Playing with Pastry, or: I get all experimenty and thrifty

After I attempted Lolo's White Bean Pesto & Asparagus Tart for the recent potluck, which some people were kind enough to say they liked, I've been trying to both expand my pastry experience and use up the rest of the pastry in my freezer! (It was Borg's, by the way. They have three kinds at Leo's Fine Food and Wine - puff, canola, and shortcrust - which are vegan. Awesome).

And so, drum roll please, Miss T presents Playing With Pastry, a retrospective of her recent forays into the freezer. Miss T declines to enter into detailed descriptions of individual items, most creations having been made from a combination of ready-made pestos, tomato paste, Dijon mustard, asparagus, tinned cherry tomatoes, olive oil, Maldon sea salt, cracked pepper and whatever else was in the fridge, thus creating a generally uniform taste.

Johanna at Green Gourmet Giraffe has written a lovely and very informative post about asparagus over here. She has included some wonderful recipes and fascinating historical detail - just my kind of thing! Unfortunately I am only capable of one contribution on the subject of asparagus and it's not nearly as tasty or well-researched as hers (but in my opinion, quite intriguing): did you know that not everyone can smell asparagus wee? If you are arching your eyebrows in surprise, then you can smell it. If you don't know what I mean and wondering what kind of foul troll I am, you can't. Wikipedia has even mentioned it so it must be true.

So without further ado ... Playing with Pastry!


Attempt 1: I used lotsa asparagus ...


... and lots of sea salt ...


... and this is what happened when I put cashews and King Valley coriander pesto in the food processor! Tee hee!



Attempt 2: Here is a more pie-like pastry which I had fun wrapping up and pretending I was being all homey and hearty like Nigella (but without the kitchen food porn).






Attempt 3: A very Christmassy looking tart. Got a bit soggy with all the tomato juice but it made me feel all cheery and geometrical. I used chilli and tomato King Valley pesto with Dijon for the base and sprinkled some Parmazano on top.

Attempt 4: Using up some antipasto and piling on the pepper. King Valley watercress and cashew pesto, tomato paste and Dijon mustard for the base.