Master it: How to cook today - Rory O'Connell

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the rest of the butter in a large sauté pan and allow to foam. Add the chopped mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Cook the mushrooms on a high heat, turning them occasionally until they are tender. Remove the mushrooms and allow to cool completely. If your sauté pan is small, cook them in a couple of batches. If there is some liquid from the mushrooms left in the pan, leave it on the heat and allow it to simmer and reduce until it looks thickened and syrupy. Pour this over the cooling mushrooms.

      Beat the eggs and cream and add the tarragon, Parmesan, cooled onions, garlic and salt and pepper. Add the mushrooms and mix well. Taste a little of the mixture and correct the seasoning.

      Pour the filling into the tart shell and place in a preheated oven 180°C/350°F/gas 4 for 30–40 minutes, or until the tart is set. You will know the tart is set when the filling no longer ripples when gently shaken. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack for at least 5 minutes.

      Remove the tin, place the tart on a large flat plate and serve. It tastes best when served warm.

      Soft goat’s cheese and thyme leaf tart with tomato oil

      Maybe you will think I am crazy or just plain sad, or at least think I have too much time on my hands, when I tell you that I dry my own tomatoes. I am afraid it is true (for more information). I accept that that’s all a bit too dedicated for the reality of most people’s lives, and you will be happy to know that good-quality, shop-bought, semi-dried or sunblush tomatoes work perfectly here.

      The goat’s cheese is simply pushed into the tart base, sprinkled with thyme leaves and the savoury batter is poured over. The tomatoes are used not in the tart itself but in a little salsa-like oil that accompanies it. The oil is also good on simply grilled mackerel or sardines, with lamb, chicken, pasta, crab meat and shrimp.

      The combination is a good one and I like a simple leaf salad to accompany this.

      The ingredients

      A fresh goat’s cheese that is soft enough to spread is required here. In this part of the world I use Ardsallagh goat’s cheese.

      The quality of shop-bought sun-dried tomatoes varies enormously, so look out for ones that are deep red and preserved in a good-quality olive oil.

      Serves 6 TART FILLING

      350g soft goat’s cheese

      1 heaped teaspoon thyme leaves

      2 eggs and 1 egg yolk

      300ml regular or double cream

      Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

      50g finely grated Parmesan

      Prepare the tart case, as instructed.

      Press the goat’s cheese into the tart shell and sprinkle over the thyme leaves, gently pressing them into the cheese with your fingers.

      Beat the eggs and cream with a pinch of salt and pepper and add the grated Parmesan. Taste and correct the seasoning. Pour into the tart shell. This will seem a little strange, with the cheese on the tart base and the batter on top. It’s fine, honestly. You end up with a layer of goat’s cheese on the base of the tart and a golden layer of custard on top. I think it looks quite beautiful when cooked.

      Place in a preheated oven at 180°C/350°F/gas 4 for 30–40 minutes, or until the tart is set. You will know the tart is set when the filling no longer ripples when gently shaken. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack for at least 5 minutes.

      Remove the tin, place the tart on a large flat plate and serve with the tomato oil drizzled over each slice and a bunch of rocket. This tart tastes best when served warm.

      Tomato oil

      100g sun-dried or sunblush semi-dried tomatoes

      50ml olive oil

      Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

      Blend the tomatoes and oil to a coarse purée. Correct the seasoning.

      Jerusalem artichoke and ewe’s milk cheese tart with roast pepper and olive salsa

      Jerusalem artichokes are a marvellous winter vegetable. They make the silkiest of soups, a great purée to serve with game or fish, roast beautifully to a caramelised and nutty brown, and combine with a variety of flavours such as avocado, hazelnuts, saffron, scallops and mussels. They are easy to grow and look wonderful in the late summer garden with their stalks towering to a height of three metres. On top of that handsome stalk is the flower, a small and pretty bright yellow blossom, which when you can see it may remind you of a small sunflower and so it should, as the Jerusalem artichoke is part of the sunflower family. In winter the leafless stalks become skeletal, bleak and sculptural and have an eerie and chilly beauty.

      The bounty itself sits under the soil, in clusters just like potatoes, and is every bit as exciting to harvest as the better-known and loved spud. People shy away from using this vegetable for various reasons, mainly because of the knobbly surface, which makes peeling them a bit torturous. I do peel them for this recipe; but when they are really fresh I often omit the peeling, particularly when roasting or making them into soup.

      There is a variety called Fuseau, which gardeners might like to note as being the least knobbly of the varieties, though perhaps not the most flavoursome variety.

      One of the other reasons for their bad reputation is that after being consumed, they make some people a little ‘windy’. Personally I have never noticed any unusual rumblings in their aftermath, though certainly some discover that a little turbulence ensues.

      Here I pair them with ewe’s or sheep’s milk cheese to make a sophisticated tart. Search out a really good cheese for this tart, as mass-produced fetas can be a grim and bland bunch, owing much of their flavour to salt rather than sheep’s milk. I use Knocklara from Co. Waterford and find it excellent.

      You could serve the tart with a salad of lamb’s lettuce, roast hazelnuts and avocado tossed in a hazelnut oil vinaigrette if you don’t fancy the pepper and olive salsa.

      The ingredients

      Jerusalem artichokes, looking like knobbly potatoes, are no relation of the globe artichoke. The flavour is slightly sweet and smoky and I find them delicious. The artichokes will need to be peeled if they are not spanking fresh. When really fresh, they just need a good scrub, like potatoes. They cook quite unevenly, and regardless of the recipe you are using you need to test several pieces of the vegetable to determine that they are all tender.

      Ewe’s or sheep’s milk cheese varies greatly in quality. Try to find an artisan cheese rather than a factory-made one. The factory-made sheep’s cheese can be very dull and salty.

      The pepper salsa that I suggest serving with the tart will keep in the fridge for several days.

      For instructions for how to make your own roast peppers.

      Serves 6–8 TART FILLING

      400g Jerusalem artichokes, weighed after peeling or scrubbing

      6 tablespoons water

      2 tablespoons olive oil

      Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

      2 eggs and 1 egg yolk

      300ml regular or double cream

      50g finely grated Parmesan

      200g ewe’s milk cheese

      Prepare the tart case, as instructed.

      Slice the peeled artichokes into 1cm thick slices. Heat the water and olive oil to a simmer in a low-sided saucepan. Add the artichokes and season with salt and pepper. Cover with a butter wrapper or greaseproof paper and the saucepan lid and simmer gently on

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