Slow and simple

On Friday we commemorated Harvey's birthday in fine style. I knew our mutual friend was bringing some magnificent beef for the main course, and a fine red to go with it, so I decided to splash out on Harvey's favourite entree - a dozen Bluff oysters. With them we had a very dry white Waimea wine I brought back from my trip to Nelson, made from a grape variety I'd never come across before: grüner veltliner.
            The oysters, of course, didn't require me to do anything, but it was also my job to come up with the veges to go with the beef. I made a potato gratin using stock instead of milk - it looked gorgeous with its overlapping thin slices, but I didn't take a photo, dammit - and a big yellow pepper, charred over the gas, put in a plastic bag so its skin would come off easily, then sliced and softened in the oven.
             These two went very well with the red onion confit I made that morning in the slow cooker. I haven't done it this way before, but it worked perfectly, and it was great to be able to leave it without worrying about it catching and burning. I adapted it from the caramelised onions recipe in Great Ideas for Crockpots and Slow Cookers, by Fiona Willison (2004).

Red onion confit
4 red onions, peeled and finely sliced
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large or 2 small sprigs of rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

Turn the slow cooker to high and allow it to warm for 20 minutes.
Put all the ingredients in the warmed cooker. Cover and cook for 2 hours on high. Take the lid off and cook for another 2-3 hours until the onions are very soft. Check seasoning and adjust if necessary.

If you have any left over, it's very good warmed through and served on little pieces of toast, either on its own or alongside breakfast bacon. ( I haven't yet tried the amazing recipe on Hungry and Frozen for a kind of "jam" combining bacon and onion, but I can imagine it...)
               After all that, we had a suitably restrained dessert brought by another friend - a little cheese, then some delicate orange jellies (the recipe was from What's for Pudding). It was a beautiful evening, and I was grateful.

Tarted up for lunch

I had a brilliant time in Tauranga - you can see some pix on Elsewoman - and it's been very busy since I got back. On Wednesday Harvey's brother Bruce and sister-in-law Margaret came up for the day from Methven to see him, so I wanted to make something tasty for lunch. I remembered a very good Harriet Harcourt recipe for potato, brie and onion tart. It's from a book called Mission for Entertaining, a fundraiser for Wellington City Mission, with a great collection of recipes from the capital's top chefs, caterers, restaurateurs, food retailers and food writers.
          A friend gave it to me for Christmas two years ago, and it's proved very useful. It has one excellent feature which is notably lacking in every one of the lavish new celebrity cookbooks I've looked at recently. There are no pictures, but the recipes are clearly printed in black on white, so you can read them easily while you're cooking.
           Now isn't that a novel idea! Without exception, the new books by Jamie, Nigella, Annabel et al. feature coloured or grey type, often in quite a small font size, printed on coloured backgrounds or even over photos, making the recipes difficult and in some cases impossible to read. Obviously the designers don't cook - or at any rate, not from these books. And I won;t be cooking from them either.
             So, to the tart. I cooked the potatoes and the onions the night before, making it very quick to assemble next day. And (forgive me, Harriet) I added a bit of chopped lean bacon on top as well, because I had some and thought it would be good - and it was. This is more substantial than the usual quiche, so it worked very well for hungry people who'd left home about 5 am to get here.

Potato, onion and brie tart (slightly adapted from Harriet Harcourt's recipe - hers serves six, mine serves four)

Two sheets of savoury shortcrust pastry
About six small gourmet potatoes, each cut into 4-6 even chunks depending on size (no need to peel them)
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 large onions (or more small ones) thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves
2 Tbsp grainy mustard
125g round of brie, cut into smallish chunks (I sliced it in half horizontally before cutting it up, and didn't use it all because I had bacon as well)
2 rashers of lean bacon cut into small pieces (optional)
2 large eggs
150 ml creme fraiche
salt and pepper

*Heat oven to 200C and lightly butter a 27 cm flan dish (I use one with a loose bottom)
*Use one sheet of pastry to line the flan dish and the other, cut into strips, to join to the edges and neatly cover the sides of the dish. Put the pastry lined dish into the fridge for 15 minutes. (I used to skip this bit, until I discovered that the pastry then shrank down the sides of the dish and didn't hold the filling properly.)
* Put potatoes in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 8-10 minutes until just cooked. Drain and allow to cool slightly.
* Gently heat oil in a non-stick frypan, add onion and cook gently for 2-3 minutes until soft. Add crushed garlic and half the thyme leaves and cook for another 3 minutes. Take off the heat and leave to cool slightly.
* Take pastry lined dish out of fridge and spread the mustard over the base.
* Spread the onions over the mustard.

* Scatter over the pieces of potato, then add the pieces of brie and (if using) the bacon.
* Beat together the eggs and creme fraiche, season with salt and pepper, and pour carefully over tart.



* Sprinkle with the rest of the thyme and bake for 25 minutes until golden and set.
* Serve warm with a simple salad.

Onion tart

If I had to give up all kinds of vegetable save one, I'd keep the onion family. I once knew a woman whose husband refused to eat onions, and she had a really hard time working out what she could cook without them.
         Last week I had a special friend coming to lunch, and decided I'd make an onion tart. It's another of those accommodating dishes that are best served warm, rather than piping hot. I used a recipe I've been making for years, from my trusty Pauper's Cookbook (that's the other good thing about onions, they cost so little and keep so well). The recipe says you can add cheese on top at the end if you like, but I think it tastes better made with just onions, eggs and cream.
          I did make my own pastry this time - with reasonable though certainly not brilliant success, so I won't even try to give a recipe for that. Commercial savoury shortcrust pastry is fine, and using ready-rolled sheets makes it easier still. But these need to be bought and used up quite quickly, so they don't turn into the ancient, brittle freezer relics mine sometimes become.
           Some of my friends swear by a ceramic dish but I prefer metal. My flan tin is good because it's got a loose bottom, but it's a bit too wide and a bit too shallow, I think I need a deeper one.
            The onions take quite a long time to soften, so if you want this for lunch or an early dinner, it pays to cook them the night before. It might work well to do them in a slow cooker, but I haven't tried this.

Alsatian onion tart (after Jocasta Innes)
4 medium or 2 large brown onions (white is better if you can find them)
30g butter (or a bit more)
2 large or 3 smaller eggs
2 tbsp plain flour
75g (1/4 of 300g bottle) cream
Savoury short-crust pastry to line a 20-25 cm flan dish or tin

* Finely slice the onions, getting rid of the tough outer skin. Cook them gently in a shallow pan over a low heat, with just enough water to stop them ctaching, until they are soft and tender and transparent. They should not brown. Stir in a generous lump of butter and leave them to stew a few minutes longer. (You can do all this ahead of time.) Leave them in the pan.
* Set oven to 220C. Defrost the pastry if necessary.
* Lightly but thoroughly butter a flan tin and line it with the pastry.
* If you cooked the onions earlier, warm them gently through, then turn off the heat. Beat the eggs and stir them into the cooked onions. Add salt, freshly ground black pepper and 1-2 tablespoons of cream.
* Spread the onion mixture evenly over the pastry, spoon a little more cream evenly over the top, and bake for 20 minutes at 220C. Turn the heat down to 180C and cook for another 25-30 minutes, until the pastry edges look golden brown and crisp and the filling is golden and nicely set.
* Leave the flan to cool a little. If possible remove it from the tin and transfer it to a warm plate for serving, otherwise serve it from its dish.
This goes well with either a warm green bean salad or a plain green salad with a slightly sweetish vinaigrette dressing, and some crusty bread.