Lunch with friends: pumpkin tarts + rockmelon granita

Three Novocastrian friends popped over for an impromptu lunch last Saturday. Husband had taken the car to work, so I had to rely on the contents of my fridge. Fortunately the Farmer’s Direct weekly order that I’d put on hold for six weeks while on “holiday” because I’m too cowardly to cancel it, had kicked back in the day before.

Here’s what I came up with …

Pumpkin & feta tarts

1/4 medium jap pumpkin

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion

200-250 grams crumbled feta cheese

handful chopped fresh mint

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon zaatar Middle Eastern spice (or go for cumin if you don’t have any)

3 sheets of shortcrust pastry, thawed

METHOD: Steam the pumpkin and allow to cool. Heat olive oil in a heavy based pan and saute onion until soft. Stir together onion, pumpkin, feta, mint, eggs and spice. Preheat pie maker, or oven. Cut circles out of pastry and ease into pie maker or pie plates. Fill with a few tablespoons of the pumpkin mixture. Cook until egg has set. Serve with salad.

Rockmelon & mint granita

I hate rockmelon – any melon, really – but this was surprisingly yum.

2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 + 1/4 cups fresh mint leaves
1 rockmelon, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes
2 tablespoons lime juice

METHOD: In a small saucepan, combine the water, sugar, and 1 cup mint leaves over medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved, about 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the syrup to cool, about 20 minutes. Strain mint leaves from the mixture.

In a blender, puree the cooled syrup, rockmelon, and lime juice until smooth. Add the remaining mint leaves and blend until finely chopped. Pour the mixture into a  glass baking dish and freeze for 1 hour. Remove from freezer and scrape with a fork to loosen mixture. Return to freezer. Scrape again one hour later. Freeze another hour, scrape with fork to loosen and serve in bowls.