Farmer’s markets are always an adventure – you never know what you might find while wandering the stalls. But finding something new and unusual is where the real adventure begins. Once you’ve bought your new treasure, you need to figure out what on earth you are going to do with it. Such was the case for us after picking up a goose egg at Green City Market. Neither of us had ever seen one, let alone cooked with one, so it had to come home. But what to make with it?
Like most modern humans, we turned to Google for help… and didn’t find much beyond making custard or scrambled eggs. But then something caught our eye: this recipe from The Seasonal Table for a goose egg tart with wild greens. Wild garlic and stinging nettles weren’t in season at the time – but it was a starting point. We went looking for dandelion greens and came up empty, but spotted something else instead: snow pea leaves. Neither of us were even aware at the time that snow pea leaves were edible, so naturally we had to try them (and now they are one of our favorite greens – they taste just like snow peas!). We found some nice sunchokes, too, so those were in for sure. We stopped at a store on the way home to fill in a few things we couldn’t get at the market, and added some uncured turkey bacon to our ingredient list. And some asparagus (because Chele suggests adding asparagus almost as often as I suggest mushrooms).
To save on time, we used a premade frozen cauliflower crust (these Caulipower crusts are quite good, and handy to keep around for quick meals). If you have a favorite recipe for making the crust yourself, by all means go ahead. This would also give you the option of forming a rim on your crust, and baking the egg mixture in it directly, rather than starting on the stove top to set the egg enough to stay put on a flat crust.
We also topped ours with some fresh sunflower microgreens, but didn’t think to add them until after we had snapped some photos and started eating. We highly recommend them for this recipe, but it is still plenty tasty without them.
Goose Egg Cauliflower-crust Tart with Sunchokes, Turkey Bacon, and Snow Pea Leaves
Ingredients
- 2 strips turkey bacon
- 1 goose egg
- ¼ cup flax milk (or dairy milk, or your favorite non-dairy substitute)
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- ½ cup snow pea leaves ,chopped
- ¼ cup asparagus tips ,chopped
- 4-5 small sunchokes ,thinly sliced
- ground sumac
- sunflower microgreens (optional)
- 1 cauliflower crust (frozen premade, or make your favorite crust recipe ahead of time)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°
- Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook turkey bacon until slightly crispy. Remove from heat, cut into small pieces, and set aside.
- Crack the goose egg into a mixing bowl (the shell is quite thick, so expect to use quite a bit more force than you would for a chicken egg). Add milk, salt and pepper. Whisk together until fully blended. Stir in bacon pieces, snow pea leaves, and asparagus.
- Heat a 10" skillet over medium heat (Be sure to use a non-stick pan that you are certain will release food easily. Coat with a small amount of oil, if necessary). Pour in egg mixture, and cook until egg just begins to set. Remove from heat.
- Set your cauliflower crust on a baking sheet. Carefully slide the egg mixture out of the skillet and lay on top of the crust (this is why you will want to make sure you used a reliably non-stick pan!). Arrange sunchoke slices on top of egg mixture. Sprinkle with ground sumac.
- Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes, or until crust is crispy, egg is fully set, and sunchokes have started to turn golden. (This time assumes you are using a frozen premade crust. This may vary if you are making your own).
- Top with fresh sunflower microgreens (if desired). Cut into pieces and serve.
Notes
- Goose eggs are far from a common find. We have encountered them a few times at the farmer’s market, primarily in late winter and early spring. They have a much richer, stronger flavor than chicken eggs. They are also quite large: you will need 5 or 6 chicken eggs if you want to substitute them for the goose egg in this recipe.
- Snow pea leaves aren’t particularly common, either, but we have been encountering them occasionally at Tony’s Fresh Market here in the Chicago area. They appear to be used in some Asian cuisines, so try looking for them at Asian markets (or just save them from your garden when you are done harvesting all of your pea pods).
