Recipes & Food Styling

Titanic menus were filled with Spring ingredients! 

I made Asparagus and Spring Pea Tarts for our Titanic interpretive program today at the Merrill Historical Society. Spring ingredients were all over the Titanic menus, just like seasonal foods are celebrated today. 

These lovely tarts are a great way to showcase spring vegetables, and they are a cinch to make. 

To make several dozen of these, I took a new approach to apply the egg white to the pastry. To make the process go quicker, I dipped each piece of pastry into egg white in a shallow dish, rather than apply egg white to each piece with a brush.

Here is the recipe:    

Asparagus and Spring Pea Tarts

3 17.3 ounce containers of ready-to-bake puff pastry sheets

2 large egg whites

2 cups frozen or fresh peas

2 cups chopped fresh asparagus

1 cup chopped red bell pepper

1/4 cup honey

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 

1/2 teaspoon crushed multi-color peppercorns

1/4 teaspoon pink Himalayan sea salt

1 cup herbal cream cheese

Preheat the over to 275 degrees. 

Cut the pastry dough into 2×4-inch rectangles. Place the egg whites in a shallow container. Dip one side of each of the pastry rectangles into the egg whites. 

Arrange the pastry rectangles on a 9×12 inch baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 

In a large mixing bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Stir a few times until all of the vegetables are coated with the dressing. 

Place 1 tablespoon of the spring vegetables in the center of each of the pastry rectangles. 

Place 2 to 3 dabs of cream cheese on the top of each of the tarts.  

Bake in the oven until the edges and tops are golden brown and lightly crispy, about 35 to 40 minutes.  

Best if served warm.