Thus Bakes Zarathustra

I love making pies, I really do.

Oh, and tarts.

Here is what went into them.

Tomato and Corn Pie
Via Smitten Kitchen. Serves 6-8

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 85g butter, cold, cut into pieces
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• Juice of half a lemon
• 800g good tomatoes
• 3 ears of corn, kernels removed
• 1/2 bunch basil, chopped
• A bunch of chives, chopped
• 200g nice sharp cheddar, grated
• Rice flour, for rolling

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Pulse butter, flour, baking powder and fat pinch of salt in a food processor ’til crumbly, with a few bits and pieces floating around. Alternative, rub butter into flour using your fingertips. Drizzle in milk with the motor running until it looks prone to forming a ball. Tip dough onto a counter dusted with rice flour and pat into a ball. Divide in half. Roll one half out to line your pie plate; set aside.

Peel tomatoes by scooping out the stem end with the end of a vegetable peeler, then scoring an ‘x’ on the bottom. Blanch in boiling water for a few seconds, then rinse under cold water. Remove skins. Halve each tomato and squeeze out the seeds, then cut into thin slices. Set aside. Roughly chop the corn, and set that aside. Fork together the mayonnaise and lemon juice until smooth.

To assemble the pie, place a layer of tomatoes in the pie dish, follower by corn, then herbs, then a handful of cheese. Repeat until filled. Pour over the mayonnaise mixture. Roll out the second half of dough and lay it on top of the pie. Pleat together top and bottom crusts at the edges, then cut two vents in the middle. Bake until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, around 30-35 minutes.

Lemon and Pecan Tart
Of mixed provenance. Serves 6-8

For shell

• 1/2 cup toasted pecans
• 1 cup wholemeal flour
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
•  60g butter, cold, cut into pieces
• 1 tsp vanilla
• An egg

For filling

• Grated zest and juice of two lemons
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups water

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. To make the shell pulse together pecans, flour and sugar in a food processor until ground, then add the butter and pulse until crumb like with a few pea sized pieces here and there. Add the egg and vanilla and pulse again until the mixture clumps when you squeeze it. Tip into a 24cm tart tin and, using your fingers, press firmly into the bottom and up the sides. Fridge for 10 minutes.

When the shell is cool line blind bake for 15 minutes; then remove foil and weights and let it crisp up, nude, for 10. Set aside, but leave the oven switched on.

To make the filling, get a small pan of water simmering and set a heatproof bowl on top of it. Whisk together  zest, flour, sugar and yolks in the bowl and keep stirring until it thickens. By ‘thickens’ I mean it becomes creamy and less watery; the filling will remain fairly runny, but the oven will take care of that. When it thickens to the point that the spooon/whisk leaves trails in the mix and it coats the back of a spoon, remove from the heat and whisk in the lemon juice. Let it stand for 10-15 minutes, then pour into your tart shell. Bake for 30 minutes until the middle feels set, with the faintest trace of wobble, and there are maybe a few bubbles around the edges. Chill completely before serving, and marvel at how glossy and perfect it is.