Saturday 16 March 2013

Caramelised Garlic Tart

I normally bake when I’m home alone, meaning that I have full decision making power in the kitchen and can choose to bake whatever I want from my books, magazines or To Bake list. However, last week these decisions were taken out of my hands as my Mum put in her requests for her Mother’s Day meal. For our main course she chose this Caramelised Garlic Tart, from Ottolenghi’s latest book Plenty. I love Ottolenghi’s shops and recipes but I don’t think this would have been a recipe I would ever have chosen on my own, despite its intro saying ‘‘I think this is the most delicious recipe in the world’ wrote Claudine after trying it out for me’. However, I’m glad that I did get to try it out as it certainly was delicious!DSCF9431It was maybe a little bit more involved than savoury recipes I normally do, but really I think it wasn’t that difficult and you can do parts of the recipe while other components cook. Anyway, the results were worth it! I’m not normally a big fan of goats cheese but I really loved this tart and I think it worked really well with the garlic. Speaking of which, garlic is definitely the predominant flavour – with 40 cloves (3 heads) of garlic it would be strange if it wasn’t! This sounded overwhelming, but after being blanched, fried and caramelised for 10minutes garlic loses its super intense flavour and becomes much more mellow, sweet and soft. Another unusual aspect of this tart was the puff pastry base – I’ve used puff for more rustic galettes, pies and turnovers but not pressed into a fluted tart tin. When you had to bake the case without beans the base completely puffed up but I just pressed it down and it was fine. I was slightly worried that when I went back to the finished tart the filling would be all over the oven floor, but it was all good! Overall, the tart definitely had an intense flavour and was rich but really good with a simple rocket salad on the side. You can find the recipe here and I strongly recommend you give it a try, even if like me it doesn’t sound like something you’d normally make. Enjoy!DSCF9438

7 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

This tart looks and sounds fantastic! I really love the idea of using caramelized garlic. Terrific!

Cheers,

Rosa

La Table De Nana said...

I bet it's fabulous..what a great daughter you are having made this for your mum:)

I have heard of 40 clove chicken..so I am not shocked:)
Thanks Lucy!

Ulla said...

Mmmm! This must be great tart. I love garlic and goat cheese too. Goes to my to-do list, definately. Thanks, Lucy!

The Caked Crusader said...

Oh yum - this looks amazing. I usually roast my garlic and love how sweet it goes. Plus goats cheese...this is one of my favourite ingredients!
Your mum has good taste

Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane said...

I love Ottolenghi too! I went to his cafe near Angel last week and the salads are delicious. I love the flavour of garlic and it seems to go so well in this dish.

By the way, hope to see you blogging about Feast next year then! Have you been to Brixton market? That's really cool too, with lots of small shops that do all sorts of food :)

Jo said...

40 cloves? Wow! That's a lot of garlic, but I love garlic. Never tried caramelising it before, clearly I need to branch out a bit with my cookery!

Dewi said...

Yummy! I'd never get tired of eating savory tart such as this delicious looking tart of yours.