Thursday, March 7, 2013

French onion tart


I've a thing for recipes that start with "french" ~ but guess you know that already! ^^

Recently, we had a slice of french quiche with a soft filling of caramelized onions and just the barest of egg-taste.. and I thought about replicating that same uncomplicated taste yet flavorful tart at home.

So imagine reading the french onion tart shared by smitten kitchen.. I practically ran to buy yellow onions! ^^

French onion tart (recipe from the smitten kitchen)
Crust
2 cups/ 250g all purpose flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup / 113g chilled butter, cubed (I used 125g ^^)
3-4 tbsp cold water

Filling
4 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup low-sodium beef/chicken/mushroom stock/broth
some black pepper, to season
1/2 cup / 60g grated gruyere, comte, swiss cheese (none? just use cheddar ^^)
1 large egg
1/2 cup / 125ml heavy cream

1. Prepare crust. Mix flour, salt and butter in a processor/mixer till you get crumbs. Add water to form dough. Roll out dough to fit a greased 9-inch tart time. Freeze for at least 15 minutes. Bake blind if you like, I didn't.

2. Make caramelized onion filling. Heat up butter and olive oil, and add onions to the pan. Toss and saute them gently for a bit. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover the pan and leave onions to cook for 15 minutes. Then remove lid, add salt and saute for another 10-15 minutes, till the onions are fully caramelized and taken a deep golden color (?? mine still looked pale to me ^^||). Next, add stock/broth, turn heat up and let mixture simmer till broth completely dries up (around 5-10 minutes). Adjust the salt.. (I didn't, but next time I would ~ caramelized onions are very sweet, a little bit more salt would make it all the more tasty!). Remove from heat and leave to cool.

3. Beat eggs and cream together. Season with salt and pepper if you wish.

4. Spread caramelized onions on pastry shell and pour egg mixture over. Sprinkle grated cheese over the filling. 

5. Bake on 180C for about 40-50 minutes, or until the top is golden. 



I've always gone overboard when it comes to quiche filling ~ more ham, more bacon, more meat, more onions, more cheese.. more everything! ^^

But this is a quiche that's only filled with sweet, sweet caramelized onions! And it's gorgeous!

Never mind if this quiche is not quite the one I had in mind (to replicate). If my pickiest guinea pig, papa pig, says it's good and he likes it more than any of my "extreme" version, I'm happy. ^^

p.s. there maybe caramelized onions left over.. don't waste, add cooked rice and make caramelized onion fried rice ~ it's very, very nice! ^^ 


12 comments:

  1. Aiyo....Hui oh Hui,
    you know what, the other I was browsing one of my favourite Pastry cookbook and came across one Onion Tart recipe and was thinking to bake that one too and now you are posting your delicious looking Onion Tart! Orhhh...I really wish I can taste yours, REALLY!! I loves that golden brown on the top, it certainly looking very inviting to me and you baked yours very beautiful, you know. I will try my version of Onion Tart one day, ok?

    Oh, one more thing, since you like Butter so much, have you ever cook butter rice or garlic rice before? If you have been to The Manhattan Fish Market, you may have tasted it. Try it, yummy to go with some spicy meat dish like curry. Easy to cook in the rice cooker too. Search my blog for butter rice if you want to cook this.

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  2. great minds think alike, mel! we really do have the same taste! i so wish i could offer you a slice.. if only you lived nearby *sad*.. am looking forward to your onion tart post.. hopefully real soon ^^

    and you seem to be able to read my mind too! fatty hubby loves butter/garlic/briyani/etc rice.. i was actually thinking how i could make that japanese garlic rice for him ^^ i'm hopping over to your site right now! thanks a lot, mel!

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  3. sounds and looks gorgeous! love french onion soup, didn't think of makign it into a tart! this is yum! I love carmalised oniobs so much, I don't think I will even need to add cooked rice, will probably happily eat them wonderfully sticky sweet things straight out of the pan.

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  4. Hi Hui! What is the difference between yours and the version you had in mind? Maybe more eggs?

    I do not mind... I want your version!

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  5. thanks, shu han! caramelized onions are mighty delicious.. on its own or otherwise! ^^

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  6. hi, chef.. i wanted a quiche that tasted slightly less egg-y if that's possible.. but i'm already using just 1 egg, not sure how to make it less egg-y.. maybe dilute further with milk and cream, i think? or use organic eggs? ^^

    i'd love to share some with you if you lived closed by ^^

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  7. Omg, this looks and sounds delicious!! It's beautiful. I love caramelized onions!

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  8. there's more onions than there is anything else in this tart! ^^ it's good!

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  9. LOL... I hv this obsession with anything French too..
    Tried their Pissaladiere...beautiful taste - used banyak onions...then followed by banyak angin :(

    Nice yummy slice to finish off a meal :D

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  10. oooh.. that sounds so good! will google this right away ^^ luckily, we have no problem with "angin"! no one noticed anyways, haha!

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  11. I've never tried onion tart! I love cooked onions when they get soft and sweetness comes out. This is a nice brunch/lunch menu! Lots of Gruyere cheese sounds good - I love Gruyere cheese... yum!

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  12. onion tart with lots of cheese is very nice ^^ hope you get to try some soonest, nami!

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