Last night’s dinner

Here are the lovely muffins. I didn’t grind my cardamon very finely and it was really nice to have the little chunks of spice through them.

We were lucky enough to have the Barbeau’s over for dinner with Stephen’s dad. I made a pork roast with a rhubarb sauce but I’ll hold off posting the recipe until I tinker with it for a bit. Dinner was rounded out by chard stirfried with udon noodles, a tomato salad and strawberry apple crisp for dessert. Appetizers were simply parmesan chunks and prosciutto ready to be dipped into balsamic syrup (balsamic vinegar boiled until it goes syrupy).

Tonight dinner should be simple and we ate a fair amount of meat this weekend so it is to the south of France for inspiration and…

http://frenchfood.about.com/od/appetizershorsdoeuvres/r/pissaladiere.htm

Ingredients:
•2 tablespoons butter
•6 yellow onions, chopped
•2 teaspoons demerara sugar (raw sugar)
•¼ teaspoon salt
•¼ teaspoon black pepper
•½ teaspoon dried thyme
•2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
•1 sheet puff pastry, thawed (I’m using my own pastry since I already have it)
•20 anchovy fillets
•20 black olives in oil, drained
•2 teaspoons olive oil
•2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and demerara sugar and sauté, stirring frequently, until the onions become tender and start to turn golden. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme. Stir the mixture and transfer the skillet to the preheated oven. Cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are wilted, very soft, and are a medium gold throughout.

Add the vinegar during the last 5 minutes of cooking. Remove from the onions from the oven and set them aside while preparing the pastry for the pissaladiere. until they reach room temperature, and then serve.

Raise the oven temperature to 425F. Press the thawed pastry into a rectangle on a 12-inch by 18-inch baking sheet, building it up a bit around the edges. Spread the pastry with the onion confit, leaving 1 inch of dough uncovered around the edges of the pastry. Arrange the anchovy filets and olives on the pissaladière. Bake it for 15 to 25 minutes, until the pastry has puffed up, turned golden, and crisped.

Remove the pissaladière from the oven and sprinkle the olive oil and fresh thyme across the hot surface of the tart. Cut it into rectangles and serve very warm or at room temperature.

This pissaladière recipe makes 10 servings.

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