Beetroot - tatin

This is a versatile entrée, that can be made with many things – potato, tomatoes, carrots, today with beetroot.

You can use store brought puff pastry, but today I make my own rough puff for the tatin.

Ingredients

500 grams of wash Beetroot – blub only (save the leaves for mains)

A drizzle of olive oil

Salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter and extra for greasing the tin.

2 onions, peeled and sliced

½ cup of brown sugar

¼ cup wine vinegar

Fresh oregano

Fresh thyme 

Homemade rough Puff pastry

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C. Line the bottom of a 20cm loose bottom cake tin with a round of baking paper. Grease the walls of the cake tin with butter. Place the cake tin on a large sheet of aluminum foil. Bring the sheet of aluminum foil up the outside of the cake tin, to enclose the tin. This is to prevent leakage.
2. Peel beetroots, wearing gloves. Wash beetroot very well to remove any loose dirt. Place the beetroot in a lined baking tray, drizzle with olive oil. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes or until soft when pierced with a sharp knife. Remove from oven and put aside to cool.
3. Heat the first 2 tablespoons of butter in a frypan, until foaming. Add the sliced onion and reduce the heat. Allow the onion to cook down and caramelize. This may take half an hour. Once the onion has caramelized, remove from the heat and place in a bowl. Set aside until needed. Wipe out the frypan, you will need it again.
4. Return the frypan to the stove and heat the extra two tablespoons of butter, until melted over a medium heat. Add the brown sugar to the pan and continue to cook for 5 minutes, until the brown sugar has melted. De-glaze the brown sugar with the wine vinegar. Remove from heat. Stir to combine vinegar with brown sugar well to make a toffee.
5. Pour the toffee into the bottom of the lined loose bottom cake tin. Sprinkle fresh oregano and thyme over the toffee.
6. Slice the beetroot into 2 cm lengths and place beetroot atop of the toffee, cut side down. Cover the bottom of the cake tin with the potatoes. Top the potatoes with the caramelized onion. Let the onion fall between the potatoes.
7. Cut the corners of the sheet of puff pastry. This is to make it easier to fit in the cake tin. Place the sheet of puff pastry on top of the onions. Place the tart into your pre-heated oven. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown.
8. Remove the tart from the oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes, before turning out on a plate.

Thia is one of the many dishes, we make together on the Long Lunch - vegetables for the garden cooking classes at Jacican. I would love it if you would like to come along sometime.

Enjoy!