ONION AND MEAT TART
Quiche cauchoiseMeat in an onion tart may sound a bit odd but the regional dish of Quiche Cauchoise is delicious. The meat used in this dish typically consists of leftover cooked meats sitting in the fridge or even meat salvaged from a batch of brown stock you have just made.
INGREDIENTS
Around 300 g (10.6 oz) homemade shortcrust pastry. I have a recipe on my Youtube channel but you can also use store bought pastry.
750 g (26.5 oz) onions (no red onions)
Around half a tbsp of salt and 1 tsp of white sugar (for the onions)
200 to 300 (10.6 oz) leftover meats (already cooked) or if you don’t have anything just ham will do.
50 g (1.77 oz) butter (to cook the onions)
1 egg
200 ml 6.7 fl oz) pure cream (heavy cream)
A pinch of salt and pepper (for the savoury custard)
A grating or two of nutmeg (for the savoury custard)
Useful cookware: 24 cm Tourtiere (10 inch low profile pie dish)
PROCEDURE
Thinly slice the onions and discard the hard ends.
Preheat the oven (fan forced) to 200C (400F).
Melt the butter in a frypan on a high heat. Add the onions, a good grind of salt and pepper and the sugar (if desired) and on a medium – high heat cook for 20 minutes when they should be fully cooked (no crunch). Whilst they are cooking, make sure you regularly stir and toss the onions to prevent them from burning.
Roll out the pastry to about 3mm thick and a little larger than the Tourtiere or pie dish that you intend to use to make the tart in.
Roll the pastry into the dish, pierce the base with a fork a number of times and press the pastry onto the dish rim to help prevent shrinkage on baking. Put the dish into the fridge for 10 minutes.
Blind bake in the oven for 10 minutes with parchment paper and weights. Remove parchment and weights and bake for a further 3-4 minutes to give the base some colour.
Make the savoury custard by pouring the cream into a saucepan and whisk in an egg, salt, pepper and a grating of nutmeg.
Place the saucepan on a medium heat and continually stir the custard for 3-4 minutes until it is warm. Do not allow to boil.
Turn the heat off and mix the onions in with a wooden spoon.
Place enough meat to your liking on the base of the pastry and spread the onion custard mixture all across the meat. Dot the top of the tart with small cubes of butter and bake for 15-20minutes in the oven at 200C heat until the tart is topped with a brown crust.
Eat lukewarm and enjoy with a dry white wine.