Classic Combination: French Onion Tart

This is an absolute winner. The ingredients are so cheap it's ridiculous, and takes no more technical skill than drinking a beer. It's a basic dish but easily sophisticated enough for a dinner party. The secret is in two things - firstly, make your pastry very short, and allow it to chill overnight. Secondly, when sweating down your onions, really do take the time to ensure they have softened fully, and just started to caramalise. This recipe uses Gruyere, but you could easily substitute for a mature Cheddar. Alternatively, you could use a blue cheese and add some rosemary to the onion mixture for something a little different. Serve with a warm potato salad and some salad leaves. Brilliant for lunch!

French Onion Tart
For a 12 inch tart tin

Ingredients:
300g Plain Flour
150g Cold Butter, cubed
A pinch of Salt
Ice-cold water

1kg sliced Onions
Two good pinches of grated Nutmeg
2 egg yolks
150ml Creme Fraiche
125g Gruyere, grated

Method:
1. Add flour, butter and salt to a food processor. Blitz until you reach what looks like bread-crumbs. Now add just enough cold water to bring the mixture together. It should be firm, not sticky. If it is, add more flour and repeat. Remove, wrap in cling film and leave in a fridge overnight.
2. The next day, remove the chilled pastry and line your tin. Roll the pastry to a thickness of roughly 5mm. Now transfer the pastry by wrapping it around the pin, and unroll (is that a word???) it over the tin. Tuck in the edges and trim off any excess. Return to the fridge to cool again.
3. Meanwhile, add your sliced onions to a pan with 50g butter and some olive oil. Sweat, but do not brown. You want them to reduce to an oozing, oniony, sweet, gorgeous pulp. This will take a while, be patient.
4. After 20 minutes of waiting, "blind bake" your pastry by lining it with greaseproof paper and weighting that down with some dried beans. Place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees. This is very important - you need to look for the pastry seeming "cooked" - thereby ensuring crunchy pastry later. Remove and cool.
5. By now the onions should be finished. Add nutmeg, cheese, egg yolks and creme-fraiche. Mix thoroughly, taste and correct seasoning. Add to the cooled pastry case.
6. Now put the whole thing into an oven at 180 degrees until the top is browned and the mixture has set.

Classic Combination: Brandade

A few weeks ago I ate some salt cod croquettes at a Pizza place in Washington, and on the back of this had a few enquiries about how to make 'Brandade' - a classic Provencal dish which is also based around salt cod. I've only eaten it twice, once in France and once at home after I found this great recipe in one of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's books. As he says, it "hit many oral pleasure spots" (!). However, it is a cheat version, as it utilises either smoked cod or smoked haddock - far more appropriate for the home cook. Sometimes you shouldn't be too sanctimonious, I mean, how many of us have got 48 hours to soak their salt cod? It's indulgent - save it for a cold evening in front of the fire with a bottle of white and a loved one.

Smoky Cheaty Brandade by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Serves 4 as a main course, 8 as a starter

Ingredients:
500g smoked cod or haddock, poached for five mins in whole milk then left to cool
500g peeled, boiled potatoes, mashed
Olive Oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Double Cream
Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper

Method:
1. Pick over the poached fish, discard any bones.
2. Sweat your garlic in the olive oil, don't let it colour.
3. Pound the fish with the oil and garlic in a pestle and mortar. Or gently blitz in a food processor.
4. Add 2 tablespoons double cream, and the same amount in olive oil. Repeat blitzing/pounding.
5. Transfer to a bowl and combine with the mashed potatoes.
6. Spread into an ovenproof dish, bake for 15 mins at 190 degrees centigrade, or until piping hot.
7. Serve with good, thin toast and a green salad.