Caramelised Chicory and Onion Tarte Tatin

Very delicious! It was an unusual dish, beautifully presented and very nice in taste, although for my taste it might have been a little sweeter to counteract the chicories’ bitterness.

The only problem we had was with caramelizing the bottom (or top, depends on how you see it): You’re instructed to melt butter in an oven proof pan, sprinkle sugar into the pan in an even layer and let it melt, without stirring, on low heat; then increase heat until caramelized. For our first try, we used our old spring form baking tin due to a lack of any other suitable pan. The sugar in the centre melted and burnt, the sugar at the edges didn’t even melt. So we decided to melt the sugar in a normal pan and then transfer it. BF insisted on cooking it on a very, very low temperature (electric level 1) – the butter coloured, but again the sugar didn’t even melt. Then it was my turn again. I used a higher temperature (level 3-4), but the caramel began to agglutinate – ah, there was some reasoning to the instructions! In the end, we poured the caramel into the dish as quickly as possible (albeit not with the expected success of spreading it) and then broke it into shivers, which worked well.

We only managed to fit three chicories in our 23cm square baking pan (no, not the spring form one) – just about enough for four not too hungry people. Add extra onions and sugar/caramel, and take care that the caramel doesn’t turn too dark to get a slightly sweeter flavour.

See also my Chicory and Goat’s Cheese Puff Pastry Pie.

PS: Want to cook this dish? Get the recipe at deliciousmagazine.co.uk and then post your review here.

Edited 27 March 2014: I made this again today. In the meantime, I've found a pan I can use both on the stove as well as in the oven - very, very useful! I started melting the sugar with the butter on the stove, but the sugar caramelised irregularly. I decided that it would probably melt well enough while in the oven, so I just added the other ingredients and baked it, and it turned out fine! Next time I might not even bother with melting the sugar (though it's important to melt the butter first, then sprinkle the sugar).

Also, I piled up 6 squares of puff pastry to roll out, which was more than I needed. 5 or maybe even 4 should be enough. Again I found that my pan will fit 3 chicory, which makes for a very light meal for 4, but is better for 3.