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By Root 2402 0

it sounds complicated written down. Roll it into a ball, wrap it in greaseproof paper and leave it to rest in a cold larder or refrigerator for a minimum of 2 hours, so that it loses all elasticity and will not shrink or lose its shape during the baking. This is one version of the pâte brisée or pâte à foncer used for most open tarts in French cookery. Without being as rich or as complicated as puff pastry, it is light and crisp. But those who already have a satisfactory method for tart and flan pastries may prefer to stick to their own. In spite of all the cookery rules, the making of pastry remains a very personal matter. I find myself that the easiest and most generally successful tart pastry is the one described for the cheese dish in the next recipe.

For the filling, peel and slice the onions as finely as possible, taking care to discard the fibrous parts at the root of the onions. Melt 2 oz. of butter and a little oil in a heavy frying-pan. In this cook the onions, covered, until they are quite soft and pale golden. They must not fry, and they should be stirred from time to time to make sure they are not sticking. They will take about hour. Season with salt, nutmeg and pepper. Stir in the very well-beaten yolks and the cream, and leave until the time comes to cook the tart.

Oil an 8-inch tart or flan tin. Roll out your pastry as thinly as possible (the great thing about this dish, as also the quiches of Lorraine, is that there should be a lot of creamy filling on very little pastry). Line the tin with the pastry, pressing it gently into position with your knuckle. Pour in the filling, cook in the centre of a fairly hot oven, with the tin standing on a baking sheet at Gas No. 6, 400 deg. F., for 30 minutes. Serve very hot.

TARTE AU FROMAGE

CHEESE TART

Line an 8- to 9-inch flat pie or flan tin with a crumbly pastry made from 6 oz. plain flour, 3 oz. butter, half a teaspoon of salt and 2 to 4 tablespoons of iced water. Simply crumble the butter into the sieved flour and salt, add the iced water, and form into a ball. Do not knead or roll it or leave it to rest, but spread it directly into the tin with your hands, pressing it lightly into place with your knuckles. Prick the flat surface evenly with a fork, fill with dry beans, and bake in a hot oven, Gas No. 6, 400 deg. F., for 20 minutes.

Have ready the following mixture: a stiff béchamel made with 1 oz. butter, 2 tablespoons of flour, pint of warmed milk. Season with freshly ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, a scrap of nutmeg. When well cooked and reduced, stir in 2 oz. of grated Gruyère cheese and oz. of grated Parmesan; then, off the fire, 2 very well-beaten yolks of eggs. When cool fold in, as for a soufflé, the 2 stiffly whipped whites. Pour immediately into the partly cooked pastry case, if you like brush the edges of the pastry with cream or milk, sprinkle the top with grated cheese, return to the oven at the same heat and cook for 12 to 15 minutes until the filling is risen and golden brown, but still a little creamy inside.

LA QUICHE LORRAINE

CREAM AND BACON TART

As in all regional dishes of ancient origin which have eventually become national as well as purely local property, there have been various evolutions in the composition of a quiche. Also called, in different parts of the province, galette, fiouse, tourte, flon and flan, a quiche is a flat open tart, and originally it was made of bread dough just like the Provençal pissaladière and the Neapolitan pizza. Gradually the bread dough came to be replaced with pastry while the fillings, of course, vary enormously, from sweet purple quetsch plums or golden mirabelles to savoury mixtures of onion, of chopped pork and veal, of cream flavoured with poppy seeds, of cream and eggs and bacon, of cream and cream cheese. According to its filling the tart will be called a quiche aux pruneaux, quiche à l’oignon, and so on. The one universally known as the quiche Lorraine contains smoked bacon, cream and eggs. Parisian, and English, cooks often add Gruyère cheese, but Lorrainers will tell you