Making Mushroom tart with walnut spelt pastry and Birgit's Stone Soup

My sister 'B' came to visit from East Sussex last Thursday evening. Staying over for a 'girlie' (I use the term loosely) day and a couple of nights while A was off on a course in London. The first evening, brother-in-law M treated us all to a delicious early anniversary supper by the river here before heading off home after dropping B off. 

The next day we  drove to Abingdon village  on the way spotting a plant stall in the District Nurse/KHS members' drive  and had to stop and fill up our baskets. We yarn shopped at Masons haberdashers (not the prettiest  website but  really helpful staff a great range of yarns, fabrics and all kinds of interesting crafty things)... B bought yarn for a crochet class she's running, and I bought a dress pattern.  We had green tea/coffee at Throwing Buns  named after an old local tradition and had to have toasted teacakes when we discovered they made them because they reminded us of mum. She would always have a pot of tea and a toasted teacake...Aunt D too, come to think of it.

Back home to forage for stone soup lunch and a rest to reserve our energy for a late night museum grand tour. It's really good fun you can go around the museum by torchlight bumping into shrunken heads and listening to live music. But we got too settled into talking and watching  a couple of episodes of The Edible Garden and the latest Sherlock Holmes film which was very exciting and I highly recommend watching, and decided to stay at home instead.

After supper of Mushroom Tart with Walnut Spelt Pastry,  and Sprouting Broccoli with salad leaves.

I used the Sharpham Park organic spelt flour and made the pastry with the recipe on the packet that you can link to the website for it here.  I adapted the filling omitting the cream, lemon and herbs but using four eggs and two egg yolks. I sauteed the shallots in olive and didn't add any extra butter, doubling the garlic cloves two four and used cheddar and not parmesan cheese...just because it was requested.  

I was a little concerned that the pastry may be very hard.  It is substantial but not too hard. This is a really tasty flan that is delicious hot or cold. I served it with steamed sprouting broccoli and spinach and watercress leaves with a simple balsamic vinegar/ honey/grainy Dijon mustard dressing.

B asked for the recipe so it must be good...!

I was sad to see her go as I dropped her at the train station next morning...just like I had H the week before but we've made exciting plans for the future... and I've got to drop her plants off soon...she couldn't manage to carry them back home...what with all that wool...