Tuesday, March 31, 2009

How Not To Make A Strawberry Tart

Let’s just say, I should have gone with my original plan, which was to follow Ina Garten’s fruit tart recipe. (She uses a shortbread crust with pastry cream and it is delicious!)

Last month, I bought a flat of locally grown strawberries with the intention of making a Tarte aux Fraises. The strawberries were so delicious however, that we ended up devouring all of the fruit before I had time to bake. So, this past weekend I picked up two pints at the local Trader Joes. My amateur culinary wheels began to spin and I thought what herbs could I blend with the strawberries to make a savory-sweet tart? (As a point of reference, see my Cherry Peppercorn Tart post, which explains my current fascination with sweet-savory dessert)

My answer: Thyme.

Okay. I thought, certainly I was not the first to think of putting thyme in a strawberry tart. There must be a recipe online from some expert chef to give me a basic outline on how to proceed with my current culinary endeavor.

I discovered a nectarine strawberry tart that was prepared by Carla from Top Chef’s Season 5. (I was a big fan of hers) She blended nectarines, plums, cherries and strawberries along with thyme into the filling. It sounded delicious at the time (no pun intended). I went back to the market.

Seeing as it is late March and stone fruits are nowhere close to being in season, I bought nectarines and plums that had been imported from Chili. (By the way, and not uncommon, two of the nectarines were brown inside and needed to be thrown out.) This is probably where I went wrong; frozen nectarines may have tasted better.

I started by adding thyme to my pate brisee. I do this often with my quiches and it is usually delicious. Then came the filling: I seared the two surviving nectarines in canola oil. I then added the thyme, butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and the diced plums. I then added the cornstarch thickener, vanilla, and finally the strawberries.

Doesn’t sound that bad does it? Well, you know it wasn’t a hit, when your husband has one bite, starts puckering his lips, then starts picking pieces of thyme out of his teeth. He said it was sour and literally put his plate down claiming he couldn’t eat any more. I was so disappointed! I’m still at a loss as to why it tasted sour. Bad fruit? Of course, being the perfectionist, I took it so personally…

What followed next was a typical Mars-Venus dialogue of him telling me that he doesn’t like putting additives like thyme in his dessert. To which I defensively responded, “of course you don’t.” “You were raised on meat and potatoes.”

I’ll save you from the rest of the bad Dr. Phil episode.

I will say that the lemon thyme cream from Carla’s recipe was absolutely delicious! It was a very simple recipe including: whipping cream, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and thyme. The only mistake I made was not mincing the thyme well enough. (Causing the whole thyme-picking-from-teeth drama that I previously mentioned). No matter. It was delicious and I will use again and again.

1 comment:

♥♥♥Heather♥♥♥ said...

I love love love your blog, so creative (and your reference to Dr. Phil classic)...please keep up writing these, I have a big ol' smile on my face right now..Thank you:)