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!

Klik hier om dit recept in het Nederlands te lezen. 

Savory Porcini Mushroom Pie

The porcini season has started at last. Our forests are harboring so many delicious mushrooms at the moment, and we are so fond of looking for (and picking) them! And our favorites are the porcini, or penny buns, or cep (in Dutch their name is eekhoorntjesbrood, which means 'bread for squirrels'...). At this time of the year we use them every day of the week for cooking a great risotto ai funghi, baking them for accompanying the meat, making gorgeous omelets with them, or we dry them on the warming plate of the Aga for later use.

Today, I have made a great savory pie.....
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 freezer for at least half an hour.
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 freezer for at least half an hour.
Once the pastry has rested follow the rolling and folding process again; after half an hour in the freezer the pastry is ready for use. Now the moment has come to make your pie.

Ingredients:
- 100 g peeled and chopped walnuts
- 3 chopped shallots
- 2 chopped cloves of garlic
- 200 g bacon in small strips
- (at least) 500 g sliced fresh porcini
- a splash of olive oil
- a bunch of fresh thyme, finely chopped
- a bunch of chopped parsley
- 4 eggs
- 150 g heavy cream
- pepper (and perhaps some salt)

Method:
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet on the hot plate and cook and stir the shallot in it until tender. Add the bacon and after a few minutes the garlic and the mushrooms. Now transfer your skillet to the simmering plate and let it cook until the mushrooms are reduced to about half. Season to taste with pepper (and perhaps some salt). Now put the mixture in a mixing bowl, add the walnuts and in case the mixture is very wet, poor most of the moist in the skillet again and let it reduce on the hot plate. Add the reduced moist to the mixture again and let it cool down a bit.

Now put the puff pastry in a 24 cm spring form pan (greased and floured) and line bottom and sides. Beat the eggs with the cream and the herbs, mix it well with the mushroom filling and poor the mixture in you pan. Use some left over pastry to make a nice looking pie and brush it with some egg. Put the pie high in the baking oven for an hour at least, until the crust is golden. Very often I keep it in the oven for an hour and a half and cover the surface with a sheet of aluminium foil, to prevent it fromm getting too brown.

Klik hier om dit recept in het Nederlands te lezen.