Feast for the End of Term

Orange-Lime Goat Cheese Tart (recipe below)

Okay, we'll confess; we had the first lobsters of the season. That was Monday, 20 April.

For the record, here's what that looks like:

(Marike presents the beasts)

Today, however, was a different celebration, a different feast. Classes over, I filed my grades: another school year done, perhaps the last one; we'll see.

Marike had been yearning for a cheesecake. She bought some cream, some eggs, and a package of cream cheese. Not enough for most cheese cake recipes. But then in an old Canadian Living Magazine from July 2008 that our friends Bette and Susan had given us, I saw a recipe for a Raspberry Goat Cheese Tart. We didn't have any raspberries, but goat cheese, yes. Anyway, I decided I wanted a lime or orange cheese cake. So I set to work and modified the recipe. Here's what we ate tonight--with pan fried haddock (in flour and allspice) and roasted broccoli (in olive oil and salt and pepper in a 450 oven for 15 minutes; add two cloves chopped garlic, a bit more oil and ground grilled ancho pepper and grill 7 more minutes): the Orange-Lime Goat Cheese Tart.

Crust is a sable pastry:

1. Measure 1/3 c. raw almonds and grind them in a food processor until meal. Add 1 c. flour, 1/4 c. icing sugar, rind of 1 lime and a pinch of salt. Process until well mixed. (You might have to scrape almond paste from the sides.)

2. Cut 1/3 c. cold butter into small squares and blend at medium speed in short bursts, until the whole has the texture of coarse cornmeal. Turn into a bowl.

3. Separate an egg--discard or find another use for the white. Stir the yolk with a fork and whip into flour/almond/butter mixture. Knead with your hands until you have a neat ball.

4. Press dough into a 10" tart dish. Cover with plastic or wax paper and put in the freezer for 15 minutes.

5. Move oven rack to lower 1/3 of oven. Preheat oven to 400F. When dough is firm (has served its time in the freezer), line pie shell with foil and fill with dried beans (or pie weights if you have those). Bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil and weights and bake 3 minutes longer--crust should be golden to light brown. Remove and let cool on rack.

For cheese filling:

1. You will need to have washed out food processor while pie crust cooks. And let the cream cheese and goat cheese warm to a degree of softness. Mix 1/2 c. goat cheese and 1/2 c. cream cheese (we used Lactantia light) on high speed in the food processor. Add 1/4 c. (scant) granulated sugar (I used organic cane sugar), 2 eggs, one at a time, 1/2 c. heavy cream, and finely chopped zest of another lime. Add 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 2-3 T orange juice, and the juice of one lime. Scrape sides of food processor, so that cheeses don't stick there, and reprocess.

2. Move rack to center of oven and preheat to 325 F. When tart shell has cooled enough to be able to touch, mix up filling one last time and pour in the crust. Settle tart in center of oven and let bake for 20-25 minutes, until top slightly golden and the center is no longer runny. (It will jiggle just a bit as long as it is still hot.) Remove and let cool on a rack. When cool to the touch, refrigerate for 1-2 hours before cutting.

Orange-Lime Sauce

1. While the tart cools, you can prepare the topping. Measure 3/4 c. orange juice into a bowl and add juice of remaining (1) lime. Whisk in 1/4 c. icing sugar.

2. Pour half of this mixture into a small saucepan. Add 2-3 T. tapioca flour and heat just to bubbling. Stir. The mixture should thicken quite a bit, enough for you to add the remaining juice/sugar mix and still have a rather thick sauce.

Serve slices of the tart covered with orange-lime sauce.

Mmmmmmm!

Tastes like spring. Elisabeth says she heard peepers today in a bog pond along Quoddy Head Road. Guess that proves it.

Photos in this entry by Elisabeth Bigras.