Romantic Food Ideas For Valentine’s: Queen of Tarts

Romantic Food Ideas For Valentine's Queen of TartsThe perfect savoury starter developed from the Good Housekeeping Institute’s famous Triple-Tested recipes, a team of expert GHI chefs have created and tested this dish to ensure it satisfies every time.

 

Queen of Tarts

 

 

Hands-on time: 15min

Cooking time: 25min

Serves: 6

 

Ingredients:

For the puff pastry: 

  • 225g (8oz) strong white bread flour
  • 225g (8oz) butter, chilled
  • 1tbsp lemon juice

For the filling:

  • 300g (11oz) light cream cheese
  • Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
  • 2tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
  • 200g (7oz) pack hot-smoked or smoked salmon, skinned and flaked
  • 4 spring onions, finely sliced

 

Method:

  1. Sift the flour into a bowl with a pinch of salt. Dice 50g (2oz) of the butter. Flatten the rest into a 2.5cm (1in) thick slab.
  2. Rub the diced butter into the flour. Then, using a knife, stir in the lemon juice and about 280ml (9½fl oz) cold water to make soft, elastic dough. Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Cut a cross through half the depth.
  3. Open out the ‘flaps’ and roll out the dough, keeping the centre four times as thick as the flaps.
  4. Put the slab of butter in the centre and fold the flaps over it. Gently roll out to make a rectangle measuring 40.5 x 20.5cm (16 x 8in). Mark off three equal sections from top to bottom. Fold the bottom third of the pastry up over the middle, and the top third down. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30min (or freeze for 5-10min).
  5. Repeat the rolling, resting and turning four more times, ensuring the folded edges are to the sides each time.
  6. To make the tarts, preheat oven 200°C (180°C fan) mark 6. Unroll puff pastry and cut or stamp out six individual-sized heart shapes, about 9cm (3½in) diameter. Arrange hearts on baking sheets, spacing a little apart. Score a border 1cm (½in) from the edge of each heart. Use a fork to prick pastry well inside the border.
  7. Bake pastry hearts until golden and risen – about 20-25min. Remove from oven and use the back of a spoon to press down the pastry carefully inside the border to make room for the filling. Cool completely, then tip/scrape out any loose crumbs from the cases (so they won’t get into the filling).
  8. To make filling, mix together cream cheese, most of the lemon zest and dill, and some seasoning (if mixture is too thick, loosen with a little milk). Spoon into cooled tarts, level gently, then top with the flaked salmon and spring onions. Scatter over the remaining lemon zest and dill, and some freshly grated black pepper. Serve.

 

 

 

 

Put Fairtrade First: Great Products With A Clear Conscience

We have tried a range of Fairtrade products from Sainsbury’s and brought you a selection. Their fairtrade chocolate is amazing and the English Breakfast tea is a personal favourite of Frost editor, Catherine. Get your hands on some of the selection below.

This Fairtrade Fortnight (24th February – 9th March), enjoy a selection of treats and everyday essentials from Sainsbury’s, the world’s largest retailer of Fairtrade products. With over 800 Fairtrade products now available in store, £1 in every £4 spent on Fairtrade in the UK is spent in Sainsbury’s.

As part of Sainsbury’s commitment to Fairtrade, all of its bananas, sugar, own label tea, ground and roast coffee and Taste the Difference South African wines are Fairtrade certified, more than any other major UK supermarket. Sainsbury’s is committed to ensuring farmers get a fair price for what they grow and can invest in communities in developing countries such as Kenya or Columbia.

 

Everyday essentials

Sainsbury’s Fairtrade loose Bananas 

 

fairtrade bananas

£0.68/kg  Sainsbury’s was the first major supermarket to sell 100% Fairtrade bananas back in 2007, and nowadays sells an incredible 650 million Fairtrade bananas a year – that’s 1,200 every minute. Sainsbury’s Fairtrade bananas are sourced from farmers in Central and South America, the Caribbean and West Africa where Fairtrade premiums are crucial to many smallholders.

Great bananas to eat with a clear conscious.

 

Taste the Difference English Breakfast Teafairtrade english breakfast tea £2.14/ 80 tea bags Britons drink around 165 million cups of tea a day, so it’s refreshing to know that your everyday cuppa is supporting the communities in which it was grown. This Fairtrade tea is made from selected leaves from India, Rwanda and Tanzania. Sainsbury’s is the world’s largest retailer of Fairtrade products and all its own-label teas are now Fairtrade – including speciality teas. 

 A personal favourite of Frost editor, Catherine

 

by Sainsbury’s Original House Blend Coffee
 

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£2.29/227g
All Sainsbury’s own label roast and ground coffee has been 100% Fairtrade since 2009. Sainsbury’s coffee is sourced from across Africa and South America where Fairtrade premiums are now benefiting thousands of farmers, their families and communities in these countries every year.

 

Great coffee.

 

Tasty treats

Taste the Difference Fairtrade Sauvignon Blanc 2013

fairtrade wine

£6.99/75cl 

 

 

 

100% of Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference South African wine is now Fairtrade, and this fantastic zesty wine was awarded a silver trophy at the prestigious IWC awards in 2013. 

This elegantly balanced wine is made with exceptional care to preserve the flavours of crisp lemon and lime, green pepper, gooseberry and tropical fruit notes. It’s made for Sainsbury’s at the famous Boekenhoutskloof Winery, which dates back to 1776, from carefully selected grapes harvested from the best vineyards in Malmesbury, Wellington, Robertson and Franschhoek. The fresh and intensely fruity flavours are particularly good with lightly spiced dishes.

 

A brilliant wine.

 Taste the Difference Belgian Fairtrade Milk Chocolate

fairtrade chocolate

 £1.40/100g Sainsbury’s offers a great range of Fairtrade Taste the Difference chocolate, helping to improve the livelihoods of thousands of cocoa farmers in Cote d’Ivoire and the Dominican Republic.

Made for Sainsbury’s in Belgium, this luxurious milk chocolate is smooth and creamy without being too sweet, and melts in the mouth with a delicious caramel flavour.

 

 

Enjoy Sainsbury’s fairtrade products on their own, or try making these Fairtrade Banoffee Tarts at home

 

Banoffee Tarts Recipe

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A crisp pastry base filled with smooth, sweet caramel, and topped with bananas and cream…Naughty but so nice.

Serves 10

Preparation 40 minutes

Cooking 20 minutes, plus 45 minutes chilling time

Ready 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients

180g Sainsbury’s British plain flour

120g unsalted English butter by Sainsbury’s, cold from the fridge, cubed

3 tablespoons Sainsbury’s Fairtrade caster sugar

1 medium British free-range Woodland egg yolk by Sainsbury’s, mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water

75g smooth dark chocolate by Sainsbury’s, melted

½ x 397g tin Carnation caramel

2 small Fairtrade bananas by Sainsbury’s, sliced

200ml fresh British double cream by Sainsbury’s

¼ teaspoon Fairtrade ground cinnamon by Sainsbury’s

2 teaspoons Sainsbury’s cocoa powder

 

Method

1.       Sift the flour into a large bowl. Lightly rub in the butter with your fingertips, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, then the egg yolk and water mixture, and use a round-bladed knife to bring everything together.

2.       Use your hands to form a dough, handling it as little as possible. (Alternatively, make the dough in a food processor to save time.) Wrap the dough in cling film, then chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

3.       Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C fan, gas 6. Roll out the pastry to a thickness of 0.5cm, then cut into 6 pieces. Line 6 individual 10.5cm tart tins with the pastry and chill in the fridge again for 20 minutes.

4.       Line the pastry cases with baking parchment and fill with baking beans or uncooked rice. Bake ‘blind’ for 15 minutes, then remove the paper and beans and bake for a further 2 minutes, or until golden.

5.       Pour or brush the melted chocolate around the inside of the tart cases and allow it to harden for 5 minutes in the fridge. Divide the caramel evenly into the pastry cases and top with the banana slices. Whisk the double cream until it forms stiff peaks, then spoon on top of the tarts. Dust with the cinnamon and cocoa powder and serve.

 

Cook’s tip:

This is delicious served with half-fat crème fraîche by Sainsbury’s.