Denise says:
These impressive little tarts taste delicious with a spoonful of your favourite chutney. I have added poppy seeds to the pastry to give it texture. The secret to the best caramelized onions is to cook them slowly over a low light. If you cook them fast they will burn and taste bitter.
Make the pastry in advance or even freeze it raw and complete the recipe at a later stage.
Preparation Time: 35 minutes plus 30 minutes chilling time
Cooking Time: 50 minutes
Serves: 12 people
Ingredients:
For The Pastry225g plain flour
Pinch of salt
100g unsalted butter
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
Cold water
For The Filling
2 tablespoons olive oil
500g onions – peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons dried cumin
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
450ml double cream
2 tablespoons fresh chives - snipped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Garnish
Bunch of fresh chives, 12 tablespoons of chutney
225g Bag of mixed salad leaves
Olive oil – to drizzle over lettuce leaves
Method
1)Place the flour, salt, butter and poppy seeds in to the food processor and process. Add a little water so that the mixture forms a dough. Wrap the dough in cling film, slightly flatten and refrigerate for 30 minutes.2)Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan. Sauté the onions, cumin, garlic and brown sugar on a low heat for about 20 minutes or until nicely caramelized.
3)Pre-heat the oven to 200 C/ 400 F/ Gas mark 6.
4)Turn out the pastry on to a lightly floured work surface. Cut the pastry in half and roll out. Using a 10 1/2 cm cutter stamp out 6 circles. Roll out each circle so that it is now 12 cm diameter and fits into the individual pastry loose based pastry 7 ½ cm tins. Press the pastry into the tartlet tin and line with foil and insert baking beans. Do the same with the remaining pastry.
5)Bake the tartlets for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and baking beans.
6)Carefully spoon the onion mixture into each tartlet.
7)Whisk the eggs, cream and chives together. Season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Pour some of this mixture in to each tart.
8)Bake for 30 minutes or until set.
To serve the Stylish way: Garnish with chives and serve with a spoonful of chutney on a bed of mixed leaves. Drizzle over some olive oil over the salad leaves just before serving.