Wholesome, yet tarty!

I realised a few days ago that onions seemed to be reproducing in the veg bowl. Every time I walked past more seemed to have appeared.
Now, I like onions, but when there are only two of us it's sometimes hard to use them all up. Not unlike the bananas that make their way into the flat. I'll chop an onion for a pasta sauce, or soup, or stew, or to top some bread, but then I'm still left with a few billion vying for my attention.

So this week I decided it was time for a serious attack, before they got too comfortable and started sprouting.

I've become rather addicted to caramalised balsamic onions. I first discovered them on Valentine's day last year when I made an onion tart from Delia Smith's Vegetarian Collection. She suggested red onions, as you get a slightly sweeter flavour, but I've since done it with normal white onions on many occasions for topping cornbread or focaccia and I still really enjoy it. If anything I like the less sweet version.

Whilst eyeing up the onion situation this little tart came to mind. Delia makes them as starters, but I figured that with all the onions I had I could make a large version topped with little rounds of chili-rolled goats cheese. I also decided that instead of the cheese-heavy pastry that Delia uses, I would make a more wholesome version using light wholemeal flour (which has been ground down much finer than usual wholemeal to make it more suitable for cakes and pastry).I was really pleased with how this turned out, the only problem was I made too much of the onion filling! I was so keen to use up the surplus that I just kept chopping! So now we're going to be eating caramalised onions with everything. Oh well, they are tasty and I'm sure it's good for you, I'm just not sure I fancy them for every meal.

Caramalised onion tart with goats cheese: serves 4-6.

First make the pastry so it can rest in the fridge.

8oz light wholemeal flour
4oz cold butter
sprinkling of salt
cold milk

Sprinkle the salt over the flour and then rub in the butter until you get a coarse breadcrumb texture. Then slowly add milk, a tablespoon at a time, until it just comes together as a dough. Leave to rest in the fridge for 30mins.

Preheat oven to 180C. Then roll out and lift into a 8 inch loose-bottomed tart tin. Prick the pastry with a fork and then fill with baking beans and blind-bake for 20mins. Remove from the oven when slightly golden and leave to cool.

Filling:

4 large onions
oil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
goats cheese log, cut into as many slices as you want to top the pie.

Slice the onions and the place in a pan with the oil. Cook over a low heat for about 20mins until soft, glossy and golden. Add the vinegar, stir and continue to cook for another ten minutes. Leave to cool.

When cool, place the onions into the tart shell, and then top with the roads of goats cheese. Place back in the 180C oven and cook for about 20mins until the goats cheese is just beginning to melt and brown. Remove, rest for five minutes and then serve.

Pie that's not a pie, cos it's a tart

I keep calling this a pie. It's not, it's a tart, but I was going to make a pie and I think that's why I keep getting it wrong.

Whilst at the market I managed to pick up fresh cranberries, something that is difficult to come by here. I was delighted and couldn't wait to try out some great recipe with ones that were fresh, rather than frozen.

So I pored over my recipe cuttings and I found a cranberry and apple pie that had caught my eye about a month ago. It was perfect. Except that it wasn't, because I didn't have all the ingredients. Oops!

So then I decided to take inspiration once more from Smitten Kitchen and bake the cranberry pecan frangipane tart. Not only did this have fresh cranberries and pastry, but a frangipane that N would actually be able to eat. You see, N doesn't like almonds, which is rather a shame considering my love of marzipan and frangipane (then again, it means I don't bake those things, or buy those things, and so am probably indebted to him for saving my waistline!). But here was a recipe that promised all the goodness of spongy frangipane, with the caramelly and festive flavour of pecans, cut through with the tartness of the cranberries. It sounded like just the thing to usurp the place of the pie.

As it happened I baked it for too long, and it came out more toasty than golden, but it still tasted great and retained its softeness. Definitely a winner, and I can't wait to try it with sharp raspberries. It would be a great festive treat over the holidays, and apart from having to wait while you chill the dough and the filling it's not actually that hard.

I won't post the recipe, because for once there was very little adaptation on my part. I did use port instead of brandy (because I used up all our brandy making mincemeat and puddings, oops!), but I think that was it.

It's telling that after one and a half days there is only a tiny slice left...and there's only two of us eating it!

Ooh, what a tart!

It's been a rather busy weekend. Not only have we been at a wedding reception on Friday evening, we then had a meal out on Saturday, followed by drinks for a friends birthday, then today N has been working (did I mention it's Sunday? What kind of crazy company ask people to work on a Sunday?) As a result of all these goings on I though N might a like a little treat to ease the fact that he's going to have a long week after a very short and tiring weekend.

I had some mascarpone in the fridge that needed using, and decided that since it's been so hot and the summer fruits are in full swing the best thing to do would be a simple fruit tart. It would require minimal baking, which in the current heat is a very welcome thing indeed. It would also mean that N would actually get to taste some summer berries instead of watching them disappear into the freezer!

I planned to make a simple sweet pastry shell in my new tart pan, and then fill it with a mascarpone cream and top it with berries. I hadn't factored into this perfectly laid plan the fact that the last thing you want to be attempting in a hot humid kitchen is pastry. Argh! I just couldn't get the dough cold enough to work with, despite having chilling it first in the fridge and then the freezer. As soon as I removed it from the cling film and started rolling it, it got warm again and became almost impossible to work with. How on earth do people working in hot kitchens manage it? In the end I did the best I could and had to patch the shell where it had come apart. Not the prettiest most professional tart shell ever, but it would have to do. I slung it in the freezer to chill before I cooked it and then blind-baked it for 20 mins.


Fortunately the shell looked alright when it came out of the oven. While it was cooling I mixed some mascarpone with the juice of half a lemon and some icing sugar, whipping it until it was combined. I then spread this on the cold tart shell and topped it with mixture of berries I'd bought this morning at the market (and than had miraculously made it back in my rucksack!)


As you can see the result was rather nice indeed. I was really pleased with how it turned out, and N certainly made lots of happy noises whilst tucking into it, I think he might be able to cope with a second slice tomorrow evening!