Goat's Cheese and Balsamic Red Onion Tartlet

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Ingredients

For the onions:

• 1kg red onions, finely sliced
• 200g goats cheese (I love to use Silke Cropps goat’s cheese from Cavan which you can buy in the Temple Bar Market on Saturday mornings)
• 25g butter
• Thyme leaves
• Salt & Pepper
• 6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• Dash of Port
• 1 dried chilli
• Some Olive Oil

For the cheese pastry:

(If you are pushed for time, or simply can’t be bothered, you can buy very good pastry, in pre rolled sheets from the freezer, from Dorset Organic Pastry Company. This is available in Fallon & Byrne, in Shortcrust or Puff, and it’s delicious…or you can make your own and add some extra flavours like cheese and cayenne…however delicious the Dorset stuff is, be in no doubt that the homemade variety will blow it completly out of the water….)

• 75g butter
• 175g plain flour
• 50g strong cheddar cheese grated
• ½ level teaspoon mustard powder
• Pinch cayenne
• 1 egg, beaten

Method

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C).

You will also need eight 3½ inch (9 cm) diameter x 1 inch (2.5 cm) high mini flan tins, greased, and a 5 inch (13 cm) pastry cutter or plate to cut around.

Onions:

First make the onions. Slicing these is a bit of a pain in the neck, try and get someone else to do it for you!! If you must do it yourself, wear a pair of gloves, those ones we use for putting on fake tan or dying our hair are the best. Otherwise your hands will be a little purple from the onions.

Heat the oil and the butter, and throw in all the onions. Best to use a wide heavy based pan/pot. Any of the VIKING casseroles will do the trick nicely. You will need to keep these on a very low heat, without being covered. Season and throw in the chilli. You’ll be removing this at the end, just using it now to give a little kick to the onion Jam. Add the balsamic vinegar and a dash of port. This cooking will take about 45 minutes and the onions will have melted down to a lovely jammy consistancy. Remove the chilli.

Pastry:

Make up the pastry by rubbing the butter lightly on to the flour, then adding the cheese, mustard and cayenne plus just enough cold water to make a smooth dough. Then place the dough in a polythene bag to rest in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. After that, roll it out as thinly as possible and use a 5 inch (13 cm) cutter, or a saucer or something similar, to stamp out 8 rounds. Line the greased tins with them, then bake in the oven, centre shelf, for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is cooked through but not coloured. Then cool the pastry cases on a wire rack and store them in an airtight tin until they are needed.

When you are about to seat your guests you can assemble your tarts and get them into the oven.

Brush a little beaten egg on to each pastry case, pop them back into the oven, same temperature as above, for 5 minutes – this helps to provide a seal for the pastry and helps it from becoming soggy. Now spoon the onion mixture into the cases. Top each one with a slice of goats’ cheese. Finally sprinkle with a little cayenne and bake for 20 minutes.

Serve on a large white plate sitting atop some dressed watercress or wild rocket.

Drizzle the plate with some good olive oil. Serve some tomato chutney on the table.