FAVOURITE THINGS NO. 6: PASTEIS-DE-NATA

PORTUGUESE CUSTARD TARTS
I  first discovered these delicious little confections at the old café at the Victoria & Albert Museum. A friend and I used to visit regularly for exhibitions or simply to drift around the galleries, taking in the treasure trove of decorative art from Medieval metalwork to swords of the Samurai. Our visit would always begin with coffee and custard tarts at the cafe. Imagine our disgruntlement, then, when the café was taken over by another franchise, tarted up (forgive the pun) and relocated in a different part of the museum. Despite offering a fair to middling patisserie counter, the Portuguese Custard Tarts were no more.

Fortunately, my disappointment was short-lived, as a local café, which I frequent with girlfriends for coffee after school drop off (for those friends with kids still at primary school) and before the gym, now stocks them. They are just as delicious as the ones at the V&A, and a perfect small cake to have with a big mug of coffee.

I wanted to make these lovely tarts but every recipe I found seemed overly complicated, and required far too many eggs for my liking. Then Lovable Jamie did his '30-Minute Meals' series and included a quick recipe in an episode featuring that other Portuguese classic Piri-Piri Chicken. I'm not sure one could comfortable make the chicken, the tarts and the smashed sweet potato with Feta in 30 minutes: you would need to be very well-organised, but I did have a go and was pleased with the results. Find the recipe for the tarts, together with the rest of the recipes, via this link



Comments

  1. Mmm... I was very lucky, and first enjoyed these little tarts in Lisbon quite a few years ago. I was overjoyed when they started popping up in savvy London cafes a couple of years later! Nothing has been invented yet that goes better with a cup of coffee midway through a day of shopping.

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