A little while back, we took over the home of our friend Jennifer Slattery to shoot the lovely new homewares from our Áras collection. We asked Colm Keane, proprietor of Rialto café Daddy's to cook a meal on location to compliment our range of handmade products. Colm has such an enthusiasm and grá for Irish cooking and seasonal produce, it was a joy listening to him talk about food while he cooked us THE most delicious lunch using our tableware. The celeriac tart was incredible, and Colm has kindly shared the recipe and cooking method with us. 

CELERIAC, CABBAGE + MILLEENS TART

Savoury tarts are one of my favourite things to make and we love coming up with different ones in Daddy's Café. As we move through the seasons, the fillings change to reflect what's around us, both in the wild and from our suppliers. I made a version of this tart in April with wild garlic and nettles and it was sublime! Have fun tweaking it to your liking. This particular tart is big on flavour and roars of Ireland!! It is delicious served with some thyme roast beets or dark winter berries and figs with yoghurt and honey.

Serves 6

If you're short on time, you can buy the pastry - but buy the best you can afford - preferably made with butter and not vegetable oil! You will need a 9"/23cm tart tin and a rolling pin or a wine bottle to roll the dough, some greaseproof paper and some baking beans - you can use uncooked rice or dry beans of any kind. I use dried black eyed beans. 

INGREDIENTS:

For the shortcrust:

200g plain flour, 130g cold butter, cubed,1 beaten egg, two finger pinch of salt,    1 beaten egg for egg wash

For the Filling:

1 small celeriac, peeled and diced, 1 medium onion, diced,1 green cabbage (savoy or greyhound work perfectly) a few twigs of thyme, nutmeg, 50g butter, extra virgin olive oil, s+p, 250ml cream, 2 large eggs, 1 tablespoon mustard (dijon or wholegrain)

 

First make the shortcrust 

Put the flour, butter and salt into a wide bowl. Catch the mixture in your hands while rubbing your thumbs over your first two fingers, working the butter until it becomes small pea sized pellets in the mixture. Add half the beaten egg and mix into the dough with a fork. If the dough comes together easily and cleanly, you won't need the rest of the egg. If it doesn't, tip the rest of the egg in, mix and gather the lot. You should be left with a clean bowl. Shape and flatten the dough mixture into a disc, wrap tightly in cling film and refrigerate for 30mins minimum.

Now start the filling

On a medium heat, warm some olive oil in a large pan. Add the diced onion and cook until they are translucent, about 10 minutes. You may need to turn down the heat a touch after a few mins to ensure they don't brown. Once they are cooked, remove to a plate. 

Back to the pan, add some more oil, the diced celeriac, salt and pepper and thyme twigs. On a medium heat, cook the celeriac, tossing every few mins to ensure it is browning and cooking evenly. Once cooked, remove to the plate with the onions. 

Prepare your cabbage by taking 4 or 5 leaves and removing the tough centre rib. Fold in half across the rib, roll and slice into shreds across the grain. Back with our pan now on a medium to low heat, add the butter, cabbage, a good grating of nutmeg and some salt and pepper. Cook for 5 mins. We want the cabbage to stay bright green and just be starting to soften. Set this with all the cooked ingredients aside to cool while we finish our tart shell.

Prepare the tart shell

Take the pastry from the fridge, unwrap and place on a cold floured surface. Using the tart tin as a guide, roll out the pastry so that the circumference is wide enough to accommodate the tart tin and it's sides. Roll the pastry on to your rolling pin and gently roll back over the tart tin. Moving gently with your hands, tuck the pastry snug into place in the tin. Stick in the fridge for 10 mins and preheat oven to 180'C before the next step.

Scrunch up some greaseproof tight in a ball (makes it easier to shape). Open it back out and tuck it into the tart shell. Fill with baking beans (or an alternative). Put the bean filled tart tin into the oven for 8 mins. Remove the shell from the oven and remove greaseproof and the beans altogether, carefully. Paint the shell thoroughly on the base and sides with the egg wash and bake for a further 2 minutes. This creates a liquid proof seal for our filling. 

Fill the tart

In a large bowl, whisk the cream, eggs, mustard and some salt and pepper together. Add all of your cooked ingredients to the egg mixture and stir to combine well (you can cook a little bit quickly on a hot pan to make sure your happy with the seasoning, if you like). Fill the tart shell with the mixture and then stud it evenly with torn chunks of the Milleens cheese. Bake the tart for 30-40 mins or until a skewer comes clean out of the centre. Remove from the tin onto a plate of a similar or larger size.

Serve and enjoy!