Caramelised Garlic Tart

You know what I wish I was familiar with sooner?

Caramelised garlic.

Gently blanched. Slowly cooked. Sticky with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Fragrant with rosemary and thyme. Almost candy-like garlic.

A dear friend recently sent me a few cookbooks as a wedding gift, one among which was a book that’s been on my wishlist for a while: Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. If you’ve hung around here awhile, you’ll know that I’m quite smitten by the Ottolenghi cookbook (his first cookbook). I went into a bit of a tizzy when I finally went to Ottolenghi (the restaurant – photos!) in London this summer.

Standing at the counter at Ottolenghi is a bit like Pick ‘n’ Mix for adults. One, it’s just as bright and colourful, if not more. Two, you can’t decide what you want when faced with the enormous task of  picking enough to fit your box. And three, you always want more. Arjun and I filled our boxes after excitedly pointing out at whatever we wanted – farro salad, potato wedges, caramelised broccoli, stuffed bell peppers, mixed green beans and peas with confit garlic, chives, sesame seeds and chard and aubergine with arugula pesto.

We got our white boxes filled to the brim, bought a punnet of raspberries from the supermarket across the road and walked down to Hyde park, where we sat on the lush green grass and enjoyed a fun meal under the sun. Everything was packed with flavour! Without a doubt, one of the best meals in London. Actually, one of the best meals. Period.

Back to Plenty. Leafing through the pages of the cookbook, I saw a photo of a tart filled with garlic and instantly bookmarked it. Today, a friend and I got together to make that recipe and ended up making an entire meal around it (she made one heck of an apple and fennel salad, and I can’t wait to try and replicate it).

The caramelised garlic is soft with a layer of unctuous reduced balsamic vinegar. I can imagine mashing it over toast, spreading it, and topping it with a bit of goat cheese. Oh, yum yum.

This caramelised garlic tart is pretty mind-blowing. Even if you aren’t a garlic fan (though I can’t imagine why). Next time, I’ll make sure I pull out my bigger tart pan.

Caramelised Garlic Tart

This recipe lends itself beautifully to a bit of experimentation. You can pick the type of cheese you want. I was just wanting to finish off the dozen cheeses I have sitting in my fridge. I also halved the recipe to fit a smaller pan, and that worked well. If you don’t have  crème fraîche , double the quantity of cream used. You can also use shortcrust pastry dough in place of the puff pastry.

Serves: 8
Adapted from Plenty (USA | UK | India)

Ingredients:

400g /13 oz puff pastry (if you have extra, you can just layer it on the sides for added crunch)
3 heads of garlic, peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
1tsp balsamic vinegar
1 cup water
3/4th tbsp sugar
2 tsp thyme and rosemary, chopped
120g / 4 oz soft cheese (creamy goat cheese)
120g / 4 oz hard cheese (gouda, gruyere, etc)
2 eggs
6 1/2 tbsp cream (heavy, light, Amul)
6  1/2 tbsp crème fraîche

Equipment: Fluted tart pan – 11 inch round  or a rectangular one.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/350F.
2. Roll out the puff pastry and line the tart pan with it. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
3. Pop the tart pan into the oven with dried beans used as weights.. this is important because you don’t want the puff pastry to puff up so much that there isn’t any room for the filling. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the beans and then cook for an additional 10 minutes until golden. Once done, set aside to cool.
4. For the caramelised garlic – put the garlic cloves in a small saucepan and add enough water to  cover it entirely. Let it simmer for 3-4 minutes, then drain completely. Heat the pan again, add the olive oil and fry the garlic cloves in it on a high heat for a couple of minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and the water and bring it to a boil. Turn down the heat, and let it simmer for another 15 minutes or until all the liquid has evaporated and you’re left with a garlic cloves with a shiny glaze. Set aside.
5. For the custard – Whisk together the eggs, cream, crème fraîche, salt and pepper in a bowl.
6. To assemble the caramelised garlic tart – scatter whatever cheese you’re using and the garlic on the bottom of the tart. Pour the custard over it and bake it in the oven at a reduced temperature of 160C/325F. Bake for 25-30 minutes, turning the pan halfway through baking.
7. Serve warm or cooled.