Caramelised onion and sweet potato tart

You know when you have to 'bring a plate' to your last antenatal class and you forgot about it until that day and you have spent your weekly budget, and you're not sure what to do? But then you discover that you have an onion, and a sweet potato, and a little bit of left over mozzarella and parmesan from the weekend's lasagne. And there's some puff pastry in the freezer. And it's the depths of winter and you're supposed to be writing your thesis and you can think of nothing better than having an excuse to put the oven on?

Well, I'm sure we've all been there. Or at least somewhere entirely dissimilar to there. Fortunately, this tart is the solution to all manner of crises. It's pauper ingredients gussied up as fancy French business. It's pretty easy. And it's really scrummy. It would work with all different kinds of cheese, and using this template I'm pretty sure you could do good work with potatoes, mushrooms, and all manner of other seasonal veg.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 a large sweet potato
• 1 brown onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 50 grams butter
• splash of sherry vinegar 
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1 big handful of grated mozzarella
• 1 tablespoon grated parmesan
• 2 sheets frozen puff pastry
• salt and pepper to season

Finely slice your onions, the thinner the better. Heat the butter in a large frying pan on a medium heat, and add the onions. Soften then for about 10 minutes until they are golden and then add the splash of vinegar and brown sugar and continue to sweat the onions for another 5 minutes.

While the onions are cooking, finely slice your sweet potato, then add it to the pan. Sautee the potato for about five minutes until it starts to soften. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Grate the cheese and toss half of it through the mixture, reserving half for the top.

Take your two sheets of puff pastry which should be properly thawed by now. Because this is Australia puff pastry only seems to come in squares, which is the wrong shape and thickness for this tart. So scrunch them into a ball, and roll them out again into a vaguely circular shape about 2 millimeters thick. Don't worry about it being neat, you can pass any wonkiness of as 'rustic'.

Tip the onions and sweet potato mixture into the centre, leaving a 2 cm border. Fold the pastry border in and sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top. Brush the pastry edges with a little milk and cook in a hot oven (220 C) for about 18 minutes.

When you remove the tart from the oven it will have puffed up into a glorious golden pouffie thing. Let it cool for a few minutes before slicing it. Da na!

Chocolate, pine nut and orange tart in a ginger crust

This weekend I had dinner with my friends Lucy (check out her morsels of reflection here) and Jason. Whenever they've cooked for me in the past I have been a bit awed by how yummy everything is - and they tend to cook meals I rarely make myself, making them all the more enjoyable. So when I offered to bring dessert, and Lucy kindly asserted that I needn't feel I had to make anything too fancy, I kind of knew I was going to make something that was at least a bit fancy. Also, I probably should have been studying on Saturday afternoon, so the idea of making some pastry from scratch was all the more appealing.

This tart is one I've made before. It's all about contrasts.  The chocolate is divinely rich, but in small proportion compared with the tang of the orange and ginger. The ganachey-custard is so incredibly smooth whereas the pine nuts add a lovely crunch, while the pastry is all buttery crumbliness. And the nuts and zest themselves crispen to form a fragile sugary crust over the whole thing.  Best of all, the pastry recipe is very easy. Oh goodness, I do endorse this tart.

I found the recipe for this tart online, from chef Antoine Bouterin.  However adding the ginger to the pastry is my own addition, for that extra kick.

Ingredients - for the pastry:

• 70 grams butter
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 1/14 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• splash of iced water

For the filling:

• 1/2 cup cream
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• 180g dark chocolate pieces
• 3/4 cup pine nuts
• zest of one orange

While it's not tricky, you need to start a little ahead of time if you want to make your own pastry. For shortcrust pastry I really recommend doing it yourself, as the result is always so lovely and fresh and buttery. When making pastry, I tend to cheat. I put all the ingredients in my mixer and turn it on until it's a crumbly mix. Then I tip it into my greased and floured tart tin (about 9 inches across).

Press the mix with the heel of your hand until it evenly covers the tin, making sure you smoosh enough over the sides to form the lovely corrugated edges. Once it's evenly covered, place in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Now it's time to pre-bake the tart case. Heat the oven to 180 C. Prick your tart case with a fork all over the bottom, and line it with tin foil, pressing the foil firmly against the pastry all the way around.  Now bake for about 15 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 10.  When you remove the pastry from the oven, if it looks like it's raising up from the base of the tin a little, just gently push it back down.

Now add your filling. Mix the cream, sugar and egg with a fork or whisk and pour into the tart case. It will form a very shallow layer. Scatter over the chocolate pieces, making sure they're evenly distributed. Next, add the pine nuts. And finally, sprinkle over the orange zest.

Place the whole lot in the oven at a 175 C and cook for 20-25 minutes.

Serve in delicate wedges with whipped cream. Oh yes indeedy.

Three onion and taleggio tart

I love this tart.  You don't have to be hugely into onions to love this tart.  Like my friend Ange says: "If onions were cocoa, then this tart would be chocolate".  Essentially, this tart is onions as good as they can get.  And it has creamy, stinky taleggio cheese in it. Need I say more?


Ingredients:

• Basic shortcrust pastry for the base

• Two medium to large leeks, finely chopped (just the white stalks, not the green leafy bits)
• One large spanish onion, finely chopped
• Five or six spring onions, finely chopped
• olive oil
• One egg, beaten
• about 200g of taleggio cheese, cut into smallish chunks
• 50g grated parmesan cheese 
• Salt and pepper to taste 

Heat the oven to 180 degrees.  Take you're shortcrust pastry and tip it into your greased pie tin.  Press it down with your fingers and palms to form a thin yet solid crust.  Keep pushing from the middle out until it goes all the way to the edges.  Then put the case in the oven for 10 minutes and remove while you prepare your tart ingredients.

Put a big ole slug of olive oil in a hot non-stick pan.  Add the leeks and stir for about 5 minutes on a medium heat until softened.  Then cover, and reduce the heat to low, and simmer for a further 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure the leeks are not burning.

Once the leeks are softened to almost a mush, add the rest of the onions and stir vigorously, and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes.  Then remove from the heat, add the egg, salt and pepper and mix through.  Then add the taleggio and mix until evenly dispersed.

Fill your pastry case with the onion mixture and place in the oven for 20 minutes.  Then remove the pie, and sprinkle the grated parmesan evenly over the surface, and return to the oven for a further 10-15 minutes.  Remove, slice and serve!

Potato and Leek Tart

Ingredients:

• potatoes - 5 small or 3 large
• 2 leeks
• mustard (your preference, I use French or Dijon)
• 1 egg
• 1 block of gruyere, grated
• a small amount of parmasen cheese, grated
• shortcrust pastry (make your own, or if in a hurry, use frozen sheets)

Boil the potatoes until just cooked and still firm (the same consistency you might use for a potato salad). Thaw the pastry sheets and line a greased, fluted pie or tart dish with the pastry, and trim the edges. Line with dry rice or beans and blind bake for 10 minutes or so, the packet will specify the time.  If I don't have beans I sometimes line with foil and blind bake at about 200 degrees - it's not perfect but it's pretty good. While the pastry is in the oven and the potatoes are boiling, thinly slice the leeks and and sautee in butter or olive oil until soft.


Once the potatoes are cooked, run under some cold water to cool them quickly, then slice in half longways, then in half centimeter slices (half moon shaped). 


Mix together the leeks, potatoes, raw egg and half the gruyere cheese with some salt and pepper. Be careful to mix carefully so the potatoes do not turn to mash. 


Spread a generous layer of mustard over the floor of the pastry, then spoon over the potato and leek mixture and spread it to the edges. Cover with the remaining gruyere and the parmasen and bake for a further 15 or 20 minutes, until the top is browning. 


Devour.