I buy far too many things for my kitchen, it is starting to take on worrying dimensions. If we just look at the current month, I haven't bought myself anything to wear, no perfume, no shoes, and I badly need a haircut, I really do, but I have purchased (in no particular order): a Bron-Coucke professional mandoline, 8 non-stick loose-bottomed flan tins, the Salter Aquatronic digital kitchen scales (which I absolutely adore and use every day), a Brita Acclario Select kettle-cum-water filter, a microwave steamer (for baby food), jam jars, a jam funnel, and the list goes on and on and on. And I forgot to mention a pile of cook books.
So I always make an effort to really make the most out of them. I have made the celeriac lasagne and a gratin dauphinois with the mandoline, cooked a batch of sweet potato for Max with my steamer and this is the second I cook with the flan tins (the first being the salmon and scrambled egg tartlets).
This recipe really makes use of all the seasonal fruit, my favourite rhubarb supplier "all-fresh-and-organic-horse-pooh" Ian has brought me the last of this season and I have acquired some tasty and juicy strawberries. They never taste like I remember from my childhood though, maybe it's a matter of picking them yourself - also I prefer the small "fraises du bois", strawberries from the woods... they don't exist anymore these days, or I have to get up way earlier to be able to harvest any of them!
The following recipe is for four dessert-size tartlets - try making many small tartlets of ca. 3 cm diameter to serving them as a sweet pass-around at the end of a cocktail party or as petit fours at a tea party!
Rhubarb and strawberry tartlets
(makes 4)
3 stalks rhubarb (cut in 3 cm pieces)
300 g shortcrust pastry
4 tsp sugar
200 g strawberries
icing sugar
4 loose-bottomed, non-stick flan tins (ca. 10 cm diameter)
Line the flan tins with the pastry, prick them with a fork, sprinkle with a teaspoon of sugar each and blind bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 220 C (alternatively, bake in the oven, covered with foil, for about 30 minutes until tender). In the meantime, put the rhubarb in a microwave-safe dish and cook at 500 W for 2 minutes. Take out and set aside. Cut the strawberries into bite-sized pieces. You can prepare all this beforehand and only assamble at the last minute.
When the pastry cases have turned golden brown, remove from the oven and their tins, fill with the rhubarb, arrange the strawberries on top and sprinkle with icing sugar.
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