Tarte à l'Oignon (French onion tart)

I think I was only 12 or 13 years old when my parents took my sister and me on a holiday to Alsace in France. We stayed in the picturesque little town Riquewihr, famous for its old houses from the 16th and 17th centuries. And for the Riesling, a very tasteful white wine which is produced in Alsace. I remember that one morning we were invited by friends of my father and they offered us a large piece of delicious onion tart. Accompanied by a large glass of the best (and first!) Riesling I ever had. At 11 in the morning!
I found the recipe of the genuine Tarte à l'Oignon on the internet: Recettes Alsaciennes at alsace-vins.net. As usual I transformed the original recipe to an Aga-proof one.

This recipe is based on puff pastry. And because I dislike the deep frozen ready to use puff pastry you can buy in the supermarket, I always prepare some myself. Not the difficult way, but so-called rough puff pastry. This is how I do it:

 Ingredients:

- 250 g wheat flour

- 250 g cold salted butter

- 125 g ice cold water

- 4 g salt

Method:

Mix the flour with the salt and mix in the butter, which has been cut in small cubes (let the butter become ice cold for this: put it in the freezer for half an hour or so). I use my KitchenAid for this. What a perfect machine that is! When the mass is transformed to a substance that looks like bread crumb, you can add the water and transform it into a ball of dough. Don't knead it! Wrap it in plastic and put it in the fridge for at least half an hour. If it has not cooled down enough you can put it in the freezer for a while.

Put your dough on a lightly floured working surface and roll it out to a 10 x 30 cm rectangle. Fold the end which is closest to you over the dough for one third and fold the other end over it. Now you end up with a perfect(!) square. Turn the dough 90 degrees and repeat this process. Don't expect that this is an easy job! The dough will become better to handle later on...

Wrap your dough in plastic again and put it back in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Once the pastry has rested follow the rolling and folding process again; after half an hour in the fridge the pastry is ready for use. Now the moment has come to make your tart.

Ingredients:
- 600 g sliced onions
- 250 g bacon lardons
- 60 g salted butter
- 60 g flour
- 400 g cold milk
- 2 egg yolks
- salt, pepper, ground nutmeg

Method:
Bake the bacon lardons on the simmering plate for about 10 minutes and take the lardons out of the baking pan. Use the grease for baking the onions, slowly: they must not color, for also about 10 minutes. Mix the bacon and the onions and keep them warm on the warming plate. Now prepare a bechamel sauce: melt the butter on the simmering plate and when the butter is boiling add the flour. Stir well and let the mixture simmer for 5 or 10 minutes. Now add all the milk in one time and stir, stir, stir, until the sauce is cooking. Let it cook for some time until a thick and lumb free sauce forms. Keep stirring all the time. bring to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg and transfer the sauce to your working surface. Now first incorporate the egg yolks and after that the baked onions and the bacon.
Now put the puff pastry in a 24 cm spring form pan (greased and floured) and line bottom and sides. Fill the pastry with the bechamel/onion/bacon mixture and let it bake in the baking oven for at least an hour.
Bon appetit!

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Pain de Campagne

Last year I posted about baking a Pain Rustique (a rustic bread from France): a delicious farmer style bread that I bake very often. But last week I found a recipe on the net (the blog owned by Levine: Uit de keuken van Levine), which is called Pain de Campagne, which recipe is only slightly different. In the poolish there is also rye flour used and some honey is added to the final dough. In this recipe a little less water is used (60% hydration instead of 65%) and the poolish makes only 30% of the final dough, compared to almost 50% in Pain Rustique.
The result: the 'Campagne' has a softer crust and the the crumb is finer than the 'Rustiqe'. But they both taste great!

Poolish:
- 130 g flour
- 15 g full wheat flour
- 15 g rye flour
- 160 g water
- a teaspoon sourdough

The evening before baking the bread the poolish is made: mix the ingredients well and let it develop during the night in a mixing bowl, covered with plastic, at room temperature.
The next morning the final dough can be made.

Dough:
- the poolish 
- 325 g flour
- 130 g water
- 9 g salt
- 2 g dry yeast
- a teaspoon honey

Dissolve the honey in the hand warm water and mix the flour with the salt and the dry yeast. Add the water and the poolish to the flour and mix until the flour has absorbed all the fluid. Now take the 'dough to be' out the mixing bowl and put in on the working place for kneading. I use the Bertinet-method, only using my fingertips. I explained this technique in one of my previous posts: Sourdough Bread with Spelt. When the dough is ready (the kneading takes about 15 minutes), form a ball and transfer it to the mixing bowl for the first proofing. I use a plastic pedal bin liner for covering. Let it proof for about half an hour in a warm place (e.g. on a rack on the warming plate of the Aga). Take the dough out and do a full stretch-and-fold: check this instruction video on YouTube for this technique. Put the dough back in the mixing bowl for further proofing. After half an hour the dough should be doubled in size. If not, leave it to develop some more. Take the dough out, put in your working surface and flatten it to get the air out. Form a nice boule or batard, depending on the form of your proofing basket. I use a wicker proofing basket for this, as you can see on the photo. Put the dough upside down in the basket, with the 'ugly' side up.

Cover and let it proof for another hour, until doubled in size.

 Bake the bread (after scoring it with a razor blade) on a baking stone on the floor of the roasting oven, with a tin filled with hot water to create steam. After 2 or 3 minutes open the oven and spray water over the bread. Close the oven again quickly.
After about 25 minutes transfer the bread to the baking oven for about 15 minutes. Take it out and let it cool on a rack.
A detailled despcription about baking bread in an Aga, including the forming of a boule or a batard and scoring the dough you can find on my post about making Spelt Bread.

Bauernbrot mit Sauerteig (Farmer's Bread with Sourdough)

I have blogged about making bread from Italy, from France, from the Netherlands but I never posted about baking a bread where our neighbours should be proud of: a typical German farmer's bread, made with sourdough and almost no yeast. To make this wonderful tasting bread takes some time, but it doesn't need much work: most of the time the dough is developing in the refrigerator. I used my own rye-based sourdough, which I keep alive now for more than two years. You can find information about starting a rye-based sourdough culture in one of my previous posts. Two days before baking I've made a poolish in the evening:

Poolish:
- 100 g flour
- 15 g rye flour
- 115 g water
- a teaspoon sourdough

Mix the ingredients in a mixing bowl until a slurry mass forms. Cover the bowl (I use a transparent plastic pedal bin liner for this) and let it develop at room temperature during the night. The next morning the poolish is ready for preparing the final dough.

Dough:
- 300 g flour
- 40 g rye flour
- 150 g water
- 8 g salt
- 1 g dry yeast
- a teaspoon honey

Mix the flour with the salt and the dry yeast and add it to the poolish. Dissolve the honey in the water and add it to the dough. Mix it with a rubber spatula and take it out for kneading. This dough needs a lot of kneading! At least 15 or 20 minutes. In my post about making Sourdough Bread with Spelt you can find a detailed explanation of my favourite way of kneading.
When the dough is smooth and not sticking anymore to the working surface, transfer it to the mixing bowl, cover it with plastic and put the bowl in the fridge for 24 hours.
The next morning the dough must have almost doubled in volume. Take it out of the fridge and let it come to temperature in the kitchen for about two hours or longer (until it has doubled in size). Take the dough out, knead and fold it a few times and form a nice batard (or another shape, depending on the form of your banneton). Let the dough proof until doubled in size. This may take a few hours (I put the dough on a rack on the warming plate of my Aga and it takes 3 to 4 hours before it is ready for baking). Score the bread with a razor blade.
Create steam in your oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes on the floor of the roasting oven (240°C). I posted several times how to bake a bread in an Aga: I use a tile of Chinese hard stone for it on the oven floor. When the bread is brown enough to your wishes, place it on a rack high in the baking oven (180°C) for another 20 to 25 minutes.
Guten Appetit!

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Focaccia

Focaccia is a flat Italian bread which is usually seasoned with olive oil and some herbs, sometimes topped with onion, cheese and meat. The dough is similar in style and texture to pizza dough. The recipe of the focaccia I made I got from Ana y Blanca, who is mastering a fantastic Spanish foodblog: Juego de Sabores (Game of Flavors). Use 'the Blogs & Sites I like' for visiting her website. Ana uses a starter before making the final dough, which she allows only 15 minutes to develop. That's new to me, but I followed her in doing so. The result was great. Find my AGA way of making her focaccia below.

A few hours before making the focaccia prepare the olive oil: mix 30 to 50 ml of olive oil with a few crushed cloves of garlic and the leaves of one or two branches of rosemary.

Starter:
- 100 g flour
- 80 g water
- 2 g dry yeast
- a teaspoon sugar

In a medium bowl, whisk together the hand warm water, the yeast and the sugar. Add the flour and mix it until a smooth dough forms. Cover the bowl with plastic and place it on a rack on the warming plate of the Aga for about 15 minutes.

Dough:
- 400 g flour
- 200 g water
- 3 g dry yeast
- 10 g salt
- most of the olive oil (garlic and rosemary taken out for later use)

Add the hand warm water and the yeast to the starter and mix it well. Also add the olive oil. Then add the flour and the salt and stir until the flour has absorbed the fluid, using a rubber spatula. Now transfer the dough to the working surface. Don't dust it with flour and start kneading the dough the Bertinet way. This way of kneading is actually a constant stretching and folding the dough, using your fingertips. Check my post about Sourdough Bread with Spelt for a more detailed explanation. After 10 to 15 minutes of kneading the dough is ready for its first proofing. Put it back in the bowl and cover it with plastic (I always use a transparent plastic pedal bin liner for this). Let the dough proof on a rack on the warming plate for about an hour. It has to double in size.

Take out the dough, knead it and fold it a few times, flatten it and form a flat focaccia on the lightly floured working surface, using your hands. Transfer the focaccia to a sheet of baking paper and put this in a large baking tin. Grease the surface with the remaining olive oil and spread the crushed garlic and the rosemary leaves over it. Make holes in the surface by pressing the dough almost to the bottom using a fingertip. Cover the tin with plastic and let the dough proof until doubled in thickness on a rack on the warming plate of the Aga (it takes about an hour).

Prepare the roasting oven by putting a small baking tray containing some hot water on a rack high in the oven. Because baking bread means creating steam. Now transfer the tin with the proofed dough to the floor of the roasting oven and let in bake for about 15 minutes. When the surface starts getting brownish, transfer the focaccia to the baking oven for another 15 minutes. Let it cool down on a rack and eat it with butter and evt. some salt. This bread accompanies the slow cooked shoulder of lamb (my previous post) in a great way!

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Slow cooking: Shoulder of Lamb from the Aga

An Aga cooker is the best oven for slow cooking: preparing meat at a low temperature. As the temperature in the cooking oven is 80 to 100º Celsius, it is perfect for cooking a large piece of meat very slowly. Last week I obtained a lovely piece of lamb meat, a shoulder weighing well over a kilogram. Prepared the slow cooking way it tasted delicious!

Ingredients:
- a shoulder of lamb
- olive oil
- a few tomatoes
- a few branches of rosemary
- 5 to 10 cloves of garlic
- 5 to 10 shallots
- 2 glasses of red wine
- pepper and salt

Method:
I used a baking tin for preparing this dish. Heat the tin on the simmering plate and splash generously olive oil in it. Pepper and salt the meat and let it simmer in the tin for about half an hour. Turn the meat over a few times. In the meanwhile clean and cut the shallots and the garlic in large pieces. Add them and transfer the meat to the baking oven for at least half an hour for browning, Take it out a few times for turning the meat over. When the meat has turned brown enough, take it out and place it on the simmering plate again. Add the cleaned and cut tomatoes, the rosemary and the red wine.

When it comes to the boil, cover the tin with aluminium foil and place it low in the cooking oven, where the temperature is lowest. Let it 'slow cook' for a couple of hours, taking it out for turning the meat a few times. Serve with bread (pain rustique for instance) or baked potatoes.

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Timpano (Italian pasta dome)

Some time ago I watched television (which I seldom do) and a Dutch culinary chef introduced a typical Italian dish: the Timpano. The chef referred to the movie 'Big Night', in which there is a dramatic final dinner scene where a Timpano is served: a kind of drum made of pasta dough filled with layers of pasta, meat, sauce and eggs. Intrigued by the beauty of the result they showed on television, I started to scan the world wide web for recipes and made my own Timpano. This is how I did it....

Ingredients:
-  tomato sauce (recipe below)
- 15 small Italian meatballs (recipe below)
-  béchamel sauce (recipe below)
-  pasta dough (recipe below)
-  about 900 g baked sausages (I used a combination of pork and beef sausages)
-  about 800 g pasta, preferably penne rigate
-  6 boiled eggs (or 15 very small ones, which I get from my bantam chickens
- 300 g grated cheese (Parmesan and old Gouda cheese)
- nutmeg

Tomato sauce:
Make this great sauce the day before preparing the Timpano; it's getting (even) better the next day....
- 1 onion
- 15 whole cloves
- 4 tins peeled tomatoes (in my country a tin contains 400 g tomatoes and there juice)
- 170 g tomato paste
- 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
- a glass of red wine
- a teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- a teaspoon dried basil
- a tablespoon sugar
- olive oil
- pepper and salt

Cut the onion in 2 halves and  pierce the cloves into it. Let the onion simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes in a good splash of olive oil in a sauce pan on the baking plate. When browned and all the flavors are infused into the oil, remove them and put the garlic in the pan and sauté them for some minutes, until golden brown. Add the tomatoes, the paste, the herbs, the sugar, the red wine and pepper and salt. Bring it to a boil and transfer the pan to the simmering oven for about  an hour and a half. Take it out a few times for stirring. When ready, let it cool down for using the next day.

Italian meatballs:

Make the meatballs also a day before and keep them overnight in the tomato sauce.

- 900 g mixed ground meat (beef and pork)

- a large teacup breadcrumbs

- a lot of chopped fresh parsley

- a teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

- 80 g of the grated cheese

- 2 teaspoons salt

- half a teaspoon pepper

- a quarter teaspoon ground nutmeg

-  a large egg, beaten

- almost a teacup of warm water

Mix all the ingredients with your hands and form about 15 small meatballs. Put the meatballs in a baking tin (on a sheet of baking paper) and let them bake for about half an hour in the baking oven (turn them over after 20 minutes). Keep them overnight in the tomato sauce.

Béchamel sauce:
- 70 g butter
- 70 g flour
- 700 ml milk
- 2 teaspoons salt
- a half teaspoon nutmeg

In a medium saucepan, heat the butter on the simmering plate until it is melted. Add the flour and stir until smooth. Cook until light golden brown, 6 to 7 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the milk in a separate pan until just about to boil. Add the milk to the butter mixture 1 cup at a time, whisking continuously until very smooth. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and season with salt and nutmeg.

Pasta dough: 
- 325 g flour
- 170 g cold butter + 30 g butter
- 4 egg yolks
- a half teaspoon salt
- 125 g toasted breadcrumbs
- 30 ml olive oil
- 1 teaspoon ice water

Prepare the dough by putting the flour on the working surface and make a well in the top. Cut the cold butter into small cubes and place them in the center of the well with the egg yolks, the salt and the ice water. Mix well with the tips of your fingers to form a lumpy mass. Bring together as a dough and knead it for about 5 minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest a few minutes.

Now the great moment is there... building the timpano!
Roll out the pasta dough to a large circle, about 5 mm thick. Butter a large metal bowl (20 to 30 cm wide, I used a large pan) and dust it thickly with the toasted breadcrumbs. Line the bowl completely with the pasta dough, with an overhang which is large enough to cover everything when the timpano is filled with all the ingredients. Now cook your penne in enough water, 3 minutes less than the package instructions state. Drain the penne and refresh under cold running water until cold. Toss with some olive oil and mix 1/3 of it it with a large amount of the of the tomato sauce and half the grated cheese. Set aside.
Mix the rest of the penne with the béchamel sauce (you won't need all the sauce), the rest of the grated cheese and some nutmeg. Put it into the bowl, and press lightly.

Place 1/3 of the tomato sauce penne into the bowl and press lightly. Sprinkle with some of the grated cheese and arrange the meatballs on top in an even layer, and press down again. Sprinkle with more grated cheese. 

Now spread half of the remaining tomato sauce pasta over the meatballs and press down gently. Add a layer of the cooked sausages and the cooked eggs.

Repeat with a final layer of penne with tomato sauce.

Fold the extra pasta over the whole thing, and press gently to seal.

Let it bake in the baking oven for about 2 hours, halfway the beakingtime cover the top loosely with aluminium foil.

Remove from the oven, remove the foil, and invert onto a large serving platter, without removing the bowl. Allow to rest 10 minutes, then carefully loosen the pasta around the sides with a knife and knock with your knuckles to release the bowl.

Serve immediately, cutting the timpano into wedges to serve. Timpano is a great dish for a crowd with a side salad.

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Zucchini Tian (Tian de Courgettes)

We are having a wonderful summer in Holland this year and as a result of this my zucchini plants in the vegetable garden are producing more than we can eat or give away. So I am desperately looking for ways preparing meals containing zucchini. Last weekend I tried a recipe of the good old Elizabeth David, published in her book At Elizabeth David's Table - Her very best everyday recipes. We had a wonderful dinner! And I managed to diminish our constantly growing stock of zucchini.
I used different kinds of zucchini for it: round zucchini, yellow and green ones and a pattison. As usual I prepared (far) to much for two people and I am sure that the amounts I mention in the recipe below is more than enough for two...

Ingredients:
- 500 g (chopped) zucchini
- 500 g fresh tomatoes
- a tin of peeled tomatoes
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- some fresh basil
- a bunch of parsley
- 5 large eggs
- a handful grated cheese
- salt and pepper
- butter and olive oil
- nutmeg

Method:
Clean the zucchini and remove the seeds. Slice them in pieces (about 1 cm thick). Put them in a baking pan or casserole with a thick bottom and add some salt. Put the pan or casserole on the simmering plate and let the zucchini loose some moist. Stir them with a spoon several times. After about 10 minutes add 30 g butter and a splash olive oil. Put a lid on and transfer to the cooking oven for about half an hour.
In the meantime you can prepare the tomatoes: clean them, remove the stem in the middle of them and cut into pieces. Cut the onion and fry it gently in a baking pan on the simmering plate, using some olive oil. Add the tomatoes before the onion is getting coloured, add enough pepper and salt and the crushed garlic.Stir occasionally and let the mixture simmer until most of the moist has gone. Then add the canned tomatoes and the chopped basil and let the mixture simmer until it becomes a (more or less) thick sauce.
Now the zucchini should be ready. Mix them with the tomato sauce, cover with a lid or a plate when using a casserole and transfer to the cooking oven.
Beat the eggs with the grated cheese, the chopped parsley and season heavily with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Take out the zucchini/tomato mixture, mix it with the beaten eggs and put the 'tian to be' in a casserole which has been well oiled and let it bake in the baking oven for about an hour. When the surface is getting brownish, the tian will be ready for serving.
You can also let it cool down and eat it cold!

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Chicken Wings the 'El Bulli' way

No, I am definitely not trying to imitate the 'molecular gastronomy' way of cooking, invented by Ferran Adrià in his famous restaurant El Bulli in Roses, Catalonia (Spain). Adrià has been called the world's greatest chef: the Salvadore Dali of the kitchen. But he also published a book (the Family Meal) which has been given to me as a birthday present by my dear friends Ellen and Dorian. This book contains 93 recipes of meals which were not prepared for the guests of El Bulli, but for the staff. Every afternoon a meal was cooked for the 75 members of the staff and they enjoyed that meal before the guests arrived.
The chicken wings prepared the El Bulli way are my favorite: great for a meal, but also for serving (prepared in the morning and warmed in the baking oven) when friends arrive in the afternoon for drinking a glass.

Ingredients:
- about 20 chicken wings
- 30(!) cloves of garlic
- 350 g mushrooms
- a small bunch of thyme
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 glasses dry white wine
- olive oil
- some water
- pepper and salt

Method:
Cut off the wing tips and separate the remaining wing pieces by cutting through the joint. Put the wings in a large baking tin and add pepper and salt. Splash generously olive oil over them and bake the wings high in the roasting oven for about 40 minutes. 

Check them regularly and turn them over a few times so they get browned on all sides. Chop the garlic (it isn't necessary to remove all the skin, only remove the base of the cloves) and let them bake together with the wings for the last 5 minutes of baking time. Slice the mushrooms. You can use any mushrooms, depending on what's available. I love porcini (penny buns or cep), which we are picking in the autumn ourselves. When out of season, I use deep-fried porcini, or dried ones, which I soak in the white wine. Add the herbs and the mushrooms to the wings when they are browned, splash over the wine and some water and transfer the tin to the roasting oven again for about 20 minutes. 

Take it out a few times to mix all the ingredients and eventually you can use the baking oven for the last 5 minutes, until the mushrooms are well done. Buen apetito! 

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Torta Contadina alle Pere (Italian rustic pear tart)

A few months ago I posted a recipe about making a simple apple tart and I have had many reactions from friends who baked it: they were all excited. So when my friend Ellen sent me an email with a recipe about an (also) simple pear tart, I decided to bake it in my Aga. This recipe is also originally from Italy, published by Katie Caldesi (www.caldesi.com) in her book Mangiare!
The original recipe mentiones chocolate drops and pine nuts, which I left out, and I reduced the amount of milk, because I think the dough gets to wet otherwise. And I am using cold butter instead of butter at room temperature, because it makes a better dough. At last: I think that also sweet bakings need salt, which is not mentioned in the original recipe. The baking powder gives the baking a little salty taste, but I used also salted butter (as I always do).

Ingredients:
- 200 g flour
- 15 g baking powder
- 200 g granulated sugar
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 50 g milk
- 2 pears, peeled and cut in thin slices
- 100 g cold salted butter
- 1 vanilla bean, scraped out
- lemon zest (of a whole lemon)
- 80 g raisins

Ingredients

Ready for baking

Method:
For the amounts of ingredients mentioned above I use a round baking pan which measures 24 cms. Grease the side by using some melted butter and dust it with flour. Cover the bottom with baking paper.
Now mix the flour, the sugar, lemon zest, the scraped out vanilla and the baking powder, using a whisk. Add the beaten eggs and the milk and work it in using a rubber spatula. When the dough is becoming smooth, mix the raisins in. Now you can add the cold butter, sliced in small cubes. Just gently work them in using your spatula.
Poor the mixture in the prepared baking pan and push the sliced pears into it (arrange them nicely). Bake the tart for 35 to 40 minutes on a rack placed high in the baking oven.

NB: Aga-cooking is a kind of slow cooking. If you are using a 'normal' oven, 25 to 30 minutes on 180º C. will probably do.

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