Onion Tartlets A La Monica Food

FRENCH ONION TARTLETS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Spray both sides of bread and press bread into small 12 cup muffin tin. If you do not own a muffin tin, disposable tins are available on the baking aisle of market. Place bread in oven and toast until golden, 7 or 8 minutes. Remove and reserve.
• In a skillet, melt butter into oil. Add onions and bay leaf, season with thyme, salt and pepper. Cook onions until caramel colored, 15 to 18 minutes.
• Turn broiler on.
• Place spoonfuls of cooked onions in toasted bread cups. Discard bay leaf. Cover onions with cheese and set tarts under hot broiler to bubble and brown cheese. Serve hot.

SWEET ONION TARTLETS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook until golden brown. Set aside to cool. Unroll pie dough 1 at a time. Use a 2 1/2-inch round cutter and cut as many rounds as possible (about 14 to 16), reserving scraps repeat with second pie dough. Gather together scrap dough and cut out as many rounds as needed to make 24 in total. Fit dough rounds into cups of mini muffin pan. Place in the oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, half-and-half, golden onion soup mix, and fines herbs. Set aside. Divide onions among tartlet shells, about 1/2 teaspoon each. Stir the egg mixture and fill tartlets to cover the onions. Top each with 1/2 teaspoon of cheese. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

ONION TARTLETS A LA MONICA

Steps:

• place the flour and salt in the work bowl of a food processor.
• add the butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
• add the cold water 1 tablespoon at a time and pulse just until the dough comes together.
• turn the dough out onto a floured counter and roll it to a thickness of 1/8 inch.
• use a 3 1/2-inch round cookie cutter or juice glass to punch out about 18 circles of dough.
• grease 2 regular 12 cup muffin tins.
• press each circle into 1 cup, gently pushing the dough part way up the side of each cup.
• (there will be some empty cups) chill the pastry in the muffin tins while you prepare the filling.
• heat the oil in a largenonstick skillet, add the onions and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until they are soft and you are no longer crying.
• about 10 minutes stir in the sugar and continue cooking until the onions start to burn at any time.
• season the carmelized inions with salt and pepper to taste and set them aside.
• preheat the oven to 400 degrees divide the onion,mixture among the pastry shells beat the eggs with the fork in a measuring cup.
• beat in the milk carefully pour a tablespoon or so into each pastry shell.
• bake until the edges of the pastry turn golden brown and the filling is set.
• ,about 20 minutes.
• unmold tartlets by running a sharp knife around the edge and turning them gently onto a kitchen towel.
• serve the tatlets warm with champagne or a fancy cocktail-- this is not beer food!
• makes 18 tartlets.

CARAMELIZED ONION TARTLETS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat and stir in onion. Pour in red wine to cover the bottom of the pan and sprinkle with sugar. Cook and stir until onions are tender and translucent, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Combine heavy cream, mozzarella cheese, cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper in a bowl. Stir into onion mixture.
• Cut pie crusts into 3-inch circles using a cookie cutter. Place circles into the bottom of 12 muffin cups in a muffin tin.
• Spoon onion mixture evenly on top of the tart crusts.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before popping tartlets out of the muffin tin.

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.

BALSAMIC ONION TARTLETS

Steps:

• Under medium to low heat, place olive oil and onions in a skillet and cook for 3 or 4 minutes so that onions begin to soften but not brown.
• Add 1/3 cup of chicken broth to the onions and continue to cook until the liquid evaporates. This should take about 8 to 10 minutes.
• Add thyme and another 1/3 cup of broth, and cook until the liquid evaporates.
• Add the balsamic vinegar and the remaining broth, cooking until liquid evaporates. The final simmer takes about 12-15 minutes.
• The results will be soft and tender onions with a tart sauce that is slightly syrupy but not at all loose.
• To fill the Phyllo cups you can either use a pastry bag with a star tip or a teaspoon. If you are using cream cheese, allow it to soften a bit and mix with a tablesoon of milk.) Place a small amount of the yogurt or cream cheese in the shell filling about 1/3 to 1/2 way to the top. Top each with a spoonful of the onions.
• Bake the tartlets in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
• To garnish, you can pipe little rosettes of yogurt or cream cheese on top and sprinkle with a few fresh thyme leaves.

CARAMELIZED ONION TARTLETS

Steps:

• On a lightly floured work surface, roll pate brisee to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 2-inch-round biscuit cutter, cut out 12 circles. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet, and refrigerate until needed.
• Melt butter in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle sugar over butter; cook, stirring, until sugar melts and starts to turn amber in color.
• Halve onions crosswise. Season cut surface with salt and pepper. Arrange onions in a single layer, cut side down, in skillet. Cook over medium-low heat, without turning, until caramelized sugar bubbles up around onions and onions are fragrant, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Using a slotted spoon or spatula to keep onions intact, transfer them to mini-muffin tins, placing half an onion, cut side down, in each cup (allow sugar syrup to remain in pan). Return skillet to low heat. Stir in balsamic vinegar, and season with salt and pepper and a few leaves of fresh thyme.
• Heat oven to 425 degrees. Quickly, before sugar cools, spoon a generous teaspoon sugar mixture into each muffin tin. Drape chilled pastry rounds over each onion, and using fingers, press to secure. Onions should be swaddled in pastry. Place muffin tin in oven; bake until pastry is golden brown and sugar bubbles up over pastry, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven. Immediately set baking sheet over muffin tin; invert, being careful of hot caramel that might drip from tin. Once you invert the tins, tarts will be right side up; serve garnished with fresh thyme leaves.

ULTIMATE ONION TART

Steps:

• Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and use to line a deep 23cm fluted flan tin. Line with baking paper and fill with baking beans. Bake blind for 15 mins.
• Heat the butter and oil in a large frying pan, then gently fry the onions, covered, for about 30 mins until completely softened, but still pale in colour.
• Beat the eggs and cream together in a bowl, then add the cheese and some seasoning. Stir in the onions, then spoon the mixture into the flan case. Bake for 25-30 mins until lightly set and browned.

CARAMELIZED-ONION TARTLETS

Steps:

• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375°F.
• Cook onion, butter, water, salt, and pepper, covered, in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderately low heat, 10 minutes. Remove lid and cook, stirring frequently, until onion is deep golden brown and very tender, about 25 minutes.
• While onion cooks, roll out dough to slightly less than 1/8 inch thick. Cut out 12 rounds with cutter and lightly press each into a mini-muffin cup. Bake until pale golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove tartlet shells from muffin pan.
• Stir together crème fraîche and chives and divide among shells, then top with caramelized onions.

ONION CHEESE TARTLETS

Steps:

• In a medium skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and salt. Cook onions, stirring occasionally, until they are golden brown, about 30 minutes. Add wine and cook for 2 minutes. Remove onions from heat and stir in pepper. Let cool slightly.
• Place the tarts on a lined baking sheet. Sprinkle half of the cheese over the bottom of each tart shell. Spoon onions into the shell and spread evenly. Sprinkle thyme over the onions. Brush the exposed crust of each tartlet with the egg wash. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
• Bake in a preheated 375 F oven until the onions have turned a rich golden brown; about 20 minutes. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature garnished with thyme sprigs.

LEEK AND ONION TARTLETS

Steps:

• Place a rack in the middle of the oven; preheat oven to 350°.
• In a large skillet over med-low heat, melt the butter.
• Add the leeks and onion and stir constantly.
• Cook until soft, 8-10 minutes.
• Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
• In a small bowl, whisk the egg, cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg together.
• Stir the cooled onion mixture into the egg mixture.
• Divide among the tartlet shells.
• Place the tarts on a baking sheet and bake until the custard sets, about 10-15 minutes.
• Serve the tartlets warm or at room temperature.
• **May add crab--1/4 cup picked over lump crabmeat, coarsely chopped; add a scant 1/4 teaspoon crabmeat to each phyllo shell before you spoon in the custard mixture; bake as directed; top with creme fraiche and a touch of caviar, if you like.