Darina Allen: This onion tart recipe is perfect for anyone who thinks they can't make pastry

Darina discovers new ways with pastry from visiting chefs

It’s such a joy to also be able to invite guest chefs to the cookery school once more. This week, we had three lots of excitement in our lives. 

Past Student Ben Fenton returned from the US to Shanagarry to celebrate his birthday at the Blackbird in Ballycotton and to tell the current batch of students about the microbrewery called Hop Yard All Works he has set up in Appleton, Wisconsin. The beer was fantastically good… 

On Thursday, Suzanne Nelson from Stissing House, the beautiful shaker house in Pine Plains, upstate New York arrived. Originally the pastry chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley in California and for a number of years, lead baker in Ken Forkish’s viennoiserie section at his bakery in Portland , she joined us as guest chef to share some of the secrets of a pastry chef.

It was so fun, Suzanne cooked six different dishes both sweet and savoury, guests favourites from Stissing House, all of which can be easily reproduced by enthusiastic home cooks. Each had an interesting twist, I particularly loved the spiced venison stew with apricots and prunes. The stew itself is rich and delicious, but the pastry really intrigued me. It was made with tallow or what we call dripping, a sort of hot water crust, super easy to make and perfect for those who have a block about making pastry. 

Dripping is easy to make yourself, just ask your local butcher for the suet from around the beef kidney, chop it up coarsely, render it slowly into a liquid in a low oven. Both dripping and tallow keep for months, and it’s packed with minerals and vitamins, particularly Vitamin B. It also makes the most delicious chips and roasties and dripping toast.

The pastry for the onion tart was equally interesting, but this time it was made with butter and pressed into the tart tin, another gem for pastry shy cooks. Suzanne likes to use red as well as white onions in her onion tart, but I was fascinated by the technique of adding the onions into the melted butter to pre-cook in three separate batches so there would be a difference of texture in the filling. 

I’ve also included this recipe for Suzanne’s maple syrup and walnut ice cream which we served in an ice bowl, surrounded by pink camellia flowers from the garden. 

Our third celebrity visitor this week was an eighteen-year-old baker Kitty Tait from the Orange Bakery in Watlington, whose story is equally inspiring. In her early teens, Kitty suffered from crippling mental health problems, and eventually found solace and satisfaction through breadmaking… 

Seven years later, eager customers queue all along the High Street in this little Oxfordshire town for the bread and pastries she and her dad and their little team of enthusiastic bakers make in the Orange Bakery.

Her bestselling cookbook Breadsong was published in 2022 by Bloomsbury Publishing. The students were totally inspired by her story of depression and recovery and her new enterprise KittyKit.

Suzanne Nelson’s Onion Tart

recipe by:Darina Allen

This is a brilliant pastry for those who think they can’t make pastry. The pastry keeps fresh in the fridge for 5-6 days.

Servings

8

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Cooking Time

 2 hours 10 mins

Total Time

 2 hours 25 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• Pastry

• 110g (4oz) butter, melted

• 70ml (scant 3fl oz) water

• 1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon salt to taste

• 400g (14oz) plain flour

• Onion Filling

• 6-7 medium onions (1.5kg/3lb 5oz) mix of red and sweet white onions (Vidalia if available)

• 100g (3 1/2oz) butter

• salt and freshly ground black pepper

• about 250ml (9fl oz) white wine

• 4 whole eggs

• 2 egg yolks

• 150ml (5fl oz) cream

• 50ml (2fl oz) crème fraîche

• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

• 2 tablespoons thyme leaves, chopped (optional)

• nutmeg

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6 (or 180°C fan)

2. Butter and line the base of the 30cm shallow tart tin
   
   Pastry

3. Heat the butter, water and salt for the pastry in a small saucepan until bubbling. Have the flour in a bowl, then tip in the bubbling butter. Mix until you have a ball that comes away from the sides of the bowl.

4. Put the pastry into the tin in blobs and press with your fingers until it covers the base and all the way up the sides, so it sticks out a little around the top – trim the edges if preferred. Prick all over with a fork, reserving any extra pastry for patching. Bake blind for 20 minutes until golden and crisp – after 15 minutes, press down with the flat base of a glass or 1/4 cup measure.
   
   Filling

5. Peel and thinly slice the onions.

6. Melt butter in a large cast iron saucepan and add a quarter of the onions, sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper, stir well to coat with butter. Cook for approx. 20 minutes on a low heat, stirring occasionally. Add one third of the wine and another quarter of onions and cook for a further 20 minutes repeating the process until all the onions and wine have been incorporated. Cook until completely soft and all the liquid has been absorbed, this will take an approx. 1 1/2 hours, pay closer attention towards the end so it doesn’t burn. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary, and a sprinkle of sugar to bring out the flavours of the onions. Take off the heat and leave to cool completely. Tip into the partly baked tart shell.

7. Lightly beat the 4 eggs + 2 yolks with the cream and crème fraîche, add salt and pepper and pour over the onions. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of chopped thyme if desired. Grate lots and lots of nutmeg on top.

8. Bake at 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 for 30 minutes until golden.

 

Suzanne Nelson’s Winter Venison Pie

recipe by:Darina Allen

The filling can be made several days ahead – rabbit can also be substituted for venison in season.

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 3 hours 40 mins

Total Time

 4 hours 0 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• Tallow Pie Crust

• 360g (scant 12 1/2oz) plain flour

• 225g (8oz) dripping (tallow) (rendered suet from beef kidney)

• 118ml (generous 4 1/4fl oz) water

• 1 teaspoon (5g) salt

• Venison Pie Filling

• 1kg (2 1/4lb) shoulder of venison, off the bone and trimmed

• sprinkle of salt

• 50-100g (2 – 3 1/2oz) dripping, bacon fat or butter

• 2 1/2 teaspoons black peppercorns

• 2 1/2 teaspoons coriander seeds

• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries

• 1 teaspoon ground or 1 blade mace

• 2 teaspoons ground or 1 stick cinnamon

• 450g (1lb) onions

• 1 tablespoon flour

• 450ml (16fl oz) beef or venison stock and/or red wine

• 200g (7oz) dried apricots, cut in large chunks

• 200g (7oz) dried prunes

• zest and juice of 1 orange

• Egg Wash

• 1 egg plus 1 yolk lightly beaten with a splash of cream

Method

1. For the Dripping Pie Crust, put the flour in a bowl, make a well in the centre.

2. Melt the beef dripping (tallow) and water together in a small saucepan, add salt and stir to dissolve, pour into flour, and mix to combine. Form into a ball, flatten into a round, wrap and chill until needed.
   
   Venison Pie Filling

3. Cut the meat into 2.5 – 4cm (1 - 1 1/2 inch) cubes and lightly salt.

4. Allow to rest for 15-20 minutes while the remainder of the ingredients are prepared.

5. Peel and slice the onions.

6. Leave the apricots and prunes whole unless any are larger than a reasonable bite size, in which case cut in half, combine with the orange juice and zest.

7. Grind the whole spices in an electric spice grinder or with a pestle and mortar and mix with the already ground spices.

8. Melt the dripping (tallow) or butter in a wide cast iron frying pan and have ready a lidded casserole to cook the meat in the oven. Brown the meat in batches on a high heat and transfer to the casserole. Deglaze the pan with a little stock and add to the venison. Add the spices, onions and flour to the frying pan and cook for a minute or so more to bloom the spices. Add the stock and wine, bring to a simmer. Stir in the dried fruits, orange juice and zest and pour over the venison in the casserole.

9. Bring to the boil then transfer to the oven 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 2 for 2 1/2 – 3 hours until the meat is very tender. Taste and adjust seasonings and allow to cool completely.

10. Put into the pie dish or individual dishes.

11. Roll out the tallow crust and drape over the top of the well filled pie dish. Crimp the sides, make some decorative holes in the top. Egg wash.

12. Bake 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7 for 20 minutes then lower heat to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 for 20 minutes. The pastry should be nicely golden on top.

13. Serve immediately.

 

Suzanne Nelson’s Maple Walnut Ice Cream

Based on a recipe by Wolfgang Puck. This ice-cream base benefits from curing for up to 3 days, giving a fluffy ice-cream.

Servings

8

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Cooking Time

 30 mins

Total Time

 45 mins

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• 475ml (17fl oz) maple syrup

• 475ml (17fl oz) milk

• 475ml (17fl oz) double cream

• pinch of salt

• 8 egg yolks

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 200g (7oz) walnuts (halves or very coarsely chopped pieces)

Method

1. Place the maple syrup in a pan over a medium heat, bring to the boil, lower the heat to avoid the maple syrup boiling over and/or scorching and reduce by half (approx. 235ml/8 1/2fl oz). Cool completely.

2. Meanwhile, heat the milk and cream together with a pinch of salt and when hot, gradually add to the egg yolks whisking all the time. Continuing to stir, bring the mixture to 76°C/170°F to custard (use a thermometer). Add the vanilla extract.

3. Add in the reduced maple syrup, stir well and strain into a container, cover and chill for 24 hours.

4. Adjust with a little vanilla extract and more salt if needed before churning (spinning). Transfer from the container into a big wide bowl, stir in the walnuts and freeze again for a further 24 hours before serving.

Merry Mill 

On a recent visit home, I discovered Laois Taste, a countywide food and drink group with 25 members and growing… I got so excited at The Merry Mill in Vicarstown where Kevin Scully grows 100 acres of organic oats. Top quality gluten-free oat flakes, cold milled for maximum flavour and nutrients right there on the family farm. I bought a sack full on the spot.

See www.themerrymill.ie 

Sweets for your sweet 

At Temptation Chocolates and Café self-taught twin sisters, Kate and Ruth O’Hara make luxury Irish artisan chocolates meticulously hand made from superb ingredients.

See www.temptationpatisserie.ie