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Posts Tagged ‘Onions’

Cheese & Onion Tart

Posted in Cheese, Food, Uncategorized, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , on 22 February 2024| 1 Comment »

Our new year’s resolution is to make more tarts and conquer our pastry fear which is largely due to lack of practice. We’ve started with this tart filled with melting onions and cheese. Serve with a green salad.

Wine Suggestion: we paired this with a wine that opitimises a balance between freshness, richness, minerailty and fruit: Soalheiro’s Alvarinho. Fresh and elegant with tropical fruit flavours cut with a minerally saltiness balances the cheese. Plus the sweetness to the slowly cooked onions complements the richly layered fruits in the wine.

Cheese & Onion Tart – serves 6

  • a sheet of short-crust pastry (we were so enthusiastic that we made our own but really no need)
  • 1 egg, beaten

FOR THE FILLING:

  • 5 large brown onions
  • 50g butter
  • a small glass of white wine
  • a few sprigs of thyme, leaves picked
  • 120g cheese, the original recipe suggests Comté (we used a mix of Comté, Cheddar & Gruyère), coarsely grated
  • 150ml full-cream milk
  • 3 eggs

Thinly slice the onions and add to a pan with the butter, seasoning well with salt. Cover with a lid and cook slowly for 30 minutes, stirring regularly, until sweet and very tender. It’s find to let them caramelise a little but don’t let them burn. If there is a lot of liquid in the pan, remove the lid and allow this to bubble off. Add the wine, allow to cook off, then turn the heat off and allow to cool.

Lightly flour a cold surface and roll the pastry out to 3mm thick. Lift into a 25cm loose-bottom tart tin and use a little piece of dough to press the pastry into the tin and leave an overhang around the sides. Prick the base with a fork and chill in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 170C fan.

Line the pastry with baking parchment and fill with baking beans or rice. Put the tin onto a baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is firm. Remove the beans and paper, brush with egg and return to the oven for another 10 minutes, until golden. Trim off any excess pastry with a knife.

Put 100g of the cheese into a bowl with the milk, cream, eggs and thyme and mix together. Season well, then add the onions and mix again. Pour most of the mixture into the pastry case but dont fill all the way to the top. Make sure the onion is evenly spread, then place into the oven. Carefully pour in the remaining mixture, making sure it doesnt overflow. Sprinkle with the reserved cheese and bake for 30 minutes or until the top is caramelised and the middle has set. Leave to cool for 15 minutes before serving.

(Original recipe from The Farm Table by Julius Roberts, Ebury Press, 2023.)

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Dublin Coddle

Posted in Food, Irish Food, Pork, Potato, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 20 February 2023| Leave a Comment »

We’ve never tried Dublin coddle, mainly because it tends to be served with anaemic sausages. In this recipe by Neven Maguire you brown them; a far more sensible approach altogether.

Wine Suggestion: This dish works perfectly with a Grenache blend. For us this time, a current favourite as they’re drinking so well, Romain Roche’s Côtes du Rhône. So well balanced and smooth, but with a warmth of sunshine and gentle, velvety spices.

Dublin Coddle – serves 4 to 6

  • 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
  • top-quality pork sausages – 2 per person
  • 2 onions, sliced
  • 150g dry-cured bacon lardons
  • 1 tbsp plain flour
  • 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
  • 4 carrots, sliced
  • 750g potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (use a mandoline if you’ve got one)
  • 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 400ml chicken stock
  • 15g butter
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Heat half the oil in a large casserole dish and brown the sausages on all sides. Transfer to a board and cut each sausage into three chunky pieces, then set aside.

Add the rest of the oil to the pan and sauté the onions and bacon for 6-8 minutes, until lightly golden. Stir in the flour and thyme and cook, stirring, for another minute. Add the sausages, carrots and half of the potatoes. Season generously, then shake to get everything even in the dish.

Turn off the heat and arrange the rest of the potatoes on top. Stir the Worcestershire sauce into the stock, then pour over the potatoes. Dot with the butter and season.

Cover the casserole with a lid and bake for 1 hour, then remove the lid and cook for another 30 minutes or until the topping is tender and golden brown. Scatter over the parsley to serve.

(Original recipe from More Midweek Meals by Neven Maguire, Gill Books, 2022.)

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Oyster Mushroom Noodles

Posted in Food, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on 20 November 2022| 1 Comment »

Ixta Belfrage’s book, Mezcla, is full of genuinely new dishes with lots of flavour combinations that we’ve never tried before. These mushroom noodles are a great example. We used a mix of oyster mushrooms and ceps which worked well, but oyster mushrooms are definitely the way to go here. You can make the sauce ahead of time if you like.

Wine Suggestion: It’s not only mushroom season, but it’s Beaujolais Nouveau week too, so we had the luck of matching this dish with a bottle from our friend Chris. The Lapalu Beaujolais Villages Nouveau was smooth, dark fruited and earthy.

Oyster mushroom noodles – serves 2 as a main very generously

  • 200g fresh medium egg noodles (if you have dried egg noodles, cook them first)
  • 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest and 2 tbsp juice
  • 10g chives, finely chopped
  • 10g dill, picked from the stems
  • créme fraîche or sour cream, to serve

FOR THE MUSHROOMS:

  • 400g oyster mushrooms
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • ½ tsp fine salt

FOR THE SAUCE:

  • 40g unsalted butter
  • 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to serve
  • 2 onions, very finely chopped
  • ¾ tsp caraway seeds
  • 1¼ tsp fine salt
  • 2 cloves of garlic, finely grated
  • 500g chicken stock or veg stock
  • 2 ½ tsp English mustard
  • 5 tbsp double cream

Preheat the oven to 200C fan/220C.

Tear the mushrooms in half. Line a large baking tray with parchment, add the mushrooms, oil and salt and toss with your hands, then spread out over the tray. Roast in the oven for 22-25 minutes, stirring halfway, or until golden-brown and starting to crisp at the edges. Set aside.

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Put the butter, oil, onions, caraway seeds and ¾ tsp of fine salt into a large sauté and put over a medium heat. Gently fry for about 12 minutes, stirring regularly, until soft and caramelized. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and continue cooking for another 5 minutes, you are looking for deep golden-grown but not burned or crispy. Remove half the onions onto a plate and set aside. Add the garlic to the pan and fry for 1 minutes, stirring, then remove the pan from the heat.

Add the stock, mustard, cream, ½ tsp of fine salt and lots of black pepper to the pan with the onions. Stir, then add half of the roasted mushrooms. Return to a medium heat and cook for 4 minutes. Stir the noodles into the sauce and cook for 3 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened slightly and the noodles are hot.

Stir in the lemon juice and half the herbs. Transfer to a warm platter and top with the rest of the herbs, the lemon zest and the mushrooms and onions that you set aside before. Spoon over some crème fraîche or sour cream and finish with olive oil and black pepper.

(Original recipe from Mezcla by Ixta Belfrage, Ebury Press, 2022.)

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Hake with Slow-Cooked Onions and Tomato Salsa

Posted in Fish, Food, Gluten-free, Spanish, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 25 August 2022| Leave a Comment »

This recipe is from The Spanish Home Kitchen by José Pizarro who cooks from the heart. It takes a little while to cook but is so simple and delicious. It would also be easy to cook when camping if that matters to you. As José says, this is the comfort dish that his mother would cook … need we say more.

Wine Suggestion: Spanish inspired, but off the beaten track is a Garnacha Blanco from Terra Alta (quite possibly one of the best places in the world for Garnacha of both colours alongside Chateauneuf du Pape … although quite different in style). If you can stretch to an old vine expression like this you’re in for a treat. For us tonight an easier, fresher style with Edetària’s “via Terra” which is charming with layers of fresh stone fruit, nuttiness and salinity. It tastes both of the earth, sunshine and fresh cooling breezes.

Hake with slow-cooked onions and tomato salsa – serves 4

  • 100ml olive oil
  • 3 large onions, finelly sliced
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 150ml white wine
  • 150ml vegetable stock
  • 4 hake fillets (200-250g each)
  • a handful of basil leaves

FOR THE TOMATO SALSA:

  • 500g ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
  • ½ small red onion, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp capers, chopped
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Heat the oil in a deep sauté pan with a lid. Add the onions and season well with salt and black pepper, then cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes. Cover with the lid and cook for half an hour until really soft but not coloured.

Meanwhile, mix all of the salsa ingredients together in a bowl, then season well and set aside to mingle.

Add the wines to the onions and bubble for a minute before adding the stock. Simmer, uncovered for 10-12 minutes then seaon the hake fillets and nestle them into the onions. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover with the lid and leave to cook for 10 minutes. Turn the heat off and rest for 2-3 minutes.

Spoon the salasa over the fish and onions, then scatter the basil over before serving.

(Original recipe from The Spanish Home Kitchen by José Pizarro, Hardie Grant Books, 2022.)

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Turnip with Crispy Bacon & Onion

Posted in Food, Gluten-free, tagged , , , , , , , on 28 March 2021| Leave a Comment »

This is barely a recipe but it is an excellent way to serve turnip, which you may refer to as a swede. For clarity, we’re talking about the large orange-fleshed variety. We served this on St Patrick’s Day with some Irish stew but it’s lovely with sausages or on the side of a roast dinner. We’ve posted this before but it’s definitely worth mentioning again. 

Turnip with Crispy Bacon & Onion – serves 4 to 6

  • 900g turnip, peeled and cut into 2.5 cm chunks
  • 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 50g rindless piece of smoked bacon, diced
  • butter

Cook the turnip in lots of salt water until tender when pierced with a knife. 

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and sauté the onion and bacon until crisp and golden. 

When the turnip is tender, drain and allow to dry, then roughly mash with a generous lump of butter. Season with salt and lots of black pepper. 

Serve in a warm bowl with the crispy bacon and onion on top. 

(Original recipe from Neven Maguire’s Complete Family Cookbook)

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Potato, Onion and Horseradish Gratin

Posted in Food, Potato, Side dish, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 25 September 2020| 1 Comment »

We served this tasty potato dish with feather blade steaks braised in port and it would be good with other roast or braised beef dishes.

Potato, Onion & Horseradish Gratin – serves 4

  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 100g butter
  • 3 onions, thinly sliced
  • a bunch of fresh thyme, remove the leaves from half
  • about 900g of large floury potatoes, sliced very thinly (a mandolin or food processor is best for this)
  • 4 tbsp horseradish sauce
  • 300ml beef stock

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.

Heat the oil and 25g of the butter in a large frying pan. Add the onions and season well with salt and pepper. Cook for about 30 minutes, stirring regularly.

Meanwhile, put the stock into a saucepan with a small bunch of thyme and bring to the boil. Cook for a couple of minutes, then remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Strain into a clean pan and keep warm.

Put the sliced potatoes into a large bowl with the thyme leaves. Melt the remaining 75g of butter and pour this over the potatoes and season well. Toss with your hands to coat the potatoes in the butter.

When the onions are cooked, stir in the horseradish sauce. Spread a third of the potatoes over the base of an ovenproof dish (20cm square is about right). Spread over half the onions and a third of the beef stock. Cover with another third of the potatoes, followed by the rest of the onions and a final layer of potatoes on top. Pour over the remaining stock, then cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for another 30 minutes or until golden.

(Original recipe from Marcus Everyday by Marcus Wareing, HarperCollins Publishing, 2019.)

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Rabbit with Onions & Rosemary

Posted in Food, tagged , , , , , , , , on 11 March 2018| Leave a Comment »

Rabbit with onions and rosemary

A rustic French dish with meltingly tender rabbit. Serve with the lamb’s lettuce salad (included in the recipe) and some roasted baby potatoes.

Wine Suggestion: This goes great with with a nice Cabernet Franc from the Loire, like a Saumur or Chinon if the weather is bright and warming up for Spring. Alternately we love the richer, more velvety wines of La Clape in the Languedoc if it’s a cooler Winter day.

Rabbit with onions & rosemary – serves 6

  • 2kg rabbit portions
  • 1 tbsp plain flour
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 large onions, sliced
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tbsp chopped rosemary
  • 600ml white wine
  • 425ml chicken stock
  • 200g chestnut mushrooms, halved
  • 6 rashers streaky bacon, thinly sliced
  • chopped parsley to serve

FOR THE LAMB’S LETTUCE SALAD:

  • 140g lamb’s lettuce
  • 1 shallot, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 2 tbsp olive oil

Season the rabbit joints on both sides and sprinkle lightly with flour.

Heat 3 tbsp of the oil in a large heavy pan, then quickly fry the rabbit in batches over a high heat to brown all over. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add the rest of the oil to the pan and fry the onions over a medium-high heat for about 10 minutes or until browned. Return the rabbit to the pan with the bay, rosemary, wine and stock. Cover and cook for 50-60 minutes or until the rabbit is soft.

Add the mushrooms and cook for another 10 minutes, then taste and season.

Meanwhile, grill the bacon until crispy, then break into chunks. Sprinkle the rabbit with the bacon and parsley before serving.

To make the salad: 

Tip the lettuce leaves into a large bowl. Mix the shallot, vinegar & mustard, then set aside for 10 minutes. Add some salt and pepper, then gradually whisk in the oil until the dressing has thickened. Toss with the lettuce just before serving.

(Original recipe by Mary Cadogan IN: BBC Good Food Magazine, March 2008.)

Rabbit w onions & rosemary

 

 

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Onion & Taleggio Tart

Posted in Cheese, Food, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , , on 27 February 2013| 1 Comment »

If you have some ready-rolled puff pastry in the freezer and a few leftovers in the fridge you can make an easy and delicious tart for supper. My friends might have been more impressed if they hadn’t seen me assemble it in 3 minutes flat before turfing it into the oven! Try this with anything you fancy on the top, though a bit of cheese is a must.

Onion & Taleggio Tart – to serve 4

  • 6 smallish onions
  • 50g butter
  • a sheet of ready-rolled puff pastry (about 200g)
  • 120g Taleggio
  • thyme

Peel the onions and cut into wedges. Put them into a shallow pan with the butter and cook over a fairly low heat until they are soft, golden and sticky. This will probably take about 40 minutes or so.

Heat the oven to 220ºC/Gas 7. Unroll the pastry onto a lightly floured baking tray. Score a border about 2cm from each edge and prick all over with a fork.

Tip the onions on to the pastry, pushing them almost to the border. Brush the rim with some melted butter or some of the onion butter if there is some left in the pan. Slice the cheese thinly, then break it into small pieces, and distribute these through the onions. Scatter over some picked thyme leaves. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden.

Serve with a green salad.

Wine Suggestion: this calls for a white wine from the mountains: try an oaked Chardonnay from the Jura or if you want something amazing look out for the “Vigna della Oche” Riserva from Fattoria San Lorenzo in the Marche, Italy; a fantastic and truly amazing Verdicchio – a white wine that lasts a decade or two and just becomes more and more complex and complete.

(Original recipe from Nigel Slater’s Appetite, Fourth Estate, 2001.)

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Hot Diggity Dogs!

Posted in Food, tagged , , , , , on 21 September 2011| 4 Comments »

Great mid-week feeds don’t need to be complicated. These are just hot dogs but made more tasty by adding a few extras you probably already have in the cupboard.

Hot dogs with mustardy onions to serve 4

  • 8 good-quality pork sausages
  • 2 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 2 onions, thinly sliced
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 4 part-baked mini baguettes
  • 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
  • large pinch brown or muscavado sugar
  • 2 tsp wine or cider vinegar
Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.

Put the sausages in a non-stick baking tray and bake for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the onions and mustard seeds for 10-15 minutes or until soft and golden.

Brush the sausages with maple syrup and return to the oven along with the baguettes. You should turn the oven up now to 220C/200 fan/gas 7 and cook for another 5-8 minutes or until the sausages are dark and sticky and the baguettes are cooked.

Stir the mustard, sugar and vinegar into the onions until the sugar has melted. Cut the baguettes open, stuff two sausages into each one and pile on the mustardy onions.

Reminds us of Halloween!

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

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Super sides for last night’s stew

Posted in Food, Side dish, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , on 23 May 2011| 1 Comment »

We like leftovers and at the same time we don’t cause it means we don’t get to cook anything new for dinner. Our way around this is to cook some tasty side dishes which we often neglect in favour of the main event.

We picked up some new season ‘blue danube’ potatoes, carrot, chard (or Silverbeet as Jono would say), and onions at the market on Sunday and made two tasty treats to brighten up the leftover peposo (see post below).

New potatoes and onions – to serve 2

  • 15g butter
  • 2 onions, halved and sliced fine
  • a big sprig of thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tbsp olive ol
  • 3oog cooked new potatoes, cooled and sliced thick
  • a large handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped fine
Heat the butter in a shallow pan and cook the onions on low, with the thyme and bay leaves, for 20 minutes or until very soft.
Turn the heat up to medium and cook for another 5 minutes or so to make the onions golden and sticky.
Add olive oil and add the sliced potatoes. Fry for 10 minutes until golden (they won’t crisp up much because of the onions but they’ll taste good).
Just before serving toss in parsley and season.
(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)
Jono’s Silverbeet and Carrots
  • Swiss chard (silverbeet)
  • Carrots
  • Butter
Rinse the chard and remove the stalks. Chop the stalks coarsely and cut the chard into ribbons, as you would cabbage.
Simmer some chopped carrots in a small amount of water and a good knob of butter for about 10 minutes. Add the chard stalks and cook for another 7 minutes. Add the ribbons of chard for the last 3-4 minutes. Season well and drain off any excess liquid.
(Original recipe Jono)

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Greek Feast – Stifado

Posted in Beef, Food, Greek, tagged , , , , , , on 7 November 2010| 3 Comments »

This was so easy and super tasty. All the prep can be done before your friends arrive and then it just simmers away and makes the house smell lovely. Serve with steamed potatoes.

Warning: The meat is supposed to be marinated for 24-48 hours – I only realised this on Saturday afternoon so mine was marinated for about 5 hours – still was fab.

Moshari stifado (Veal Stifado but we used beef) – Serves 6

  • Make a marinade from: 120ml olive oil, 250ml dry red wine, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 3 bay leaves, 20 black peppercorns, 10 allspice berries, 4 garlic cloves.
  • Add 1kg stewing beef pieces, turn to coat, cover and let marinate in the refrigerator, turning occasionally, for 1 to 2 days.
  • Blanch 2kg small pearl onions or shallots in boiling water for 1 minute, drain and peel.
  • Heat 250ml olive oil in a large heavy pan over a medium heat. Add onions in batches and cook each batch for 8 – 10 minutes until lightly browned all over. Remove each batch with a slotted spoon.
  • Remove meat from marinade and strain liquid into bowl – reserve the flavourings
  • Add meat to pan used to cook the onion and cook for about 8 minutes until lightly browned all over.
  • Pour in reserved marinade and season with salt & pepper. Add 2 of the bay leaves, 6 of the peppercorns and 6 of the allspice berries.
  • Add 750ml puréed fresh or canned tomatoes (we used pasatta). Cover, bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.
  • Add the onions and 3 of the reserved garlic cloves. Recover and simmer for 1.5 hours until meat and onions are tender and the sauce is very thick.
  • If the sauce has not reduced enough, remove meat and onions with a slotted spoon and then boil the sauce rapidly. Stir meat and onions back in before serving.

Julie

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