birthday tart

Twas my precious mom's birthday the day after Thanksgiving, and though the fridge was packed and our bellies rotund, I had to make something sweet and fresh to celebrate. Cake-from-a-box simply wouldn't cut it for my own mother, so I set out to make a strawberry tart worthy of a patisserie.

I used my tried-and-true crust recipe, bought sliced strawberries, then hunted for a solid recipe for pastry cream... that tongue-coating, lip-smacking divinity that is the necessary middle note between the tartness of the berries and the blandness of the crust. This one comes from allrecipes.com, and it's perfectly easy and delicious.

So delicious, in fact, that it'd make a wonderful summer dessert all by itself, or topped with a couple peach slices.

Pastry Cream

2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 egg yolks
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons butter
1 pinch salt

Place the milk, half the sugar and the vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat. Combine the yolks and the remaining sugar in a bowl and whisk until light in color. Add in the flour and the salt, mix to combine.

When the milk just begins to boil, remove from heat. Very slowly dribble the hot milk into the yolk mixture, stirring all the time. When about half of the milk has been added, place all of the yolk mixture into the saucepan over medium heat. Using a spatula or a whisk, mix the pastry cream as it heats, making sure to reach all of the corners of the pan when you stir. Bring the mixture to a boil. Let boil for about 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and add the butter. Strain for a smooth cream. Pour into a bowl and chill.

hairy coat bears

(That's haricot verts in TexFrench...)



Our Thanksgiving dinner this year was quintessentially Randall - there was poetry, there was film discussion, and there was French food. Each chef in the family contributes one dish, and my two sides were an homage to La Rochelle, where my tiny mother was born. I made my favorite mushroom dish EVER (a la bordelaise... for a later post) and marinated haricots verts.

That disgustingly pretentious phrase simply means tiny whole green beans, but, as my dad would say, it is so much more decadently EUROPEAN to stick to the French term! I mashed two recipes together to create this dish, and it's mild, fresh and lightly sweet.. a perfect treatment of an otherwise dull, salty T-day side.

And do not even THINK about dousing them with canned fried onions. Bouef!!

Haricots Verts

1 package frozen tiny whole green beans
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon white wine or tarragon vinegar
Sea salt and pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup toasted almonds

Bring water to a boil and cook the beans for 4 minutes, until crisp but cooked. Meanwhile, whisk together the mustard, wine and spices. Slowly drizzle in the oil, whisking constantly, to create a smooth emulsion. Strain beans and cool, then toss with marinade. Refrigerate for a few hours, then serve with toasted almonds on top.

tarte tatin

There is no greater month than November... it finishes off October's blitzkrieg of business, holds the alluring promise of Christmas, and guarantees an abundance of warm, hearty meals. And what word rolls off the tongue more beautifully? November has the soft, velvet texture of a comfortable idea wrapped in rusty colors and chill mornings.

A crumbly, buttery, decadent French tart seems the perfect way to usher in the autumn nights, and this recipe for Tarte Tatin is scandalously simple. The crust is not a traditional tart crust, but one given to me by a friend's mother that has absitively, posolutely never failed me. The filling is tres riche -- gobs of butter and frosty brown sugar and crisp apples melting together in a cast-iron pan.

This oh-so-French dessert has a delicious little backstory as well: the Tatin sisters, who owned a small cafe in southern France, were renowned for their apple tarts. One day, in a haze of distraction, one of the sisters accidentally poured the filling in before she'd made the crust. Shrugging and grinning, she laid the crust gently over the filling, tucked in the sides, baked it, flopped it out on a plate.. and people were hooked!

Tarte Tatin

Crust
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup shortening
6 tablespoons cold water

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Cut in the shortening until dough is in pea-sized crumbles. Using a fork, dribble the water over part of the dough, one tablespoon at a time, tossing to mix. Form the dough into a rough ball, lay out onto flour-doused countertop, and pound with the side of your hand, three times horizontally and three times vertically. Roll out, and set aside.

Filling

5 ripe green apples
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar

Caramelize apples in sugar and butter in a cast-iron pan, simmering about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Carefully lay crust over pan, tucking in the sides around the filling. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. When done, allow to cool for 10 minutes, then flip the tart onto a plate. Serve with a splash of cream if you're feeling very French.