Power Of Pink Recipes 2020- Portabello Tartlets With Sunflower Seed Salsa

An appeal from breast cancer NGO, Reach for recovery. Help us uplift underprivileged survivors of breast cancer: Buy mushrooms in Pink Punnets this October.

Shirley Gottschick, Chairperson of Reach for Recovery’s Johannesburg branch is passionate about Reach for Recovery’s Ditto Prostheses Project, which provides breast prostheses to those who cannot afford them. “It is a life-changing gift of hope for a mastectomy patient as she can face life again looking ‘normal’ and feeling confident!

“And remember,” she says, “your generous purchase of 250g pink punnets of whole or sliced white button mushrooms at Pick n Pay during October, is the power behind our annual Power of Pink campaign. The funds raised give financial power to Reach for Recovery’s Ditto Prostheses Project to purchase silicone breast prostheses for women who can’t afford reconstructive surgery after the trauma of breast cancer.

SAMFA Portabello Tartlets with Sunflower Seed Salsa

(Adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Portobello mushroom tarts with pine nut and parsley salsa)

Makes 9 tartlets

Ingredients:

For the mushrooms:

Handful fresh thyme sprigs

Handful fresh rosemary sprigs

500ml warm vegetable stock

2 large cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced

1 large lemon, zest peeled off in long strips

4 small cinnamon sticks

30g unsalted butter

9 large portabello mushrooms

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the sunflower seed salsa

3 Tbsp olive oil

30g sunflower seeds, roughly chopped

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp lemon zest

20g parsley, roughly chopped

Salt and pepper, to taste

For the filling:

200g feta, finely crumbled

40g Parmesan, finely grated

2 Tbsp harissa paste

500g all-butter puff pastry

Method:

Preheat oven to 150˚C.

Put the first seven ingredients in a large roasting dish. Add the mushrooms and toss them in the liquid gently so they are well coated but do not break up. Make sure the mushrooms sit skin side down on top of the mixture and season with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and bake for 60 minutes, basting the mushrooms every 20 minutes or so. Remove from the oven, lift the mushrooms out of the liquid and set aside to cool.

For the salsa:

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Season well and set aside.

For the filling:

Combine the feta, parmesan and harissa in a medium bowl with ± 5 tablespoons of the mushroom poaching liquid, stir until smooth and spreadable, then set aside.

For the pastry:

Preheat oven to 200˚C.

Roll the puff pastry to a thickness of 5mm. Using a knife and a glass tumbler cut the pastry into discs just larger than the mushrooms. ± 10cm. Place the discs onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cut a border in each pastry circle about 2 cm in from the edge. Do not cut all the way through, you are just trying to create a little pastry border.

Bake the disks for 25-30 minutes until puffed up and cooked through.

Remove from the oven and press the centre down of each pastry disc leaving the border puffed up. Add a spoonful of harissa cheese filling to each tartlet. Top each one with a whole portobello mushroom and squash it down to spread the filling. Return tartlets to the oven for 5 minutes.

Serve tartlets on a platter with dollops of fresh salsa and a crack of black pepper.

For more info on mushrooms and breast cancer: www.mushroominfo.co.za