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!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Pea Pesto and Prosciutto

 

Last weekend my darling friend Jess had an afternoon tea for her birthday.  Jess is a fantastic baker and cook, and she prepared some awesome treats for us.  But perhaps my favourite were the savoury tarts smeared high with a home-made pea and cashew nut pesto, topped with cucumber and mint.

I had peas!  Frozen ones, actually.  Then I started fantasising about what I'd do with a pea pesto, and I quickly determined that it should be eaten with a sweet potato gnocchi.  When I got home from work the other night, not only did I already have sweet and regular potatoes at home, but I realised I also had some prosciutto and lots of fresh herbs in the fridge.  It should also be noted that having actually managed to leave the office by 5:30 - an almost unheard of phenomenon - I was all psyched for home-made gnocchi!

If you haven't made gnocchi before I urge you to do it.  It's as easy as making scones, as fun as playing with Play-Doh, and as delicious as eating freshly home-made gnocchi.  I find all sweet potato is a bit too sweet, so I used a mix of potatoes: one russet, one desiree and one large sweet.

Ingredients:

• two regular potatoes
• one sweet potato
• nutmeg
• approx 2 1/2 cups plain flour
• 2 cups peas
• fresh mint, oregano, thyme or any other herbs
• 1 cup pine nuts and cashews
• 1 lemon
• olive oil
• garlic
•  8 slices prosciutto

 
To make the gnocchi, boil the potatoes until soft enough to mash.  Then mash them good!  You want them to be as creamy as possible with no lumps.  No lumps at all, I tells ya!  I was fretting that I was on the path to lumpy gnocchi when I remembered my bar-mix - or wizzy stick as I sometimes think of it.  This turned my still lumpy mash into a creamy potato gloop. Add a little nutmeg at this point, you won't be sorry.

Then flour your bench with about a cup of flour, and tip your cream potato mixture into it.  Get as much flour as possible on your hands because the potato will be as sticky as get out.  Gently fold the flour into the potato dough, adding more flour as you need it, until it has a modicum of stuctural integrity.  You want the gnocchi to be as tender as possible, so it's important not to overwork it.

 Roll the gnocchi out into hilarious sausages if your mind is in the gutter, as mine was as I was cooking, and then slice your little dumplings off the end.  Again, keeping everything well dusted with flour, that the gnocchi might touch.  At this point you could put them in the fridge until cooking them, or freeze them for another occasion if you want.  Or EAT THEM RIGHT NOW.

While the potatoes are boiling, set up another pot of boiling water and cook your peas.  Then add most of the peas (reserving about 1/2 a cups worth) to your mixer, with the nuts, herbs, lemon juice, two cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil.  If you don't have a cooked-cheese-loathing boyfriend, I'd add some parmesan or pecorino at this point as well.  As for me, I abstained out of love.  Stupid, no-cheese love.

Anyway, pulse the pesto mix together until it forms a slightly chunky dip consistency (which, incidentally, is how I plan to eat the remainder ie with corn chips).  That's it. Pea pesto.

To prepare the gnocchi, bring water to the boil in a wide pot and drop in the gnocchi, ensuring to space them so they form one layer.  They'll drop to the floor of the pot; when they float to the surface (1 to 2 minutes) they are ready! Remove with a slotted spoon and place them on a plate to drain.  You can serve them like this, but I like to add to the 'toothiness' of them by lightly pan frying them, like any good dumpling.

So once all the gnocchi is boiled, slice the prosciutto into little bits and fry in a small amount of oil.  The prosciutto will leech all it's delicious porky fat into the pan as well.  Remove the prosciutto when it starts to crispin, reserving all the fat in the pan.  Then add your gnocchi to the pan and lightly sautee in the prosciutto fat.  You have just created one of the most delicious things ever.  But it gets better.  

Remove the gnocchi and add the pea pesto and a splash of water and heat through.  Add the extra peas and put the gnocchi back in, and mix through.  Finally add the prosciutto. 

Cooked-cheese-loathing man declared it one of the best meals I'd ever made him, because it had both complementary colours and flavours.  We wolfed it in front of SBS's Thursday night food show line-up, and felt grateful we hadn't sat through those shows and all their delectable treats with anything less delicious for ourselves.  Then I took the leftovers to work for office-time food bragging.  It happens.

Tri-salad Sunday

Ah the change of seasons.  Time for finishing the scarf I started knitting over a month ago.  Time to buy some new 100 denier tights.  Time to consider growing my hair long, again.  Time to buy new batteries for my bike lights for the dark evenings.

It's also time to get my first dastardly head cold of the season.  Time to go to bed early.  Time to take fruit, and eat vitamins.  Time to up my vegetable intake massively.  Hence Tri-salad Sunday.  A way to capitalise on some time at home in the midst of my manic massive work and study load, to stockpile some high veg, low(ish) carbs, tasty meals to last the majority of the week.

One Sunday.  One blog post.  Three salads.  Let's do this thing.

1. Green lentil salad
2. Pearl couscous, beetroot and sweet potato salad
3. Roast mushrooms

Okay, that last one isn't really a salad, but it's vegetables, and it's yummy, so just go with it, okay?


Green lentil salad 

 Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups green lentils (Puy if you can get 'em) 
• Bay leaves 
• 1 tomato, diced
• half a green capsicum, diced
• half a red capsicum, diced
• half a small red onion, finely sliced
• goats fetta
• 1 cup walnuts
• bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped
• dressing - grape must, macadamia oil and raspberry balsamic

Heat the oven to 180 degrees C.  Dry roast the walnuts for 8-10 minutes.  Rinse the lentils under cold water then add to a pot.  Pour over 4.5 cups of boiling water (you can use stock if you prefer).  Add the bay leaves and simmer for 20 minutes.  To check if they're ready, taste to make sure the texture is right.  I wanted my lentils to be firm but chewy, and not tough.  Once cooked, drain the remaining water and again, run cold water over the lentils to cool them.

Finely chop your tomato, capsicum, onion and parsley.  Add the walnuts, vegetables, parsley and fetta to the lentils and toss through.  Make up your dressing and pour over.

Pearl couscous, beetroot and sweet potato salad

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of pearl couscous
• 2 cups stock
• 1 sweet potato, diced
• 3 small beetroots or 2 medium beetroots, diced
• olive oil
• lemon juice
• 1.5 cups rocket 
• salt and pepper 

Peel and dice the beetroot and sweet potato.  Toss in oil and roast in a 180 C oven for up to 50 minutes, or until browning and crunchy.

While the vegetables roast, place the couscous in a saucepan with a dash of oil, and heat through, coating the couscous.  Add two cups of boiling stock, cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pan.  Then cool and seperate with a fork.

Rinse the rocket and pat dry on a tea towel.  Then add the rocket and roast vegetables to the couscous, and toss.  Add a splash of olive oil, juice of one lemon, salt and pepper, and mix through.

Roast mushrooms

Ingredients:

• white button and large portabello mushrooms, roughly chopped
• olive oil
•  3 cloves of garlic
• fresh parsley
• knob of butter

Place the mushrooms  in a pan and drizzle olive oil over them, then toss.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over them if you fancy extra seasoning.  Add the garlic cloves to the pan and roast in the oven (180 C) for about 20 minutes, checking to make sure the mushrooms do not dehydrate fully.

Remove the garlic and squeeze out the roasted insides.  Add to a bowl with the knob of butter and microwave for 20 seconds, or until the butter is melted.  Add the mushrooms to the bowl with the finely chopped fresh parsley, and toss.

Serve all three with freshly baked dinner rolls and lemon infused olive oil.  Oh yum.

NB This will make huge quantities of salad, if you make all three at once.  Eat them all week and show your head cold who's boss!