This week’s French Fridays with Dorie choice is Scallop and Onion Tartes Fines. Like its brethren we’ve already made, Tomato-Cheese Tartlets and Fresh Tuna, Mozzarella, and Basil Pizza, here’s another recipe where our intentions are not honorable. What Dufour and Pepperidge Farm have devoted years to perfecting, we take five minutes to flatten.
Start with a thawed sheet of puff pastry. After flouring your work area and rolling the pastry to a 13-inch square, take a 6-inch wide plate and, using a sharp knife, cut out four circles. Lay these on a parchment-lined baking sheet and prick with a fork. Lay more parchment on top and then plop another baking sheet over them. Sorta has a crushing affect on the unsuspecting pastry.
For the next fifteen minutes, while the pastry is baking and not puffing at 400 degrees, you mix together the caramel onion-bacon layer (my favorite part of this recipe). Divide this mixture among the four crusts and arrange scallops, sliced into thirds, over it. Drizzle olive oil over the top before seasoning with salt and pepper.
Dorie recommends baking these tarts at 400 degrees for 3 to 4 minutes. Being cautious, I baked mine longer which resulted in my pastry base becoming a tad too brown. In hindsight, I would have seared my scallops first. Still, tasty and unique as an appetizer or lunch (with a salad).
You might note that I suggested no wine choice for this menu. Last weekend I attended Vintage Paso: Zinfandel and Other Wild Wines, a 3-day touring blitz of our wine area. Readers, you know I’m a trooper, but after devoting one full day to this festival, I was done. That’s why you’re on your own for this week’s beverage.
The festival was educational, tasty and hilarious. My friends, John and Susan Lester, who live in southern Cali and blog at Create Amazing Meals joined me for the weekend. We’d known each other virtually for two years and met in reality last year. John is especially knowledgeable about wines, they visit this wine country frequently and were perfect companions and guests.Pictures and just a few words, tell our story best.
We’ve had our coffee. Susan and I, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, are ready to roll. Last week we plotted our zinful itinerary and plan to visit five wineries today.
Our first stop was Peachy Canyon Winery. This was supposed to be our fifth stop but, unfortunately, John missed a turn. Which meant that Susan and I both grabbed maps, assisted with directions all day and drove John, well, to drink!
Memo to my Colorado brother who is casually concerned about my wine adventures this winter: a Lester purchase.
Winery #2, Tablas Creek. With our tastings we enjoyed small bites, shrimp on sweet corn polenta cake and a beef slider on a sourdough crostini.
Winery #3, Halter Ranch, my favorite, where we had our wine and paella in the ranch’s original barn. Susan and I are at the tasting-less-and-eating-more stage.
Winery #4, Adelaida Cellars. It’s 82 degrees, I’ve had it. Susan and I sit at a picnic table while John happily disappears.
Winery #5, Opolo Vineyards. Whoopee. We head to the barbecue tent for roasted lamb, carne asada tacos, beans and all the fixings. We girls rally. Friends forever.
We assemble the wine on the dining room table and take the pledge, “What happens in Cambria, stays in Cambria.”
After dinner at my neighborhood Sea Chest restaurant, we settled in for an evening of Gin Rummy and a Port tutorial. Since I had never tasted Port, John bought me a bottle at Adelaida Cellars. A very smooth evening.
French Fridays with Dorie is an international cooking group working its way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around my French Table, more than 300 recipes from my home to yours. To see if my colleagues managed to lose the puff, check out our FFWD site. If you’re interested in discovering unique and creative ways to use puff pastry, go to the Pepperidge Farm or Dufour website. Both offer amazing information on their products.
What a fabulous mini-holiday! It sounds like you and the Lester’s had a fabulous time!
wonderful wine-log.. The wineries you visited appear to know how to treat a girl(s). The food sounds wonderful. Better than the crackers and sometimes cheese we got in Napa. Bernie will be very jealous when I show him the pictures.
The tarts look tasty. missin’ your cookin’ mam.
Hey – new site!!! Looks great! What a fun post – love seeing Doristas meet up – I get to meet Betsy next week – so excited 🙂 PS: seared scallops is the way to go here 😉
What a fun time the three of you had Mary. I love being able to meet blogging friends in real life!
What a fun post! I wish we could do it all over again! You forgot to mention that the rowdy Lesters kept you up way past your bedtime both nights! LOL! We can’t thank you enough for such a wonderful weekend! xoxoxo
Since you mentioned it…the rowdy Lesters kept me up until midnight both evenings they stayed at my house. I hadn’t watched the clock turn from 11pm to 12am since 1999.
Sounds like a terrific weekend, Mary! Glad you shared it with us! Your tartes look quite lovely and I’m sure delicious! We really enjoyed ours for lunch!
I would be spent after the first winery! You are a trooper! It looks like the 3 of you had a blast. I enjoyed these, too, but think searing would be even better!
PS…it’s time to head home. I thought I already commented on your post, but it was Susan’s!
My favorite part of the tarte was the onion/bacon topping too. Looks delicious! Did you make these for the Lesters or after they went home? Looks like you had a great time together!
You and I have the same hindsight. Sear. We need to eat with our eyes too right?
What fun! Loving the pictures from your weekend wine shopping adventure. Looks like the three of you had a blast and I’m wishing I could have tagged along.
As for the scallops, yes, searing them was probably the way to go.
It sounds like you all had a wonderful weekend and a great haul of wine! The food at each of your stops sounds as intriguing as the wines themselves.
I wish I’d seared my scallops, too, and served them separately from the onion-bacon tart.
I loved the pictures and it’s so nice to see people not wearing coats… We are still so winter here. How wonderful that John is wine knowledge. I would appreciate that, but not the late nights, especially if I drink wine. I’m ready for bed at 10pm.
What a lovely post! I’m so happy that you all enjoyed your time together (and as I noted on Susan’s blog, I’m jealous, but in a happy, nice way!). Your post about the dish was great – I didn’t get to this dish this week with everything going on, so it was fun to read yours! Looks delicious, especially with your additions – I’m sure that amped up the flavor!
Ah, the be a fly in that wall. I’m so happy you all had an amazing time and found all those great sips and bites. That barbecue tent at the end of a day… just serendipitous!
(Thanks for all the love and good wishes in the last few weeks. It means a LOT!)
Mary, looks like you and The Lesters had a smashing time – I must admit that I am not a wine connaisseur at all, not the least bit. Your tartes fines look wonderful – searing the scallops sounds like an interesting idea, I guess it depends a bit on how you like to enjoy your scallops but be that as it may – glad that you enjoyed this recipe so much and had such a wonderful time with Susan!
Have a great Sunady and “see” you soon!
The flattened puff has caused me angst on more than one occasion – I still don’t understand WHY????
Glad to see some of my favorite people had such a lovely time together. The tour de wine sounds lovely and exhausting. I would not have had the stamina.
XOXO
Looks like you and Susan had a great time! I agree that the scallops would have been better seared before being placed on top of the tarts.
Thanks for sharing all those gorgeous photos, they are lovely. Your tarts look scrumptious and make for a
perfect lunch with a side salad. Enjoy your week.
I love how you kidded about us taking the puff out of puff pastry. Yes, it is always an adventure that Dorie takes us on. Speaking of which – I LOVED THIS WINE POST. It was so wonderful to see and hear the details of the visit. Oh my I am so jealous that I was not drinking along with you all and eating the small bites. Though I am honestly not sure I wouldn’t be looking for a Napa Starbucks in between. And Port- yum. I love that stuff and am glad you got to test it. My folks brought me some back from a trip to Portugal- right from the source 🙂 Thanks again for sharing the wonderful trip with us all !!
Mary,
We are on spring break with 4 teenagers in sophisticated Cancun, with 100,000 other American spring breakers. So you must know how green I am reading your post (almost a week Late). This place is NOT chic, and you are in Cambria. But I did see the writing on the cooks’ aprons that said Praise the Lard!!! Amen, that looks so yummy. This week’s recipe will be re-created in Aspen upon my return–if I can make it work–it will be so ever perfect for San Miguel, we’ll serve it for you when you come. xoxoxo
Blanca Uzeta O’Leary,
Your tartes look fantastic!
Hi Mary! Love your new look-very nice 😉
Looks like you had a ton of fun with Susan and John and a few excellent glasses of wine!
I can’t remember the last time I made a tart-they do look scrumptious – I know all the Dorie food is good and it’s fun to cook along with the group-maybe I’ll get back to it one day… Have a great week 😉
Your wine tasting adventure sounds like so much fun! Thanks for sharing your photos.