The MacPherson Diaries

Pear & Blue Cheese Tart

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This is such a lovely dish which looks impressive but is really very easy. I like to serve it with a lovely green salad on the side. If you don’t have Tamarillo and Plum Chutney you can use your favourite Chutney.

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Pear & Blue Cheese Tart

Ingredients

  • 2 sheets flaky puff pastry
  • 1 egg
  • 2 – 3 tablespoons Tamarillo & Plum Chutney
  • 3 Pears
  • 150 grams Blue Cheese
  • 2 sprigs of thyme optional
  • Salt & pepper
  • Garnish – flat leaf parsley

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
  2. Get out the baking tray that will go in the own, as your pastry base needs to fit on here.
  3. Sprinkle some flour on your bench, and overlap your pastry over each other by 1-2 cm in the middle and seal using a rolling pin.
  4. Slice a little pastry off the top to make it into a rectangle, and make sure it fits on your baking tray.
  5. Place your pastry onto your lined baking tray, and with a knife, score a border 1 cm in from the end. Don’t go right through the pastry. Prick the middle of the pastry 12-15 times with a fork so it does not puff up much when cooking.
  6. Take your egg and mix a little with a fork, with a pastry brush, brush the edges of the pastry.
  7. Bake for 10-20 mins until lightly golden on the edges (it is going back in the oven -with the filling in soon)
  8. While the pastry is cooking, slice your pears, I like to do mine in cheeks. To do this, slice the cheeks off the pear, cutting the core out, then slice the cheeks into slices around 3 mm (you don’t have to be fussy with the thickness, just a guideline).
  9. When the pastry comes out of the oven leave for a few minutes, then you are ready to assemble.
  10. Spread your Tamarillo & Plum Chutney over the base, leaving the edges bare.
  11. Take your thyme and sprinkle the leaves over the pear.
  12. Now the blue cheese, break into pieces, around a tablespoon size, and distribute over the tart.
  13. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and place in the oven to bake until golden. Around 15-20 minutes.
  14. Sprinkle with chopped flatleaf parsley and serve.
  15. Delicious with a big green salad.