Leek and Pont-l'Évêque tart...

Pont-l'Évêque is a soft cows' milk cheese being first made around the 12th Century, probably the oldest Normandy cheese still in production today, If you haven't tried it, it is something like a Brie or Camembert. It comes in three sizes which is quite practical.

Leeks from our garden...

                           

Pastry of your choice for the base. 

(Mine being 300g (1 1/2 cup) flour, 170g (3/4 cup) butter, egg yolk and ice water to bind)

For the filling :

2 leeks, trimmed of the dark green parts and washed thoroughly, finely chopped
120 ml (1/2 cup) cream
120 ml (1/2 cup)  milk
4 eggs
170 g  (6 oz) cheese (Pont - l'Évêque, or Camembert or Brie) you may want to add more cheese!

Roll out the pastry, trim and chill.  Bake the base blind (with pastry weights or dried beans on baking paper)  at 200°c / 400°f for 20 minutes;  remove the weights and return for another 5 minutes or until brown as this will not colour any more in the second part of the cooking as we are just setting the eggs.

Cook the chopped leeks for about 5 minutes in a little olive oil, just to soften them.

Mix the cream and milk with the eggs. You could use just cream or milk also if you have a bigger mold, then you can add more custard mixture  (1 egg to 60 ml / 1/4 cup of milk or cream).

Place the leeks into the eggs and cream, season well with salt and black pepper. Pour the mixture in your base and place the sliced cheese in at an angle. You can eat the rind but you may prefer to remove it.

Bake for a further 35/40 minutes until set at 140°c/ 285°f

Eat preferably warm if you like oozing warm cheese!!

You could add 'extras' to this, but I really like the simplicity of this tart without the addition of meat or herbs. If you can't get the cheeses above then a strong flavoured hard cheese (grated) would be a very good alternative.