Month: January 2021

I fail spectacularly at absolutes. ‘Janu-dry’ in our household has lasted – once – until 20 January. Now we practice ‘Janu-less’ and only have wine with our meals twice a week. Same with ‘veganuary’. I’m happy that I got the Davinator to embrace ‘meat free Monday’, essentially by not telling him it was happening. One of the kids ratted me out but now he rolls with it. So vegananuary is not going to work in our house. But I wanted to get more vegetables into our diet.

I’m a fan of positives and my January resolution is to have more fun with vegetables. There’s a long back story about my love hate relationship with vegetables. Netting it out – I grew up in farm country and we had a large kitchen garden. I was used to eating what had just come out of the garden or had been preserved (frozen, canned, stored) within hours of harvest. That was my experience of how vegetables should taste. That was not what I encountered in the wider world and I ate vegetables but didn’t enjoy them.

So, I’m trying to make vegetables interesting and exciting without breading and deep frying them (the Italian method) or shredding them into cake. Ironically, this recipe is an onion tart mimicking tarte tatin. It uses the same technique to make onions into an exquisite savory dish. Here’s a link to my tarte tatin recipe if you really want to make a dessert.

I must confess – I love this onion tart. Even the first attempt was excellent and I’m going to work on a couple of refinements. I started with a recipe from Delia Smith’s Winter Collection and there are many fabulous recipes there. Perfect for Lockdown 3.0

Equipment for this recipe: you need a round 9 inch pan that can go from the stove top to the oven and back again. I love my le Creuset pans. They are expensive and you might look for good quality clones ( enamel covered cast iron – still will be pricey) but I’ve got le Creuset pots and pans that are older than my children. You can do this with a sturdy cake or pie tin but it will be more difficult to handle. A pastry blender also comes in handy or you can use your food processor.

This a great recipe to brush up your onion cutting technique. You’ll find a lot of advice on how to cut onions without serious crying and honestly not many of them work that well. I use a combination of techniques: peel the onions but don’t cut them until you’re ready to use them, turn the extractor fan on high and cut nearby, throw the waste into a compost caddy with a lid after each cut and rinse your knife and cutting board from time to time. Also, I keep a candle burning nearby – but this is probably just superstition.

There’s an easy vegan flex for this one – use your hard fat of choice (should be firm at room temperature) to substitute the butter. Vegan cheese for the crust.

Time to make ourselves cry……

Recipe

Ingredients – tart

• 1 kg onions (red or white) of fairly uniform size, mine were on average smaller than a tennis ball
• 50 grams of butter
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Fresh thyme if you have some but dried also works fine
• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar (use the good stuff but sparingly)
• salt and pepper

For the pastry:

• 75 grams wholemeal flour
• 50 grams plain white flour
• 50 grams chilled butter (grated)
• 25 grams (grated)
• 1 teaspoon chopped thyme

Instructions – onions

1. Prep your onions. Remove the outer skin. Trim any roots very close to the body of the onions. Put to one side. We will cut them just before we place them in the pan. Turn your oven on to about 180C (160C fan).
2. Place the pan over a medium heat melt the butter. Add the sugar to the melted butter.
3. When the sugar is blended and the mixture is bubbling, scatter six sprigs of thyme (if fresh) or a tablespoon of dried.
4. Begin cutting your onions in half and arrange them cut side down on the base of the pan. Think about doing a jigsaw puzzle as you place the onions. Once you have can put anymore halves in, start cutting wedges to fill in the gaps and the sides. The cut sides will be showing when you flip the tart so this is the moment to make it pretty.
5. Seasons the onions with salt and pepper and then sprinkle in the balsamic vinegar. Turn the heat down under the pan and let the onions cook very gently for about 10 minutes.
6. Put the lid on the pan or cover it with foil. Place it on the middle shelf in the oven and leave it cook for an hour.

Instructions – pastry & assembly

1. Combine the flours, butter, cheese in a bowl with a pastry blender or in your food processor. Pulse or blend until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add cold water, a tablespoon at a time until it forms a soft dough.
2. Gather the dough and place it between two sheets of cling film. Roll into a 10 inch round. Tuck the cling film around the dough and put it in fridge to chill. egradually add enough cold water – about 2-3 tablespoons – to make a soft dough.
3. Test the onions with a skewer at the end of the cooking time. They should be cooked through but still have texture and shape.
4. Move the pan to the stove top, turn up the oven to 200C.
5. Cook the pan on the stove top to reduce the onion butter juice. Try medium heat, keeping a close eye on the onions so that they don’t scorch. You’re aiming to reduce the juice to a syrup. This might take ten minutes.
6. Take your dough round out of the fridge. Take the pan off the heat and carefully fit the pastry over and around the onions. Tuck in the edges around the inside of the pan.
7. Put the tart back in the oven on top shelf and bake it for another 30 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool for 20 minutes before flipping it. Loosen the dough around the edges if it’s stuck.
8. Find a flat plate or a cutting board. Get your oven mitts or other protection for your hands. Place the plate over the tart, take a deep breath, hold it firmly and flip it over. Be bold!
9. Some of the onions might stick to the pan or become disarranged when flipping. Just pick them up with tongs or a spoon and fit them back into your tart.
10. Voila – Red Onion Tarte Tatin!

I’m going to work on some flexes for this recipe – I fancy using concentrated beef stock instead of balsamic vinegar. Also, changing the spices. I’ve been enjoying this tarte cold as snacks and with some cheese on the side as a meal. There are no Davinator remarks because – he’s very sensitive to onions and so this one is just for me.

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