ZagLeft

My husband and I enjoyed an unexpected “date night” the other evening.  Our daughter had a slumber party to go to and our son was at a high school football game with his friends.  As our house emptied, EJ and I found ourselves sitting outside enjoying a nice spring evening with a glass of wine before dinner.  While sitting outside, we realized we wanted something that was light and easy to prepare for dinner so we could continue our evening poolside.

I remembered a recipe I found in the Wall Street Journal several months ago.  It was a Sun-dried Tomato and Onion Tart created by Chef  Martin Picard.  In Chef Picard’s recipe, he combines sun-dried tomatoes, caramelized onions, thyme and a mustard-cream sauce.  We found Chef Picard’s tart to be extremely flavorful and so easy to prepare.

Inspired by Chef Picard’s tart, we decided to prepared a Carmelized Onion, Brie, Chicken and Basil Tart.

We began by thawing and unrolling a sheet of puff pastry.  We baked the pastry in the oven for about 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, we sliced the onion very thin and put the slices in a pan with a little bit of oil.  Caramelizing onions is a wonderful way to bring out the flavors of an onion.  The process of slowly cooking the onions on a low heat brings out the natural sweetness of the onion.

Putting together this tart was extremely simple.  After we removed the pastry from the oven, we spread a mustard-cream sauce over the top.   Then, we added the caramelized onions, brie, chicken, thin slices of tomato and a bit of basil.  We put the tart under the broiler for just a couple of minutes until the brie melted.

We loved the fact that our tart took only about 30 minutes to prepare so we could quickly resume our evening outside.  The flavors of the onions, brie and chicken were perfect together.

We enjoyed our tart with a very good bottle of J. Lohr Gesture GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre).

INGREDIENTS

1 sheet of thawed puff pastry

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups thinly sliced onions

1/4 teaspoon ground thyme

Salt, to taste

2 tablespoons stone ground mustard

2 tablespoons heavy cream

1 8-ounce Brie round

2 cups chopped chicken (I used a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store)

1 medium tomato, sliced thin

4 basil leaves

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degree F.  Spray the baking sheet with cooking spray so the pastry doesn’t stick.  Place the sheet of puff pastry on the baking sheet.  Prick the surface with a fork, leaving a 1/2 inch border around the pastry untouched.  Bake until the pastry is lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the onions.  Set a large saute pan over medium heat.  Swirl in the oil and add the onions, ground thyme and a pinch of salt.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions turn golden and sweet, about 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix the mustard and cream.  Once pastry is slightly cool, spread the mustard-cream sauce over the top.

Add the caramelized onions and sliced chicken to the tart.  Next, slice the brie into strips and add them on top of the chicken.  (When using a round of brie, I like to slice off the top rind and the edges, leaving the bottom rind on.  It’s just a matter of preference.  If you’d prefer to remove the entire rind, feel free to do so).

Next, place the sliced tomatoes and pieces of torn basil on top.

Broil for a couple of minutes, just until the cheese melts.