organic cooking method style - day two!

It's day two of our organic cooking, method style. These recipes are taken from the great time everyone had during method's Detox Seattle campaign! Check this post for yesterday's recipe; as well as this post for cocktail recipes, and more information on Detox Seattle! So without further ado, today's recipe:

Goat Cheese Tarts with Bing Cherry-Lavender Compote
and Pickled Red Onion
Tart Dough (Makes 4 7″ tarts)
2 cups All Purpose Flour
8 ounces Butter, Unsalted (2 sticks), cold — cut into 1/2 inch cubes
½ tsp Salt
6 tbsp Ice Water — may need a few more tablespoons
1 each Egg — beat well with a tablespoon of water
½ cup Bing Cherries, dried
3 branches Thyme
1 tsp Lavender, dried
½ cup Red wine
¼ each Red onion — sliced into paper thin slices
2 tbsp Red wine vinegar
¼ tsp Salt
4 ounces Goat Cheese
2 tbsp Water
1 each Egg
2 tablespoons Butter, Unsalted
1 each Leek, small — sliced thin, white and light green parts only

Instructions
Pickled Red Onions: Mix the red onion with the red wine vinegar and salt. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, mixing occasionally until it turns a bright fuscia. Set aside.

Make the dough: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put the flour, butter and salt into a food processor. Pulse about 30 times. Check the consistency of the dough. You want to see the butter in small pieces (the size of small peas or large grains of rice). When you have reached that consistency, dump the contents into a wide bowl.

Add 6 tablespoons of ice water to the bowl and with one hand, with fingers in a “claw” shape, mix the dough. Squeeze dough in your hands. If it holds together for a moment, before crumbling, it’s ready. If it’s completely dry and does not hold together for a moment, add a tiny bit more water. Mix again with your hand. You do not want to add too much water. Lay out some plastic wrap. Turn the contents out onto the plastic wrap (it’s desirable that it is not in one big ball, but still a bit crumbly) Pull up the sides of the plastic wrap, using it to help form a disc out of the pastry. Cut the disc into 2 or 4 equal pieces (depending on how big you want the tarts to be). Put each ball in a piece of plastic wrap and form into rough discs. Chill completely, for at least 15 minutes.

Roll out each piece so that the dough is 1/8” thin. You will need to dust the counter and the dough with flour to keep it from sticking. Use a plate as a guide and cut a circle around it. Crimp the edges of the tart, poke the bottom all over with the tines of a fork and lay out on a sheet pan. Brush the edges with the egg wash. Chill for 15 minutes. Bake tarts in the middle of the oven for 15-20 minutes until nicely browned. You may want to rotate the pans midway through the cooking, top to bottom, front to back. Lift the tart carefully and make sure the bottom is cooked. It should be light brown. Let cool.

Make the filling and assemble tarts: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium size bowl, mix goat cheese, water and egg until it is a smooth consistency. Melt butter in a sauté pan and add leeks. Saute until tender but don’t brown.Spread onto tarts over the cheese and bake the tarts in a 350 degree oven for 5-7 minutes until it sets up. Out of the oven, sprinkle the pickled red onion over the tarts. Slice each one into 8 pieces and serve right away.

This sounds way yummy, and much more complimentary to some great method influenced cocktails! Enjoy!