This recipe is from the James Beard’s Menus for Entertaining, and is part of An Easy Luncheon or Sunday Night Supper for 4.

• Cream cheese pastry or rich pastry (recipe here)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 onions, thinly sliced
• Salt and pepper
• Nutmeg
• 1 cup Gruyere, or Emmenthal, grated
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 cup cream

Line a 9-inch tin with pastry.  Place foil over the pastry, and fill with dried bean. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove beans (reserve for future use) and the foil.

Melt butter in heavy sauce pan over medium heat. Add onions and seasoning. Cover, and steam until onions are just tender. Remove to pastry shell, and mix gently with the grated cheese. Blend eggs and cream, and pour over the onion cheese mixture.  Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes or until custard is just set.

Note: the pastry shell may be made in advance and frozen, either baked or unbaked.