Attention: fruits of summer

I’m going to make pies out of all you bitches. Even you, peach, with your revolting fuzzy skin that is up there with plastic fork on polystyrene and pap smear on the scale of horrible sensations. Especially you, delicious, juicy nectarine, both white and yellow. And you are not immune, mango. Oh no. Not when I’ve practically memorised the ratios of this nut tart shell, not when fruit curds are so easy and satisfying to make, and especially not when there are finger food-centric movie nights going on and barbecues to attend.

Oh yes, there will be pies.

Mango and blueberry tart
Of mixed provenance. Serves 6

For crust

• 1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted
• 60g butter, cold, cut into pieces
• 1 cup flour
• 3 tbsp sugar (I like raw sugar for the slight caramel flavour)
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• An egg

For filling, via Smitten Kitchen (a note - this quantity made for a very thin tart. In future I’d double it, but I’m giving the quantities I used below)

•  A mango, roughly 425g
• 1/3 cup sugar
• Juice of a lime
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot

To make the crust, preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Pulse together sugar, salt, cocoa, flour and hazelnuts until the nuts are coarsely ground, then add the butter and pulse again. Add the egg and pulse until the egg is evenly combined. Tip into a 23cm tart tin and press into bottom and sides. Prick the bottom all over with a fork. Fridge for 10 minutes, then spray the shiny side of a piece of foil with oil and fit tightly to crust. Fill with pie weights and blind bake for 15 minutes, then remove foil and weights and bake for 10 minutes longer. Allow to cool while you make the filling.

Peel and cube the mango, and pulse with sugar and lime juice in the food processor until pureed. Add egg yolks. For some reason I decided to photograph my egg white freezing process in case there’s anyone out there who doesn’t freeze their egg whites.  Basically, I take a sandwich bag, the kind your mum used for your lunch box when you were a kid, and put it in a water glass like so.

Then I separate the egg, allowing the white to fall into the bag. Like this.

Then I knot the bag and toss it into the freezer, to confuse any visitors looking for ice cubes. Egg whites freeze brilliantly, there’s no sense in throwing them out.

Then I got a bit artistic with the shells.

Anyway. Scrape down the processor work bowl and add the yolks and cornflour. Process for a good 15 seconds longer. Transfer to a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens. It’s pretty thick to begin with; I cooked it to the point where a ribbon of curd would sit on the surface of the rest of the mixture for a few seconds before sinking.

Scrape hot curd into your cooled tart shell, then fridge for 10 minutes. Scatter with blueberries and return to the fridge until completely cold, 2-3 hours. I sifted some cocoa powder over the top for serving, but your level of fussiness will vary. Take that, mango.