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1
Preliminaries.
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2
Cook the caramelized onions.
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3
See Steps 16 onwards.
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4
Cut the butter into 1cm dice and chill it well.
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5
If you are using a frozen puff pastry, take it out of the freezer.
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6
Sift the flour, salt and sugar together.
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7
(Skip this part if you're using frozen puff pastry.)
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8
Put the Step 2 mix and chilled butter in a bowl and use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour.
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9
Add cold water and form into a ball of dough.
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10
If you use a food processor for Step 3 it's very easy.
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11
(Freeze the diced butter.)
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12
Put the Step 3 dough on a work surface and roll it out with a rolling pin.
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13
Cut in half, layer the halves, and roll out.
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14
Repeat this 3 times.
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15
(It's the same as when you are making scones.)
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16
Roll out the dough so that it's a bit bigger than the tart pan.
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17
(If you are using frozen puff pastry, roll it out to fit the pan in the same way.)
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18
Put the dough on the tart pan, and press it into the corners of the pan carefully so that there are no gaps.
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19
Cut off the excess dough.
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20
Pierce the bottom of the crust with a fork.
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21
Line the crust with a piece of parchment paper, and put in some pie weights.
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22
Bake for 20 minutes in a 200C oven.
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23
Remove the pie weights and bake for another 3 minutes.
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24
I don't brush the crust with egg yolk and bake it again (this is often done to strengthen the crust).
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25
Since the crust will be lined on the bottom with the caramelized onions, there's no need to do this in this case.
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26
While the crust is baking, cut the stem ends off the shimeji mushrooms and shred them.
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27
Cut the pancetta into thin strips.
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28
Saute both in a small amount of oil.
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29
(Add black pepper to taste.)
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30
When the tart crust is baked, line the bottom evenly with the caramelized onions.
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31
Add the Step 11 saute and finely chopped up cheese evenly.
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32
Mix the ingredients together and pour it into the tart.
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33
The amount of I've listed will fill the tart up to the brim.
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34
Be careful that it doesn't spill out when you move the tart into the oven.
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35
Preheat the oven to 180C, then lower the temperature to 160C.
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36
Bake for 40 minutes.
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37
(I topped it with some shredded Italian parsley.)
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38
When the tart has cooled down a bit, take it out of the pan.
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39
Sprinkle with cayenne pepper and parsley to taste.
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40
You can use any other delicious melting cheese instead of the Gruyere cheese.
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41
You can also mix several types of cheese.
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42
To make the caramelized onions: Put water in a cup or bowl, and have a teaspoon ready.
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43
Slice the onion thinly with the grain as shown.
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44
Put the sliced onion in a sturdy plastic bag or a heatproof container, and microwave at 600w for 5 minutes.
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45
Drain into a sieve (it's hot so be careful not to burn yourself).
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46
Put the oil in a frying pan and saute the onions.
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47
Add a little salt, and start cooking over high heat to evaporate the moisture quickly.
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48
When the moisture is gone, lower the heat.
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49
Keep sauteing while making sure not to let it burn.
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50
If the bottom of the frying pan starts to brown, add 2 teaspoons of the water that you prepared in Step 16 on the browned part.
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51
Mix the water with the onion, and continue sauteing.
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52
Keep adding water and sauteing repeatedly, about 5 to 6 times, until the onions have caramelized.
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53
The brown bits on the frying pan is the sugar that comes out of the onion.
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54
By mixing this back in to the onions, they will become beautifully browned and caramelized.
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55
Warning: If they get black and burned, they will be too bitter to use.
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56
It does take effort, but please cook the onions with care.
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57
With this method, I reduced the usual cooking time of 50 minutes to 25 minutes.
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58
I pre-cooked the onion in the microwave, but another way to cut down on the cooking time is to slice the onions, put them in a single layer and freeze them to bread down the fibers before sauteing them.
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59
There are several ways of cutting down the cooking time I think, but do saute the onions with care.
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60
If you saute them as in Step 21, they will become really sweet and delicious.
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61
They will decrease to 1/5 the volume.
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62
The amount of liquid filling needed with varies depending on how much you saute the onions.
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63
Please adjust accordingly.
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64
Adjust the amount of cheese to taste too - use between 80 to 100 g.
