Mushroom and Pepper Jack Tart Recipe
Long
Island Mushroom company is the brainchild of two Rhode Island natives who grew
up in the same town, became High School Sweethearts, parted ways and re-kindled
their romance thirty-two years later.
Jane Maguire and John Quigley are their names and Long Island Mushroom
is their second act-–both personally and professionally. The couple have taken to mushroom farming in a
big way. Their 6500 square foot growing
space on the North Fork is packed with glorious Left to Right: Shiitakes, Blue Oyster and
Miitake Mushrooms from
Long Island Mushroom
Shiitakes, Miitakes and Blue
Oyster mushrooms, the perfect combination for creating “wild” mushroom dishes
without foraging for them on your own.
You don’t even have to clean them.
That’s because they are grown without soil on pressed paper and sawdust
logs that they couple brings in from ‘the mushroom capital of the US’, Kennett
Square Pennsylvania. They’re grown under
strict temperature controls and in very high humidity. Each log produces ‘blooms’ of mushrooms that
are harvested simply by being snapped off.
Each log produces 3 crops of mushrooms in a 48 day period before being
replaced. With Jane manning sales and
John keeping the farm growing, Long Island Mushroom has found its way into the
top restaurant kitchens on the East End, including “The Topping Rose House” in
Bridgehampton, Tom Collichio’s wildly successful foray into the Hamptons.
Jane
Maguire’s ‘service with a smile’ is apparent in the couple’s dedication to
their customers. Given 24 hours notice,
Jane and John will deliver their freshly picked products anywhere on the East
End. You simply call 631-876-5401 to
order. Home cooks will also find Long
Island Mushroom Saturdays at both the Greenport Farmers’ Market and the Shelter Island Farmers' Market where you can buy their
mushrooms in beautifully packaged quarts.
What Shiitakes the couple doesn’t sell fresh goes into their
state-of-the-art dessicator which removes the water content and concentrates
the flavor. A pound of fresh mushrooms
becomes 3.3 oz dried. The intense in the dried version is released by soaking
the dried mushrooms in warm water.
While Fresh mushrooms keep well for up to 10 days, the dried mushrooms
will keep indefinitely is a cool, dry pantry.
Chef Suzanne GoinI
was thrilled to have these mushrooms to make into a tart, the origins of which
I owe to Los Angeles’ Chef Suzanne Goin.
Actually I used two of her recipes to make my own. Chef Goin published one recipe for a Wild
Mushroom and Gruyere Tart in Bon Appetit in 2003. Then in her cookbook “Sunday
Suppers at Lucques” (Knopf 2005), a second recipe appeared incorporating young
onions. Both start with a layer of
creamy ricotta and sour cream and then are topped with mushrooms and
cheese. This is my take on a combination
of the two. If you haven’t availed yourself of the pleasures of frozen puffed
pastry, now is the time to.
Two brands,
Pepperidge Farm and Dufour are easy to find in the freezer case. I keep them on hand because they make life so
easy. You just take them out of the
freezer, defrost for 40 minutes and roll out the sheet. One sheet cuts up into
4 pieces of tart. To me this is so much
easier to deal with than pizza crust and you can use them almost
interchangeably. Chef Goin’s original
recipes called for Gruyere. I opted for
the jalapeno spice of Pepper Jack but you can choose Gruyere or any cheese you
fancy. You can make the mushroom
topping well in advance and assemble the dish later. The puff pastry does better when it is
chilled. So what I do is to assemble the
tart, then stick it back in the refrigerator while the oven heats to 425
degrees. Once the tart goes in the hot
oven, you just bake for 25 minutes, rotating the baking sheet at the half way
mark and when it’s golden on top and the puff pastry has risen, check the
bottom to make sure it too is golden. If
you underbake it, it will be soggy.
Recipe for Mushroom and Pepper Jack Tart adapted from Suzanne
Goin.
Serves 4. Active Time 20 minutes. Total time 1 hr.
- 1/2 cup
- whole-milk ricotta cheese
- 2 teaspoons
- plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup crème
- fraîche or sour cream
- For the
- Mushroom Mixture:
- 1 1/2 pounds
- assorted fresh wild mushrooms (such as chanterelle, oyster, or stemmed
- shiitake), sliced
- 2 teaspoons
- fresh thyme leaves
- 1 bunch green
- onions, thinly sliced on diagonal (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 1 sheet
- frozen puff pastry (half of 17.3-ounce package), thawed
- 1 large egg
- yolk, beaten to blend with 1 teaspoon water (for glaze)
- 4 ounces
- thinly sliced Pepper Jack cheese, torn into pieces.
- In
- a small bowl, whisk ricotta until smooth, about 1 minute. Add 1 yolk and 2
- teaspoons oil and whisk again. Transfer ricotta mixture to bowl; fold in sour
- cream or crème fraîche.
- To
- make the mushroom filling:
- Heat
- remaining 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add
- mushrooms and sauté 7 minutes. Mix in thyme. Season to taste with salt and
- pepper. Add butter and sauté until mushrooms are tender, about 4 minutes
- longer. Mix in green onions.
- Preheat
- oven to 425 °F. Roll out puff pastry on lightly floured surface to 13x9-inch
- rectangle. Fold up ¼ inch of puff pastry to form a sides. Brush that 1/4-inch
- dough border with glaze. Transfer dough to ungreased heavy baking sheet. Spread
- ricotta mixture over dough, inside border. Top with half of mushrooms, half the
cheese, then remaining mushrooms and cheese.
Bake tart until crust is golden
and cheese melts, checking to make sure bottom is cook through. About 25 minutes.