“How many times have you posted that tarte tatin recipe?” the Sous-Chef wants to know. The answer is two, now three, plus one other time when I posted a different tarte tatin recipe that has now been forgotten, but that’s neither here nor there. I don’t mind, in the same way that I don’t mind when pictures of a favorite dish don’t come out quite perfectly, or when the Country Boy and I chow down on something that turns out to be delicious and I have to post the recipe without pictures.
“Je rêve d’un journal qui me ressemblerait,” writes Régine Robin… a journal that resembles me, that is an image of my life and not just a description. “Show, don’t tell.” So say English teachers; so say I. So if tarte tatin appears three times, four times, a half-dozen times, I won’t mind, because it’s what I think is important to be writing about, and because I think it might interest a handful of readers.
I got distracted with the Salon de l’Agricultrure, which means that I didn’t have time to post about the Sous Chef’s visit to Paris a few weeks ago. It was a short visit, just a long weekend, but it was filled with exactly the right combination of things: wandering new neighborhoods, dinner at le Relais de l’Entrecôte, baguette from le Grenier à Pain in Montmartre with cheese from my favorite Montmartre cheese guy, eaten on our knees in front of the love wall next to the Abbesses métro.
The day that we spent in Montmartre was a beautiful one, so much so that we decided to start our return to the 15th on foot. By the time we reached the 6th arrondissement, the walk home had become a challenge, and so we finished the march from the top of the 18th to the bottom of the 15th, essentially from the furthest point north to the furthest point south in Paris, punctuated by taking pictures, practicing our French (for the Sous Chef) and our English (for the Country Boy), and talking about our respective writing projects.
When we got home on Sunday, after our long walk through Montmartre, this pasta bake was the only thing we had the energy to make, comfort food that we devoured with relish. On Saturday, though, the Soush Chef and I found ourselves back in the kitchen, where we concocted raclette and four different desserts, two of which came from the same recipe.
My last attempt at making tarte tatin was this Thanksgiving. I used a half-sized baking dish, which fits in my oven, but makes a very soupy tarte. We were OK with this, and the Country Boy was more than happy to drizzle the “sauce,” essentially apple juice, caramel and butter, over vanilla ice cream, but I knew that there was some way to make prettier tarts. The answer came with the mini-cocottes TCB’s parents gave us for Christmas. I took the saucers one is meant to use for serving the hot cocottes and cut out rounds of storebought puff pastry. Then I simply filled them with the tarte tatin mixture, topped them with puff pastry and baked them.
But what of the “sauce”? When a small amount of it hardened on spoon TCB was tasting from, I got the idea to make caramel candies. I poured the mixture of apple juice, butter and sugar into a baking dish lined with parchment paper and allowed the caramels to cool. Then TCB cut them into squares, which the Sous Chef and I wrapped in more parchment paper.
Not gonna lie; it made me feel like a pro.
The Sous Chef has gone back to the States now, and it may be awhile before we see one another again. But I know that every time we do, we’ll have a blast in the kitchen, taking on way too many projects and somehow, pulling it all off.
I have no true recipe for the Apple Caramels, although they’re very easy to make if you’re making these mini-tarte tatins. Just scoop up all the liquid that is left over after filling the ramekins, pour it into a flat dish and wait! Maybe someday I’ll develop a real recipe… or maybe I’ll just make tarte tatin every time I want caramels.
I had not bookmarked the Tarte Tatins recipe, so there really was a good reason for you mention it again…so that I could go print it out to put in my “must make” folder.