Dez Turland’s winning recipe – French Emmental and Roscoff Onion Tart

Dez Turland is the Development Chef at Saunton Sands hotel in North Devon, and our Vive le Cheese winner. Emmental is a medium hard cheese with slightly sweet and nutty taste. This dish is very
simple to recreate and would be great as a main course and can be eaten either hot or cold. This tart
is great when accompanied by a Beurre Blanc sauce and watercress salad.

Preparation time:  10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
200g French Emmental cheese
500g Roscoff onions – thinly sliced
150g Cornish Coppa ham – pre-sliced
100g unsalted butter
2 egg yolks
5 filo pastry sheets

Method
Start by melting ½ the butter and brush each filo pastry sheet. Line a 10” flan ring by layering the pastry sheets on top of each other and cook in the oven at 175oC for approximately 10 minutes or until they are golden brown. 
For the filling, melt the remainder of the butter in a saucepan, add the onions and cook until soft. Remove from the heat and allow them to cool slightly, then mix in the French Emmental and egg yolks. To fill the tart, start with a layer of Coppa ham in the bottom, then alternate layers of the French Emmental mix and Coppa ham, finishing with the French Emmental mix.  Return to the oven and cook for 20 minutes at 175oC.

Tip: This tart is great when accompanied by a Beurre Blanc sauce and watercress salad. 

Beurre Blanc sauce

Ingredients
150ml Cornish Rattler cider
100g unsalted butter – cold
100g double cream
30g shallots
10g rosemary

Method
For the sauce, add a small amount of the butter to a pan, add the shallots and rosemary and cook until soft.  Add the Rattler cider and reduce by ½ then add the double cream and bring to the boil.  Whisk in the cold butter and keep warm.