Strawberry flan

Martinborough’s Prodigal Daughter Gourmet Lodge owner and chef, Rachel Priestley shares memories and her recipe for a delectable Strawberry Flan. By Rachel Priestley. Photo by Lucia Zanmonti. Summer 2019/2020, Wairarapa Lifestyle Magazine

When we were young our mother would, from time to time host wonderful dinner parties. She would take me to Lambton Quay cheese shopping with her to help her choose from a selection of imported cheeses for the cheese course. Most of the time she would prepare a French apple, grape or strawberry flan for the sweet course, depending on the season. Said flan was big enough to fill a whole shelf in the refrigerator, and it was put towards the top to keep curious fingers out of the custard before guests arrived.

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The preparation seemed to take half a day, but now that I make it myself, I know it wasn’t that long at all. It just took all of my attention for every mouth-watering second of her preparation. My sister and I were enthralled, watching the process of our mother making the pastry, blind-baking the pastry shell, filling it with rice (which seemed rather bizarre) then making the pastry cream and letting that cool. This was followed by putting it all together, pouring the cold custard into the sweet pastry shell and, hands glistening with apricot jam glaze, filling it with fruit. Each slice of apple or each individual grape or strawberry would be painstakingly hand-painted and dripping with hot apricot jam before being pushed into the thick custard layer of the tart that sat in the crisp crumbly sweet pastry base.

We would watch as our mother glazed the rest of the flan, covering the custard with a divine apricot jam and kirsch glaze. Then the flan was put into the fridge. And we were fed and sent to bed.

My sister and I would lie awake at night wondering if there was any flan left, listening to laughter from our living room from the dinner guests. In the morning we would sneak into the kitchen to open the fridge and, on tippee toes, inspect for any leftover flan. If there were leftovers our wait was over.

Strawberry Flan

Growing up in a house full of books, there was an entire bookshelf devoted to cookbooks. The cookbook authors were many on that shelf but the ones I particularly recall were Julia Child, Elizabeth David, Claudia Roden, and Robert Carrier. This particular flan came from Robert Carrier’s 1963 cookbook Great Dishes of the World. Here is his recipe, slightly adapted.

Pastry Base

INGREDIENTS

250g salted butter

175g icing sugar

2 eggs

400g flour

1 pinch of salt

METHOD

1. Cream together the butter and sugar, add the eggs, one by one.

2. Add the sieved flour and salt and mix to a dough. Do not overmix at this stage as the dough will fall apart while rolling.

3. Make the dough into a ball, cover in cling film and rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before rolling out. Blind bake with rice then follow the recipe below.

French Pastry Cream

INGREDIENTS

125g caster sugar

3 tablespoons cornflour

375ml milk

5 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 teaspoons Moy Hall Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc

500g - 750g strawberries (grapes or sliced apples)

2 tablespoons butter

METHOD

1. Combine sugar and cornflour in the top of a double saucepan. Stir in milk and cook over direct heat, stirring all the time, until mixture comes to the boil. Boil for 1 minute.

2. Beat yolks slightly, add a little hot milk mixture and pour into milk and sugar mixture, stirring. Cook, stirring, over a pan of hot but not boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes. Strain and cool.

3. Add vanilla essence and Moy Hall Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc.

4. Cover with waxed paper and chill well. Half-fill baked pastry shell with this mixture.

Apricot Glaze

INGREDIENTS

6 tablespoons apricot jam

3 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon Moy Hall Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc

METHOD

Heat apricot jam and water in small saucepan, stirring constantly, until mixture melts. Strain and add dessert wine. Keep warm until ready to glaze strawberries and tart.

Serve the tart with a nice crisp cold glass of Moy Hall Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc. Enjoy!