Wednesday, November 18, 2009

sky, puffed-up, tart

Posted by Picasa Today's leaf and a little sky behind the bars of a drain cover.
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The wind swells under the cover of a motor cycle and billows around beneath it giving the impression of a rider and pillion passenger leaning into now one bend, now the next.
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In preparation is a tarte des Demoiselles Tatin, to give it its full name. It's an upside down apple tart, in more prosaic terms. Having covered a shallow, buttered pan containing apples and sugar with puff pastry, you caramelise the apples with the pan on top of the stove and when they are beginning to turn brown under the pastry, put the pan in a hot oven until the pastry is cooked, crisp and golden. You turn the pan over onto a plate and you have your tart with the pastry underneath and the caramelised apples on top.

4 comments:

CC said...

Love the photo.
Would make an interesting pattern for a pieced quilt.

And if you bring that tarte, I'll make the
thè. Yum!

Roderick Robinson said...

What a terribly romantic evocation of motorbike riding, although for me another image rises in response to your description - the rider must surely be the subject that provided such an important diversion when we drove grandchild Ysabelle through France. Q: "And who's that?
A: "It's Monsieur Bibendum."

I think I'll go on calling it "Tarte Tatin". What always astonished me was the inhumanly precise way the apple was sliced. No doubt there's a knack.

Unknown said...

My classic recipe for Tarte Tatin (courtesy Michel Roux) uses apples, preferably Reinette or Cox) cored and cut in half. This shape is necessary if the caramelising procedure is not to overwhelm the architecture. The classic French glazed apple tart has intricately cut slices which I agree must be difficult to achieve.

The Crow said...

A mandoline makes perfectly thin slices for tarte Tatin. I like using pears with finely chopped hazelnuts.

:)