Caramelised Garlic and Goats Cheese Tart

This tart is adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi's vegetarian cookbook plenty. I bought this a while ago but have been put off by the need for specialist ingredients for many of the recipes. This tart is one of the few exceptions in the book and requires very few ingredients. My only complaint about this recipe is that it uses all the cloves from 3 bulbs of garlic which takes quite a while to peel! In fact, I have recommended 3 - 4 heads of garlic as I found 3 wasn't enough for my tastes. It can be served warm or cold, but as usual with this sort of tart, it tastes better (in my opinion) cold.

Serves 4 as a main course, more if making for a picnic or as part of a light lunch

Ingredients:

For the pastry:
230g flour
115g butter

dash cold water

For the tart:
3-4 whole bulbs of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
220ml water
3/4 tsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp each of dried thyme and rosemary
125g soft goats cheese, crumbled
100g hard goats cheese, grated
2 eggs
100ml single cream
100ml creme fraiche
salt and black pepper, to taste

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F / gas mark 4

1. First, make the tart base: rub butter and flour together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Then add cold water, a little at a time, until the mixture holds together. Try not to overknead. Put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

2. Grease/line a quiche/tart dish (I used a 9 inch dish and had plenty of pastry to spare as you can see from the photo!). Roll out the pastry and add to the dish. Bake blind for 20 minutes. If this is done before you have finished prepping the filling, remove and put to one side.

Lower the oven temperature to 160 degrees C / 325 degrees F / gas mark 3 once the pie crust is removed.

3. Meanwhile, add the garlic cloves to a pan of boiling water and blanch for around 3 minutes. Drain, and return to the pan with oil and fry on high heat for 2 minutes. Add the water and vinegar and simmer for 10 minutes. Finally, add the sugar and  herbs and simmer for another 10 minutes or so, occasionally stirring, until all of the liquid has reduced down to a thick syrup.

4. Add the crumbled soft goats and grated hard goats cheese into the bottom of the partially cooked pie crust. Scatter the garlic cloves and sauce on top.

5. In a jug, whisk together the creams, eggs, and salt and pepper. Add to the top of the dish. Bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes until the pastry is cooked and the filling is golden brown.