1-2-1 Quiche/Tart - Pear and Blue Cheese and more

[a_boleyn]

WARNING: Picture heavy post but I'm putting most under cutsBefore I continue, I'm curious. How much regular/all purpose flour can you get for $20? I mean, if you buy it in 'normal' amounts for your family

Comments

[anonymous]

In France you can always choose: 100% butter or other (I suppose margarine or other strange fats...). I once made a mistake and bought not the butter one.... it was really bad. Tasted like supermarket bought tart!
Your recipe is not for puff pastry (or maybe I'm wrong with translation; the French "pâte feuilletée" is translated as puff pastry and both the ingredients and method are different; it's very difficult and long to prepare).
I make a similar tart pastry to yours, but only for sweet tarts and it is thinner and doesn't contain eggs. I think your crust is more North American/British style than French. In France pastry crust is usually thinner.
In France and Switzerland organic food has been very popular for several years, so organic products are not always more expensive (though of course they are more expensive than the "budget" cheapest stuff or supermarket own brands). I suppose less the organic food is "elite food", less it's expensive... In both countries more and more organic food choice is available (especially vegetables and fruits are important!).

[a_boleyn]

The pie crust recipe I used is not a 'puff pastry' one but it's a very tender one and ends up quite flaky which is where my reference to it BEING a puff pastry comes from. You could use a puff pastry for a pear and blue cheese tart based on some of the presentations I saw while googling the term. Organic is often a term used to justify a high price for an item though I don't know that the seller is always honest in the item being truly 'organic'.

[anonymous]

You mean people are not honest in Canada? I suppose some farmers cheat everywhere, but there are controls (at least here) and when you buy salads with bugs or snails, vegetables that wilt quicker, ugly fruits... you know it's healthier anyway. In Europe "organic" label is controlled by special authorities. Organic animals are fed only organic food, no antibiotics, no hormones and they are raised in liberty (not in cages or stuffed in space where they can hardly move). In the case of animals I have never heard about cheating because it would be very difficult. Nowadays the majority of my food is organic, the total food budget higher, so if I thought it's only fancy expensive food, I wouldn't spend more.
Puff pastry is flaky because it's folded many times, not because it's just flaky (usually - or always - it doesn't contain eggs), this is why I said this cannot be compared to puff pastry and there is a huge difference between puff pastry and any other homemade or bought pastry crust, this is why I buy puff pastry. I don't know anyone who makes puff pastry at home. Even famous confectioners in France admit they don't do it from the scratch at home because it's long and fussy.

[a_boleyn]

I don't speak from personal experience with mislabelling of foods just from reading articles in the paper or online and it is done. Sometimes the organic labelling is an excuse for exaggerated prices it seems.

As to 'puff pastry', I know that it's time consuming and I buy it too if I want the multi-layered effect of the pastry in things like vol au vents for a creamy chicken dish or the sheets used in making napoleons. You don't achieve anything like that with the pastry in this recipe but it IS puffy/flaky with all that lard and butter so that's good enough for me.