Tarte' Tatin nearly did Me in,,,,,

Tarte Tatin Dish. Buy yours here.
And it was a pain in the rear end friend!

The French. Don't We love the French? Of course We do. Where else would We get such fine recipes and cuisine from? The French loved salt so much that they went to war over it! The French, oft times seemingly smug to the American people (they seem like real jerks if you don't know them personally) and...some of them are jerks, just like some of We Americans are jerks.

Anyway, The French brought Us the Tarte' Tatin (I think?) sounds French and this superior Tarte' Tatin pan/serving dish was made in France and has French directions on it so..... I am just saying...

As it were, people, if you want to make this dish be prepared to eat up a LOT of your time and be prepared to nearly curse yourself for ever being born and taking on this task/project..okay, TASK.

The prep time is the worse. Making the dough, rolling it out, putting it on a cookie sheet lined with plastic wrap and then covered with plastic wrap and then chilling it in the icebox for an hour... The peeling, coring and quartering of the apples. The squeezing and zesting of the lemons, the grating of the fresh nutmeg and other spices etc. etc. etc. and then to top it all off you have to prepare the caramel.

Now My friends/readers, I have made homemade caramels several times. In fact, if you look at some of My past projects you will actually see the My making of said caramels. Tarte Tatin caramel is a horse of a different color!

After all your apples are prepared and your dough is chilling pretty in the icebox you have to make this ding danged caramel on the stove top in a Tatin dish (or if you can't afford a hundred dollar tatin dish as if I can but yes, I have acquired one) you can use an oven safe cake pan or a cast iron skillet or an oven safe dish that can be used on range and in the oven as well. In ANY EVENT, this caramel you MUST watch closely. Fortunately, the Gothic Gourmet pulled off this dish without any major malfunctions. Yes, you read Me right. I did it and have the pictures to prove it.

Basically a Tatin is an upside down pie of sorts. The bottom becomes the top like a pineapple upside down cake. (Which I love to make by the way).

You make the caramel stove top while your rolled out dough circle is chilling and then you arrange your apples in a pretty pattern in the dish after removed from heat. The Caramel process is a hair pulling experience as it happens quick and you have to be quick or you WILL fail this task. You have to put pats of butter in the caramel etc. etc. before removing from the heat and adding your apples. After arranging the apples in your pattern (remember your bottom will become your top) you have to return the dish to the heat and cook on medium heat for 20 or more minutes. After that, you remove the dish from the heat and let it cool slightly and then place your dough over the dish and tuck it in (like tucking apples into to bed. A bed of dough that is). Looks like an apple pie so far but don't cut in any slits. Put in the oven and bake for around 20 to 25 minutes and remove from heat and cool for 15 to 20 minutes before.... INVERTING. Yes, inverting. A scary scary thing My friends. You simply don't know what is going to happen. Will you burn yourself and drop the whole thing on the floor? Will the concoction stick to your pan? Will it look like a puddle of apples and goo? You won't know until you go go go.

My father took pictures of My inverting the Tatin and you will also see the final results of said Tatin. Smells wonderful but I haven't cut into it yet. I am saving that for pictures. The whole process took hours to complete. HOURS.

I make beef Wellington and it doesn't take nearly as long as this dish so if you make it, I sure hope it is for a SPECIAL event because otherwise, I am not sure it is worth all the effort but of course, it is worth trying at least ONCE. :-)

Take a look at the pictures and I will find a link to the Tatin dish if you would like to purchase it. Remember that you can use a plethora of other fruits for this dish. It doesn't just have to be apples.

I would love to hear your stories (horror stories/hair pulling stories etc.) on your making of this dish if you have ventured out to prepare it yourself. What happened? Did it work the first time? I am fortunate that Mine did. Normally/usually not to toot My own horn, but normally all the recipes I try out work the first time. I find if they don't it is usually due to human error ie. not reading the proper instructions or using inferior equipment for the task at hand. Remember, even if it doesn't work the first time you have to get back on the horse and try to ride it out again. I always do this. Also, be sure to have some backup insurance. Insurance? That's right. I make double of what a recipe normally calls for unless it is highly expensive as a backup in case I drop something or flub it up somehow. I did this with puff pastry once and was very thankful that I had another batch to use for Wellington or My special dinner would have been ruined. In this case with the Tatin, I made extra dough and had a bit of extra apple mixture aside and ready. Caramel flub ups are easy to fix. You simply clean your pan and make more. Sugar is pretty inexpensive but the vanilla bean this recipe called for (the seeds of one vanilla bean) wasn't so be careful and don't screw up the first time. Keep your eye on the ball/the prize etc. Don't take your eye off that caramel or you will risk wasting the seeds from a whole vanilla bean. Remember to not let that pod go to waste. Put it in your sugar for 'vanilla sugar'. Always make every cent/dollar count when cooking. Do not waste ANYTHING if at all possible. Even the end of veggies that We would not eat as they are not pleasing to look at can be used to make soup stocks etc. Use your noodle My friends and be frugal. Can We really afford not to be in these times with this economy? Certainly not.

I hope you enjoy the photos. I will take more when I cut the Tatin and plate it. Until then...
Keep cooking, loving, laughing and above all else? LIVING!

As always, The Gothic Gourmet.