Their picture of a French Apple Tart

The November/December 2014 Cook's Illustrated had a French Apple Tart recipe. Four hours later, on a Sunday afternoon, I had produced a version. This, for me, is special occasion fare. It's simple, delicious and beautiful with their recipe.

So, for future reference* -

13.32 oz. AP Flour

   4.5  oz  Sugar (I used my home-made vanilla sugar.)

     1   tsp  Salt

 20     T.   Melted unsalted Butter

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix the dry ingredients.  Pour in the melted butter, and mix until Play-Dough-ish.  Skip the wrapping and chilling and rolling, and just pat it in the pan.  Try to be consistent about the thickness, and especially the joint area between the bottom and the sides.  They suggest using a meat pounder.  I just used my hands and it worked pretty well. Author Andrea Geary suggested putting the crust on a baking pan with a wire rack on it, and using the bottom rack.  I followed her suggestion, and it came out beautifully ! (30-35 minutes, rotating once half-way, removing when golden brown...)  Her tests indicated that you can make all of these components up to 24 hours ahead of time, assembling at the last minute.  Keep the two apple components separated.

For the "top" apples - in skillet over medium heat, add 2 T. butter until foaming.  Add sliced apples  and water.  Cover and cook 3-5 minutes, then spread out to cool. (reserve 5 skinniest ones to make the rosette curve in the middle)

For the "bottom" apples, get Smucker's Apricot Preserves.  Microwave gently until fluid.  Using a wire mesh, separate solids and save them.  Reserve about 3 T. to coat top later.  Add apples with butter, apricot solids and strained Preserves.  Cook and cover about 10 minutes, over medium heat.  Break them down.  A potato masher works great here (after I found it).  The pastry blender worked pretty well until then. !?  Dry them out more, about 5 minutes.

Smooth them into the crust.  Top with the slices.  Cook for about 30 minutes on lowest rack.  Then, brush with the reserved apricot preserves.  Broil, watching carefully (!), for about 3 minutes.  Cool for about 1-1/2 hours.  Cut with a chef's knife to try and keep the crust from breaking.  Very yummy and rich !

SO, after all of that, I had what my Wife described as the "...most beautiful thing [I] ever made...". (!)  I'm not sure I will ever do this again - there are certainly some ways to put together all of the good-tasting stuff without adding the fru-fru (sp?) overhead of rosette-ing the top.  BUT, here's my final product (below), along with my favorite knife that my little sister gave me.  Make this tart at least once !

* Their recipe was for a 9" tart pan. My pan is a 12" one. Without doing the math (did it later though), I decided to double the ingredients for the crust, and make 1-1/2 times the filling. It worked out almost exactly right. (!?)

I made Tacos Al Pastor night before last, since I plan to eat tomorrow afternoon at Chef Alex Stupak's NYC Empellon Al Pastor .  They just got a spread in NYMag (thumbnail below). 

I'm sure my Tacos aren't close to Stupak's, but it was fun to learn about the process.  I followed the www.myrecipes.com version, with refried beans (daughter said "not pretty" - "are they ever ?", wife asked ...), chipotle corn, corn tortillas, steamed Spanish rice, and salsa verde.

Crab Cakes ! Grilled Pickles !!?!

With the 6-1/2 ounces of left-over Blue Crab from the 5 pounds that the Wife and I picked through for last night's dinner, I'm prepping some Crab Cakes.

Andrew Zimmern had an interesting recipe that I used at http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/baltimore-style-crab-cakes .

I usually just slap together Tartar Sauce-ish-ness. But, tonight I used the Tartar Sauce recipe from a cookbook my neighbor just gave me (by the authors of the Silver Palate Cookbook). HOWEVER, I JUST made some "Grilled Pickles" this a.m., and used those in the recipe. Of course, grill marks look good on just about anything, I think - but, Grilled Pickles ??? (I had never heard of such !!?!)

BUT, PLEASE TRY THESE - I whipped 'em out in about 10 minutes prep. I may never buy pickles in the store again ! (The only impact that I could tell that the grilling had on the sliced Persian cukes and the red onions, other than the marks, was a slight smokiness, but I like it, and, again, they're so easy !) http://www.jaxhouse.com/2013/08/06/grilled-pickles/ .

Wife's going to make a salad like the nearby Brooklyn Café does with their crab cakes - mixed greens with corn (plenty of that left over from last night !). I just heard my stomach growl...

AFTER-MEAL REVIEW: The Crab Cakes were not as good as Brooklyn Cafe's - Good browning on the cakes, but I will cut back on the Saltines used as breading in Zimmern's recipe by a 1/3 or so next time.

'Cooked for one Nephew plus Wife, and one Nephew plus Wife-to-be - TOO MUCH FUN ! Had a Chef Paul Luna (ish) cabbage salad with red and "regular cabbage" (white ? light green ??), toasted walnuts, gorgonzola (he uses gorgonzola dolce), mint, and a light lemon viniagrette to lead off with. I used my new mandoline, and cut the cabbage slightly too thin.

Then, chicken piccata, which turned out well. I did have one interesting issue, though. When I added some cream to the simmering sauce, the acidity of the sauce caused the cream to curdle some (I just shuffled it in and out through a strainer and removed the big pieces, although I probably could've just used the immersion blender and buzzed it into submission. I just added cream to my "Lemon Butter Sauce" last night made to pour on the "Flounder en Croute", and it didn't curdle,

so it is probably about the pH level. ??)

Couscous, garlic bread and green beans rounded out the chicken piccata entree. Black Raspberry Chocolate Mousse for dessert, with raspberries and whipped cream. Lesson learned - back off on the Chambord from 2 Tbsp. in the Mousse - a bit too boozy !; start earlier on the prep work, and also get that same group again, because they totally cleaned up the kitchen !!!!!!!?!

Sister's Brussel Sprouts

Sister emailed me - - -

"Made the best brussel sprouts tonight I have ever eaten.

Brussel sprouts cut in half, tossed in EVOO and salt and pepper
Roast 400 for 30 minutes
In a skillet: 1/2 c OJ with rinds sliced in big hunks so they can be taken out-Reduce by 1/2
Add 2 pats butter and swirl in
Add 8-10 dried apricots cut in pieces
Add a handful of toasted walnuts.
Pour sauce over brussel sprouts and finish with a little bottled balsamic glaze.

Even though I am just the sister of foodie guy, I can cook."

Birthday Fun - Cooking Class with Sister !!

Hard to beat this coming up this week ---





Holiday Hors d’Oeuvres --- Hands-On !
Wed, Dec 2, 6 – 9p

MENU: Petit Seafood Cakes; Broiled Figs with Stilton & Apricot
Chutney; Citrus-Spiced Mixed Olives; Camembert Walnut Pastries;
Bourbon Steak Toasts with Horseradish Cream; Spiced Pumpkin Seeds;
Trio of Savory Puffed Cheese Straws: Black Olive Tapenade, Pesto, and
Parmesan & Pepper Jack Cheese; Fried Shrimp Toasts; and Fingerling
Potato Bites with Smoked Salmon & Crème Frâiche.



With Chef Samantha Enzmann ! and Sister ! :-)

Wife made some wonderful burgers on the grill. Salted and peppered, with a great crust, they made a wonderful meal on toasted buns. Her good guacamole was a satisfying side. One one-inch-diameter tomato from the garden gave up its future to enhance my burger !



Alongside all of this production, I decided to try and make use of the eggplants that GrandMother had sent - two purple and two white.



I read several recipes online, and started winging it (which can be dangerous !).



I cut all of the eggplants up into about 1/4" slices, and salted both sides, waiting about 5 minutes for the moisture to come out. I recall that this "de-bitterized" the eggplant I rinsed the slices and dried them, and coated them in about 1 Tbsp. of good olive oil. Since Wife had the grill going for the burgers, I grilled them all, losing two through the grates. :-(


I headed toward Ina Garten's "Eggplant Gratin" recipe.


In that recipe, she slices the vegetable 1/2" thick, so we'll see how that difference turns out.

She made a custard of ricotta, half-and-half, and egg, then layered browned eggplant slices and marinara sauce. The gratin was then baked.

Mine was pretty good. I think that the thicker slices would haven been better.

As is always the case in a surfing session, I found some interesting stuff. The eggplant picture came from a blog called Tuesdays with Dorie , where, since January 2008, a collection of bakers - hundreds of them ! - have been baking through the recipes in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. (James Beard Award winner). They post their comments on each weekly recipe on their own blogs, posting a link to their blog post on the Tuesdays with Dorie site. HOW FUN !