"tarts" news and stories

Fried chicken. Photo: thebittenword.com, Flickr

• Fried chicken goes international, from Creole to Korean kitchens.
• L.L. Bean heiress Linda L. Bean gets ready to mass market Maine lobsters and end Canadian lobster dependence.
• A look at "Top Chef" hostess Padma Lakshmi's Sunday routine.
• Jewish delis are suffering from waning popularity, and those that are left struggle to keep the meaty magic alive.
• The end of Gourmet magazine after almost 70 years, and those mourning its demise.
• The dangers of E. Coli and pre-ground beef, and the story of Stephanie Smith.
• When cooking becomes boring, A Good Appetite suggests playing "cupboard roulette."
• The Minimalist makes a crustless, Pan-Baked Lemon-Almond Tart.
• Joining old Italian pros as they chop, stew and jar plum tomatoes in prime autumn tradition.
• Cooking with Dexter finally learns the artificial flavor of the fast food beneath the golden arches.
• Rogacki is "a temple devoted" to Berlin deli fare, in West Berlin, Germany.
• Restaurant: After 10 years, Brooklyn's Saul has only gotten better, Queens' Engeline is a rare slice of Filipino fare and the Lower East Side's Ten Bells mixes wine and charcuterie.
• Food Stuff finds R.W. Apple Jr.'s new book, SoHo crepes and Saratoga chips.
• New York's openings and closings and food calendar.

Nectarine Galette. Photo: Smitten Kitchen.

We have a confession to make: We have a really hard time not turning Feast Your Eyes into a direct daily feed from Smitten Kitchen. Not only does the blog's author, Deb, constantly concoct an amazing array of seasonally diverse dishes over and over and over again, she manages to always take incredibly flattering photographs of her subjects.

Case in point: this nectarine galette -- a flat, round tart which Deb claims is "ridiculously easy to make." Making it look beautiful, however, is another story, yet somehow she manages to make that sound simple too: "A single pie crust, a brush of melted butter, a sprinkling of sugar and big wedges of peak-season fruit, in this case, arranged on a bed of ground almonds, baked until the edges are browned and the fruit is starting to caramelize."

Yeah... we'll just watch from over here -- with mouths watering, of course.

[Via Smitten Kitchen]

Photo: Amazon.com

'Tarts: Sweet and Savory'
Recipes by Maxine Clark
Photographs by Martin Brigdale
Ryland Peters & Small -- 2007
Buy it on Amazon

Delectable as the payoff may be, tart-making, by nature, is not an art suited to the impatient. Parading the tart from counter to refrigerator to oven and back again ad nauseam can test the commitment of even a seasoned cook -- and that's before the filling's even been tackled.

But there is something to be said for the immense satisfaction one garners from a completed tart. When properly executed (and, you should be forewarned, there is an alarming amount of room for error), the end product is elevated to an artistic form, promising taste, texture and photogenic glory.

We flipped through the recipes of ''Tarts: Sweet and Savory'' to find totally drool-worthy photos -- and were happy to find they held up taste-wise too.

See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

Blind baking is a common practice in the baking world. The definition is to partially or fully bake a pie or tart crust before adding the filling. Since a pie of tart dough has a tendency to warp during cooking, it must be weighted down so that it can retain its shape.

To blind bake, simply line the pie dish or tart pan with whatever dough you're using. Preheat the oven, usually to 325 or 350. Lay a coffee filter or similar type of paper over the lined pan and fill it with some kind of material that will not burn or weigh the dough down too much. Dried beans are the preferred method in most bakeries as they are inexpensive, don't burn easily, and are heavy enough to hold the dough down without crushing it. Also, beans are able to fill all of the corners. I'm not sure how well rice would work, but it might be worth a try.

Blind baking is generally used for pies with wet fillings to give the crust a head start and avoid undercooked crust. I like to blind bake at home just to shorten the final baking time. If the crust has a head start, it won't take the pie quite as long to bake once the filling is in it. Also if the pie is cream or chiffon filled you'd have to bake the pie shell in advance anyway as the filling shouldn't be cooked any further.

Even though it hasn't cooled off that much in my corner of the world, it is technically fall and that means it's pie season. I like to make a wide variety of pies, and that doesn't just mean the filling. There's a whole world of pie and tart crusts out there for an almost endless list of possibilities this fall. Click through to the next few pages for everything you'll need to know about pie and tart crusts for great pies this fall.