playing around

more fun in the kitchen, and success! - a tart. This thing is so good, we could sell it on the street. It was really rewarding to make this this morning; I've had so much reading lately that I feel like my creative urges are just screaming for satisfaction. Even a little bit of culinary experimentation seemed to satisfy them for today.

crust is 1 1/4 c. flour, 3/4 c. cornmeal, and 3 Tbl. sugar, with 10 Tbl butter cut into it, a little salt, and ice-cold water to hold together. I put it in the shell, pricked it, weighted it, and baked at 400 for 15 min with the weights, then 8 min without.

fruit: about 12 figs (stems cut off) and a half-pint of blueberries. I sauteed 1 Tbl butter in a saute pan, threw in the fruit and about 1 Tbl. sugar and stirred it up, reduced heat to low. I added about 1/2 c. brandy and simmered it for another minute before increasing the heat to high (to keep the fruit from releasing their juices and cooking down too far). Once it had thickened and most of teh juices had congealed, I turned the heat off.

I placed the figs in the crust, then poured over a sweet potato custard. Custard was made of 1 medium sweet potato (skin removed and flesh crushed with a fork), about 1/2- 3/4 c. half n half, 1 egg, 1/4 c. sugar, and 1 Tbl Mexican vanilla (all blended together on high for a minute or two).

I used two spoons to lightly scatter the blueberries and congealed fruit juices over the top of the custard. Then back into the oven (at 350 this time) for 35 min.

Chill, eat. yum.