French Onion Tart

October 22, 2002

Dishes tend to go in and out of fashion. The quiche took a fair battering some years ago. From a simple, rustic dish evolved a complicated assemblage of all manner of ingredients – broccoli, tuna, sweet potato, asparagus. For a while there anything that could be considered food made its way into a quiche. Much the same way pizzas are now appearing with all manner of inventive – and sometimes abominable – toppings.

I’d forgotten how good a humble basic onion tart could be until I was browsing through an old cookbook I wrote some 20 or more years ago and decided on a touch of nostalgia.

I used to use cream, but I substituted light sour cream without affecting the end result.

If you’ve never tried making pastry before, here’s a recipe to get you started. This is a simple short crust and you should find it easy to make, particularly if you have a food processor.

Onion Tart

150g flour
75g butter
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
iced water

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and work in the butter with a pastry blender or your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add about five or six tablespoons of iced water and mix this into the flour and butter mixture with the blade of a knife. Press with your hand and if the mixture is still crumbly, add a little more water and test again. Once the mixture sticks together, you have the right consistency.

Alternatively, you can prepare the pastry in a food processor, blending the flour and butter then gradually adding the iced water until the mixture starts to form a ball.

Knead the pastry lightly on a floured surface and wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for at least half an hour.

Roll the pastry out about 6mm thick and line a greased pie dish or flan with it. This is easiest achieved by rolling it around the rolling pin (1) then placing it on the flan dish. Try not to stretch the pastry. Ease it in generously and trim off the excess with a sharp knife.

Prick with a fork and then press in a piece of aluminium foil. (2) Bake in a preheated oven at 230C for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the filling:

1 large onion, finely diced
2 large rashers of rindless bacon chopped into small pieces
1 tablespoon each oil and butter
4 eggs
1 cup light sour cream
2 tablespoons flour
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup grated tasty cheese
1 or 2 tomatoes, cored and sliced

Heat the oil and butter in a pan and gently sauté the onion and bacon (3) for a few minutes and set aside to cool down a little.

Beat together the eggs, sour cream, flour and seasonings (4) until smooth then stir in the cheese.

Remove the foil from the partially baked pastry shell and sprinkle in the bacon/onion mixture. Pour over the egg and cream mix and decorate the top with the tomato slices. Bake at 200C for 30-35 minutes until golden brown (5).

Serve warm or cold with a salad.

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