Blue Cheese and Red Potato Tart

I woke up entirely too early this morning to the smell of brisket cooking away in the slow cooker. I gave up on sleep when my stomach wouldn't stop rumbling and I decided I should at least try the meat. Brisket in the morning? Yum! Being the responsible person that I am, I decided (perhaps against my lazier instincts) that I should go ahead and make the cheesecake layer of a cappuccino fudge cheesecake so that it has plenty of time to cool. Now that the cheesecake is safely in the oven, I believe it's time to finally update this blog. I've been somewhat behind this week thanks to a migraine wiping out two of my evenings (and sadly for both of us, I think one of the meals I made this week isn't good enough to post even if it was better reheated than the day of!).

When this recipe was first posted in June, I fell in love with the idea of it, but it was June which posed two large problems. 1. I was trying to savour all of the fresh summer fruits and vegetables, so cooking with ingredients that are easily found in winter just seemed like a waste. 2. There was no way I was turning on the oven for an hour. Luckily, the recipe kept and was worth the wait. I cheated and bought a pre-made tart shell, but the original has a recipe that you're welcome to try. For the rest, I followed the recipe faithfully, using a mandoline so that the potatoes were nicely sliced in 1/4" thick slices, a nice bleu chevre cheese, and fresh thyme that was sitting in the fridge.

Be warned, the smell from this lovely tart is almost better than the taste and the aroma has been known to carry up stairs, so be prepared to share or eat quickly.

One year ago: Chocolate Layer Cake (in preparation for a friend's baby shower!)

Blue Cheese and Red Potato Tart (from Smitten Kitchen, adapted from Gourmet)

Ingredients
1 Savory Tart Shell in a 9-inch tart pan and ready to fill
450g small red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 cup heavy cream
1 large egg yolk
115g blue cheese, crumbled (about 3/4 cup)
1 tablespoons finely chopped thyme
Fine sea salt for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a medium saucepan, cover potato slices with water by two inches. Simmer, uncovered, until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain. If the potatoes don’t seem very dry, pat them dry with towels.
3. Arrange potato slices, overlapping slightly, in concentric circles around the tart pan.
4. Sprinkle blue cheese over potatoes.
5. Whisk cream and egg yolk together and pour into tart shell, then sprinkle tart with herbs of your choice and salt (I may have added some cracked black pepper here as well).
6. Bake tart on a baking sheet until bubbling and golden brown, about 45 to 50 minutes.
7. Cool in pan on rack and serve warm or cold.