The Deceptive Tart

I feel like I have been out of action for a while. It hasn’t been long since my last post and it’s not like I haven’t cooked anything in the last few days. But, the rut of daily routine, a lot of work and other mental preoccupations have slowly set in this inertia, which has prevented me from blogging. This was one of those days- crammed with dilemma, which of course reflected in my cooking. But then again, after a day like this, what I really needed is to switch off momentarily and treat myself to a stint in the kitchen. In fact I think the dish is representative of my psychological state of affairs.

Since dinner was prepared already, I decided to strike the sweet tooth. On the day preceding the navratras (life and the kitchen being devoid of any ills- alcohol, eggs and all forms of meat for 7 complete days), clearly, I wasn’t going to bake anything with eggs. Simultaneously, the recurring telecast of Nigella’s grasshopper’s pie was still playing in my mind. My indecisiveness soon disappeared. Ak said, that this was the day of taking a crack at something new, so why not this too! And voila’, did I need any more inspiration? I didn’t think so.

Here is a vegetarian take on the deceiving grasshopper’s pie; devious because it is not to be trusted and not really, the grasshopper it claims to be. While it seems to be full of a suspicious, alcoholic, rich and creamy core, it really isn’t. It is in fact, as good as it gets. Also, like, I was explaining to Ak, I didn’t make an entire Pie. In a household of 3 members, Pie’s are complicated/ cumbersome to eat and maintain. A large Pie dish is nice and pretty to serve- when there is a larger audience, so only for the sake of logistics and convenience of eating over the next couple of days; I made tarts and a smallish pie (with half the quantity of Nigella’s version).

The Base:

150 g Bourbon Biscuits

25 g Butter

25g dark chocolate

The Filling:

75 ml full cream milk

3 Tsp Gelatin

175 ml double cream (The original recipe calls for mini-marshmallows and milk- I didn’t have enough marshmallows and hence used, traditional milk and gelatin, and added a little more cream instead)

3 Tbsp Blue Curacao + 1 Tsp Castor Sugar (To substitute for the alcohol and the colouring)

2 Tbsp Coffee + 1 Tsp water + 1 Tsp Castor Sugar ( I wanted to try the coffee flavour)

1 Tsp vanilla essence

Chocolate Chips/ crumbled bourbon biscuit or any other sprinkles for topping

Crush the Biscuits and mix together with the butter and chocolate in a processor to get a crumbly, slightly sticky mixture. Press this into mini tart tins or any other pie dish to make a smooth base and ‘knuckle-press’ or with the back of a spoon. Keep in the fridge to chill and let it set.

Heat the milk on low heat. Simultaneously, dissolve the gelatin in 2 tsp of water and add to milk. Slowly heat until the milk starts to foam. One this happens, take it off and stir slowly to cool and make a smooth mixture. Whisk the cream until soft peaks are formed and add to the milk mixture. Add vanilla essence.

Divide the mixture into 2- one with the blue Curacao and the other with the coffee syrup.

Pour this into the set bases and sprinkle with toppings as desired. Let it chill in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours, or even better, overnight to set. 

Someday soon, I plan to cook the real thing- with a lot of real dubious stuff. All I hope until then, is that this is not deemed to be the confused pie.