Tarte Tatin
Tarte Tatin is one of those recipes that helps to authenticate any restaurant holding itself out to be ‘French’. It’s the upside down apple tart from Normandy.
Legend has it that the sisters Tatin, who ran a restaurant in that province, were making an apple tart one day and forgot to put the pastry on the bottom – so they put it on the top instead and inverted the dish when it was cooked.
It’s hard to give that story much credence. This is Normandy we’re talking about, the orchard of France, where they drink more cider than wine and even their brandy, Calvados, is made from apples.
I think that’s just some distant cookery writer’s way of trying to explain how the dish came about. Nobody who has cooked it would ever believe that it was the result of an accident.
Here’s what you do:
Peel, core and halve four apples that will cook well. Put them in a bowl containing water that has been acidulated with lemon juice and put a plate on top of them to hold them under the water.
[Chefs don’t do this, they prepare the apples while the caramel is cooking. If you feel confident you won’t burn the caramel, do likewise]
Preheat the oven to 200°, 375°F
You need a dish for this that will go on top of the stove and in the oven. I use a steep-sided sauté pan, 20cm in diameter.
On medium heat, melt together 150g of butter and 150g of sugar, then cook them, shaking the pan from time to time, until they meld into a golden caramel. It’s very important not to let them overcook.
Add the apple halves with the cut side facing up. Four normal sized apples will fill a 20cm pan without any gaps between them. Leave them to poach gently in the caramel, which will remain stable once the apples begin to shed their juice.
Take one sheet of ready-rolled puff pastry and trim it so that it will fit into the pan with a slight overlap.
Once the apples are soft you have a choice; you can either let them cool a little before adding the pastry, or you can let them go cold and finish the dish at the end of the main course.
Whichever you decide, the next thing to do is to lay the pastry over the apples and tuck the overlap in around the edges so that it forms a sort of upside down case inside the pan. Once the pastry is in place put the tart straight into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry is risen and golden.
The next bit is much easier than it sounds. Place a serving plate upside down over the pan and quickly invert it so that the pastry, apples and juices fall smartly on to it. Providing you do this the moment the tart comes out of the oven it will not stick.
You may need to tidy the apples up a little with a knife blade, but that apart you will have an amazing looking tart that smells and tastes delicious. Serve it at the table so that everyone can see it in all its glory.
A scoop of vanilla ice cream is the perfect accompaniment.
| 
