Garden Party at Work : Pissaladière & Apricot Tart

Last Thursday, we had a garden party lunch. Everybody had to bring a little something to eat or to drink. Here is what we brought for that event...

Pissaladière, our way

This is a famous pizza, from the Nice (French town in Provence) area in France, made of onions and anchovies.
Find more ici or là... Who said that pizzas are only from Italy ?

Here, in this version, we use a puff pastry instead of a pizza dough. It was quicker since we had some frozen in the kitchen. It is also nicer up to me since it allows more tasting room for the ingredients than for the dough itself.

In a baking pan, I pour caramel and then add the sliced onions, S&P, thyme and olive oil in a 400ºF pre-heated oven, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking and burning. I should have added chopped garlic but the Chef hated it (so strange for a French Chef...)

When cooked and slightly brown, I removed and let them cooled down in a strainer to get rid of the liquid.
Once cooled, I layer the caramelized onions on the pastry puff, adding olives, cocktail tomatoes and grated cheese (even though the traditional recipe doesn't call for it) and anchovies. Traditionally, we should use Pissalat, a fish paste made of anchovies, but the preparation process is so long (several weeks) that most of cooks don't use it anymore...
Put the Pissaladière in the oven and cook for around 5mn, to melt the cheese.

Tarte aux abricots, miel et romarin

Honey rosemary apricots tart with almond cream

Since we wanted to use seasonal fruits, we choose abricots for this dessert.
Using a puff pastry (already pre-baked between two sheet pans), I spread some Crème aux amandes and bake until turning brown.
I added the halves pitted apricots with rosemary herbs and drizzled honey and baked it for another 10 mn (the apricots shouldn't be mushy!).

Recipe for Crème aux amandes (yield = 700 gr)

• Mix well (blanchir) butter (100 gr), sugar (200 gr) and eggs (3)
• Add some rhum and vanilla and then almond powder (200 gr)
• Opt. flour (20 gr)