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A shallot tarte tatin flipped onto a plate, halved shallots deeply caramelized and glossy with thyme
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Main French European Vegetarian Nut-free

Quick Shallot Tarte Tatin

A savoury tatin of whole shallots that skips the long slow caramelising the classic onion version depends on, by halving them and giving them a hard cut-side-down sear in the pan before the pastry goes on. Ten minutes of direct contact with a hot buttery syrup does most of what forty minutes of gentle sweating would, and the oven finishes the job underneath the crust.

Prep12 min
Cook32 min
Rest10 min
Oven200°C
Servings4
Cook mode

Christoph's shortcut savoury tatin, the shallots halved and seared cut-side down instead of slowly caramelised whole.

Ingredients

Written for a 25 cm pan

Units
Temperature
Servings
4

Shallots and pan base

  • 800 g banana shallots, peeled and halved lengthwise, root end left intact
  • 50 g unsalted butter
  • 30 g dark brown sugar
  • 30 ml sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
  • 4 thyme sprigs
  • 4 g fine salt
  • 1 g black pepper, freshly ground

Pastry

  • 320 g all-butter puff pastry, one ready-rolled sheet, kept cold

To finish

  • 80 g soft goat cheese, crumbled over after flipping (optional)

Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 200°C.
  2. Halve the shallots lengthwise through the root. Leaving the root end attached is what holds each half together through searing and flipping. Peel them after halving, which is considerably easier than before.
  3. Sear them cut-side down. Melt the butter in a 25 cm ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat, lay the shallot halves in cut-side down in one tight layer, and leave them completely alone for 6 to 8 minutes until the flat faces are deep mahogany. Not moving them is the entire technique. Every time you lift one to check, you interrupt the browning.
  4. Add the sugar, vinegar, thyme, salt and pepper around them, and let it bubble for 2 minutes until syrupy. Turn off the heat. Do not turn the shallots over; the seared face is the face that will be on top.
  5. Cover with the pastry, trimmed to a circle 2 cm wider than the pan, pricked all over, tucked down inside the pan wall.
  6. Bake 28 to 32 minutes, until the pastry is deep golden. Test a shallot through the gap at the edge with a knife tip; it should meet no resistance.
  7. Rest 10 minutes and flip, then crumble over the goat cheese while it is still hot enough to soften.

Notes

  • The book’s caramelized onion tarte tatin is the patient version, with whole small onions cooked slowly until sweet all the way through. This one gets perhaps eighty per cent of that in a third of the time, at the cost of a slightly firmer centre.
  • Banana shallots are worth seeking out. Long and even, they halve into neat pieces that pack tightly. Round shallots work but roll about; small red onions, quartered, are the easy substitute.
  • Sherry vinegar is the better acid here, sharper and nuttier than balsamic, which is sweet enough to tip this towards dessert. Red wine vinegar is the everyday alternative.
  • Excellent cold, and it travels well. A wedge with a bitter leaf salad is a complete lunch.

Good with

From Christoph Mayer

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