August B'day Dessert #1 down. The Tart and dinner.
All plans were off for the tart. They had the most beautiful tree ripened peaches and nectarines at Whole Foods. I thought to mix the them with a small one from TJ's for the center, and have three flavors, plus variation in the skin color. I loved it but the birthday girl would have rather had all peach. I had an extra tree ripe and left it in the fridge in a dish with her name on it.
The guest list kept expanding, and the dining room was as full as can be, but my simple plan worked. In order to concentrate on the tart, I decided on Chicken Marbella, pearl couscous and salad for the dinner. The recipe calls for four chickens. More than enough no matter how many were there, and prepping the day before was alluring, since overnight marination is called for. (They loved it, by the way. The recipe is always a winner too). The problem is I had to prep here and take it there. I've done plastic bags before but the marinade sticks to the bags too much and can't be properly scraped down, so I was searching around for something big with a lid that wasn't my dough bucket and espied my old 8 quart Farberware kettle that came with the set of pots my folks gave me when I was in college. I make matzah balls in it once a year. Given the dome of the lid, it all fit, and fit in the fridge, and it has carry handles, though I put it in a cardboard carton to contain potential drips (none happened). Most of all, to prevent chickeny contamination disasters, before I put it in the fridge for the overnight, I made sure the top wasn't going anywhere.
Yes. That's a couple yards of packing tape. It did the job nicely. :) The chicken came out perfectly even though I forgot to baste. There was plenty of steam from the liquid in the pans, so nothing dried out. I also made a steak and potato for Mr. Picky.
The packaging of the cous cous (ball pasta, both whole wheat and white mixed) said to use too much water and too much pasta per person. I had double what I wanted, and it was soggy, but I think I was the only one who noticed. I used a wire spider to dish it out of the pot, which helped. I think the leftover is going to be some kind of custard pudding. Or I could make a Marbella casserole.
The salad had baby lettuces, wild arugula (my favorite), chopped snow peas, yellow squash, prepared tart beets (boughten), and avocado. I made a tomato herb vinaigrette with black cherry tomatoes and scallions that was passed in a separate small salad bowl, and served to have the green salad not dressed as it was passed for the one who likes naked salad.
Then there's the tart. As the guest list blossomed, so did the tart. I have an 11" tin. I figured that the trimmings from the standard sized tin would just fill the 11" one without trimmings, and so it did. I didn't get it centered perfectly (hard to do with a loose bottomed tin), but managed to repair and pat into place so it fit. And I also gave my pastry tamper a good workout. :) Happy accident. Years ago, I somehow ended up with two jars of ceramic pie weights. I never used more than one for a pie, and hated storing the second, but I didn't know anyone to give them to. Well, tarts. Apparently, I do need two jars.
I didn't want to do a jammy tart, even though that's what most do with peach. It would be too sweet and what a horrid thing to do to such lovely peaches. Pastry cream seemed a bit weak. I found a Georgia peach pudding which was basically overcooked pastry cream with too much sugar, so did my best to adapt that to be a real pastry cream. It came out fine, but the peach puree, which was a couple of the older, smaller less sweet, Summer Flares, and one of the bigger, new tree ripened Summer Flare that had gotten icky at the stem end (unpretty with it cut off), was so amazingly wonderful a flavor, and the pastry cream only tasted slightly of peach. I probably should have condensed it. OTOH, I ran the apricot preserves for the glaze through the Vita-Mix with the bit of peach puree in the bottom instead of water to thin it, and the result is eye-rollingly good.
I took the shell in my big cake safe--the only thing it would fit in--unfilled, and assembled there. I didn't even have a big enough cake board, but grabbed a small wad of doilies--maybe 5 stuck together--and that worked just as well and didn't shred when I cut the tart. I found a too big but really flat tray there, and cleared the door shelf of the fridge so it could sit there to set, with the top of the cake safe to protect it.
The peaches and nectarine slices alternate, and the top of the middle is one of the small, tarter peaches. I had everything arranged beautifully on a plate, but when it came to making the tart itself, I just went for more peach, less pretty. The company still loved it. I thought it came out very good and I'm my own worst critic. The teenager wants to start making tarts.
Here's the tart before it was chilled. After chilling and setting, the glaze evened out, as expected, but I was in no state of mind to take a picture when it looked its best and people wanted to eat it, as expected.
Happy Birthday B! I'm whipped, but it was a lot of fun. :) Many happy returns of the day.
Comments (8)
Related Discussions
LOOKING for: phyllo dough mini tarts with lemon?
Comments (14)What you are describing is EXACTLY what we had at the Adobe Grand Villas in Sedona a few weeks ago. The chef there, who is outstanding, took phyllo dough, and used a scalloped edged cookie cutter, or must have used a sharp edged scalloped cutter with a circle form to use as a model, and he cut out the phyllo dough into circles. He then put them into pam sprayed mini cupcake/muffin tins, with the homemade tart sweet tangy lemon curd in them and baked them. The Phyllo dough was cooked, but "just", and they were lightly crisp and wonderful. The lemon curd was delectible and cooked well, perfectly. I have no idea what temperature he baked them at.. but, my guess would be 350. After they were done, he sprinkled them with powdered sugar and served them on silver trays. They were garnished with a slice of fresh strawberry, a thin, but nice slice, not a half or third, more like a fourth or fifth of a berry's slice, laying right on top, with a tiny little basil leaf at the top. The flavors of the tart lemon with the strawberry and basil was FANTASTIC!! Amazingly fantastic. My husband would have never ever in a bazillion years eaten them had he known that was basil.. to him, basil is SAVORY and not a herb to mix with sweet. And, he was almost embarrassing the way he gobbled them up!! I wish I had taken a picture of them.. they were so pretty and so good. He probably used three or four sheets of phyllo before cutting the circles. And, I would guess you'd need to spray or butter the tins fairly well to get the phyllo to "stick" and stay in the muffin tins. I don't know if you should try this the first time out for serving to guests, but give it a shot. It looked fairly easy to me, and the results were incredible!! Let me know if you try this!! Also.. when I make Lemon Tassies.. I use the cream cheese dough and then load them with lemon filling. Yummie in the tummie and very, very easy. They are soft and moist and delicously rich. The phyllo dough ones were far superior for light and crispy and wonderfully tart, tangy, and wonderful....See MoreThe Sit-Down-And-Socialize Dinner Challenge
Comments (80)So the menu changed. We had: - Roast duck, finished a la propane torch - Spare ribs in black bean sauce, the usual pressure cook-refrigerate-deep fry-stir fry process - Steamed cod with ginger, scallions and sake, there were NO live fish to be had as seemingly everyone was celebrating Chinese New Year, even my friend whose sister owns a seafood store had to buy packaged fillets at Costco - but they steamed very nicely, on a bed of lotus leaves with ginger, scallions, soy sauce and ShaoXing wine. - Baked bao with pork filling, DD made these - Deep fried veggie dumplings, DD's and DS' work - Shao mai with pork and shrimp, also DD's doing - you get the picture, I managed to not do a lot of the cooking! - Red rice with beets, someone brought - Long beans, stir fried with sesame, rice wine and red pepper, it is a long food = long life thing - Long noodles, served cold with a sesame-vinegar-soy-sake dressing, more symobolic longevity - Tofu with snow peas, DD made - Char sui pork, very red indeed - Lo mai gai, sticky rice with Chinese sausage, chicken and shrimp, steamed in lotus leaves, rested overnight, then re-steamed, which didn't actually add much extra lotus leaf flavor - Daikon cakes, baked then fried, DD made these with the nasty gluten-free flour and she whined about it a lot - Gai lan, or Chinese broccoli, we needed token veggies - Chinese tea eggs, which turned out much worse than previous attempts, they always taste the same but I didn't get as much of the pretty marble veining We did not have: - Egg drop soup, my stock was too cloudy and I didn't have time to clarify it, so I had a hissy fit and abandoned the effort - if the stock isn't clear, the egg drop doesn't look good - Soup dumplings, we had everything made but DS took so long to pleat the fried dumplings that I didn't have time to make the soup dumplings (we only have one station for dumpling assembly), so I will make these during the week - Seaweed salad, it was going to be gross so I pitched it. And a friend of DS came and made us all espresso and lattes. He is on indefinite hiatus from college, working as a barista, and is going to give me lessons in latte art. No, I didn't sit down much, so the evening was in that sense a failure. But everyone had a good time so it's not all bad!...See MoreOn to the tart... Recipes, please?
Comments (32)SunWest is the grower. They grow other things besides peaches, so it's probably a generic box. The bar code label that says Summer Flare 26 is telling you the variety. I don't know about the 26. That could be a cultivar code or the orchard or packing house or what have you. So the proof of the pudding is in the eating. :) The pate sucree is excellent. Maybe a tad too sweet, but I wouldn't want to make the edges slump by not having enough sugar, especially while it's hot out, so I doubt I'll scant it. I was worried about the structure, and it's good and firm, even rolled thin. I did just wrap it and throw it into the fridge tin and all, being so tired last night. That meant that the bottom kind of suctioned to the tart and I had to loosen it with a thin blade. I ended up manhandling it too much because I was too lazy to walk over and get a long spatula. No. Actually, I didn't want to use a big knife and didn't think of the spatula until after I decided to just go for it. But I could have put it down and thought it through, so lazy. No harm. I pried the bottom off without harming the tart at all. It's very firm. A little hard when cut cold, but cut through with my thin little knife, no sawing. The crust is a winner. I used the frangipane tart recipe because I wanted one which would hold up to the fruit. This meant to be a frangipane tart with fruit decor, which is what I made in the end. I'm glad I did. I liked the top, bubbly and browned part better than the ordinary frangipane filling. It was too sweet and too almondy. One couldn't discern the flavor of the peaches. They started out tasty. I ate the scraps, so I know. :) I also didn't like the texture of the filling underneath much. I think something like bear claw filling would be better with the peaches. More buttery, less almondy, and definitely not with a sweet crust, and with a full blanket of peaches. The frangipane was good in many ways, however, and I might use it in another application....See MoreDinner party ideas- August
Comments (35)I was going to say…North Carolina Lemon Pie looks like what we call Beach Pie. Here is the Beach Pie Bar recipe that we use. Vegetable-oil cooking spray 7 ounces saltine crackers (about 54) 1 stick plus 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 3/4 cup granulated sugar 2 large egg yolks plus 1 large egg 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups) 1 cup fresh lemon juice (from 4 to 6 lemons) 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt Confectioners' sugar, for serving Step 1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 14-by-4-inch fluted-edge tart pans with removable bottoms with cooking spray. I use one 9x 13 pan with Parchment paper because I am not Martha Stewart. In a food processor, pulse crackers until finely ground (you should have 2 1/4 cups). Add butter and granulated sugar; pulse to combine. Divide mixture between pans and firmly press into bottoms and up sides. Bake until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Step 2 Just before removing crusts, whisk together eggs and yolks, then whisk in condensed milk, lemon juice, and salt. Remove baked crusts from oven and carefully divide filling between pans. Return to oven and bake until set, 12 to 15 minutes. Step 3 Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Refrigerate until cold, at least 2 hours and up to overnight. Remove from pans; dust with confectioners' sugar. Cut into fingers or squares; serve. Cook's Notes This recipe can also be made in one 9-by-13-inch rimmed baking sheet. Line the sheet with parchment after spraying, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the long sides, and use the overhangs to lift the tart out once cold to cut into squares....See More
2ManyDiversions