With One Stone

I've been meaning to write up this recipe for a little while now, although with a fair amount of sleep deprivation I haven't quite been able to think of anything near witty enough to warrant posting.

Well, as I'm sure most of you are aware, we are now in the month of May which happens to be National Osteoporosis Awareness Month. Susan of Food Blogga has graciously decided to hold her very own blogging event to contribute to raised awareness of this disease. As with many other common diseases, most people are aware of the name and not much else. Do yourself, your friends and family a favour by taking a few minutes to find out the risk factors and likelihood of having osteoporosis.

This month's food event coined 'Beautiful Bones', encourages participants to create recipes centred around the use of calcium-rich foods including dairy, fruit, nuts, legumes, seafood, vegies and so forth. I've combined both dairy and nuts to make a pistachio cream tart with PX ice cream.

The tart was inspired by a recipe found in Casa Moro which I found fairly disappointing to be completely honest (the description that comes to mind is compact nut slurry). My version is more similar to a frangipane however and I find that the best method involves the food processor as it doesn't aerate the mix as much as an electric mixer and simply yields a better result overall. You could of course substitute pistachios for virtually any other kind of peeled nut. I think chestnuts would be at the top of my list to try if I were to make this tart again.

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Pedro Ximenez Ice Cream

150 g Pedro Ximenez (cheapish brand, eg. Nectar)
375 g milk
250 g egg yolks
175 g castor sugar
500 g cream

Bring PX to the boil and carefully flambe to remove alcohol (excess alcohol prevents freezing).

Combine PX with milk then bring to a simmer.

Cream the yolks and sugar in a large bowl.

Temper the egg mix by slowly pouring in a little hot milk at a time and whisking continuously.

Place the bowl over a bain-marie and (whilst scraping the bottom continuously with a spatula in a figure 8) very slowly bring it to 83ºC.

Remove from heat, pour in the cream (lowers temp to prevent any further cooking without the need for an ice bath) and strain through a fine chinois.

Refrigerate until cold then churn.

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Tart Pastry

125 g unsalted butter, chopped
250 g flour
160 g castor sugar
1 orange, zest
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 eggwhite

In a large bowl, combine everything except eggs and rub together with your fingertips.

Cut in the eggs and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll and line a tart base then freeze until hard.

Blind bake at 180ºC.

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Pistachio Cream

130 g almonds
250 g pistachios
50 g castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 orange, zest
50 g butter

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blitz until it becomes a smooth paste.

Set aside.

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Tart Filling

180 g unsalted butter, chopped
90 g castor sugar
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 egg
2 egg yolks
40 g flour

Combine butter, sugar and cardamom in a food processor and work until it becomes smooth.

Add the eggs and pistachio paste and blitz until well combined.

Transfer to a large bowl and fold in the flour.

Fill the tart base with pistachio cream and bake at 180ºC for approximately 25 minutes or until set.

Serve immediately with a side of PX ice cream.