If Light Feels Right, One Size Will Do
On a hot day, there is indeed a place for a light lunch. Do not think meagerness, though. Think elegance.
By: Nigella Lawson*
I have never tried to hide my predilection for the larger portion: while some people see a cup as half full and others see it as half empty, I like my cup overflowing.
This is not just greed, though I am not unduly concerned about charges of gluttony. On the whole, I feel that a table is not laid properly unless the end product is a groaning board: I like plenty, gorgeous abundance and generous hospitality.
But there are times when I can see the pleasure in restraint. On a hot day, there is indeed a place for a light lunch. Do not think meagerness, though. Think elegance: a meal that celebrates the enjoyment of eating, without making one feel unseasonably weighed down with food.
And if normally I shy away from the cute, individually portioned dish, I am more than happy to go out of culinary character and offer up small crab tartlets, one fragrant, golden, untopped pie per person, to be eaten alongside a lightly dressed crisp mixed salad. The tartlets need just egg yolks, and because I hate waste, I use the discarded whites to make a simple dessert, little meringue cookies spiked with sliced almonds and made chewy with chopped dried fruit.
These peach chewies (if it is easier for you to lay your hands on dried apricots, use these) are best made before the tarts, so just separate the eggs, and leave the yolks in a plastic-wrapped bowl in the fridge until you need them.
If you want to make the chewies a day in advance, by all means do so, but you are best advised to stir the buttermilk into the yolks and let this light, slightly sharp savory custard mix sit tightly covered and refrigerated until you start cooking the tarts.
One reason these tartlets make me happy to ignore my self-imposed rules against the individual portion (for me, generally it seems more the province of the restaurant than the home) is that it makes such culinary sense. Everything can be lighter: the dough can be more tenderly friable when it doesn't have to stretch to line a large-sized tin, and the crab mixture needs nothing more than egg and buttermilk to bind it. Better still, you don't have to roll out the dough.
This is the easiest mixture: just flour and fine cornmeal and a little bit of sugar, pulsed together with butter and shortening in the processor until crumbly, then bound with a small amount of ice water. When you have your ball of dough, tear or cut off a sixth and press it into a four-inch fluted, loose-bottomed flan tin.
When all the pans are so effortlessly lined, stick them in the freezer for 10 minutes or so. It will not matter if you leave them there for longer. The point is, freezing seems to stop the dough from shrinking as it bakes, and helps it keep its shape.
When you want to get cooking, put a baking sheet in the oven as it heats up (this will make sure the dough cooks properly all the way through) and just add fresh ginger and dried Chinese five-spice powder, some finely sliced scallions and the white crab meat to the yolks and buttermilk. The buttermilk's slight tang is a perfect counterpoint to the sweetness of the seafood.
There is just nothing hard about this, and yet there is something about the finished, perfect little tartlets that look as if you have pulled out all the stops.
The only possibly daunting part about the whole exercise is slipping the tartlets out of their tins, and even that is made snag-free by letting them sit in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes or so to cool a little. Then sit one of the baby flan tins on, say, a small spice or other jar and the fluted ring will just fall off.
You can then place the tart on a plate, slipping a spatula between the tin base and the bottom of the tart to remove it. Do not get alarmed about this: Although the crust is fabulously light, it is not prohibitively delicate.
I like to make a salad, which, in some respects, offers up a contrast to the sweet seafood filling. It uses predominantly peppery watercress and deliciously bitter Belgian endive, but its dressing is flavored with ginger and honey.
This salad, I have to say, would also be very good with some sweet, juicy, coral shrimp tossed in, instead of the tarts. You do not need to feel constrained by the salad leaves I've chosen: there's not a green salad that wouldn't taste good with these tarts.
On a hot summer's day, you probably need nothing more than the peach chewies and a glass of iced coffee as dessert, but I am never going to be the person who dissuades you from elegant excess: if the idea of a bowl of cool, creamy ice cream alongside the meringue cookies appeals, who am I to stop you?
CRAB TARTLETS
Time: 1 hour
For the dough:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal or polenta
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 pound (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 tablespoon chilled solid vegetable shortening
For the filling:
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 egg yolks
1 scallion, trimmed and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
2 cups loosely packed white crab meat.
1. Prepare dough: In a food processor, combine 1 cup flour, cornmeal, sugar and salt. Process to blend. Add butter and shortening, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 2 tablespoons ice water and pulse again until dough starts to come together in a ball.
2. Heat oven to 400 degrees; place a baking sheet on oven rack. Divide dough into six equal portions. With floured fingers press each portion into a 4 1/2-inch fluted tartlet pan ( 3/4-inch deep) with removable bottom. Line pan evenly along bottom and sides. Place in freezer while making filling.
3. Prepare filling: In a medium bowl, combine buttermilk and egg yolks. Whisk until blended. Add scallions, ginger and five-spice powder, and mix well. Add crab meat and stir gently until blended. Divide mixture evenly among tart pans.
4. Place tarts on baking sheet in oven. Bake until lightly browned, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating sheet once to ensure even browning. Remove from heat and place on a rack just until cool enough to handle.
5. To serve, remove sides from tart pans and slide tarts off their bases using a metal spatula or thin-bladed knife. Place on plates and serve warm.
Yield: 6 servings.
PEACH CHEWIES
Time: 45 minutes
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 cup chopped dried peaches or dried apricots
1 cup sliced almonds
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
1. Heat oven to 300 degrees. Using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, beat egg whites at medium speed until foamy and beginning to hold their shape. Slowly add sugar to make a meringue that is thick and glossy and holds soft peaks.
2. In another bowl, combine peaches, almonds, cornstarch and cinnamon. Mix well, and fold into meringue.
3. Spoon 1 1/2- to 2-inch dollops of meringue mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or other nonstick liner. Bake until lightly browned and crisp on outside, 35 to 40 minutes.
Yield: 20 chewies.
BELGIAN ENDIVE AND
WATERCRESS SALAD
Time: 10 minutes
3 medium heads Belgian endive, leaves separated, larger ones torn in two
2 heads baby romaine lettuce or 1 regular head, tough outer leaves removed and larger leaves torn in half
3 ounces watercress, torn into pieces
1 1/2 cups snow peas, trimmed
Finely grated zest of 1 lime
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons peanut oil
Salt.
1. In a large salad bowl, combine the endive, romaine, watercress and snow peas. Sprinkle with the lime zest.
2. In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, ginger and honey. Whisk in the peanut oil until it is fully blended. Season with salt to taste.
3. Dress salad with the lime juice mixture, working it through gently by hand to coat all leaves and snow peas evenly. Serve.
Yield: 6 servings.
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