Creamy mushrooms, leeks, gruyere cheese and a spoon of white miso make this simple mushroom leek tartlet a must-have for your family lunch or dinner. Served alongside a simple salad and lunchtime with a bottle of chardonnay never looked so good!
sponsored by Dandelion Vineyards, Mclaren Vale
What Is Miso?
Miso is an essential ingredient in Japanese cooking. Although, much like my mushroom leek tartlet it's popping up in all styles of cooking. It is made from fermented soybeans, grain, salt & koji (mould). Most miso you see on the shelves can be categorized into light and dark miso.
Light miso is as it says, lighter in colour. It's typically less intense and known as "sweet miso". The fermentation time is shorter and more grain is added vs soybeans.
Dark miso, redder in colour is fermented for longer and has more soybean and salt which makes for a more intense miso flavour.
I typically use light miso in my cooking to add a little miso flavour to the dish but not to take over. Light miso is great for sauces, salad dressings and applications that require quick cooks. Darker miso think stews, braises and slow cooking.
Making Shortcrust Pastry
Nothing beats a bit of homemade pastry in my opinion but given the world we live in where we are always on the go, sometimes holding down multiple jobs and juggling about 50 kids activities you can definitely opt for shop-bought shortcrust pastry. There are many great options out there and it definitely helps get your mushroom leek tartlet on the table a little quicker!
If like me you found yourself with a few extra minutes and no kid humping your leg for snacks and decide to make homemade pastry then this is my basic recipe that works a treat every time!
- Using a food processor mix flour and salt together
- Add cubed butter and pulse it 8 times until combined
- Add COLD water 1 tbsp at a time pulsing inbetween each spoon until dough comes together
- Wrap it up in clingfilm and leave for 1 hour in the fridge - it's really that simple!
- After that, just roll it out and place it into your pastry tartlet, prick it with a fork and blind bake it
You may ask what is blind baking is. It's the process of pre-cooking the pastry in the oven so that when adding the filling the pastry doesn't go soggy.
The Filling
So, you have delicious crispy, flaky pastry all ready to go. All you need now is this epic filling to complete your mushroom leek tartlet. Once again, let's keep it as simple as possible without taking away from making this a flavourbomb!
Start by prepping all the ingredients. Dice the mushrooms - I've used mixed mushrooms in this tartlet. Shiitake, brown & button but you can use whatever is on hand. Clean the leeks and slice along with the onions and crush your garlic.
Next, simply cook the leeks and onion in butter & oil. Once softened add the mushrooms, garlic & thyme. On medium to high heat mix in the miso and cream and whisk together. Once simmering cook for 2-3 minutes or until most of the liquid is gone. Finally, grate the cheese in and pop it into the prebaked tartlet.
This mixture can be made in advance but truthfully as you pastry blind bakes, you can whip it up easily!
Wine Pairing
If you ask me this is the most important part of mealtime 😉 What wine pairs well with mushrooms? Chardonnay is the first wine that comes to mind and maybe pinot noir too. This week, given we are having warmer weather I'm sticking with a nice glass of Dandelion Vineyards 'Twilight of the Adelaide Hills' Chardonnay.
If you are looking for a good everyday drinking Chardy that will also go great with food and you won't be embarrassed to bring along to your wine snob mate then you are looking at it!
It's clean & crisp with wonderful stone fruit characteristics, a touch of grapefruit and maybe pineapple too.... Very well balanced acidity, a kiss of salinity, gentle oak and good length. Drinking nicely now but will only develop with age too.
Coming in @ $27.50 a bottle and when you sign up to their site you get a healthy $75 gift card towards your next purchase!
Alternative Mushroom Recipes
Inspired by my mushroom leek tartlet and like me won't some more shrooms in your life? Here are a few other recipes to get the creative juices flowing......
Happy Cooking & Happy Eating Friends!!
Ingredients
Pastry
- 225 g flour
- 140 g cold butter
- 5-6 tbsp cold water
- ½ tsp salt
Filling
- 1 leek
- 1 brown onion
- 400 g mixed mushrooms
- 60 g gruyere cheese
- 1 tbsp miso
- 300 ml heavy cream
- 2 cloves crushed garlic
- 1 tbsp thyme
- 50 g butter
- 1 tbsp oil
Essential Tools
- Chef Knives
- Chopping board
- frying pan
- rectangular 31x21cm tart tray
- wooden spoon/spatula
- weighing/measuring utensils
Instructions
Pastry
- Mix flour and salt together in a food processor
- Cut the butter into cubes and add it to the flour pulsing 8 times to combine
- Add the cold water 1 tbsp at a time pulsing in between each spoon until the dough comes together
- Wrap the dough in clingfilm and place in the fridge for 1 hour (prepare filling)
- Remove dough and roll it out on a well floured surface to fit a 31x21 rectangular pan
- Press the dough down and trim the edges
- Blind bake @ 180c for 10 minutes and allow to cool
Filling
- Slice the leeks, onion & mushrooms
- Fry the leeks with the butter and oil on medium heat for 4-5 minutes
- Add mushrooms, garlic & thyme and cook for a further 3 minutes
- Stir in the miso and add the cream, simmer for 3 minutes
- Add gruyere cheese and cook for a further 2 minutes until mixture has thickened
- Allow mixture to cool and pour it into the tartlet case
- Cook @ 180c for 15-20mins or until pastry is brown and crispy
- Allow to cool slightly and serve warm
Notes
Tips/Tricks
- you can use a round tartlet pan if you don’t have a rectangular one
- blind baking the tartlet stop the base of the pastry from becoming soggy
- if serving later on you can reheat it in the oven @ 150c for approx. 6-8 minutes
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