Fava, Feta, And Mint Tart With Lemon
- Fava, Feta, and Mint Tart with Lemon
- 4 4-inch squares butter based puff pastry, thawed (either store bought or quick whole wheat puff pastry - recipe below)
- 1 1/2 pounds fresh fava beans (in-pod weight)
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
- juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- chive flowers for garnish (optional)
- Quick Whole Wheat Puff Pastry (enough for 6, 4-inch squares) - optional, see headnote
- 1 cup (2 sticks), cold, unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch chunks
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup ice water
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
- Bring a large pot of water to boil. Split fava pods lengthwise and slide your finger along the inside to coax the beans into a bowl. Add beans to boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes (longer for larger beans); lift out with a slotted spoon into a strainer and rinse to cool. Pierce each fava bean's outer skin with your thumbnail and transfer inner beans to a small bowl, discarding skin. Set aside.
- Arrange squares of puff pastry on prepared baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
- While the pastry squares bake, add fava beans, feta, chives, mint, thyme, and lemon zest and juice to the bowl of a food processor; pulse 4 or 5 times until mixture is combined and fava beans are unevenly chopped. Add salt and pepper to taste and pulse once more. (Alternately, you can mix this all together in a medium bowl, using the back of a fork to crush fava beans to your desired size.)
- Once the pastry squares have baked for 20 minutes, remove from the oven and spoon 1/4 of the fava mixture on top of each pastry square. Return to oven and bake 15 minutes more. Transfer tarts to a platter or individual plates. Serve sprinkled with fresh chive flowers if desired.
- Freeze the butter chunks for about 10 minutes before making the dough.
- Place flour and kosher salt into the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add about 1/3 of the butter to the flour and pulse until the butter is in small crumbs. Add remaining butter and pulse 3 or 4 times, leaving visible chunks of butter. Add ice water and pulse until dough begins to clump - don't overprocess or your pastry will be tough.
- Turn the lumpy, uneven dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Shape dough into a rectangle. Use a board scraper or your hands to create relatively square edges. Lightly flour a rolling pin and the top of dough rectangle. Roll back and forth to create a 12-inch by 16-inch rectangle.
- Fold one edge of the 12-inch side to the center of the rectangle and repeat with the opposite edge, leaving a 4-inch by 16-inch rectangle. Use your hands and dough scraper to roll dough up like a jelly roll. Roll 'jelly roll' out into a 4-inch by 16-inch rectangle. Roll it up again; wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or freeze for later use.
- Note - After the hour has passed, I like to roll the dough out into a 4-inch by 16-inch rectangle and cut it into 6, 4-inch squares. I stack each square with a layer of parchment paper in between and freeze, then thaw in the refrigerator when I'm ready to use them. They thaw in just a couple of hours.
butter, fava beans, fresh chives, fresh mint, thyme, lemon, salt, chive flowers, whole wheat puff pastry, butter, whole wheat pastry flour, kosher salt, water
Taken from food52.com/recipes/18073-fava-feta-and-mint-tart-with-lemon (may not work)