Broccoli Flan for Breakfast, and the Creation of Lemon Curd Tarts

This morning, I was up early (say, around 4 am), so I took out both two small bunches of broccoli and the head of cauliflower.  I steamed both, then arranged the broccoli spears and slices (of stalk) into a glass 9" pie pan (Pyrex).  I shredded some cheddar cheese (white, from Sprouts) and sprinkled it over the broccoli.  I then beat four jumbo eggs (probably close to a half dozen "large" eggs), added enough heavy cream to make the custard equal to about 3 cups total, then added a few seasonings: freshly ground white pepper, paprika, rubbed sage, and some freshly shaved nutmeg and a sprinkling of celery seeds.  I poured the custard over everything, making sure I poured over the cheese and the broccoli all over, so that all of it had a light coating when I put it into the toaster oven, which I preheated to 350F.  It baked for about forty-five minutes.  When I took it out, the to was golden brown and slightly crusty (the cheese having floated to the top of the custard).  I allowed it to cool to room temperature. then cut a couple wedges out of it for breakfast when Kat finally emerged from her room.  The cauliflower, which is now cooked and cooled, will be ready to be mashed and/or roasted at around 350F, with butter lightly brushed onto it.

I cut unsalted butter (half pound) into an equal weight of unbleached a-p flour.  The mixture appeared quite crumbly when I added the grated zest of two small blood oranges.  I then froze the batter while I juiced the oranges and cooled the juice in the fridge.  Using about a half cup of juice, I formed a batter ball which I returned to the fridge for at least an hour and a half.

I preheated the oven (the tart pan doesn't fit into the toaster oven) to 400F, and rolled out the batter into a thickness between a 16th and an 8th of an inch, out of which I cut circles with a glass.  I pressed the batter circles into a tart pan we found in Bladen (outside Newcastle) during our visit that straddled the end of last year and the beginning of this year. I baked the first tray of the rough puff pastry without any filling;  the second batch had the lemon curd already scooped into them.  After taking the tarts out of the oven, I topped each with a few fresh blueberries.  They looked (and tasted) quite pleasant.   During the course of the afternoon, I snacked on about another half dozen tarts (yikes!).  Kat had more flan during the afternoon, I made a small batch (just a single cup, or a half pint) of mixed lemon curd (standard and Meyer), which I canned afterwards.  I've gotten into the habit of canning curds once I make them, so that they'll keep, unrefrigerated, until I'm ready to use them.

I have a bunch of ripening bananas that I want to use to make some soft cookies, and a net of clementines that I might peel to simply eat, though I'm tempted to turn them into another baked good...  I'll let you know if I make anything with them.  Also, this week, we'll receive our CSA share, so there'll be more ingredients to create into delicious food!