Strawberry-Lemon Curd Tart
Blueberry-Vanilla "Curd" Tart
I saw something on my walk home from work last night that made me stop dead in my tracks. A pair of sneakers (what is it with the pairs lately) and socks (!) left near a telephone booth on 34th St. and Fifth Avenue. To anyone passing by I must have looked like a loon standing there with my frizzed out hair (too much rain and humidity this week) and my broken down and unattractive but oh-so-comfy house sandals (can't wear shoes. pinky toe broken. too embarrassed to say more) while slapping my hand to my forehead and muttering under my breath "damn you sneakers, why'd you have to appear tonight when I don't have my camera with me!!" Yep, a Lost Soles sighting and me without my camera. arghhh! This was a good sighting too, the sneakers were facing the phone, one sock splayed out across the top of one of the sneakers and the other on the ground just a few inches away, partially turned inside out, it looked as if the person who had occupied the sneakers had been talking on the phone and then just suddenly spontaneously combusted. POOF! When I was a kid, the thought of human spontaneous combustion used to wig me out. My parents had this book called "Strange but True Facts" (or something like that) and there was a chapter devoted to people who had spontaneously combusted and were never seen or heard from again. I was a latchkey child and one of my biggest fears was that my parents would come home from work to find a big pile ashes right in the spot where I had been watching television (did you note the part of the Wikipedia definition about exaggerated fears-heh) of course it didn't help that my favorite thing to do after school while waiting for my parents was heat frozen French fries on the radiators (I wasn't allowed to use the oven), watch Nanny and the Professor reruns and flip through this crazy book. Bah! Those sneakers would have made a good addition to my "shoe collection".
Moving on...
I've been feeling very anxious and overwhelmed lately plus I have an annoying cold which isn't helping my mood much. I know a good portion of my anxiety comes from the amount of work that needs to done in the apt. before the big move and I can’t shake this feeling that we are rapidly running out of time in which to get it all done. The packing has come to a stand-still because of the rain, (can't get boxes) and the apartment is in complete and utter chaos. As much as I love the rain it has been hard to cope with these last few days for myself and the little lass as well. I've been keeping her indoors, trying vainly to sort through our stuff while at the same time trying to keep the little girl stimulated and occupied-it has not been easy. (On a side note: to help stave off the boredom the boxes that I HAVE been able to pack are the prettiest boxes ever. The little girl and I have decorated them with crayons and stickers and there are drawings of flowers and Oswald and lots of scribbling-I just know the movers are going to oohh and ahhh). When I get stressed like this my brain starts to shut down and all I want to do is lie on the cool tiles in my bathroom and suck my thumb, but since THAT won't do, I also have this habit of becoming preoccupied with cooking.
I have been trying (without much success) to get back into the kitchen for a few last baking projects before we *sniffle* leave this apartment for good. The locusts have been asking for some farewell treats and I have been hoping to make my annual loaves of Pan de Muerto for my friend Miguel and his family. There's a recipe for Challah Bread in Mollie Katzen's "Still Life with Menu" cookbook and a recipe on Epicurious.com for a sour cream coffee cake that I'd like to try. I've been hoping to be able to use up some of the flour I have rather than move it to the house where it won't get used until we return from our trip sometime in June, (and by then who knows if it will be good anymore) but every time I try to get into the kitchen for a therapeutic cooking session something seems to come up and I get pulled back out again.
I actually made these tarts at the beginning of August. The strawberry tart was a gift for a neighbor of ours who had kindly invited us over for an informal birthday barbeque and the blueberry tart was the dessert that followed a wonderful dinner we had in honor of very dear friends who were visiting from England. I made them both over the same weekend after having scored a big batch of juicy sweet berries from a nearby farm stand. I was entertaining the notion that I would finally get to try canning some of my own jam this year but I couldn't get my act together. What berries the little girl didn't eat by the fistful I decided to bake into tarts.
The tarts were fun to make, I didn't have my tart pan or my food processor at the house and so the crusts were made completely by hand and then pressed into a spring form and the extra crust that normally overlaps the tart pan was crimped down pie fashion rather than trimmed off. I was kind of chuffed that the crusts turned out well shaped given the uncertainty I had about free forming them and all. I only had to pierce the bubbling crust down with a fork once during baking and after that there were no more problems. The result of my hand formed crusts was a little rustic but in all honesty I liked how that looked. For the strawberry tart I followed the recipe exactly but for the blueberry tart I substituted pure vanilla extract for the lemon juice and added some mace to the dry ingredients. I'm not quite sure how the strawberry tart turned out or if it was well received at the party because the baby decided to pitch a tantrum at my not letting her plunge her hand into the birthday cake. I had to leave with a kicking screaming toddler tucked under my arm before dessert was served. Tom stayed on and later told me that he did get a chance to taste a tiny sliver of the tart and it tasted good although he thought the strawberry and lemon combo was a bit much together. He said something about too many competing flavors and how it should have either been a lemon tart or just a strawberry one but not both. I’ll have to make another tart one of these days to see for myself whether that is true or not. Hopefully the tart was at least enjoyed by the neighbors. The blueberry tart was delish; my friend Susan had 2 slices! I think next time rather than make a vanilla "curd” (I think, officially, a curd needs to have citrus in it to be called a curd) I'd probably make a vanilla custard filling instead. The curd tasted fine but for some reason it didn't turn out smooth and silky like the lemon curd did. The texture was kind of grainy. It looked to me like the eggs had scrambled a bit during cooking although I'm pretty sure I maintained constant motion and even heat. Maybe it was a lack of liquid since I used far less vanilla extract than lemon juice. I don't know, but I guess it doesn’t matter because it turned out tasty and everyone enjoyed it and if that is as close to perfection as I can sometimes get then I’ll take it!
From Epicurious.com
For curd: Whisk eggs, sugar, and lemon juice in heavy small saucepan to blend. Add butter and lemon peel. Stir over medium heat until curd thickens to pudding consistency, about 8 minutes. Transfer to small bowl. Press plastic wrap onto surface of curd and chill at least 2 hours.
For crust: Combine flour, sugar, and salt in processor; blend 5 seconds. Add butter; using on/off turns, blend until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 2 tablespoons cream and yolk. Blend until moist clumps form, adding more cream by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap and chill 1 hour. (Curd and dough can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.)
Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 13-inch round. Transfer dough to 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch. Fold overhang in and press firmly, forming double-thick sides. Pierce crust all over with fork; refrigerate 1 hour. Preheat oven to 400°F. Bake crust until golden, pressing with back of fork if crust bubbles, about 20 minutes. Cool crust completely on rack.
Spread curd in crust. Stand berries in curd. Strain jam into saucepan; warm briefly to thin. Brush jam over berries. Chill tart until glaze sets, at least 1 hour and up to 6 hours. Release tart from pan.
Makes 10 servings
Bon Appétit
June 2001
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