ROASTED BEETROOT CARAMELISED ONION AND ORANGE TART TATIN

Garden Grown Food

This was such a sweet pleasure to cook and eat from the vegetable garden, lots of excitement wondering down the garden looking for the biggest beets to pick then the earthy sweet roasted beetroot smell from the oven filling the kitchen, followed by anticipation when tossing the beets with the orange zest, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and layering with the caramelised brown sugar red onions then all enveloped under a deep layer of rough puff pastry, baked and turned upside down to serve, finished off with crumbled goats cheese, thyme sprigs and orange zest this was a triumph from the garden.

This recipe has a brilliant and super speedy rough puff pastry recipe, that delivers a great rise and lightness with minimal effort, not something I often do but on this occasion I was super tight on time and this pastry delivered on all points.  This now questions experimenting on my long slow efforts versus short cuts which I generally avoid…interesting…

The history, well the story behind this famous tatin is the sister Stephanie was making a apple tart but forgot to line the tin with the pastry, so not wanting to waste the apples she just laid the pastry on top of the apples, baked and turned the tart upside down to serve and so the famous tart tatin was created!

Prep time 15 minutes / 1hr 30 minutes cooking baking time

Ingredients 

(serves 3-4)

Tart Tatin

7 large beetroots

1 orange juiced and zested

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Himalayan sea salt 

Fresh ground black pepper 

1 red onion

1 tbsp dark brown sugar

100g crumbly goats cheese

3 fresh thyme sprigs for decoration

The Rough Puff Pastry

400g plain flour

200g cold butter cubed

150ml ice cold water

1 tsp sea salt

1 beaten egg wash

Pre heat your oven 200 C / 410 F

First place your trimmed top and tailed beetroots in the oven to roast for 40 to 60 minutes until a knife just slips in softly. Then Gently peel the skins off.

Meanwhile…make the rough puff pastry, roughly and lumpy rub the butter into the flour, you still want small lumps not breadcrumbs, add the salt and water, mix and just bring the dough together, wrap in parchment paper and rest in the fridge for half an hour, while the pastry is resting caramelise the onions, add a dash of olive oil to a pan, gently pan fry the onions for 10 minutes then add the brown sugar and caramelise for a further ten minutes stirring occasionally.

In a large bowl place the olive oil, orange juice, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper and once the beetroots are peeled toss in and coat.

To assemble the tart tatin, choose a cast iron or non stick frying pan around 6-8” place your caramelised onion in first, then assemble your beetroot, now this is personal, whole, halved, presentation round side up or flat side up, sliced or quartered?  Just remember the base will be the top! place the pastry lid on top and gently tuck the edges down and around tucking all the edges down towards the base of your pan to create a hugged pastry case.  Brush the beaten egg over the pastry, bake in the oven for approx 30 minutes until golden and all puffed up.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool for five minutes, don’t leave much longer before turning the tart out as the brown sugar cools it gets caramelised sticky and can prevent the tart from coming out of the pan.

To turn out place a board or plate over the pan and turn over, gently tap to release the tart, decorate with the crumble goats cheese, orange zest and sprigs of thyme, enjoy.