A Man With A (Tart) Pan

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Philadelphia’s Winter Harvest buying club is a god-send for locavores in those dark months when the farmers’ markets have (mostly) closed down.  However, the program does have one feature that is a source of continuing frustration for me: the need to purchase food one month in advance.  One or two weeks out, I’m fine, but it’s a bit of a guessing-game once we get three and four weeks away.  (You’d think that, after three years, I’d have the hang of this.)

So, unsurprisingly, one recent Sunday afternoon, I found myself staring at a fridge full of onions, red and yellow.  Normally, I would have caramelized all of them and stored in them in the fridge, hoping I would use them all by the end of the week.  This time, though, I felt a bit more ambitious.  I had a plan - a plan and a tart pan.

This recipe was a bit of a departure for me for a couple of reasons.  One, it was certainly more involved than my cooking typically is.  However, I found that the tasks involved overlapped beautifully; e.g., while the onions were caramelizing, I had time to make and bake the pastry dough; while pastry dough was cooling, I had time to make the “filling.”  Two, this was the first time that I made a pastry dough using the food processor.  Because I would make the pastry dough by hand - cutting in the butter, drizzling in the water, etc. - I would only make pastry dough on rare occasions.  Not only was the process infinitely cleaner and faster, but the results were equal to what I could have done by hand.

The finished tart looked impressive and made for a fantastic lunch with a small salad.  It’s perfect as an appetizer or brunch item. 

Caramelized Onion Tart

6 large onions (approximate - I had 8 onions of various types and sizes), caramelized
1 pastry crust (see below)
2 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 egg
 
1.  Combine the (cooled) caramelized onions, egg, and thyme in mixing bowl and poor into the baked pastry crust.  Sprinkle the grated cheese over top. 
2.  Bake in a preheated oven (375) for twenty minutes, or until the cheese has melted and formed a browned crust.

Food-Processor Whole-Wheat Pastry Dough
(From Mark Bittman’s The Best Recipes in the World)

1 1/2 c. whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp. salt
8 tblsp. butter, cut into 8-10 pieces

1.  Combine the flour and salt in a food processor and pulse once or twice.  Add butter and pulse until the mixture is uniform.
2.  Put the mixture in a bowl and add 3 tablespoons ice water until a ball forms.  Warp the ball in plastic and freeze for ten minutes. (I just added the water to the food processor and pulsed until it came together.)
3.  Lightly flour a countertop and roll the dough out into a rough circle, alternately turning the dough as needed.
4.  When the dough’s diameter is roughly 2 inches greater than the tart pan, gently layer the dough into the pan and press into the corners.  Put the tart pan in the freezer for 30 minutes.
5.  Preheat the oven to 400.  Add a skillet, heavy pan, or dried peans or rice in greased foil to the tart pan (I used a skillet) and bake for 12 minutes.  Lower the heat to 350, remove the weight and bake until brown.

Allow to cool until before adding the onions.