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Our team at Coast & Country Cottages has worked hard to put together the South Devon Cookbook, a freely downloadable guide to the best of South Devon cuisine. At its heart are 21 recipes from local chefs like Mitch Tonks and Jane Baxter alongside top regional brands including Riverford Organic Farmers, the South Devon Chilli Farm, the Well Hung Meat Company and Tideford Organics.

Now that the cookbook is available to download, all that remains is to enjoy its mouth-watering contents. The proof of the pudding – or in this case, the vegetable tart – is in the eating, so three of us got together to try out one of the featured recipes from our cookbook.

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We can’t resist a little bit of competition so we decided on a cook-off! The recipe is for a vegetarian dish provided by Tideford Organics. It looked delicious and seemed simple enough, making it the perfect candidate for our challenge.

Get the full recipe from the South Devon Cookbook here.

In need of a stylish and spacious kitchen that would be fitting for this delicious dish, we settled on Driftwood (sleeps 8), a stunning detached property with elevated views over Salcombe and the Kingsbridge Estuary.

driftwood-kitchen

The participants

The three team members to take part were:

Emily

Emily doesn’t consider herself much of a cook, confessing that she’s still largely dependent on the same meals she relied on as a student, with beans on toast and jacket potatoes still featuring heavily in her diet!

Lucy

As a cook, Lucy likes to improvise, with crème fraîche and Greek yoghurt two of her favourite go-to ingredients for rustled up meals. Being a busy mum – not to mention a puppy owner – she likes to make lots of stir fries and other tasty meals that don’t take an age to prepare.

Ross

Ross enjoys experimenting with and adding to recipes until they bear little resemblance to the original dish. He enjoys baking most of all, especially cakes, scones and most things involving pastry. What he lacks in finesse, he makes up with enthusiasm!

Making Tideford’s tasty tart

With our Tideford Organics Fresh Miso Paste, ready-to-roll puff pastry and all these fresh vegetables, we rolled up our sleeves and got started.

ingredients

The cooking began…

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The vegetables were cut, glazed with the miso paste and put into the oven to roast while we prepared our puff pastry.

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The filling was added to the pastry bases and soon they were all ready for the oven.

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Each had its own little twist:

  • Lucy’s (top in the image below) was topped with feta cheese and rosemary.
  • Emily’s (middle) was embellished with chunks of mozzarella.
  • Ross’ (bottom) contained feta and fennel.

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The results

When the tarts came out of the oven, we were all pleased with our efforts – no need for any plan B’s for dinner that evening!

three-participants

From left to right, here are Emily’s, Ross’ and Lucy’s tarts.

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And now from top to bottom, you can see Emily’s, Ross’ and Lucy’s.

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So, which is most mouth-watering to you? Vote in our poll!

Download your free copy of the South Devon cookbook for 21 recipes that showcase the best South Devon produce.