A very tasty looking tomato tarte tatin gracing the cover of
Bon Appetit's August issue caught my eye. I didn't read too much about it at first but the photo was enough. It was only later that I discovered that this is not a savory tart, but a sweet one.
A few times a year, I gather with a bunch of women and we swap our unwanted clothes. We bring food and wine and it becomes a party. Surprisingly, I have never witnessed any scratching or clawing over the clothes at these events. Most everyone is quite cordial save for a few annoyances. But I digress.
It was at one of these clothing exchanges that I decided that the moment had arrived for the tomato tarte tatin. The perfect edible to bring to a ladies' Sunday brunch. It looked easy too because it only required a puff pastry for the crust and I already had one in my freezer.
The recipe was very straightforward even though I almost burned the syrup. It was still quite runny and not very amber by 25 minutes. Not very caramelized at all. So being the impatient person that I am, I turned up the heat and started washing the dishes. I checked it every so often to make sure it was okay and then it seemed as if all of a sudden, I sniffed a scorching smell. Oh no!!! I managed to save it though, just in the nick of time. The almost-burnt caramel syrup became my lesson in patience. I must remember that haste makes waste. Rushing the alchemy of cooking rarely works.
At the clothing exchange, the tart initially sat neglected by all. Everyone had more important things to do, which was to make sure they got the best pieces of clothing out of the piles. Then the tart still just sat completely ignored on the counter. I started getting little worried. Were all these skinny girls really that uninterested in eating? I was even afraid that no one would like it because it might catch people's taste buds off guard when they might be expecting salty instead of sweet. Someone even asked if it was a pizza. I just kept piping up whenever someone glanced at it: "It's a sweet tomato tart!"
Well all of my worrying was for nothing because the tart was devoured by the time I left the party. One person tried it and then that created a domino effect. People were intrigued by the sweet plum tomato pastry. The tomatoes' fruitiness was brought out by the slow cooking and caramel syrup. I was dubious about including whipped cream for a topping as suggested in the recipe. But now, knowing what the tart tastes like, I would definitely add a sweet creamy home made dollop of goodness.
It was a very unique dish worth making again. I'm not going to post the recipe, because it can be found
here on Bon Appetit. Go to the source!
