Cheeseboard Onion Tart Food

CHEESEBOARD & ONION TART

Steps:

• Put the flour, butter and salt into the bowl of a food processor, then pulse until the mix looks like fine crumbs. Splash in 4 tbsp cold water, then pulse to a dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface, shape into a smooth disc, then wrap and chill for at least 10 mins. Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6.
• Roll pastry out on a floured surface until large enough to line a 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin. Line the tin with the pastry, leaving any excess pastry overhanging. Line with baking paper, then fill with baking beans. Bake on a baking sheet for 15 mins. Take out the paper and beans, then bake for 10 mins more until pale golden and cooked. Use a serrated knife to trim the pastry level with the tin - resting the knife flat on the edge of the tin will help achieve an even finish.
• While the pastry cooks, soften the onions in the oil over a medium heat for 10 mins until golden. Beat the eggs and cream together, then season to taste. Crumble up the hard cheeses and chop or pull the creamy cheese into small pieces. Scatter the cheese into the pastry case, add the onions, then pour in the egg mix. Turn the oven down to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3 and bake for 40 mins until set and lightly golden.

ONION TART

Steps:

• Line unpricked pastry shell with a double thickness of heavy-duty foil. Bake at 450° for 8 minutes. Remove foil; bake 5 minutes longer. Cool on a wire rack. , In a small skillet, saute onions in oil until tender; cool. In a food processor, combine the eggs, feta cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg and hot pepper sauce; cover and process until smooth. Gradually add cream and milk; process until blended., Brush the inside of crust with mustard. Sprinkle the green onions, chives and sauteed onions over crust. Carefully pour egg mixture over onions. Top with Parmesan cheese. , Bake at 375° for 30-40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

CHEESE AND ONION TART

Steps:

• For crust: Preheat oven to 400F.
• Combine flour and salt and cut in butter and Crisco until mixture resembles coarse meal.
• Add 3 tblsps ice water and combine until it forms a ball.
• Flatten into a 6 inch disk and chill it, wrapped in plastic wrap, for 1 hour.
• Roll out to 1/8 inch thick on lightly-floured surface and fit into a 9 inch tart pan.
• Trim edge and prick all over with a fork.
• Bake in middle of oven for 10 minutes.
• Let cool.
• Maintain oven temperature.
• For filling: Cook onion in butter over moderately-low heat until softened.
• Mash blue cheese with half and half and stir in eggs, Cheddar, onion and salt and pepper to taste.
• Pour into shell and bake for 10 minutes.
• Reduce oven temperature to 350F and bake 25 minutes longer.

ONION TART

Steps:

• Blend flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Scatter butter over flour, top with lid and pulse 12 pulses to cut butter into flour to a coarse meal consistency.
• Dump butter-flour mixture into a medium stainless bowl. Make a well in the center and pour ice-cold water into the well.
• Using a flexible plastic dough scraper instead of your warm hands, bring the dough together by folding and pressing. Be firm and brisk and get the dough past its shaggy stage into a neat disk, trying to avoid using your hands or too much kneading. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Meanwhile, cut the onions in half and peel them. Slice the halves with the ribs (root end to sprout end direction), not against, to create julienne slices rather than half moons.
• In a wide sauté pan over medium-low heat, melt the bacon fat and slowly sweat the onions until they are caramelized. Take all the minutes you need - 25 or so - to let them soften to translucent, then to let the water they release start to evaporate, then to allow the sugars they contain to start to brown in the pan, so that you end up with soft, sweet and evenly browned onions. This is achieved by a slow caramelization. Set onions aside to cool.
• Roll tart dough out to a 1/4-inch-thick round, and drape over a round 10-inch fluted false-bottom tart pan. Lay dough into the pan, gently pressing into the bottom, and roll the pin across the pan to cut off the excess dough. Use your fingers to press the edges into the flutes, accentuating the shape of the dough edge. Dock the bottom of the dough with the tines of a fork, weight the pastry with beans or weight and blind-bake for 25 minutes.
• In a bowl, beat the egg with the cream. Stir in the caramelized onions. Season with pepper, nutmeg and salt to taste. Stir well, and make sure the onions are all evenly coated with the custard.
• Remove tart shell from oven, and slip it onto a baking sheet. Remove weights, fill with the onion-custard mixture and distribute it evenly. Return tart to oven on the sheet, and bake for 25 minutes, or until custard has set, the tops of the onions start to achieve a deeper brown and the dough is dark golden brown at the edges.
• Remove from the ring, and allow to cool just a few minutes on the rack, so that the piping hot tart shell can kind of tighten up enough to be sliced with a sharp chef's knife. (In the first few minutes straight out of the oven, the dough is kind of soft from the heat, possibly giving you the false impression that you have a soggy tart. Let it sit on the rack just to shake off this initial soft stage and to recrisp and refirm, which it will.) Cut into wedges, and serve while hot.

FRENCH ONION AND BLUE CHEESE TART

Steps:

• Start by cooking the onions. They need to be cooked slowly on low heat, so it's best to begin with those.
• Melt the butter in a large nonstick frying pan-we have a load of onions to cook. When the butter has melted, pick off the thyme leaves and add, then add the garlic and onions. Mix everything together.
• Now add the pepper, salt, and sugar and mix. Cook on medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until you have onions that look like the kind you would only eat with a burger in a Sunday market at 6 a.m.!
• While that cooks, start on the pastry. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with some parchment paper or use the paper the pastry comes in and roll out the pastry onto the sheet.
• Using a knife, score a smaller rectangle ½ inch/1cm inside the pastry rectangle, making sure not to cut all the way through. Pierce the inner rectangle with a fork all over to allow the steam to escape when it bakes.
• Brush the edges with the egg and bake for 20 minutes, until golden all over.
• Take out and, using the back of a spoon, push down all the puffed-up pastry of the inner rectangle, creating a nice neat border.
• Take the blue cheese and crumble all over the inner rectangle of the pastry. Add the onions and scatter them all over till you have an even layer. Now bake for 15 minutes.
• Take out and let cool for 10 minutes before eating, sprinkled with the chives.