The Tell-Tale Tarte
Page 24
Eating Chesapeake Bay specialties often means getting your hands dirty. Hard-shell crabs make the most mess. Peel-and-eat shrimp are a close second. But they’re quick and easy to fix because the person who eats the shrimp does the peeling, not the cook.
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup water or flat beer
3 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning
1 pound of large shrimp (30–40 count per pound)
Combine a cup of vinegar, water, and Old Bay seasoning. Old Bay is the most common Chesapeake Bay seasoning found in supermarkets, but other companies make it too.
Bring the mix to a boil in a large pot. Add the shrimp, stir, and cover the pot. Once the water boils again, cook for two minutes and drain the shrimp. Cook longer if you use larger shrimp, but be careful not to overcook because the shrimp will lose their taste and become tough.
Serve the shrimp with a cocktail sauce, either store-bought or homemade. An easy sauce has three ingredients: ketchup, lemon juice, and horseradish, in whatever proportions taste good to you.
Serves 3–4.
WARM CHOCOLATE TART
A tart (in English) or a tarte (in French) is a pastry dish without a top crust.
½ cup heavy cream
⅓ cup 2% milk or whole milk
8 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 large eggs
1 9-inch ready-made shortbread pie crust (or a prebaked homemade sweet crust)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Heat the cream and milk on high heat in a saucepan until the mixture boils. Remove it from the heat, add the chocolate, and stir until the chocolate is melted.
Beat the two eggs in a bowl and whisk in the chocolate mixture little by little. When the ingredients are smooth, pour them into the crust.
Bake the tart in the oven for 25–30 minutes until the custard is set.
Serve warm with ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream. Refrigerate any leftover tart.
Serves 8.
Adapted from a recipe by Jacques Haeringer for Auberge Chez Francois in Great Falls, Virginia.
TARTE TATIN
Just because a recipe has five ingredients doesn’t mean it’s easy or quick to make. This tarte takes practice and a lot of courage at the last step when you turn a hot skillet upside-down and hope the tarte ends up on a plate.
It’s best to cut the apples 1–3 days before making the tarte to dry them out. Otherwise, you may end up with too much juice in the tarte. Put the cut apples in a lightly covered bowl in the refrigerator. If you don’t have time to let the apples dry out, put a piece of foil under the skillet when it goes in the oven to catch any drips.
6–8 large apples, peeled, cored, and quartered (A mix of Granny Smith and Honeycrisp apples works well.)
6 tablespoons (¾ stick) softened unsalted butter
⅔ cup sugar
1 frozen puff pastry sheet
Equipment: a seasoned 10-inch cast iron skillet
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees when ready to cook.
Slice the bottom off each apple to give it a flat base. Peel and quarter the apples lengthwise and remove the cores. See the note above the ingredients about storing the apples in the refrigerator for at least one day before cooking.
Spread the butter on the bottom and sides of a seasoned 10-inch cast-iron pan and sprinkle the sugar evenly on the bottom. Arrange the apples vertically in the skillet, standing them on the flat end, in concentric circles. Pack the pieces close together so they support one another. Apples that stick up higher than the pan rim will shrink down as they’re cooked.
Prepare the pastry while the apples are cooking. Follow the directions for defrosting the puff pastry. Then roll it out on a floured surface until it is inch thick. Put a 10-inch plate upside-down on the pastry and use a sharp knife to cut out a circle the size of the skillet’s top.
There are three stages to making this tarte Tatin:
1. Cook the apples over medium high heat, 15–25 minutes until the juice is bubbling and a deep golden or light brown color.
2. Put the skillet in the oven and bake the apples for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.
3. Remove the pan from the oven, lay the pastry circle over the apples, and tuck it around the apples. Bake the tarte at 400 degrees until the pastry is browned, approximately 20 minutes. Check it after 15 minutes to make sure it doesn’t get too dark. You want the crust to be a nice golden brown. If it still looks pale after 20 minutes in the oven, bake it a few more minutes.
Move the skillet to a rack and cool it at least 10 minutes and up to 30 minutes. Put a cutting board or platter over the skillet. Use potholders to hold the skillet tightly against the board or platter. Turn the skillet upside-down. If apples stick to the skillet, add them to the top of the tarte.
If the tarte stands longer than 30 minutes after being baked, heat it over low heat for 1–2 minutes before turning the skillet over.
Cut the tarte in wedges and serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, or just eat it plain.
Serves 8.
Adapted from a recipe for “Foolproof Tarte Tatin” by Julia Moskin, The New York Times, October 22, 2014.