Steve joined me for this challenge again but we weren't as organised as last time when we cooked together. I have, however, managed to persuade him to write up his own challenge so he will be guest posting here tomorrow.
This month Dom told us that we had to count along our bookshelf and choose recipe book number 18 and pick a random recipe from there. Our book number 18 was The New Penguin Cookery Book by Jill Norman. This is one of these very useful books that will have a recipe for just about anything traditional you care to look up. This would be an excellent book for someone learning to cook. And of course, although we do use it quite regularly, we haven't cooked a fraction of the many many recipes in here.
The page Steve randomly opened for me had some onion recipes on it. The first couple were side dishes and the last one was onion tart. I decided to go with the tart recipe so it would do a meal without too much thinking on my part! This is a recipe for a basic onion quiche. Nice, simple, family food and actually very tasty and satisfying. I made it even easier by using shop-bought, pre-rolled pastry. Well, I'm a busy Mum. The tart has gruyere in it so it is that classic "cheese and onion" taste - much yummier than the synthetic crisp taste! We served it with a leafy salad with balsamic dressing and I must say it was a rather delicious and satisfying meal. Adam ate all of his up. His little brother didn't even deign to taste it but he's going through a phase and hasn't actually really eaten anything in the past week or so. I still find it most soul destroying when a child doesn't eat what you have lovingly prepared for them. They both even sat and watched me make it and asked questions the whole way through. Oh well - one day I'll show him this blog post and he'll see what he missed. Hee hee.
Recipe -
Ingredients -
Shortcrust pastry (About half a packet of pre-rolled stuff)
100g butter
750g onions, sliced thinly
2 eggs
200ml double cream or creme fraiche (I used the creme fraiche and it worked well - wouldn't have noticed the difference)
70g grated gruyere
salt and pepper
Method -
1. Heat the oven to 190C/375F/GM 5.
2. Roll out the pastry thinly and line a 28cm tart tin.
3. Prick it with a fork and blind bake (Line with greaseproof paper, fill with baking beans, cook at 200C/400F/GM 6 for 10 minutes then lower heat to 180C/350F/GM 4 for another 5-6 mins.)
4. Melt the butter in a heavy frying pan and cook the onions slowly, covered, for about 30 mins. Stir from time to time to make sure they aren't sticking. The onions should be soft and pale gold.
5. Beat the eggs with the cream, stir in the cheese and season.
6. Put the onions into the tart, cover with the egg and cream mixture and bake for 30 mins.
Read about this challenge here if you want to join in.
