leek and mushroom tarts

this one's simple. i had leeks, and mushrooms, and thought they'd do well in a tart together. so i made some savoury crust and threw one together.

about halfway through the prep i decided that apples would make an excellent addition, so i did half a muffin tin of leek and mushroom and half a tin of leek, mushroom, and apple. they are equally yummy but definitely different.

one decent-sized leek, sliced fine and sauteed in butter
about seven or eight small white mushrooms (or equivalent), ditto
apple, chunked (about half an large apple for a dozen mini tartes)
two eggs
some milk (somewhere between a half a cup and a cup - less milk means more tart-like, more milk means more quiche-like)
salt
freshly ground pepper
(cayenne - opted not to try it this time, but next time...)
shredded emmental (swiss), about a cup to a cup and a half

make your crusts
mix veggies (and fruit)
lay layers of:
emmental
veggies
emmental
beat eggs, milk, spices, pour over tartes
bake at 180 (about 375) 'til done

pumpkin pasties

sambusak dough + filling ohsoloosely adopted from here http://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/pumpkinpie.php + two lines of instruction from here http://www.britta.com/hogwarts/recipes.html#pasties = excellent pasties

this one was another rather epic recipe. started out with the pumpkin, which i prepared about a fortnight ago in my ghetto-rigged steamer and canned. then on thursday i made crust (with slightly salted butter, so definitely more of a savoury crust) for leek and mushroom tarts (next post) and kept the extra.
i was supposed to make these yesterday, instead of an apple pie. but i went to northumberland instead. so today, i skipped the farmers market and baked.
mixed up the filling, going a bit heavy on the eggs and milk, to create a fluffy filling, and baked it in - you guessed it - a muffin tin! i didn't have a strainer for the pumpkin, so the fillings turned out a bit watery on bottom, but a few minutes in the grill fixed that nicely.

then thawed the crust (our fridge has frequent fantasies of being a freezer, complete with an occasional need to ice vegetables to the back wall) and wrapped about 3/4 of each filling in crust, then used the separated bits to fill more. a half a batch of crust made about a dozen pasties, so i had a pumpkin sandwich for lunch and put a couple fillings in the fridge. oh! exciting development of the day, i figured out how to make the rolled pasty crust edge. (yes, i am slow)

so all-in-all, time consuming but easy and delicious.