Potato Tart – Harvest Dinner Party with some help from Local Growers

by Michelle

One of the things that I love most about living in the city is rarely having to drive – I walk to shop.

Last Thursday, despite my aversion to driving, I hopped in my truck and headed to Hampton in search of ‘local food’. All summer, I had been hearing about Dave and his ‘Produce Packs’. Dave owns Kredl’s Corner Market. The vegetables were easy. What I was hoping to find was cheese.

I was not disappointed. I found a wonderful selection from Armadale Farms. I chose a white ‘old’ cheddar and what turned out to be a young parmesan. I also picked up a quart of their buttermilk. While I was perusing the beautiful veggies, I was hijacked by, none other than, Dave himself. He had over heard me telling one of his staff that I was being interviewed later that day by Paul Castle.

“Would you like to see my farm?”

Needless to say, five minutes later we were heading towards his vegetable garden. I am going to stop writing about Dave now because I would like to do an entire post on my visit to his farm – very post worthy!

So by noon, I had procured the vegetables, fruit and dairy products that I needed for my ‘local’ dinner party. I still needed my meat…

I had wanted to do a slow roasted pork shoulder so I contacted Chef Jesse Vergen. He did not have any local pork available but was going to be picking up a bunch of fresh local chicken. I immediately abandoned the roast pork for ‘spatchcocked chicken’  We tried to hook up but it did not work out so that part of my dinner menu was not local. Not local if you are using the hundred- mile- radius rule. I went back to my original pork shoulder recipe with pork from Nova Scotia.

MENU

A Trio of Phyllo Cups

  Imported Chevre topped with House- made Raspberry and Jalepeno Jelly

Imported Fois Gras Mousse with House-made High Bush Cranberry Jelly

Imported Triple Creme Brie with House-made Green Tomato Mincemeat

 Pork Shoulder Slow Roasted with  Root Vegetables, Fennel Seed and White Wine

Potato Tart

Tuscan Style Baked Beans

Steamed Broccoli

Mustard Pickles 

Apple Pie with Lemon Thyme

Potato Tart

serves 8

preheat oven 350*F

5 large russet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1 medium onion, peeled and thinly sliced

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

3 ounces mozzarella, shredded

2 ounces old cheddar, shredded

2 ounces parmesan, grated

2 ounces cold butter, cut in tiny bits

1/2 cup whipping cream

Heavily butter gratin dish then dust with grated parmesan – save any leftover for the top.

Make three layers of potato, onion, garlic, mozza, cheddar and butter – season each layer with salt and pepper.

Finish with the cheese, any leftover parmesan and whipping cream.

Cover with aluminium and place in preheated oven.

Bake for 1 hour then remove cover – bake an additional 15 minutes or until browned and bubbly .

Make sure the potatoes are fork tender.

So my dinner party ended up being mostly local with a few imported embellishments. I’ll post more recipes later this week.

Thanks for reading.