Party recipes

As promised, here are the recipes from last new year's eve dinner. Enjoy :)

I. Bacon, leek and onion tart
adapted from Donna Hay Magazine Issue 32
makes 70 mini-muffin sized or 18 standard-muffin sized tarts 

Ingredients

1 1/2 quantities of savoury shortcrust pastry

1 tbsp olive oil

1 brown onion, diced

1 leek, diced

9 eggs

1 1/2 cup single or pouring cream

2/3 cup of finely grated parmesan cheese, and extra to serve

sea salt and cracked black pepper

100g ricotta cheese

8 slices of bacon, chopped 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. 
2. Cook the chopped bacon in a frying pan. 
3. Reserve the bacon oil and use it to fry the onions and leeks until soft (around 5 mins). If there isn't enough oil, add the olive oil. 
4. Place the eggs, cream, parmesan, salt and pepper in a bowl and whisk to combine. 
5. Add the cooked bacon, onions and leeks into the egg mixture. 
6. Grease a muffin tray and cut rounds of the shortcrust pastry that will fit the muffin molds. 
7. Gently press the pastry to fit the mold. Butter the underside of a piece of aluminium foil and gently press against the pastry. 
8. Bake the crust for 5 minutes. Remove the foil, and continue baking for 4-5 minutes until the crust is slightly golden and dry. 
9. Pour over the egg mixture. 
10. Top with the ricotta cheese and sprinkle more parmesan if desired. 
11. Bake for another 10-15 minutes until the egg is set and the top is golden.

II. Smoked Salmon Crostini

makes 40

Ingredients

1 loaf of french bread

400g smoked salmon

200g creme fraiche

100g ricotta cheese

salt and pepper

sugar

dill

lemon 

Method 

1. Cut the french bread into slices and toast until dry but not brown. Divide bigger slices into two. 
2. In a medium bowl, mix the creme fraiche and ricotta cheese. 
3. Add salt, pepper, sugar and a squirt of lemon juice to taste. 
4. Spread the creme fraiche mixture onto the toasted bread. 
5. Top with a slice of smoked salmon and garnish with dill

III. Apple Pie
adapted from here
makes a 9.5 inch apple pie 

For a double crust pie dough:

Ingredients 

3 cups of plain flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

183g unsalted butter, very cold and cut into cubes

1/3 cup of vegetable shortening, very cold and cut into cubes

1/2 cup ice water 

Method 

1. Put the flour, sugar, salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse just to combine. 
2. Drop in the butter and shortening and pulse only until the 2 ingredients are cut into the flour (it's okay to have some butter pieces the size of peas and others barley). 
3. Pulsing the machine on and off, gradually add about 6 tablespoons of water. 
4. Use a few long pulses to get the water into the flour and a moist/soft dough forms. 
5. Scrape the dough out and onto a work surface. Divide the dough in half. 
6. Gather each half into a ball, flatten each ball into a disk and wrap each half in plastic. 
7. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

For the apple filling:

Ingredients

6 very large apples

3/4 cup sugar

Grated zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp quick cooking tapioca

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp graham cracker crumbs

2 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into bits

Method

1. Butter a 9/9.5 inch pie plate. 
2. Roll one pie dough to a thickness of about 3mm. 
3. Fit the dough into the buttered pie plate and trim the edges to a 2.5cm overhang 
4. Roll the other dough into a 3mm-thick circle and slip it onto a baking sheet. 
5. Cover both the circle and crust in the pie plate with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 20 minutes. 
6. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 210C. 
7. Peel, core and slice apples into 3-mm thick slices. 
8. Put the apples in a large bowl and add the sugar, lemon zest, tapioca, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. 
9. Toss everything and let the mix sit for 5 minutes, or until juice starts to accumulate in the bottom of the bowl. 
10. Remove the pie plate and top crust from the fridge. 
11. Sprinkle the bottom crush with biscuit crumbs and then turn the apples and their juices into the crust. 
12. Pat the apples into an even mound and dot with bits of butter. 
13. Moisten the rim of the bottom crust with water and center the top crust over the apples. 
14. Either fold the overhang from the top crust under the bottom or trim the overhang. 
15. Use a sharp knife and cut about 6 slits at the top crust. 
16. Bake for 15 minutes. 
17. Lower temperature to 190C and bake for a further 50-60 minutes (if the top crust is browning too quickly after 40 minutes, cover the pie loosely with a foil). 
18. Transfer the pie to a rack and let it rest until just warm or it reaches room temperature