Tarts

TARTS are glorious! I remember my grandfather, Pepé, making fruit tarts with fresh fruit from his trees in northern California. Nectarine! Plum!
Fig! What bliss! I can still see him pressing dough into a jelly roll pan, sprinkling sugar and laying the fruit. I prefer my tarts like that, with fruit spread in a single layer over a scant amount of sugar, and I make them big.. Because they're impossible to stop eating.
Galettes, shown here, are another version of a tart. Gallete means 'a flat cake', so we can take liberty with interpretation. The dough is rolled in a round, the fruit and sugar centered and the edges folded over and 'pinched'. Sometimes I put a nougatine on top, made with an egg white beaten with sugar and sliced almonds, it bakes into a wonderful candy-like, crunchy topping, that ends up causing pushy fork fights. 
I'm giving you an easy, always reliable recipe for this crust. It is different from a Paté Briseé, what many know of as tart dough, or a short crust. This is buttery, puffy, flaky, crunchy and perfect. My husband would like just crust sometime..it's that good. From this base, you can get very creative with your fillings (or, none!) Try pear, apple ( I use this dough for Tart Tatin ), any of the summer fruits or berries. Strawberry is terrific, Strawberry Rhubarb is even better and this summer I discovered how much I adore just Rhubarb, alone, cooked down briefly in a bit of sugar! Next summer try making hand pies with this dough; squares of dough filled with fruit and sugar, then folded into rectangles.. remember these?



The basic recipe is a ratio of 3 to 2 to 1. Flour, butter, iced water..and a pinch of salt.

          Tart Dough 
3 cups flour
2 cups cubed butter, 10 oz. put in freezer for 20      minutes
1 cup cold water, with ice cubes in it..so about 5-6 oz water
1 tsp. salt
Place flour, salt, butter and half of the ice water (no ice) in food processor and pulse briefly. You want the dough chunky with butter.  add the rest of the water and pulse just until the dough starts to pull together, but not completely. Dump the dough onto waxed paper, parchment or plastic and mush into a disc. wrap this up and refrigerate for 1/2 hour before rolling out. This recipe will make one 12x18 jellyroll pan or two smaller tarts.

see the chunks of butter? This is what makes the tart puffy and crunchy, when all that fat melts in layers..mmm.

It is best to bake this dough at 400〫





A good winter tart is cream cheese and jam, preferably homemade! Use 4 oz cream cheese, or goat cheese, spread on the bottom of a dough round (1/2 the recipe) and top with any good jam you've got.

      Pear is a wonderfull fruit for fall and winter tarts. Roll out 1/2 the dough into a round, sprinkle with sugar, then add thinly sliced fruit. pull these sides of the dough in and pinch it all around. Bake these tarts for 30 min., check and bake a bit longer until a golden crust is formed. 

Tart Tatin is another way of baking a tart. Baked with the dough on top then flipped at serving.

6 oz butter
1/2 cup sugar
thinly sliced apples or pears
1/2 recipe tart dough rolled and kept in fridge until ready.

In a heavy oven proof skillet, I use a Le Creuset pan, melt 4oz butter with 1/4 cup sugar until melted and beginning to caramelize. Add sliced fruit in single layers, making a pattern if you wish, this is the top of tart! Once bubbling comences, the fruit is cooking a bit, add the other 1/4 cup sugar and bits of the 2 oz butter (If you prefer a sweeter tart, add more sugar here. )
Remove from heat, place dough round on top tucking sides INTO pan around fruit. Place pan on a baking sheet to catch overflow and bake at 400 for 30 minutes, check and bake until crust is golden. 
Let this cool a bit, while it's still warm though, loosen sides of crust gently with a knife and carefully flip out on to a plate.. Voila!

                                                

cooking for work

 I haven't been around for a bit. I have taken a job cooking (okay, personal chef-ing) for an older couple, I need work and they need home cooked meals. It's just part time, but I must work the kinks out of it. Like anything new we start, there are kinks. For instance, I didn't realized that they eat different food from each other,I can only imagine from so many years of eating out, that requires some creative balancing on my part. One eats lots of salmon and is gluten free. The other does not and isn't. Did I mention I am cooking it all at my home and delivering it to them? Well, I am. And toss that in with cooking for my family, you get it. I am working the kinks out.
It's interesting interviewing people to find out what they like. It's all so subjective. I thought everyone likes baked Macaroni and Cheese, right? Polenta? Chicken soup? Hmm. Roast Chicken? (with absolutely no fat on it, maybe.) Lentils,yes.I asked many questions and got "make that for him, he likes that"  and "I love Broccoli and Salmon.Do you want some Olive oil? It's organic." cute.

I've made Roasted Cabocha Squash soup, so good, with toasted cumin and coriander seeds infusing the milk, not cream, for the base ( even though she once felt sick from squash soup somewhere, I knew my chances where slim, but I tried convincing her it was the cream that made her sick, not the Squash.) A short grain rice pilaf with shitake mushrooms, slivered bok choy, garlic, ginger, and grilled red onions. served with grilled Salmon ("oh, I'll eat both peices, I don't think he'll eat any"). Today I brought over a very veggie filled Minestrone Soup, with rice pasta. and Chicken roasted with cherry tomatoes and olives (skin removed, all fat drained off.) I used those same roasted tomatoes in the creamy polenta I made along side, a tiny bit of parmesan for flavor (cheese is on the not liked list). Organic Broccoli sauteed in olive oil with garlic. 
They were not home when I dropped off the food, so the verdict is out.
One thing I know for sure, flourless chocolate cake is in the near future!


Tart dough and tarts are coming. Promise!

Zucchini Orange Marmalade Bread...

     Zucchini, the prolific vegetable.I'm pretty sure we've all had more than our share of zucchini at one point in our lives, either from our own gardens or friends. If you haven't, then you've heard the rumors. Come august and september they start rolling in, and our creativity goes to work. First it is ratatouille, to use those amazing tomatoes and eggplant that are also overflowing our counters. Then grilled zucchini with everything you eat... I made grilled ratatouille this year. Next we freeze some, pickle some, make relish from some.. oh, then we bake. Or, it happens in a different order, but it's all the same. So much zucchini. I admit, it was not a problem for me this year. we went away in august for ten days..a word to gardeners, it is unwise to go away when the veggies start bursting without a totally reliable person to safe guard your jewels.. everyday..we had a gate left open here and our dogs where over there and the deer found an easy path in. They ate everything they wanted and trampled the rest. many plants kept on growing and producing, very single minded they are. the zucchini did not survive. I was okay with it. I wish our county allowed hunting, as a friend of mine who lives in Oregon pointed out, he gets to eat the animals his garden inadvertently fed.

So I found myself BUYING zucchini at the farmers mkt. not knowing anyone who had an overabundance this year, because I had to grill more..and bake more!
Cookbooks, food blogs, family heirloom recipe boxes are loaded with zucchini bread recipes. Basic zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini bread (with or with out chocolate chips), zucchini nut bread. So how about zucchini orange marmalade bread? I started following the recipe from the Tartine cookbook while in my last stint baking professionally, I don't own the book (if you feel like donating a copy that would be just fine!), but I love the cakey bread it makes, so I recently created my own version and I'm sublimely satisfied with it.

                              Zucchini Orange Marmalade Bread


This can be made in 2 loaf pans or muffin tins. This will be consumed rather rapidly. I double it.

 preheat oven to 350〫and grease loaf pans or muffin tin.

3 large eggs
3/4 cup oil ( light olive or canola, safflower)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup orange marmalade

3 cups grated zucchini
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp.baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt


Beat eggs in a large bowl. add oil, sugar, marmalade and vanilla. whisk together well.
In  small bowl whisk flour with baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Add dry ingredients to wet and add zucchini. mix well.
Pour batter equally in to prepared pans, I like to sprinkle the top with sugar.

Bake loafs for about 60 min and muffins for 25. Turn pans halfway through baking. check by inserting a skewer or tooth pick into center, if it comes out with a few crumbs, or clean, it's done. Don't eat it immediately, it's very hot!

well, THAT was easy !  see the specs of marmalade? I like lots of rind in mine.

farm field trip

This is GARLIC! started early enough under a hoop house it will be ready for harvest in february. now is the time for us to plant garlic starts in our gardens for early summer harvest. if you never have, do try it! get garlic cloves from a friend who grows it or a reliable organic supplier, planting store purchased garlic is iffy. use single cloves and bury them a few inches down, covered with a mulch, they will winter nicely, may even have green shoots appear before heavy snow fall, such a pretty sight! next spring the garlic scapes will grow tall, curl around and flower. the scapes, or topsets can either be left on, to flower, or cut off, to be used in cooking! there are arguments for doing both. if you leave the scapes on , it may create a better storing bulb. if you cut the scapes off when they're young, the the bulb may grow bigger, the theory being that the energy in the plant is now transferred to the bulb. I try both. but I never grow enough garlic to have it last long, seems everything I cook needs it. I start using garlic right after picking when the flavour is so strong and the cloves are juicy! It's great for smashing with olive oil and spreading on fresh baked bread.

The black dirt you see here is in the western region of New York state, bordering the top of N.J. this is Pine Island N.Y., it was once the bottom of an ancient glacial lake. the owner of the farm said, "Basically we are farming in a big bowl of compost." I love that statement! How fortunate they are. the soil is very rich in organic matter and naturally ocurring peat keeps it moist, the soil actually bounces when jumped on!  the edibles they grow are incredibly flavourful, as the soil nutrient content changes, there is a noticeable change in the taste of the produce.

I was interested in the use of home made green 'hoop' houses (picture below.)  pieces of pvc piping was pounded into the ground on either side of a growing area and down the lenght, to act as footings for smaller piping which was arched from one footing to the other. this was covered with a medium weight plastic sheeting. all plants growing in these hoops houses are also covered with remay, a light weight row covering fabric, for the winter. some of these hoops  houses are only a couple of feet tall, while several are very spacious. this practice of hoop houses can easily translate to a home garden, an alternative to or in conjunction with cold frames. using remay as additional warmth layers is important for protection of the night temperatures, but also when the daytime sun warms up the hoop house condensation forms and can damage the plants,
like freezer burn. the temperatures in the houses need to be regulated, by raising sides or ends of the plastic. molds can form from too much damp warmth, creating disease and rot. in the cold of the winter, from january to february the plants will not grow, so start now if you're considering it for winter eating! good things to try are cold tolerant greens; lettuce, spinach, kale, collards, bok choy,
carrots (for spring eating), some perennial herbs like parsley, oregano, lovage, chives, scallions. there is nothing quite like picking fresh veggies in the middle of a snow! 

THERE will be more recipes coming in the next few days : proper pastry dough for tarts, fresh starter for bread, yummy dinner choices!