Taste With The Eyes: Tomato Tarte Tatin

12.15.2008

Tomato Tarte Tatin

Brunch Menu

Tomato Goat Cheese Basil Tarte Tatin

Red Leaf Green Leaf Salad, Dijon Vinaigrette

Comté Cheese Soufflés

Handcut Bacon

Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc

Oh, we had such a delightful brunch! I hope I am able convey the light lovely delicious flavor combinations served here. The menu is straight-forward and uncomplicated, but this brunch menu is a winner by all accounts!

Father Adam is my longtime dear dear friend. He was going to be in town at the same time as my family visiting from Chicago. We determined he had not seen my brother in over 20 years (and therefore had not met my sister-in-law, nor their sons). Father Adam and I cook together often. He is a terrific cook. You may recall reading about some of our dishes, including the one we made for Julia Child's birthday event, Coq Au Vin.

We thought it would be neat to cook brunch and for everyone to get (re) acquinted. Father Adam arrived around 9 AM and we began prepping the meal. We took a break to shoot some hoops with Stone, and a few hours later the adults were ready to sit down to a very memorable meal with the light streaming in, with the food, family, and friends, what could be better?

We served dry, crisp, complex Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc California Sparkling Wine, a great complement to the meal and how apropos to serve a "local" wine to out-of-town guests here in California.

Tomato Tarte Tatin: Slice Roma tomatoes lengthwise. Squeeze the seeds and juice out of tomatoes and place in baking pan drizzled with olive oil, skin side down. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and Herbs de Provence. Cook at 350°F for about 40 minutes. Pour out any juices left in the pan.

Top the tomatoes with crumbled goat cheese then cover with puff pastry dough. This is my cherished Le Creuset Tarte Tatin Pan. Handcrafted of porcelain enamel cast iron, it is designed for recipes that are started on top of the stove and are finished in the oven. The curved side handles make it easy to flip foods over onto a plate. This is a great pan for making quiche too, if you are a quiche lover, you might enjoy visiting here and here.

Tuck the dough under the edges of the tomatoes. Make holes in the dough to let steam escape and bake in the 350°F oven until the dough is golden. Remove from oven and let rest until ready to serve. Then...

Father Adam demonstrates the Tarte Tatin Flip Over.

Place platter over the pan.

Invert.

Slowly remove pan.

Voilà!

Top with shredded basil. Serve.

Recipe inspired by the charming Chocolate & Zucchini Cookbook. Please stay tuned for the Soufflés post from this special brunch.

Julia Child Quotes - TOUJOURS BON APPETIT!

“You should never apologize at the table. People will think, ‘Yes, it’s really not so good.'"

"In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport."

"It's easy to get the feeling that you know the language just because when you order a beer they don't bring you oysters." Paul Child on speaking French

"I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate. "

"Life itself is the proper binge."

"It was a Morsel of Perfection."

"I was in pure, flavorful heaven at the Cordon Bleu."

Julia Child sees herself on TV, July 1962, she saw room for improvement, and still she can say it was fun : "There I was, in black and white, a large woman sloshing eggs too quickly here, too slowly there, gasping, looking at the wrong camera while talking too loudly and so on...But it had been fun."

She has her own opinions on kitchen equipment: "Clairborne sniffed at our use of a garlic press, 'a gadget considered in some circles to be only one cut above garlic salt or garlic powder.' I happened to like garlic presses..."

Understanding Julia's captivation by French food: "This is the kind of food that I have fallen in love with: not trendy souped-up fantasies, just something very good to eat. It was classic French cooking, where the ingredients have been carefully selected and beautifully and knowingly prepared. Or, in the words of the famous gastronome Curnonsky, 'Food that tastes of what it is.' "

"You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made. Even after you eat it, it stays with you - always." Julia's instructor, Chef Bugnard at Le Cordon Bleu

"Oh, 'crise de foie,' that French sole was so delicious!"

Julia's passion comes through loud and clear as she describes a fish dish: "La Truite's true glory was the Sole a la Normande, a poem of poached and flavored sole fillets surrounded by oysters, and mussels, and napped with a wonder-sauce of wine, cream, and butter, and topped with fluted mushrooms. 'Voluptuous' was the word. I had never imagined that fish could be taken so seriously, or taste so heavenly."

Julia's unique way with words, on Crepes Suzette: "The creature named Suzette may or may not have been the mistress of the Prince of Wales, but whoever she was, she long ago inspired a magnificent dessert that is still one of our favorites."

"I am probably one of the few people around who saw the real Caesar Cardini making his salad. I was about 9 when my parents took me to his restaurant in Tijuana. They were so excited when big jolly Caesar himself came to the table to make the salad. And it was dramatic: I remember most clearly the eggs going in, and how he tossed the leaves so it looked like a wave turning over."

"With a handsome package such as Jacques's, you can neatly cut the top open at the table with a pair of scissors..." Julia on Salmon en Papillote

"There's no reason to be intimidated by the idea of making pâté. You can just think of it as meat loaf."

From Julia's dear friend Jacques Pepin, "You are what you cook."

"Understanding egg yolks will make you a master of hollandaise sauce."

Julia encouraging us not to be intimidated: "When you know how to saute your meat so it browns rather than steams, you're cooking. What's difficult about that? You heat the pan, you dry the meat, you don't crowd it into the pan, and you're browning it. Is that difficult?"

Food Quotes

"Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch."

Orson Welles

"Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are."
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

"Chefs, as a whole, say yes to any project, fundraiser, or tasting because they have such a generous spirit."
Charlie Trotter

"Once you understand the foundations of cooking - whatever kind you like, whether it's French or Italian or Japanese - you really don't need a cookbook anymore. "
Thomas Keller

"I love to make people happy."
Wolfgang Puck

"Fish sauce is to Vietnamese cooking as olive oil is to Italian."

The Little Saigon Cookbook by Ann Le

"I wish, I wish lunch could last forever...waiter, bring us one more bottle of wine..."

Jimmy Buffett

"My philosophy from day one is that I can sleep better at night if I can improve an individual's knowledge about food and wine, and do it on a daily basis."
Emeril Lagasse

"Gordon Ramsay makes me laugh because he knows that I'm not a chef."
Nigella Lawson

"You know, when you get your first asparagus, or your first acorn squash, or your first really good tomato of the season, those are the moments that define the cook's year. I get more excited by that than anything else."
Mario Batali

"I always knew the importance of it, since I was three or four years old my mother used to feed me wine and water. I grew up with wine as liquid food."
Robert Mondavi

"No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at his/her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, and the wisdom of cookbook writers."
Laurie Colwin

"Food is a central part of our lives. It provides the body with fuel and raw materials for maintenance, growth, and repair. It draws together family and friends, anchors celebrations and rites of passage, and sometimes soothes the soul."
Ethan Becker