The White Ramekins

food & photography

Cherry Tomatoes & Caramelized Onion Tartlets

by

This weekend remained quite happening that I almost felt that I have been on a vacation for long. Started with a get together with friends on friday evening, followed by a historical tour of Delhi and shopping on saturday and finally baking these delicious and flavor-packed cherry tomatoes and caramelized onion tartlets on Sunday.

I started with rolling the puff pastry at home, rather than buying it from the shop, as I had a full day at my hand. You may use the store bought pastry if you are short on time. The ingredients are really basic ones but the end results are really flavorful, that you almost feel like having a blast of flavors in your mouth at the very first bite of these.

Ingredients

Yields 4 Tartlets

Tartlets

150 gm Puff Pastry {recipe follows}

1 red onions finely sliced

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

100 gm cherry tomatoes halved

2 cloves of garlic minced

a bunch of fresh basil leaves

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

salt

freshly ground pepper

Puff Pastry

150 gm plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

80 gm frozen butter

70 ml cold water

Instructions

Tartlets

  1. Roll out the pastry into a 6″ X  6″ square. With a sharp knife cut into 2.5″ squares
  2. Score a tiny border about 1/4 cm along the inside edge, taking care not to cut right through. Place on parchment lined baking tray and chill for about 30 minutes.
  3. Gently sauté the finely sliced onions in 1tsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil until golden brown and caramelised. keep them aside.
  4. Toss the halved cherry tomatoes with the basil, garlic, 1 tbsp olive oil, vinegar, salt & pepper. Let them macerate for about 10-15 minutes.
  5. Preheat oven to 200C. Take pastry out of fridge. Divide the caramelised onions between the bases, ensuring they stay within the scored edges.
  6. Toss the tomatoes and top the onions and sprinkle over some more salt.
  7. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and puffy. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Puff Pastry

  1. Sift the flour and salt. Grate 40g of the frozen butter into this and mix lightly.
  2. Add the cold water, using a knife, stir the flour and water together until a dough begins to form.
  3. Now use your hands to bring it into a ball {You might need a little more water}. Press into a neat square, wrap it in cling film, and chill for 30 minutes.
  4. Roll out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle with a long edge 3 times its width. Grate the remaining butter and spread it evenly over 2/3rds of the rectangle.
  5. Take the third which is not sprinkled, and fold it over the middle of the buttered part, then fold the two layers over the remaining single layer. You will be left with 3 layers of pastry and 2 layers of butter separating them.
  6. Turn the pastry by 90 degrees. Dust with flour and roll out into same proportions as first rectangle.Take one of the short sides and fold it over to reach the middle of the remaining part of the pastry. Fold the remaining third on top of the first one to get 3 layers on top of each other.
  7. Wrap pastry in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.
  8. Repeat again 2 more times, and chill for at least an hour. The pastry will keep in the fridge for 4 days, and in the freezer for a month.

Strawberry & Apple Crumble

by

Last weekend was about adieus and good byes. Adieu to the birds migrating to India and to strawberries, the seasonal fruits of spring. As the winters are departing and summers are approaching, those guest species of birds from the countries in the northern hemisphere return to their home.

I have been visiting this bird sanctuary, Sultanpur National Park, every year from past three years, along with my friend. An early morning visit to this birds natural home is so refreshing and soothing to my ears and eyes. We are lucky that it is just at a distance of 15 KM from my home. November to early march is the best time to go see those birds. And we didn’t want to miss our chance to say them goodbye.

And a recipe with strawberries which matched up to the theme of the weekend was this light, healthy, low on fat and refreshing Strawberry & Apple Crumble. The tart flavor of strawberries, sweetness of apples and the crunchiness of nuts and the oats make this dessert even good for your breakfast.

Ingredients

6 apples (peeled and diced)

150 gm strawberries (chopped)

juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1/2 cup raisins

1 tsp cinnamon powder

Topping:

3 tbsp plain flour

60 gm chilled butter

45 gm oats

Instructions

  1. Toss chopped apples, strawberries, lemon juice, almonds, raisins, cinnamon powder and brown sugar in a bowl.
  2. Pour the fruit mix in 6 ramekins or in a shallow pie dish and press the fruits gently.
  3. To make crumble topping, mix flour and sugar in a separate bowl.
  4. Put in cold butter cut into pieces and work with finger tips to make a breadcrumbs like texture. Mix in the oats lightly with a spoon.
  5. Put this crumble over the fruit mixture, pressing down gently to cover the top & seal the fruit in.
  6. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree Celsius for about 30 minutes.

Apple Pie Made Easy

by

An apple a day keep’s a doctor away, some wise men have said this……but sadly, i don’t really like apples as such because of the effort you need to put in to eat them. To be honest, I am the kinda lazy person, generally like the comfort food, which really doesn’t need that much exercising of your jaws. I don’t know how, but it came to my mind of having them cooked and that eventuated in baking an apple pie; sliced, unadorned apples are mounded into a pie crust and topped with a lattice crust. For which, I headed to the nearest grocery store to source the ingredients

for shortcrust pastry:
340gm plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
110 gm butter
5-6 tbsp chilled water

for filling:
8 Granny Smith apples (the green ones)
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp plain flour
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 egg yolk

Preheat the oven to 220 C. To make pastry, it helps if the fat is cold and firm. If the fat is not cold, it will result into an oily pastry. Cut the butter into small cubes and flour to it. Rub the flour and butter, using your fingertips slowly, until it resembles to coarse grained breadcrumbs (see pic).

Add 4-6 tbsp chilled water, just enough to bring the dough together. Wrap the dough with a cling wrap and refrigerate it for 30 mins. Meanwhile, for the filling, peel and chore the apples and cut them into slices. I prefer to use Granny Smith apples because of their tart flavor and firmness. Also, it gives the pie a sweet and sour flavor. If you like your pie to be more sweet, you may use the normal red apples instead. In a saucepan, melt the butter, add the flour and mix it well. Then add the powdered sugar and cinnamon and bring to a boil and then add pour in this mixture over apples and keep them aside. Now, roll half of the chilled dough using a rolling pin into a 13″ round. Fit it into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Pour in the apple mixture made prepared above. Refrigerate while you roll out dough for top crust. After you roll the second half, cut that into 1 1/2 cm wide strips using a sharp knife to make a lattice crust. To make lattice top, follow this link

To make lattice top

Cover the pie top with the lattice top. Brush the top of the pie using egg yolk to give it a glazed look (you may skip this, if you are strictly vegetarian). Place it in oven for 15 minutes on 220 C and then 35-40 minutes on 180 C. After the top is firm and apples are cooked through, take the pie out of oven and let it cool. Enjoy it with a dollop of very good vanilla ice cream.