Fruit Tart

I have always loved fruit tarts! A fruit tart is a really balanced dessert, featuring a sweet cookie-like crust, a vanilla custard, and succulent fresh fruit. And it must be healthy....it's covered in fruit, and fruit is healthy! (I am going to continue telling myself this!)

I decided to make this after seeing it in a baking cookbook I own. I made it for Heba, my coworker's birthday. I work in an elementary school, and for each teacher's birthday we all do something special to celebrate. So in honor of our preschool teacher, I made this tart.

It may seem like a lot of steps, but just give yourself some time and take it slow =)

I began by making the pastry crust. Begin by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Then sift together 1 1/2 cups flour and 1/8 teaspoon salt. You sift flour to put air into it and to remove any lumps. This makes your baked goods lighter and fluffier. Once you have sifted these together, set the bowl aside.

 In a different bowl beat together a 1/2 cup of unsalted butter (which is 1 whole stick) and 1/4 of a cup of sugar. I used a hand mixer to do this. You should mix until it becomes fluffy.

 Then add 1 beaten egg to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix this only until combined. 

Now add the flour you have already sifted to the egg, butter, and sugar mixture. Work to combine this until it forms a ball. Be careful not to over mix!

Flatten your dough ball into a disk, cover with plastic wrap, and put in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. 

After 20 minutes, take it out of the fridge and roll it out on a floured surface. Rotate and flip every now and then to prevent it from sticking. When you roll out dough, you should do so from the center outward to get uniform thickness and shape. 

Turn your tart pan over above the dough to measure what size you will need. Your dough should be an inch wider on all sides of the pan.


Put the dough into the tart pan and press into the sides to fit. Remove any excess dough. Then use a fork to prick holes in the bottom. (This lets steam escape when it is cooking, so your tart doesn't get bubbles.) Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 more minutes.

Take it out of the fridge, and then here is a weird step to me, but the recipe said to do it, so I did. You need to cover the pastry dough with aluminum foil and fill it with either pie weights or beans. I do not own pie weights, but I had lentils...so that is what I used. The recipe didn't given any explanation, but I am assuming that you do this so the middle doesn't rise up...It looks funny to me though!

Bake at 400 for approximately 25 minutes or until it is slightly brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Now for the pastry cream! This has a few steps that you kind of have to do simultaneously, so be organized!

Begin by sifting together 1/8 of a cup of flour and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Set this aside. 

Bring 1 1/4 cup of milk and 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract to a boil over medium heat. Make sure you watch this! Milk boils over very quickly! 

While the milk is coming to a boil (remember to keep an eye on it!), mix together 1/4 cup of sugar and 3 egg yolks with a spoon. Make sure not to let this sit, because pieces of egg may begin to form. Once this is mixed completely, add the flour and cornstarch mixture. Combine until you have a paste.

After the milk comes to a boil, remove from the heat and add slowly to the egg mixture. Whisk constantly to prevent curdling! 

Pour the cream back into the sauce pan and whisk constantly until it thickens! 

When it has thickened, pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator to cool and set. 

Almost done! 

To make the glaze, put a 1/2 cup of apricot jam and 1 tablespoon of water into a sauce pan. Simmer on medium until it thins out to a syrupy consistency. Turn off heat and remove any chunks. 

Now it is time to assemble!! You can use any kind of fruit you want. I used strawberries, kiwis, and blueberries. 

First remove the tart from the fluted sides of the pan. Place your hand under the pan, touching only the removable bottom not the sides. Gently push the tart straight up, away from the sides. The fluted tart ring will fall away and slide down your arm. If you want to remove the bottom of the pan, run a knife or thin metal spatula between the crust and metal bottom, then slide the tart onto a cardboard cake round.

Next fill with the pastry cream. When I make this tart agin, I will double the amount of cream. So if you like cream, like I do, double it!!

Once the tart is filled, begin putting the fruit on. You can put it any design you would like! 

  When all the fruit is on, brush the apricot glaze on. You want to cover the entire tart. The glaze will make your fruit look shiny and delicious! 

Here is my finished tart!! It was delicious! I brought it to work and it was a big hit! 

Fruit Tart (Written Recipe)

Ingredients:


     Sweet Pastry Crust: 
     1 1/2 cups  all purpose flour
      1/8 teaspoon salt
      1/2 cup unsalted butter
      1/4 cup granulated white sugar
      1 large egg, lightly beaten


     Pastry Cream: 
     1 1/4 cups milk

     1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

     3 large egg yolks

     1/4 cup granulated white sugar

     1/8 cup all-purpose flour

     2 tablespoons cornstarch 

Apricot Glaze:      1/2 cup apricot jam or preserves      1 tablespoon water       Topping:      Any fruit you want! (I used strawberries, kiwi, and blueberries)

Grocery Shopping

Ever since I was a little kid, I loved grocery shopping.

See....I even loved to pretend I was grocery shopping!

As much as I love wandering through the fluorescent lit aisles, staring at all the food, trying to think of what delicious things I could make with it....I do not like doing this everyday. So I have decided to be more disciplined and plan all my meals for the week before I go to the grocery store. This will allow me to not only save time, but also give me direction in my cooking escapades.

...and those of you who know me, know I love lists. So this is right up my alley ;)

Last night I sat down with a stack of cookbooks, a pen, and a blank piece of paper. By the end of an hour I had 5 dishes planned, the ingredients written down, and a sense of giddiness in my chest. I did not anticipate loving this blog so much, but it has already brought me so much joy!

A Homemade Life

Last spring, I did my student teaching with Liz, an amazing first grade teacher. She was not only an inspiring mentor, but she was also a great friend. I spent many mornings sipping chai lattes that she brought me, as we got ready for the kids to come. Numerous times were spent doubled over in laughter from her hilarious jokes and animated stories. And many lunches were spent sampling her delicious recipes. Liz was a foodie at its best. She knew the best restaurants to visit in the city, and she always seemed to find the best recipes to cook. She often brought me some of her left overs from dinner the night before, because she knew how much I loved to cook.

When it was time for me to leave her classroom, I was extremely sad. Not only was I closing one chapter in my teaching career, but I was also leaving behind a person who I had come to admire, respect, and care for. As a parting gift, I gave her a copy of one of Bon Apetit's cookbooks, and she gave me a book called A Homemade Life. Earlier on in the semester she turned me onto a cooking blog called Orangette. From the moment I first read it, I loved it. The author of the blog told a story through her food. Each recipe had a memory or experience attached to it. I loved the way she regarded food as an integral part of life and family. I saved many of her recipes and stored them away in my gmail "recipes" folder. The blogger had received so much support for her blog that she was given a book deal and thus came about A Homemade Life.

I read the book over the summer and put little blue sticky notes on almost all the recipes. It has been sitting on my bookshelf since then, but today when trying to decide what recipes to feature next on my own blog, I pulled it down off the shelf and looked through it. Both the recipes in this post can be found in this book. I highly recommend that anyone who loves cooking, food, and the way they add a richness to life, read this book! 

As I was going back through the book, I was once again struck by the title: A Homemade Life. To me, that means a life full of rich foods that not only satisfy and delight people, but also carry with them a story and a sense of love. I truly believe that if you put love and care into the food you cook, your cooking will make all who eat it feel better. It has always been my dream to have big family dinners, to be the house where everyone wants to come to eat, and to always have something filling and comforting for my future family and guests to enjoy. InshaAllah this dream becomes a reality. 

The two recipes I will be featuring today are Bouchons Au Thon and Red Cabbage Salad with Lemon and Olive Oil Dressing.  

Bouchons Au Thon are essentially baked tuna cakes. I know to some of you that might not sound like the most appetizing thing, but believe me, they are good! They are one of the things that my mentor teacher shared with me and now I am sharing them with you. 

First put the tuna in a medium bowl and use a fork to break it up into small pieces. There should be no chunks!

Next grate the Gruyere cheese until you have 1 cup. Cheese is always easiest to grate when it is cold, so keep the cheese in the refrigerator right up until you want to grate it. 

Then finely chop 1/4 of a cup of a Spanish (yellow) onion. It is very important that your onion is very finely chopped so it cooks fully when in the oven. Also chop about 2 tablespoons parsley. (I am not a huge fan of measurements, so I just eye-balled it. I used the amount you see in the picture.) 

Add the cup of Gruyere cheese, the onions, parsley, 1/3 cup of creme fraiche, and 3 tablespoons of tomato paste into the bowl with the tuna. Mix thoroughly until everything is combined. 

Then add three eggs to the tuna mixture. Use the fork to thoroughly mix everything together. 

After greasing 8 muffin tins (I used cooking spray to grease them), fill each tin to the top with a heaping spoon of the mixture. If you get any of the mixture on the sides of the tin, wipe it off, because it will burn in the oven. 

Put the muffin tin in the oven at 325 degrees. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the bouchons look set on the tops and around the sides. 

Remove from the oven and use a butter knife to loosen the sides. 

Let the bouchons cool then carefully remove each from the tin. Do not try to remove them too early, because if they are hot, they will fall apart. 

The bouchons were very good! I am not quite sure what bouchon even means (I don't speak any French), but I know they sure taste good! 

To accompany my bouchons I decided to make Red Cabbage Salad with Lemon & Olive Oil Dressing. This salad is perfect for winter, because during the colder months cabbage is at its sweetest. 

I do not own a garlic press, so I grated the garlic cloves instead.
Make sure not to grate your finger!!  

To make the dressing, mix 2 tablespoons of olive oil with 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, the grated garlic, and some salt. Make sure to whisk the mixture so you are able to combine the oil and lemon juice. 

Then chop the cabbage into small pieces. I hate salads with big chunks of vegetables in them! I tried to make all the pieces bite size. 

After you chop the cabbage, toss with the dressing and 1/4 cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. 

Then, enjoy! 

Bouchons Au Thon (Written Recipe)

Ingredients:

One 6-ounce can tuna packed in water, drained well

1 cup lightly packed finely shredded Gruyere

1/3 cup creme fraiche

3 tablespoons tomato paste

3 large eggs

1/4 cup finely chopped Spanish onion

2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Set oven to 325 degrees and grease 8 cups of a standard-sized muffin tin. 

2. Put tuna in a bowl and mash up into small pieces. There should be no large chunks! Add the remaining ingredients and stir well, mashing a bit as you go, until the mixture is thoroughly combined. 

3. Divide the mixture evenly among the 8 muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the bouchons look set on top and around the edges. 

4. Transfer the tin to a rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Carefully run a small knife around the edge of each bouchon to make sure it isn't stuck, then carefully remove them from the tin. They will collapse a bit as they cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Red Cabbage Salad with Lemon and Olive Oil Dressing 

(Written Recipe)

Ingredients: 

2 tablespoons olive oil 

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon pressed garlic

1/3 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 pound red cabbage

1/4 cup finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

1. Make the dressing first. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and salt. Set aside. 

2. Pull away the bruised leaves from the outside of the cabbage. Cut the cabbage into quarters. Use one quater and put the rest away. Slice the cabbage as thin as you can (think cole slaw size). 

3. In a large serving bowl, toss the cabbage with the dressing. Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano and toss to distribute evenly. Taste to see if there is enough salt (add more if you would like). Then enjoy!

Snowy Day Comfort Food

So today it snowed...again! Massachusetts has been bombarded with blizzard after blizzard this winter. There is snow everywhere!! School was not closed today, but we were released early at 12:30. Instead of heading right home, I stopped quickly at the grocery store to grab the last ingredients for tonight's dinner. I decided that since I had to drive home in this:

I was going to make an extremely comforting, hot meal! 

On the menu was: Chicken Soup and Olive Bread! 

I began with the olive bread. I saw this recipe in a Greek cookbook, and was drawn to it, because I love olives and I love bread =) I was a bit worried though....I had never made homemade bread before, but I decided there was a first time for everything! And I am so glad I made it, it was delicious! 

Here is how I did it: 

First, chop one whole Spanish onion (yellow onion). Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a saute pan. When the oil is hot, add the onions. Add salt to the onions and mix. It is important to add salt when frying onions, because the salt pulls out the moisture in the onions and allows them to cook better. 

Then, chop parsley. I used curly parsley, but you can use the flat leaf variety as well. It is easiest to cut herbs if you ball them together, hold with your fingers, and use a large knife to chop them. The parsley should be finely chopped. 

Chop 2 cups of pitted olives. I used kalamata olives, but you can use any type you like. Just make sure they are pitted! Add the sauteed onions, chopped parsley, and chopped olives to a bowl along with 7 cups of white bread flour, 4 tsps rapid rise yeast, 1 1/2 tsp of salt, and 2 cups of hot water (the water should be hot, but cool enough to touch without being burned). 

Mix this all together. Make sure all the ingredients are combined well!

Put the ball of dough on a clean, floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Make sure your hands have flour on them or the dough will stick to you. 

Then put the dough in an oiled bowl (rub a small amount of olive oil around the bowl so the dough doesn't stick). Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place in a warm area. Let sit for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in bulk. 

Once the dough has doubled in bulk, cut it in half, form it into loaves, and place each loaf on an oiled cookie sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit until each has again doubled in bulk. Once the dough has doubled in size, cut three slits into the top of each and bake in a 425 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until the loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. 

The bread should look like this when it is done! It was so yummy! I got rave reviews from everyone who tried it! 

And now for the chicken soup! 

Wash and remove the skin from the chicken pieces. I used a whole cut up chicken, but you can use any pieces you like. Your pieces must have the bone in though! If they do not, your broth will not be as rich and the soup will lack flavor. Season chicken with salt, pepper, and Sazon seasoning (made by Goya). 

Put 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot, and put the seasoned chicken in when the oil is hot. Brown the chicken all over. 

Cut a large Spanish onion and many cloves of garlic (I love garlic, so I used all of these). Add these to the chicken. Then fill the pot almost to the top with water. Cook over high heat. 

While the chicken, onions, and garlic begin to boil, peel and chop the potatoes and carrots. Then add those to the pot. 

Let the soup boil until the potatoes are almost soft. 

Then add a large bunch of chopped cilantro, two diced tomatoes, and a bag of frozen corn to the pot. 

Boil until all vegetables are soft.

And then, enjoy! 

Here is the finished product: 

It was amazing!!

Olive Bread (Written Recipe)

Makes two 1 1/2 lb loaves

Ingredients: 

1 large Spanish onion (diced)

2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil

2 cups pitted kalamata olives (chopped)

7 cups white bread flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

4 tsps rapid rise yeast

4 tbsps chopped parsley

1. Fry the onions in the oil until soft. Roughly chop the olives and finely chop the parsley. 

2. Put the flour, salt, yeast, parsley, olives, and fried onions into a large bowl. Pour 2 cups hand-hot water in and mix to a dough. Add a little more water if the mixture is too dry. 

3. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. 

4. Put in a clean, oiled bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Leave in a warm place until doubled in bulk. 

5. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Lightly grease two baking sheets. Turn the dough on to a floured surface and cut in half. Shape each half into a round and place both on the baking sheets. Cover loosely with lightly oiled plastic wrap and leave in a warm place until doubled in size. 

6. Slash the tops of the loaves with a knife and then bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until the loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped at the bottom. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve with butter. 

Freedom

All of you must know what is going on in Egypt right now...unless you live under a rock. The Egyptian people are standing up for their basic human rights, their liberty, their freedom. They have been living under a dictator for 30 years, and they have finally had enough.

I am not Egyptian, but Egypt is close to my heart. Many of my closest friends are Egyptian, and I spent the summer of 2009 living in the crowded city of Cairo. I loved my experiences there, and it breaks my heart to think of the city in shambles.

Even if you have no ties to the country or its people, you should identify with their struggle. They are people standing up for their rights. As Americans, we stand for freedom. It is not fair if we pick and choose whose freedom is more important, but we must want freedom for all.

مصر، انا معكم. الدنيا معكم