Beef, Fig and Pecan Pie

1 x 445g pack, defrosted Sour Cream Shortcrust Pastry (I use Careme Pastry)

Olive oil for the pan frying (I used local olive oil from Toolunka Creek Olives)

500g beef mince

1 leek diced

2 cloves garlic sliced roughly

2 cm of fresh turmeric cut finely

1 bunch of silverbeet cut up roughly

1 handful of purslane leaves (optional)

½ cup of our All Natural Pecans

½ cup of our semi sun dried figs diced (I used a mix of Black Genoa's and White Smyrna's in this dish)

1 egg beaten for egg wash

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Preheat oven to 200c fan-forced (220c non-fan).

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place the pastry sheet on a baking tray and keep in fridge while you prepare the filling.

Preheat a large sauté pan, once hot add a glug of olive oil then the beef mince. Leave the mince to brown stirring occasionally, once browned (allow 5 to 10 minutes) remove from pan into a flat tray to allow to cool.

Add some more olive oil to the pan reduce heat to medium, and cook the leek for 5 minutes, then add garlic, turmeric, silverbeet, purslane (if using) stir occasionally and allow the vegetables to gently cook for 10 minutes.

Transfer the vegetables to a large plate or tray to allow to cool. Once both the meat and veggie fillings are cool mix them together.

Place the pastry on baking tray. Spoon the filling on top of the pastry, in a row down the middle, leaving enough border on each side so you can wrap the edges over.  Slowly enclose the filling with the pastry border on each side, pinching the sides as you go along (see the photo).

Brush the pie with eggwash.

Bake for 10 minutes at 200c fan-forced (220c non-fan), then reduce to 180c fan-forced (200c non-fan) and continue to bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with tomato and quince chutney, natural yogurt and a big bowl of greens.

 Serves 6

This is a super simple dish and with some very small ingredients swaps you can also make a Fig, Mushroom and Cheese Galette. I have done a very quick video on my instagram with the steps in the caption, see here.

 Full credit to Food 52 for this fantastic recipe. I have rewritten it here with my changes. This is super charged and very lush.

Ingredients

2 cups grated zucchini

1 very ripe banana

1/4 cup Black Genoa sun dried figs

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I use Four Leaf Milling 85% light flour)

1/4 cup cacao powder

3/4 tspn baking soda

1/2 tspn baking powder

1 tspn sea salt

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

1 1/4 cups dark chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup natural yoghurt

1 large egg

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 tspn vanilla extract

Method

Preheat an oven to 175° C. Grease and line a loaf pan and set it aside.

Place the grated zucchini on a baking tray lined with a lint-free kitchen towel, then place another kitchen towel on top, patting it down gently to absorb any additional moisture. Set aside.

In a large bowl, use a fork to whisk together the flour, cacao, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt. Stir in the chopped pecans and 1 cup of the dark chocolate.

In a separate large bowl, whisk together the butter and yoghurt or use an electric mixer (this is what I did). Add in the egg, light brown sugar, and vanilla, then whisk the liquid ingredients until smooth and uniform. Gently fold in the zucchini, banana and figs.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, then sprinkle the top of the batter with the remaining 1/4 cup of chopped dark chocolate.

Bake, rotating at least once half way through baking, until a skewer inserted into the bread comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes.

Let cool in the loaf pan for 15 - 20 minutes before inverting out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling completely. When cool store in an air tight container.

Now I'm not totally sure I can still call it a Hummingbird cake if there is no pineapple. Probably not but its still delicious and this is my recipe for our annual ode to this family favourite.

I really have only just stumbled on the flavour combinations of quince, ginger and pecan but I'm so glad I have.

Quince, Pecan and Ginger frangipane tart

Makes one 22cm tart or approx. 12 tartlets (6.5cms in diameter). 

Serves 8- 12 (if you have made the smaller tartlets)

Ingredients

Quince butter layer (note this needs to be prepped the day before making the tart):

500g quinces, cut in half but still with skin and core in. If you don’t have fresh quince you can also use approximately 200g of our sun dried Smyrna quince, the raw sugar and lemon below are then not required.

200g raw sugar

One lemon cut in half

Water to cover the quinces

Note: You can also add other spices to your taste eg start anise, cinnamon, vanilla pod. I generally don’t. This layer is an adaptation from Amy Minichiello, you can check out more from her website at www.aminikitchen.com

Pastry:

1 packet of Careme pastry vanilla sweet shortcrust pastry or if you want to make it yourself I use a Brisee pastry recipe from Phillippa’s ‘Home Baking’ cook book.

Pecan and Ginger frangipane layer:

125g unsalted butter

125g raw caster sugar

1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger

2 eggs

125g All Natural Pecans ground in the food processor

2 tablespoons cornflour

2 tablespoons candied ginger or if you can’t get this, I used ginger marmalade

This layer is an adaptation of Careme Pastry’s Poached Pear & Ginger Pie recipe

Method
Quince butter: This needs to be started the day before making the tart. In a large saucepan put the halved quinces and lemon, sugar (and spices if you are adding them) and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to poach the quinces. This needs at least three hours (sometimes up to five hours depending on your quinces) until the quinces go a deep red/mauve colour. Allow the quince to cool, preferably overnight and then remove the quinces from the poaching liquid. Reserve the poaching liquid, this can be reduced and used as a sauce on pancakes or roast pork.

Take care to scoop the core of each half of each quince out (this is not pleasant to eat) and discard. Put all the remaining cooked quince in the food processor and blitz until you have a mousse-like butter consistency. Set aside until the rest of the pie components are finished.

Alternatively if you don’t have fresh quince or pressed for time you can use our sun dried quince and soak for 20 minutes in warm water. Then simply blitz this in the food processor until you have a paste/butter consistency. Set aside until the rest of the pie components are finished.

Pastry: Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced).  Lightly grease and dust with flour the base of a round 22cm pie dish or in my case I prepped up 12 tartlets tins. I used ones with removable bases.

On a floured bench, dust both sides of the pastry sheet with a little flour.  Cut a 24cm circle from the pastry and line the pie plate with pastry so it sits over the edge of plate, place in refrigerator to chill. I kept all the leftover pastry to make some mini pecan crumbles, the recipe is at the end.

If you are using Careme Pastry blind bake the pastry case. Firstly line the pastry case with baking paper. Cover paper with baking weights, rice or dried beans for example or a dried pulse (eg. chickpeas, fill weights to top of shell to help support the sides and weigh the base down during cooking.

Place tart tin on a baking tray in preheated oven, bake for 20 minutes. Remove tart tin from oven, check pastry is just golden before removing beans and baking paper. Return tart tin to oven and cook for a further 10 minutes or until golden. Remove tart from oven, allow to cool.

If you are handmaking your pastry follow your recipe instructions to prepare and blind bake.

Frangipane:

Firstly make the pecan meal by blitzing the pecans in the food processor- really you can stop at whatever consistency you want the meal, I like a little bit of crunch so I did’t make it too fine.

In a stand mixer beat the butter, sugar and ground ginger together until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until each has been incorporated. Stir in the ground pecans, cornflour, ginger powder and ginger marmalade, mixing until combined.

Tart Assembly:

Once the pastry case(s) is cool start with spooning in a layer of the quince butter evenly. Then follow with the frangipane. If you are feeling fancy you can also top the tart with some latticed pastry.

Place the tart on a baking tray in put in your preheated oven Cook for 40 minutes at 180°C (160°C  fan-forced) or until pastry is golden and frangipane is cooked through (e.g. just firm to the touch when lightly pressed in the centre). If the edges of the tart look like they are browning too quickly, cover with baking paper or putting an edge of foil around the tart and continue baking until the frangipane is cooked.

Allow to cool in the tin before removing. Serve with ice cream, cream or yoghurt whatever tickles your fancy.

Bite sized Pecan crumbles

If you have leftover pastry, quince butter and/or frangipane I did go alittle over the top and make some bite sized quince and pecan crumbles. Complete decadence

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Simply use a mini cupcake tray and butter/flour each cavity. Cut rounds of your leftover pastry and line the tray with pastry. Add a dollop of quince butter and frangipane. I finished off with a teaspoon of a very quick to prepare pecan crumble. Here is my recipe for this layer:

1 tbspn brown sugar

2/3 cup plain flour

100g rolled oats 

1 tspn ground cinnamon

120g unsalted butter softened

80g of All Natural Pecans cut up roughly into small pieces

Mix together the brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon and pecans in a mixing bowl. Break the softened butter into pieces and add to the flour mixture. Incorporate using the tips of your fingers until mixed like course breadcrumbs. Then add a small spoonful of the crumble mix onto of the frangipane layer. Bake in the oven preheated (as above) for 20-30 minutes, until the crumble is golden brown.

If you do have any leftover quince butter and/or crumble after all this it can be stored in the fridge until you make your next dessert.

Allow the crumbles to cool slightly and take a brilliant bite- these are delicious and its hard to stop at one.

Happy Baking