BRUNCH TIME - Tomato Tart (made quiche...)


One of my favorite cooking shows currently is "Brunch at Bobby's" with chef Bobby Flay on the Cooking Channel. Brunch is one of my favorite meals. Every show of Brunch at Bobby's usually has about 2-3 entree options and a nice looking beverage and is intended to be shared with friends. Even though I do like my German breakfast, I do like the vast variety of an American breakfast or brunch. I actually would have bought the cooking book to this show, but as there is none available I had to make do with printing the recipes I liked.

Today I started cooking my first brunch a la "Brunch at Bobby's". I chose the Tomato Tart, accompanied by a Blood Orange-Aperol-Prosecco cocktail.

Quiche or Tart?

As always, I did not exactly follow the recipe. Actually, I researched what the difference between tart and quiche was before I started and surprisingly, the answer was not easy to find. From my understanding,  the quiche's main ingredient is a egg/milk mix, while the tart does either not use egg/milk at all or only to a very small amount. This makes the tart look smaller in height and also crispier. Bobby's tomato tart recipe did not use any eggs for the dough or filling. However, because this was my breakfast/brunch, I wanted to use some eggs. I remembered a very tasty tart recipe from my friend AM, using eggs for both the tart dough and filling and using tomatoes and zucchini for the filling. I incorporated the eggs/milk and zucchini idea into Bobby's recipe but kept the other ingredients. I have to say that using gruyere and camembert cheese really made the difference. Even so it is a little pricy, the smokiness and creaminess of the cheeses convinced me. The first bite was so delicious...

Ingredients

Dough
  • 3 cups flour
  • 12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter - cut into dices
  • 2-3 tablespoons salt and pepper
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 tablespoons cold water

Filling
  • 2 Tablespoon mustard
  • 1/2 cup gruyere cheese - grated
  • 3 Plum tomatoes - cut into 1/2 inch slices, seeds removed
  • 4-6 ounces camembert or brie - white edge removed and sliced in thin stripes
  • 1/2 zucchini - grated
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 - 3/4 cup milk
  • 1-2 tablespoon salt and pepper
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons fresh basil - finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons fresh thyme - finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons fresh parsley - finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic - finely chopped

Preparation

Dough
Combine the flour, butter and salt and pepper in a blender, using a dough or pastry blade. Mix until everything is coarse. Then add the olive oil and water and continue mixing until everything clings together smoothly and forms a nice dough. Roll the dough together in a ball, flatten it to a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it cool in the fridge for about 30min.

Roll the chilled dough into a thin circle, about 2 inches longer in diameter than the form you will be using. The recipe asks for using a 12 inch form with a removable bottom. As my tart form did not have a removable bottom, which is really helpful, I just used my 9 inch cake form and I cut of the excess dough on the sides.

Filling
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spread the mustard on the dough bottom and sprinkle the grated gruyere cheese over it and top it of with the grated zucchini. This will keep the egg/milk mix separate from the dough bottom and prevent getting the bottom completely soaked and soft. Mix the eggs with the milk, add salt and pepper and pour it over the zucchini. Add the tomato slices (very thick slices, and seeds removed to avoid extra liquid) and alternate with the brie or camembert slices (I used brie here). Even though the tomato slices are thick, you will not notice that in the end as they bake for quite some time an get completely soft. Bake on middle shelf of the oven for 35 minutes until the cheese starts to turn slightly golden. In the end, put the tart underneath the broiler for additional 5 minutes. Keep an eye on it to not burn it.

Mix the chopped herbs and garlic together with the oil. Take the tart out of the oven and brush with the herb mixture. These are fresh herbs and should be added last to unfold their true flavors. Let the tart cool for a few minutes and then serve with the rest of the herb mixture and the Blood Orange-Aperol-Prosecco drink.

Note: If you have left over of the herb mixture, you can use it to make some herbed butter. Just take a stick of butter, let it get soft at room temperature, then mix it with the herbs and roll it up and put plastic wrap around it and put it back in the fridge. Herb/garlic butter is really good on bread for italian pasta dishes or for BBQs.









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