Signature or Upgrade? Green Swiss Chard Vegetable Tart

This week an artist friend refused to help me to hang art works because my house was too messy (books and paper, not enough storage), too studentlike on account of a bric à brac of furniture, in short, not up to par with the beautiful and luminous home it is. So the art plan is deferred until Spring, and I have to do basic storage homework.

His passage made me more conscious about the fact that I have been living as if I had to pack my bags anytime soon. I also don't have a complete set of tableware to dine in style. Honestly, I haven't truly been bothered.

It also questioned for me what I'm doing in these pages.

If there's one dish I had triumphantly wanted to declare my signature dish, it's the vegetable tart, which I easily roll our from scratch. But isn't my cooking a bit too simple and crude...? Isn't it time to move up a notch...? More importantly, can I spend the time to become a true amateur cook?

The answer is: no, and definitely not right now. This is a blog mostly about simple and healthy food. Becoming an amateur cordon bleu would have to be a very very slow process, which would begin with mastering the basics. But this artist's critical passage has sent ripple waves through my existence. A great gift to close a year.

Green Swiss Chard Vegetable Tart

Courtesy of my friends at Yggdrasil - a didactic place devoted to permaculture and green living, who shared their pie and veggie tart recipes with me.

Yggdrasil's Basic Pie Recipe

200 g sieved wheat flour
100 g cold butter
pinch of salt
1 dl cold water
oat flakes

Combine the ingredients and form a ball, let this ball rest 30' in the fridge, better still, an entire night.

Preheat the oven at 200 °C.

Cover the dough roller with flour, roll out the dough to 2 cm thickness (a bit less than 1'').

Oil the tart form, put the dough in place, and and sprinkle oat flakes on the bottom. This insulates the dough.

Pour in your filling, then fold the ends of the dough over the filling.

Bake for 30' in a 200°C oven (I baked at 180 °C)

My filling:
Braised green Swiss chard leaves combined with 150 g soft goat cheese, 1 egg, and 1 teaspoon of Hungarian paprika powder.