Signature · about 3 hours, plus 1 hour of dough chilling and 12 h of pickling the mustard · Serves 4
Smoked cheese royale tartlet with honey-glazed ham, charred leek and pickled mustard seeds
The root is the ham and cheese tart of Argentine cooking, a relative of the quiche lorraine: short pastry, a filling of egg, cream and cheeses, and cooked ham. This version keeps those flavors and changes the scale and textures, for an individual starter in which every component is noticeable.
The twist lies in the royale and in the way the ham is used. The filling is not a firm quiche but a royale: a cream of egg and smoked cheeses baked at low temperature, barely set and trembling, that cuts like a custard. The ham, instead of being mixed in, is cut into cubes and glazed in the pan with honey and vermouth, and set on top with a leek charred in a pan to blackened edges. Mustard seeds pickled in vinegar, which pop in the mouth, give the acidity the classic tart lacks.
Special equipment: 4 tartlet rings or molds of 10–11 cm; beans or weights for blind baking; kitchen thermometer; hand blender
Ingredients
Pickled mustard seeds
- 30 g yellow mustard seeds
- 60 ml apple cider vinegar
- 40 ml water
- 15 g sugar
- 2 g salt
Parmesan sablée dough
- 180 g 00 flour
- 20 g finely grated Parmesan
- 3 g fine salt
- 110 g cold butter, in cubes
- 1 egg yolk
- 25–35 ml ice water
- 1 egg white, for brushing
Smoked cheese royale
- 150 ml heavy cream
- 100 ml whole milk
- 80 g smoked provolone, grated
- 40 g Gruyère or semi-hard (Gouda-style) cheese, grated
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- Nutmeg, white pepper and salt
Glazed ham
- 200 g natural cooked ham in one piece, in 1.5 cm cubes
- 10 g butter
- 15 g honey
- 30 ml sweet red vermouth
Charred leek
- 2 slim leeks, white and light green part only
- 10 ml olive oil
- Flaky salt
Finishing
- 4 thin slices of cured ham
- Very finely cut chives
- Olive oil
Method
Pickled mustard seeds
- Hydration. Boil the vinegar with the water, sugar and salt, add the seeds and cook over minimal heat 10 minutes. Move them to a jar with their liquid and refrigerate 12 hours: they swell and turn tender, with a soft pop.
Parmesan sablée dough
- Sanding and bringing together. Mix the flour, Parmesan and salt and rub in the butter with your fingertips, or pulse in a food processor, to a coarse sand. Add the yolk and water little by little and bring together without kneading, only until a dough forms. Flatten it into a disc, wrap it and refrigerate 1 hour.
- Lining. Roll it to 3 mm and line the rings, pressing well into the angle of the base. Prick the bottom and refrigerate 30 minutes or until the next day.
- Blind baking. Cover each base with parchment paper and beans and bake at 180 °C (355 °F) for 15 minutes. Remove the weights, brush the bottom with egg white and bake 8–10 minutes more, until golden and dry. The white seals the dough so the royale does not wet it.
Smoked cheese royale
- Mixing. Heat the cream with the milk to 70 °C (158 °F), turn off the heat, add the cheeses and blend with the hand blender until melted and the mixture is smooth. Let cool 10 minutes and add the eggs, yolk, Dijon, nutmeg, pepper and salt, mixing without whisking so as not to make foam. Strain.
- Slow baking. Lower the oven to 140 °C (285 °F). Set the bases on a tray, pour in the royale to 2 mm from the edge and bake 25–30 minutes, until the edges are set and the center barely trembles when the tray is moved, like a flan, at 78–80 °C (172–176 °F) in the center. Let cool at room temperature 20 minutes: it finishes setting.
Glazed ham
- Glazing. Brown the ham cubes in the butter over medium heat 4–5 minutes, until they have toasted edges. Add the honey and vermouth and move 1–2 minutes, until the liquid reduces to a glossy glaze that coats them.
Charred leek
- Charring. Cut the leeks into 3 cm pieces and split them lengthwise. Set them cut side down in a very hot cast-iron pan with the oil and brown them 4–5 minutes, without moving them, until the cut is black at the edges; turn them, lower the heat, cover and cook 3–4 minutes more, until tender. Separate the layers into petals.
Finishing
- Cured ham crisps. Bake the slices between two parchment papers and two trays at 180 °C (355 °F) for 12–15 minutes, until dry and brittle.
The dish
Use dark or stone flat plates, at room temperature. Warm the tartlets 5 minutes in the oven at 120 °C (250 °F), unmold them and set each slightly off center. Arrange on the royale 5–6 cubes of glazed ham and 3–4 leek petals with the toasted side up, interspersed and without covering the whole surface. Scatter a teaspoon of drained pickled mustard between the ham and leek, and stand a piece of cured ham crisp upright. Finish with chives, a few drops of olive oil on the plate and a few flakes of salt on the leek. Final look: a golden crust with a neat edge, the smooth ivory royale, pink, glossy ham cubes, leek petals with black edges and the yellow pearls of the mustard.
Key points
- Bring the dough together without kneading, so it stays crumbly.
- Blind-bake and seal with egg white before the filling.
- Bake the royale at 140 °C (285 °F) and take it out while the center still trembles.
- Glaze the ham only until the liquid coats it, without burning the honey.
- Pickle the mustard at least 12 hours.
Pairing
An aged Chardonnay or a brut nature sparkling wine. Without alcohol, very cold non-alcoholic cider.
Notes
- Storage: the baked tartlets keep up to 1 day at 5 °C (41 °F) or below; warm them 8 minutes in the oven at 120 °C (250 °F) before assembling. The pickled mustard lasts 1 month in the refrigerator.