Described with the aid of chef Simon Hopkinson as “a conventional amongst tarts”, this deliciously sweet recipe from Alsace-Lorraine is someplace between a quiche and a flammkuchen, a tangle of buttery, sluggish-cooked onions slightly held collectively by way of rich egg custard. When I first came across it, in an Alsatian eating place perched alternatively incongruously at the aspect of an Alp, I thought an onion tart sounded like a substitute dull. I’m no longer too proud to confess I was incorrect: the way to the alchemy that happens while this most, not unusual, yet least lauded of vegetables is given time to fulfill its capability inside the flavor department.
This dish is some distance greater than the sum of its elements. However, it’s not the most effective onion pastry inside the French repertoire – Provençal pissaladière and Flemish flamiche spring into thoughts. However, there is no doubt others – it’s my new favorite. More summery than Lancashire butter pie and less delinquent than pickled onion Space Raiders, that is a brilliant, vegetarian-friendly centerpiece for a spring lunch. However, I’d snap it up any time of day or year.
,The onions
Such cakes continually seem to be made with regular brown onions, in preference to the milder white or sweeter red kind. Still, achievement depends significantly on how those are prepared, as I discover my value when two disintegrate in a soggy mess underneath the knife. Though the methods are different, the fault, I decide, is equal for each: the onions are too wet. To be fair to Jane Grigson, her unique recipe, protected in her Vegetable Book, shows frying the onions in lard. However, she cautions because it’s “wealthy and filling, it’s nice eaten at midday if there may be a smooth belly within the circle of relatives.
One “way out is to blanch the onions in water for seven to 10 mins until they melt”. I can’t resist giving it a try, and, perhaps predictably, it’s a disaster. Though I drain them well, they leak moisture into the filling and prove regrettably bland, which Grigson describes as “a paler flavor.
