough and then leave to rest in a fridge for 20 to 25 minutes.
3. Roll out the pastry and line the pie dish. Prick the base, cover with grease proof paper and then add the black eyed peas/baking beans to blind bake. Rest for 15 minutes the bake at 190 degrees Celsius in the oven for a further 15 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven, remove beans and greaseproof paper. Egg wash the base and sides and bake for further 5 minutes.
5. Reduce the oven heat to 180 degrees C.
6. Wash and scrape mussels. Remove beards and rinse.
7. Chop the parsley stalks, shallots and garlic.
8. Pour the wine into a large pan with a lid. Add the cleaned mussels and parsley stalks and cook on a medium heat with the lid on until the mussels are cooked and open (3 to 4 minutes). Drain the mussels, retaining the liquor. De-shell the mussels and set aside. Discard any mussels still closed.
9. Add butter to a saucepan then sweat off the shallots and garlic on a low to medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes. Add some of the mussel liquor and reduce rapidly until a runny, soft paste is formed (about 15 minutes).
10. Whilst cooling the ‘paste’ slightly beat together egg yolks. Add the beaten egg yolks, chopped parsley and cream and gently mix together.
11. Sprinkle the mussels on the pastry case and pour over the mixture (season to taste). Then bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 180c until the egg mix is just set.
12. Cut the skin off the mango and trim off the soft flesh.
13. Blitz the mango in a blender to a fine pulp. Remove to a bowl and add the juice of half a lime.
14. Dress a cold plate with a watercress and rocket salad and spoon the mango pulp around. Drizzle a little of the extra virgin olive oil and fresh lime juice. Add the remainder of the chopped parsley, cut a portion of the tart and serve hot.
