Scallop and Onion Tarte Fines

French Fridays with Dorie

Scallop and Onion Tarte Fines French Fridays with Dorie

The choice to select these Scallop and Onion Tarte Fines to once again jump back in to the French Friday with Dorie milieu is as puzzling to me as the tarts themselves. While reading this recipe I could tell even then that these odd little pizza-like creatures would be somewhat unremarkable. A product considerably less than the sum of its parts.It is, however, in our Dorista pledge to not be prognosticators and pick off only those recipes we know will be the incredible winners our family devours (and there are plenty of these here) but rather we promised to open ourselves up to the kind of weekly adventures that come from cooking our way through an entire cookbook. You know going in there will be some clunkers.

Not every stop in a journey has to be something you wanted to see to be worthwhile, right?

When you committed to that “see the USA” road trip vacation last summer with your family you knew that not every stop along the way would be a Disneyland and a Grand Canyon. You have a duty to stop at Aunt Rita’s out of obligation even though you know her guest room is going to smell like cats. And there is no avoiding spending a few hours at the Weeki Wachee Springs State Park to watch the mermaid shows because, well, just because.

You do these things because you’re obligated. You made a promise and now it is your duty. Sure, you could have managed to see a bright side and find some sort of enjoyment out of the obligation. Her house may smell like cats but Aunt Rita is also the only one you know who brings out a tray of boilermakers with her chips and bean dip before dinner. Where else are you going to get that? All said, this doesn’t mean you necessarily want to every return.

Once you’ve seen one mermaid show, how many more do you really need to see?

Scallop and Onion Tarte Fines

Scallop and Onion Tarte Fines

This is more or less how I felt about this week’s French Friday with Dorie exercise. While not being as bad as I was imagining it to be the most enjoyment came from seeing it the review mirror and knowing that I had done my duty by making it in the first place and I wouldn’t have to go back for seconds if I didn’t want to.

I had no aversions to a single item on the ingredient list. Onions, bacon, puff pastry, and scallops. In other incarnations I could get more than my fill of any of these and experience pure bliss. But together as they are here? Meh.

Perhaps it was the way the scallops are to be sliced horizontally and cooked almost as if they were an after thought atop the onions and puff pastry that sets me wrong? I thought perhaps my culinary ennui might be due to the lack of a featured herb tasked with pulling it all together for me but no, this wasn’t it. In fact, if anything I enjoyed the how the extreme sweetness derived from the ever-so-slowly caramelized onions danced a tango with the extra pepper I added as compensation. You don’t need scallops at $18.99 a pound to play this particular game.

So this week I will forgo the recipe. I didn’t make any adaptations at all other than a few extra shakes of pepper and for what it is worth, I’m not really all that motivated write this out into my own words. For those of you interested slicing up some scallops and making these Scallop and Onion Tarte Fines you can find the recipe here.

But you aren’t going to make it anyway, are you?

Care for a boilermaker?

Bomb+End+of+Post4

This Scallop and Onion Tarte Fines was an assignment for French Friday’s with Dorie, a cooking group working its way through Dorie Greenspan’s culinary tome “Around My French Table”. We generally avoid including the recipes in our posts. However, wherever there has been a significant adaptation by me or where the recipe has already been publicly posted by Ms. Greenspan or her publishers or by hundreds of other bloggers, or it is, in fact, not much of a recipe at all, I will either include it here (adapted) or provide a direct link to it. Please feel free to contact me via the link provided on my page if you need any assistance finding a French Friday with Dorie Recipe. You should buy the book though.

It will change your life as it has mine.

About Trevor Kensey

I don't know what “Sis. Boom. [blog!]" means either. But, if a post makes even a small 'boom' in your day, I would be happy. Please don't call me a "foodie", or even a food blogger. I prefer "food raconteur" thank you very much.
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  1. I will take a boilermaker….and hope for the best! I am sure this recipe was fine, but just couldn’t go there this week.

    • Auntie knows that a boilermaker before dinner makes the food less important. I never said she was dumb. “I will take a boilermaker and hope for the best” is going to be my new motto.

  2. Well said. I can’t imagine taking this journey with a nicer group, but this wasn’t my favorite stop along the way either. Though at least your sprinkle of black pepper improved the appearance.

    • It helped with the flavor too. Black pepper as a predominant spice is underrated in my opinion. Esp when it has a great ‘sweet’ component to balance as it did with these onions that went off the chart sweet on me.

  3. I find that even when we don’t like one of the stops along the way in this group, there’s still something worthwhile – a technique, a new ingredient, a flavour combination.

    It certainly needed something and that something might well have been a boilermaker. I wish I’d seared the scallops and served them separately from the onion-bacon tart.

  4. “You don’t need scallops at $18.99 a pound to play this particular game.” Or even $30 😉

    Love this post Trevor – so honest. Not everything can be a winner.

  5. Make mine a Boilermaker. Not that this does not sound alright, but I do not eat scallops, and thus I feel no obligation! That said, I applaud your candor. I appreciate that you did not give us any of that over the top frou frou talk, young man. Honest Trevor, the blogger one can trust.

    • You could have done what others did and sub out the scallops for shrimp. Or cheese, or I don’t know, pepperoni? But then its not really this dish that they end up with. I do like to call it like it is. Doesn’t mean I won’t try to make it LOOK good (difficult even on this one) but I can’t lie when I just didn’t care for it much.

  6. This most deliciously elegant diss surely must be the best thing to come out of what looks to be a nearly revolting concoction. Thank you for the laughs and please continue to hold the sliced scallops.

  7. I happen to like the mermaid shows, but there’s one of us in every family. Hope all is well.

  8. Ha…glad you gave this a shot anyway. It looks beautiful, but this will be a once and done recipe for me, too.

  9. I never picked you as a “man of duty” quite honorable indeed. Yes, something was a bit off, but I liked the puffed pastry as a pizza, even thought it wasn’t getting to do it’s thing. I really think minus the scallops, brie instead and this might be better.

  10. I didn’t make this week’s recipe, not really because I thought it would be awful, or even boring, just ran out of time – but sometimes, happy events work in our favor!! 🙂

  11. I had to do a Google search for boilermakers… 🙂

    This fancier cousin of stuff on toast had a lot of potential sans scallops. It will be a good starting point for other snacks in the future.

  12. You get the essence of the thing, as always. “A product considerably less than the sum of its parts.” I will say that the puff pastry with the onion/bacon topping bears repeating, but the pricy scallops definitely took away from the overall result. Onward to the next recipe.

  13. Something about this recipe lacked cohesion. The scallops didn’t really seem to go with the rest of the dish. But, like you said, making each dish is part of the journey and I am glad I gave it a try. Your photos are very attractive!

  14. I love the boilermaker idea. I’m going to save that. I would have been happy with just the pastry and onions.

  15. I think I’m in the minority this week…but Bill and I both enjoyed these. Sorry they were not a hit for you, Trevor…they sure look beautiful! Great photos, too!

    BTW…I remember many years ago taking my very small children to the Mermaid show at Weeki Wachee…I’m surprised to know they’re still around! LOL!

  16. You have it in one Trevor – great ingredients, but in this combination, they were “meh”.

  17. Trevor, aversion or not – your tartes fines look fabulous to me – you already know that I love your styling and your photography – so I really like the pictures this time as well and I appreciate your candor!
    Have a nice Sunday!

  18. Hey, Mr. Most-Quotes-in-the-Chicago Trib. Way to go. Not even going to mention that you upstaged Laurie, our FFWD founder, with number of quoted words. Yeah, I’m a journalist and count these things. You sounded very professional and smart and enthusiastic in a grown-up sort of way so it’s okay that you were the Star of the threesome. (Betsy got one lousy sentence.) I feel the same way about this week’s recipe as you. Meh. Your photos this week are fabulous. You made the stuff on puff pastry look delicious.

  19. This week, stuff on toast
    Became stuff on puff pastry
    The same? Yes, it is.

    Think this is the last
    Time we have to defile puff
    Baking sheets are glad.

    We enjoyed this, oddly enough, but I can’t see any mermaid shows in our future. I do have my limits, you know. (P.S. Family road trips are THE worst – very bad memories of one summer spent in my dad’s clunker of a VW Rabbit, a tent and far too many campgrounds in the Eastern US – with scary relative visits thrown in for good measure)

  20. Your photos are just lovely- perhaps even more so knowing how you felt about the results 🙂 I am so glad to see that you made it back onto the journey, regardless of this one particular pit stop. The ride is so much more enjoyable with all the different perspectives (and your fabulous sense of humor…).

  21. Honestly. It sounds delicious to me. Or maybe I’m swayed by your photo. GREG

  22. PS Remind me when I finally pack up my house and downsize (a recurring fantasy these days) that I want to give you the few bamboo flatware pieces I have that match yours perfectly. I think I have the ever useful serrated grapefruit spoon and a few appetizer picks. GREG

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