Cooking With Pickles, at the Haywards Pickle Event // And a Recipe

A few weeks ago I attended a lovely cooking event in London with Haywards Pickles. The idea behind the event was to celebrate summer and to help educate everyone on how to make the humble salad into something nutritious, delicious and to make the thought of a salad more exciting!

I do love a good salad, but I need it to be quite a hearty one, either with some meat or cheese such as halloumi. In the past I would NEVER have chosen a salad off a menu, but nowadays I often do if they sound really good, and we’ll sometimes have a halloumi or feta salad at home.

So I was really interested to try out some other dishes inspired by salads and pickles at the event. Haywards are the pickling experts and have been producing pickled vegetables since the 1800s. They make loads of different pickles, including pickled onions, gherkins, beetroot and Piccalilli.

Cooking With Pickles

We all watched the lovely Denise show us how to make a few of the dishes using Haywards Pickles and other ingredients (and they were all really simple), and then we got into little groups and had a go at making some of them ourselves. We made the very simple and tasty Brie and Beetroot Ciabatta Slices. I would never have thought to put pickled beetroot on something like that, and I really wouldn’t have imagined olives going with the other ingredients, but they were really nice, and I would totally make them again.

I LOVED the Goat’s Cheese and Caramelized Onion Tart, made with Haywards Pickled Onions. Again I just wouldn’t have thought of using pickled onions in something like this, but it makes it a more simple recipe to make, and has a great tanginess which goes really well with the dryness of the goats cheese. I’m definitely going to make this soon (you can find the recipe below). The Piccalilli Curry is also something I’d really like to make soon; I love the idea of the twist of the pickle in the curry, and it’s really quick to make.

I’ve definitely been inspired to cook with pickles after seeing how delicious they can be in recipes, and how they can add something to a dish. I’m looking forward to trying out the recipes for myself, as well as adding my Haywards Pickles to some of my salads.

Here’s the recipe for the Goat’s Cheese and Caramelized Onion Tart if you’d like to make it yourself.

EASY GOAT’S CHEESE AND CARAMELIZED ONION TART

This easy to make Goat's Cheese and Caramelised Onion Tart uses Pickled Onions to give a great tanginess that goes perfectly with the dry goats cheese.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

• 15 g butter plus extra for greasing
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 20 Haywards Traditional Pickled Onions
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
• 320 g sheet ready-made puff pastry
• 1 egg beaten
• 200 g soft goat's cheese
• black pepper
• green salad to serve

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. In a large frying pan, melt the butter on a medium heat and then add the oil. Let the mixture sizzle, then add the sliced pickled onions, stirring to coat.
• Sprinkle with sugar, mix again and add 50ml cold water. Simmer for 6-7 mins, until the sauce is thick and shiny. Mix through half the thyme leaves (if using) and season with pepper, then set aside.
• Grease inside of a flat baking tray with about a teaspoon of butter, using a piece of the butter wrapper, or kitchen paper, to smooth it over the tray. Lay the pastry sheet upon it and lightly draw a thumb-width border around the sides of the pastry with a sharp knife (without cutting through the pastry). With a pastry brush or a teaspoon, dap the border with the beaten egg.
• Spread the onion mixture within the border, then crumble the goat’s cheese over it and sprinkle with the remaining thyme leaves (if using).
• Season with black pepper and bake on the top shelf for 15-20 mins until the pastry is golden and the cheese slightly browned.
• Serve garnished with thyme sprigs, and side salad.

Notes

Haywards’ tip: Make four individual tarts by cutting the pastry sheet into four, drawing a smaller border, and filling each with each amounts of the filling. Cook on two flat baking trays (two tarts per tray, so they are spaced out).

Photography by Kaye of fordtography.co.uk and myself.

I was invited to the Haywards event, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.