Goats' cheese and shallot tarte tatin with salad
Ingredients
For the goats' cheese and shallot tarte tatin
- 50g/2oz butter
- 2 tsp caster sugar
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 3 banana shallots, peeled and sliced lengthways
- 250g/9oz ready-made puff pastry, rolled to 5mm/¼in thick
- 75g/3oz soft goats' cheese
- 200g/7oz firm goats' cheese
For the salad
- 25g/1oz clear honey
- 2 tbsp truffle oil
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ½ lemon, juice only
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 punnet micro cress or mustard cress
- 50g/2oz lamb's lettuce
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
For the goats' cheese and shallot tarte tatin, heat two small ovenproof blini pans until hot. Divide the butter and caster sugar between the two pans and heat until the sugar and butter have melted and the mixture has started to caramelise and turn golden-brown.
Place a sprig of thyme in each pan and add the shallots to the two pans.
Cook for 3-4 minutes until the shallots are just beginning to turn brown.
Meanwhile, place the pre-rolled pastry onto a clean, floured surface and crumble the soft goats' cheese over half of the pastry.
Fold the pastry in half to cover the goats' cheese and roll out to 5mm/¼in thick again.
Using a sharp knife, cut out two circles of pastry so they are slightly larger than the circumference of the blini pans.
Cover each pan with a pastry round and tuck the edges inside the pan and around the shallots.
Transfer to the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the pastry is golden-brown and cooked through. Remove and allow to cool slightly.
For the salad, place the honey and oils into a small bowl and whisk to combine. Add the lemon juice and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Arrange the micro cress or mustard cress and lamb's lettuce in a large bowl and add the dressing to the salad leaves, reserving some for later. Mix well.
To finish the tarte tatin, preheat the grill to high. Slice the firm goats' cheese in half, place on a grill tray and cook under the grill for two minutes until golden-brown.
To serve, turn each tarte tatin out of its blini pan onto the centre of a serving plate, pastry-side-down - take care as it will be very hot. Top with the grilled firm goats' cheese and a small handful of dressed salad. Spoon the remaining dressing around the edge of each plate.