Carmelized Onion Goat Cheese Tart

Every now and then I open up the freezer and decide what can stay and what most go. I do this mostly so I can close the freezer door.  Where does it all come from?  Anyway, I found a sheet of puff pastry left over from the holidays and knew it must be used.  One cannot let a piece of delicious puff pastry go to waste.

As I had just finished watching the wonderful movie, Julie and Julia, I was in the mood to cook something French and chose to make a sort of French tart with caramelized onions and goat cheese.  This is a extremely simple dish to put together and the results are superb.

Caramelized Onion Goat Cheese Tart

3 ounces goat cheese, crumbled into small pieces
1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed at room temperature
1 large onion, cut into thin slices
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste
Olive oil
1 egg beaten with a Tbsp of water or milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Roll out puff pastry until it's approximately 14 inches long and 8 inches wide.  Put on ungreased baking sheet.  With a pastry brush, paint around the edges of the pastry and then fold the edges over approximately 1/2 inch.  Put baking sheet in refrigerator while cooking onions.

Put approximately 1 Tbsp. of olive oil in a heavy saute pan and heat.  Cut onion into thin slices. Put in saute pan and cook, stirring frequently until they are a dark golden brown. Season with salt and pepper.  Let cool slightly. 

Distribute onions over cold puff pastry.  Top with crumbled goat cheese then Parmesan cheese.  Drizzle entire thing with some olive oil.  Brush edges with egg wash.   Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until puffed and golden brown.

Funions Funions, Oh Oh Oh

Today with our plain, run of the mill hamburgers, I made some out of this world onion rings. I saw Ina Garten of the Barefoot Contessa show making this recipe with one of her ever so attractive gay men who are forever hanging out with her. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against gay men, in fact I am envious she has so many attractive gay men to hang around with. I too use to hang around attractive gay men when I was single and living the urban life in Seattle, oh so many years ago.

But I digress. The onion rings. They were very good and crispy, with a great flavor thanks to a shake of cayenne pepper I added in addition to the salt and pepper that Ms. Garten calls for. You do have to be committed to deep frying with a substantial amount of oil which is somewhat troublesome, what with all the grease which manages to fly all over the kitchen. Also, you have to watch these things like a hawk because they are done in a flash. Well worth the effort though, if I do say so myself.Onion Rings

1 large sweet onion

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1 pint of buttermilk

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup finely ground corn meal

Vegetable oil

1 large dutch oven

Cut the onion in 1/4 inch slices and separate into rings and put in a bowl. Cover with buttermilk and add seasonings and stir the rings around in the milk. This can be done several hours in advance. When ready to fry, heat the oil to 350 degrees. Mix the flour and corn meal together in a shallow dish and dip the buttermilk coated onions in the flour then carefully put in a single layer in the oil. Monitor the oil temperature with a candy thermometer and adjust the heat as necessary to ensure it stays around 350 degrees. Fry and turn the rings until they are nicely browned on both sides. Place the finished rings on a paper towel lined cookies sheet and finish the rest of the onions in batches. The finished product can be kept in a 200 degree oven for up to 30 minutes and still remain crispy good.