Every year on the 25th December my mom goes all out for Christmas Dinner: Turkey, Sausage, Sage & Onion Stuffing, Mash, Sprouts, Cranberry Sauce, followed by a traditional Christmas Pudding with an extremely alcoholic sauce. The pudding is usually courtesy of a very close family friend and, as you may know, has to be made two months in advance. As you might remember from a previous post, I actually assisted in the making of the Pudding this year. Of course one can’t just spend a whole afternoon making dessert on an empty stomach – the Chef de la Cuisine decided to whip us Pudding helpers something up for lunch. At first I was very sceptical when the menu was announced. Honestly, I am not the biggest fan of goat’s cheese. Nonetheless I decided to be adventurous and tried the tart – and LOVED it so much that I had to remake it a week later. E voilà.   P.S. The Medical Gourmet’s (mom’s) Christmas Dinner Recipe will follow in a years time…. I got so excited about eating two nights ago I completely forgot to capture the moment photographically. Something for all you out there to look forward to :-).

Caramelised Onion, Goat’s Cheese and Thyme Tart

makes a 20cm tart

You’ll need
for the Pastry
180g flour
90g cold butter
2 pinches salt
1 egg, beaten
15ml cold water
for the Filling
25ml olive oil
150g goats cheese, ripped roughly into small pieces
3-4 large onions, halved and sliced
1 large pinch of caster sugar
balsamic vinegar
1-2 pinches of thyme leaves
2 eggs
50ml milk
50ml cream
ground paprika,
a pinch ground nutmeg, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste

1. For your pastry: sift together the flour and salt. Rub in the butter until you have bread crumbs. Add your water and about 2 tsp of the beaten egg and combine until you have dough. If you feel it is too dry, add more of the beaten egg. Be careful not to overwork (whatever that means, must ask a professional chef once). Wrap in cling film and chill for 2 hours.
2. For your onions: heat the oil in a medium pan. Add the onions, the sugar and a dollop of balsamic vinegar. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions have browned and taken a sweet flavour. This can take about 30 mins, so bring some patience into the kitchen. If the heat is too high and your onions start burning, turn it down.
3. Once your onions are sweet and brown, stir in the thyme leaves, take away from the heat and set aside to cool.
4. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan. Roll out your pastry and line a 20cm tin with it. Once the onions are cooled, fill the case with them. Roughly cut the goat’s cheese into slices and spread evenly over the onions.
5. For the filling, whisk your eggs in a bowl. Add the cream, milk, paprika, nutmeg, salt (be generous – don’t be afraid!) and pepper and mix thoroughly. Pour into the tart tin over the goats cheese.
6. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown and the filling has set (ca. 30-40 minutes). Enjoy warm or cold with a fresh seasonal salad.

Rating: 7.5/10

I had a little issue with salt, respectively didn’t add enough, when I made it, so minus points for that. But it has great potential – definitely worth trying.