Caramelized Onion Tart

I must admit, right off the bat, that I do not like onions. As a kid, like most kids, I did not like vegetables. I was more or less OK with the green or colorful ones, but I detested the pungent ones, like garlic, scallions, ginger, and especially onions. My mom confessed that she tried to get me to eat onions by chopping them up finely and mixing them into my food. But she stopped doing that when she realized I fastidiously pick them out anyway. Then she chopped them up in large chunks so that I could pick them out easily. Oh, all the mind games one must engage in with a child!

Times have changed, and I’ve grown to like vegetables, even (especially?) the pungent ones. Except onions. For me, it is the last frontier. I still pick them out of my food (when no one is watching), eat around them (when they are), ask them to be left out (when given the option), or eat them grudgingly (when it can’t be helped). I don’t know why onions have failed to grow on me, and think it’s such a pity that they haven’t. Because they’re so healthy and simply… ubiquitous. But, as we all know, a matter of taste and liking can’t be forced.

So, what to do when an onion-skeptic has to make an onion tart? Make it for others, of course! I know that onions are liked, favored, even savored by many (including the esteemed author of the Pie Bible). And that the onion tart is sort of an elegant French delicacy. So when a friend asked me to make something for a potluck she was attending, I thought this would be the perfect dish to make!

I have to say, though, it was quite a tedious dish, this one! It took me over two hours to chop almost a kilogram of onions paper-thin by hand. Oy! When slow cooked, until all the liquid exuded, then evaporated, the onions shriveled to a quarter of their original volume. Amidst the onion-induced tears, I forgot to take a before picture to this after one.

 Hmmm… With the olives, it sorta looks like a pizza!

A slice saved for me. I hope the potluckers (probably with a more mature, adult palate than mine) enjoyed it! As for me, I’d say it was edible. The tart gave off an intense oniony flavor and aroma, and the texture, with all the crunch mollified, was closer to cooked sprouts. But I don’t seem to like onions, even when the pungency has metamorphosed into caramelized sweetness. Perhaps it was just my prejudice that held me back? But I don’t think I’ll ever find out because I’ll probably never make it again – unless as another favor!