French onion tart

Now if we ever get the weather for going off for a picnic then this is the kind of thing that you want to take with you. It is I think a classic French onion tart that is so often made just an egg custard when what you really want to be doing is use an egg yolk to help set it but apart from that you make a Béchamel sauce, not an egg custard. Mind you having said that I am sure that there are lots of recipes that do use egg custards but this is not one of them.

You will need

1 small onion
1clove
450ml/16floz milk
2garlic clove
1 bay leaf
2 sprig thyme
A pinch grated nutmeg
55g/2floz butter
55g/2floz plain flour
350g/12¼oz shortcrust pastry
60ml/2¼oz olive oil
3 large onions
60ml/2¼fl oz dry white wine
2 sprigs parsley
1 egg yolk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
90g/3¼oz gruyère cheese

To make the Béchamel take the small onion, clove, one garlic clove whole, bay leaf, some of the thyme, a pinch grated nutmeg and heat them in the milk. This makes a lovely infusion of everything and flavours the sauce. Just bring it to the boil then take it off the heat and let it sit on the side.

Put the flour threw a sieve to remove any of the lumps. Now melt the butter in a pan and then add the flour a little at a time till all the butter and flour have come together making a yellow paste.

Pass the milk threw a sieve and discard the bits that are left, all you want is the milk. If you keep them in the milk the flavours become too strong and over power everything in the tart. Then start to add the milk a little at a time.  Keep working it all together to you have used all the milk then bring this up to a low boil, not to hard or it will burn and stick. And cook till it has fully thickened you want a smooth lump free sauce then just place it to one side. Put a greaseproof paper disc over the top of the sauce to stop a skin from forming

Now preheat the oven to 180c/350f and roll out the pastry to line a loose-bottom tart tin. Then you need to blind back the pastry for about 15 minutes then remove the backing beans and finish baking for another 3 to 5 minutes. What you want is a slightly coloured, light golden pastry case. Remove from the oven and let it cool on the side.

Now to make your filling slice the onions as fine as you can then crush the other garlic clove and add that to the onions. Now heats the oil in a frying pan until it is smoking hot, then add the onions and start to fry them together. Keep the onions moving so they do not burn, you want them to go nice and brown. Then add rest of the thyme chopped and the wine and let this reduce by half.

Now turn down the heat and add the béchamel, you will not need it all, how much rather depends on how much liquid has come out of the onions. What you do not use you can freeze and use for something else. Once everything has fully combined then take the mix of the heat.

Finally add the egg you and the chopped parsley and season with salt and pepper. Then tip this in to the pastry case. Now cover the tart with the grated gruyère cheese then pop this back in the oven or under a grill until the cheese has melted and gone a golden brown.

Now all you want is a good green salad and some chilled white wine and you have the making of a first rate picnic.