Upside Down Caramelized Root Vegetable Tart with Flaky Gruyere Crust

What's that you said?

You don't know what a parsnip is either?

I've started a new thing- I go to the supermarket, see something I've never cooked, and buy it.  

Then it sits in my fridge for a week because I don't know what to do with it. 

So I bought a couple parsnips.  Research says they are a root vegetable related to the carrot.  Makes sense, as they look like white carrots.  Wikepedia (yes, I really did get my info here) says they are buttery, sweeter than carrots, and have subtle flavors of butterscotch, honey, and cardamom when cooked.  Sounds pretty good.  

If you don't know (as I didn't) they get peeled the same way carrots do, and then simply cut into slices for this recipe.  

Sounded to me like parsnips and sweet potatoes would go pretty well together, and lucky me- I had a leftover sweet potato! So for you, I decided to make this upside down tart, quite lovely as an appetizer, a lunch, or a snack.  It can be eaten either hot or cold, though the crust is so delishiously flaky right out of the oven. 

Why upside down, you ask?

Because the vegetables caramelize so beautifully when cooked in oil in the hot cast iron skillet.  They turn a nice golden brown and have such a sweet flavor- butterscotch and honey are good ways of describing it. 

And the crust gets SO flaky when not weighed down in the bottom of a pan.  

If I had other root vegetables, I would have thrown them in too.  Experiment with whatever you have on hand, this recipe is pretty basic and forgiving.  

Upside Down Caramelized Root Vegetable Tart with Flaky Gruyere Crust

1 sweet potato, peeled, rinseed, and cut into thin (1/8 inch) slices
2 parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/8 inch slices
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper
olive oil

Flaky Gruyere Crust
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
5 tbsp butter, cut in pieces and chilled
5 tbsp ice cold water
1/4 cup packed shredded gruyere

Crust:

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl.  Add the cold butter, and using your hands, work it into flour mixture until it is a crumbly texture.  Do this quickly, you don't want butter to melt too fast.  Drizzle water in and incorporate quickly (I don't mean you need to speed through this, but don't start and then walk away..)  Form gently into a ball, flatten into a 6 inch dish, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 375.

The veggies:

Heat a few drizzles of olive oil in your cast iron skillet over medium, medium high heat. Add the red onion. Saute until soft.  Add garlic, saute a minute longer, and remove red onion and garlic from pan and set aside. 

Add a bit more olive oil, allow it to warm up for 30 seconds, and add half of the sweet potato. Saute until sweet potato begins to get golden brown color.  Remove from heat and saute other half of sweet potatoes. Remove and repeat with parsnips. 

Once all your veggies are sauteed until golden, remove them all from pan and remove skillet from heat.  Now you can arrange them in a pretty manner.  Pour 1 tbsp of olive oil into the cast iron skillet and disperse.  Evenly sprinkle the thyme directly onto the pan. Begin layering veggies: I started with layering the smallest parsnips in the middle of the pan, followed by a layer of the smallest sweet potato slices, the red onion mixture, more parsnips, and more sweet potato. Season generously with salt and pepper. 

Remove the crust from the fridge and roll out until it is large enough to fit over the cast iron skillet. Quickly place it on top of the veggies and tuck the sides in a bit.  

Place in cast iron skillet in oven and bake for about 25 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

To remove the tart from the pan: 

Let cool 5-10 minutes until easier to handle.  Using a thin spatula, gently work it underneath the tart to try to lift any veggies stuck to pan.  Remember your pretty arrangement- be gentle with the spatula.  

Grab a plate- most dinner plates will fit just perfectly inside the cast iron skillet.  Place the plate on top of the tart, and (with oven mitts on!) lift the whole pan up and turn is upside down quickly.  Your tart should fall right out and look ever so perfect on your plate!  If it doesn't pry stuck veggies off and rearrange- the tart is pretty east to work with! 

Cardamom Scented Carrot Cheesecake

I first became aware of celiac disease when I met my step-dad.  At first, it was hard to comprehend.  No flour??!!  No bread? Pasta? Cake? Pizza???!!  etc, etc....  WHAT DO YOU EAT?!!?

That was before the surge in public awareness of gluten free eating.  Now it's pretty mainstream- with people choosing to go gluten-free for it's health benefits.  When I look at my step-dad's diet, it's completely apparent to me that gluten-free diets ARE more healthy.  To make up for the calories missing from bread and other 'glutinated' items, he eats extra veggies, and more often eats quinoa and brown rice.  

Since becoming more aware of gluten-free eating, I have gone completely gluten free in the past, and currently attempt to make healthier, gluten-free choices when possible (fairly speaking though- I DO eat   my share of gluten).  I enjoy the challenge of trying to make recipes gluten-free.

I am not, by any means, saying the following recipe for Carrot Cheesecake is healthy...  :)  But is IS gluten-free.  And DELICIOUSSSSS.

Cardamom Scented Carrot Cheesecake

This cake is time consuming (plan a whole day to prepare), but worth it.  I brought it to Easter dinner and got RAVE reviews.  Make it a day ahead- it's better the second day.

Crust:

2, 7.25 packages of Pamela's Pecan Shortbread Cookies

5 tbsp butter

Cheesecake:

4, 8 ounce bars cream cheese

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 tbsp brown sugar

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 tbsp plain greek yogurt

4 eggs

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cardamom

Carrotcake:

2 cups gluten-free flour mix- I used Betty Crocker Gluten-Free baking mix

2 cups sugar

4 eggs, room temp

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

3 cups peeled and grated carrots

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cardomom

1 tsp salt

1 cup walnuts

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Cream Cheese Icing:

6 ounces cream cheese, softened
6 ounces unsalted butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla

You will need a 9 inch springform pan, 9 inch round cake pan, and parchment paper.

Crust:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 inch springform pan.

2. Melt butter.  Add shortbread cookies to a food processor, and process until crumbs.  Slowly drizzle in the butter while still processing, allowing it to gradually wet all the crumbs. The crumbs should stick together a little when you press a handful into a ball.  If they don't add another tbsp of butter- but adding too much butter will make the crust very heavy, so be careful.

3. Dumb the cookie/butter mixture into the springform pan.  Press it down with the palms of your hand until it forms a solid, flat layer of crust.  When you think it's been pressed down well, press it down some more.  Do not press the crust up on the sides of the pan, keep it flat- as a base for the cake.

4. Bake in oven for 20 minutes.  LET COOL before adding cake batters, but leave oven on at 350.

Cheesecake:
1. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, and brown sugar until smooth and light.  Blend in cream, and then add eggs one at a time, mixing just to combine the eggs with the cream cheese mixture.  Mix in the rest of the ingredients  Set aside, and make the carrotcake.

Carrotcake:
1. Lightly grease the cake pan, and place a circle of parchment paper down, leaving a little parchment hanging over for easy removal of the cake.

2. In a large bowl, cream sugar and eggs. Add vegetable oil and vanilla, mixing until smooth.

3. In another bowl, whisk together the gluten-free flour mix, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cardamom.

4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar and egg mixture, stirring gently to combine.  Once combined, fold in the carrots and walnuts.

To assemble:
In the spring form pan:
1. On top of the cooled crust, add 1/2 of the cheesecake batter.

2. Add 1/2 of the carrotcake batter on top by small spoonfuls.  If it is poured on top in the center, you won't be able to spread it without combining it with the cheesecake layer.  By adding it with small spoonfuls, you can get the cake pretty mush covered, using a rubber scraper (or butter knife) to drag the spoonfuls together, making one solid layer.

3. Add the rest of the cheesecake batter, spreading evenly.

4. Bake in preheated oven for one hour.  After the hour, turn off oven, but leave cake inside for two hours.  Take out and cool completely on wire racks.

In the 9 inch cake pan:
1. Add the remaining carrotcake batter to the cake pan.  Bake in oven (with carrotcake) removing after 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Halfway through cooking time, switch the positions of the two cakes, so they cook evenly.

2. Let cool completely.

Once cool, use the parchment paper to remove the carrotcake from the pan.  Very carefully, place this layer ON TOP of the Cheesecake.  Try to keep the carrotcake from crumbling when doing this, but f it does you can hide it with the cream cheese frosting.

You now have a cake with 4 layers- cheesecake, carrotcake, cheesecake, carrotcake.

The frosting:
1. Cream the cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla.  Gradually add the powdered sugar.  Mix until frosting is light and fluffy.  Apply to cake with a rubber scraper, spatula,  or spoon into a piping bag to decorate.

Store in fridge overnight.