Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Muffaletta Tartlets with Olive Salad, Cajun Chips, & Hibiscus Lavender Lemonade for the May 5 Star Picnic Makeover

I am not a fan of the sort of picnic where people have to sit on the  ground getting leg cramps and wishing there was a place to wash their sticky hands, all the while having to swat away nasty stinging bugs and crawling things.  No, thanks! I prefer my nature to be cultivated. I like civilation and cities and sinks and flushing toilets. But that's not to say that I don't love picnic food. Quite the contrary!

So when I found out that the challenge for the May 5-Star Makeover cooking group - led as ever by the lovely and talented  Natasha of 5 Star Foodie and the prolific Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! - was to come up with a a gourmet version of picnic food, I immediately knew the direction I would take, if not the specific dishes I would make. I would create a lovely picnic that one would want to eat at a comfy table, in a garden, mere steps away from hot and cold running water.  And that's exactly how Poppa Trix and I enjoyed this little feast. (You can have a picnic in your own backyard, right?)

To me, sandwiches are perfect picnic food, in that they are self contained bundles of goodness that need no silverware or special tools to eat. And one of my favorite sandwiches of all time is the New Orleans muffaletta, a masterpiece of Italian deli meats, cheese, olive salad,  and round Italian bread.

Here's a 2007 shot of Poppa Trix and yours truly,  enjoying a muffaletta at Central Grocery in NOLA ... some might say we're enjoying our sandwiches a little too much:
Scary!
Given that this is a gourmet makeover, I couldn't just make a sandwich and call it a day, and so the muffaletta tartlet was born:
Like its sandwich counterpart, it's easy to eat and self-contained ... only it's cuter. You know how I'm really honest (sometimes brutally so) when things don't come out the way I wanted? Well,  these babies came out exactly as I had imagined. They were seriously perfect, in my humble opinion. Sundays are so much better when things go my way!

Putting it together is easy as pie (sorry, couldn't help it), and if you make extra crust you can throw together a full-size tart, as I did, and enjoy slices for lunch throughout the week. I began with a basic whole wheat olive oil crust - I doubled the recipe from Olive and Zucchini, and weighed all of my ingredients for accuracy. Doubling the recipe actually left me with enough crust for a future tart, so I froze the extra.  Once you get the crust into your tartlet molds, place them in the fridge to rest for about 30 minutes. The olive oil crust doesn't get mushy with a wet filling, so there's no need for blind baking.

For the filling (just for the tartlets) you'll need 2 oz. each of: mortadella, capicola, Genoa salami, and provolone. At the deli, have them cut the meat and cheese into blocks so that you can cut them into a small dice when you get home. (And make sure to get extra for your big boy tart!)  In addition, slice a big handful of green pimiento-stuffed olives. Evenly divide the ingredients among your tartlet shells:
Next, beat 4 eggs with 1/2 cup of heavy cream and ladle just enough into each tartlet to just cover the ingredients:
(You'll have some left over, and I added another egg and a splash more cream to this for the big tart.) The meats and the olives are pretty salty, so whatever you do, don't add extra salt! Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds - just like the muffaletta bread - and bake in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes, until puffy, brown, and bubbly:

You can eat them hot or, in true picnic style, at room temperature.

But no muffaletta is complete without a proper olive salad - that magical combination of hand-smashed green olives, giardiniera, capers, garlic, olive oil, oregano, and other good things. I followed (more or less) the proportions set out at Nola Cuisine. Note that you should make this at least 24 hours ahead of time to allow the flavors to marry.  This made a perfect accompaniment for my tartlets:
All sandwiches need chips, of course, so, in a nod to Zapp's Louisiana Chips, I made some using Cajun seasoning. Believe it or not, you can actually make crunchy chips in the microwave - the slices must be quite thin and placed on parchment paper to absorb excess moisture, and you must keep an eye on them because they can go from perfect to burnt in seconds. You don't need to use oil, so you save a few calories. I realize that using the microwave may not be a gourmet technique in keeping with this challenge, but given my adorable tartlets I hope you'll forgive me!

For my picnic potable, I made a hibiscus lavender lemonade, inspired by a homemade hibiscus martini that Poppa and I had at Commander's Palace on our first anniversary trip to New Orleans. (If you ever go, you must have a drink made by Jenni the bartender - she is a mixologist genius!) First I made a simple syrup of equal parts sugar and water (3/4 cup) in which  I steeped 3 tbsp dried hibiscus and 1 tbsp culinary lavender. Meanwhile, I squeezed one cup of lemon juice. When the simple syrup cooled, I combined it with the lemon juice and added 6 cups of water. This was delicious,  but it needed some gin  ... which of course I added!

You can check out everyone's picnic on Friday when Natasha and Lazaro post a round up on their  blogs. Until then, happy picnicking!





30 comments:

  1. Hi Trix...wonderful post and recipes as always..... ! I won't be near D.C. ...I'm going to stay just few days in LA after Mexico and Guatemala trip.... but trust me I know I'm going to come back to my beloved East Coast!!! Hugs, Flavia

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  2. Hi Trix!
    YAY for civilized picnicing!
    Muffaletta tartlets are a fabulous idea!
    Adore your green glass plates...
    LL

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  3. Beautiful! This is ALMOST too pretty to eat!!!

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  4. Guess we were on the tart wavelength. Love the flavors at work here. Mortadella, capicola, Genoa salami, and provolone, wow.

    Thanks for taking one of my favorite sandwiches to the next level.

    Bravo!

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  5. I would love to have an authentic muffaletta in New Orleans! Love the pictures of you guys lol. This is a smart recreation of such a delicious sandwich. Nice job!

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  6. Muffaletta in tart form is really a stroke of genius. Love the pics of both of you enjoying your sandwiches...we are sandwich people too, lol!

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  7. How wonderful! I would love to sink my teeth into this!

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  8. Such an amazing picnic Trix. I havebeen to New Orleans and had the muffuletta (twice) and that olive salad is ti freaking die for. I would devour your pick-nick. The lemonade...OMG...I have all the stuff and have guests tonight, so making it. Vodka should be good too!

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  9. I feel you ... picnics and camping sound wonderful in theory... in practice it's a whole different story.
    Muffaletta? in tarts?! Beautiful!

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  10. All of these sound great! And I'd love a sip of that lemonade right now (it's 95 degrees today!)

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  11. What a terrific makeover of a muffaletta (which I adore) into tartlets! Love it, really an awesome creation!

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  12. I am so with you on the civilized outdoor eating...your backyard is a great place as far as I am concerned. And the only requirements for a picnic are the imagination :) Your Muffaletta Tartlets are so delightful and with these extras, just a perfect picnic food feast!

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  13. This tartlet version is a stroke of shear genius! Kudos!

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  14. whoa... that's some chompers! ... oh yeah, Central does make a good muffaletta, the original ya know, and homemade Zapps, wow... hey, this is a cool picnic offering....
    of course, if ya'll were in my neck of the woods, back along a creekbed of cool gushing water and under canopy of shady hardwoods, with camp fire for grilling and ice-chests full of cold happy cocktails, I think I could change your mind .... hey, a privy is always just a dense bush away...

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  15. I like being in the middle of the woods with great food... honest... bugs and all. Of course once of those drinks would make it perfect! I am loving the small size muffaletta.. perfect for a picnic. Guess meat pies are on all our minds these days!

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  16. Everything is wonderful, i need to pack a bag and find some place to go for picnic now.

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  17. What fabulous picnic food! Wonderful transformation of the muffaletta sandwich to those delicious mini-tarts! Marvelous!

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  18. What fabulous picnic food! Wonderful transformation of the muffaletta sandwich to those delicious mini-tarts! Marvelous!

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  19. Gorgeous tarts and I love how you converted the sandwich into these beauties. Wonderful picnic food.

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  20. I am with you when it comes to picnics; a table and a chair or picnic bench is required...I think I gave up throwing down a blanket after age 10. I may change my mind if I knew these little tartlets would be served on a blanket, however. These look so fun!

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  21. Love that pic of Poppa with his mouth wide open ready to receive that big, fat, muffaletta!! It really does remind me of the fun one can have on a picnic. Are you sure you don't like the outdoors for picnics? Wanna know a secret? I am not really partial to olives. Can you recommend a substitution? I was thinking instead of olives I would do spinach and instead of mortadella and salami I would instead opt for pancetta. I can't wait to try your recipe!

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  22. My kind of picnic would be somewhere by the river, on a thick blanket with cushions with one of those electric fans blowing out a fine mist in our direction (we'd bring our own generator, of course), and maybe an electric fly-zapper! Oh, and a portable sink with flowing water...haha, too Dreamworks-like? Maybe, but like you, I like my home comforts.

    Your utmost love for New Orleans shines through in your gourmet picnic fare. While your mufaletta tart looks admirable and terribly clever, I've got to try me those microwave chips!

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  23. It's been years since I had an authentic muffaletta in NOLA, but your tartlets have all the great flavors of this iconic sandwich! And hibiscus lavender lemonade sounds so refreshing for any sort of picnic - civilized or otherwise!

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  24. This is a star and stunning idea. I love tarts to death. I want tarts as my last meal. You really did the job of fancying up the classic and making it better. The lemonade is to die for and yes, it has to be spiked. hand clap here for you.

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  25. this presentation is fabulous I love the pictures, can I please have some? I need to taste these right now! lol hope all is well miss ya girlie!

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  26. what a great picnic! and i love your candor in needing a cultivated outdoor experience! classic! i'm the complete opposite but it's okay. not many ppl like all the ickiness. love the lemonade, too.

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  27. Great looking tartlet! And love that hibiscus drink as well.

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  28. Muffuletta tartlets, you say? You crazy genius. Goes perfectly with your fancypants picnic.. no spilling bits of olive out the arse end of your sandwich onto your pants and the ground around you, attracting ants and the like :D

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  29. Love all the colors you have on your tartlets! And that drink sounds so delicious. Perfect picnic dish!

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  30. Wow, that is picnicking in style! Brilliant re-invention of the muffaletta (of which I have to say I've only read and not eaten). I also want some of that olive salad right now!

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