Tuesday, November 17, 2009

A is for Apple Tart

Every October, for at least the past decade, we have been making the trip to Willcox to pick apples, and tomatoes, and chilies, and whatever else looks tasty and ripe at the U-Pick farms.  We usually pack a lunch and eat at picnic tables that are between the rows of trees in the peach orchard. 
 It's a hot and dusty and wonderful day.  We carry buckets through the apple orchards and fill them to the top with Granny Smiths and Fujis.  Using some weird sort of intuition not to pick from this tree, but then go two rows over to pick from that tree.  Then we head over to the vegetable farm and make a beeline for the rows and rows of tomato plants.  The plants aren't staked up nicely like in a home garden, but rather are draped over themselves, hugging the ground, hiding their fruit.  I can't even tell you how thrilling it is for me, everytime, to lift up the branch of a tomato plant and find 2 or 3 or 4 large, juicy, perfectly ripe tomatoes.  Beautiful, truly vine-ripened tomatoes.  I can honestly say that it is one of my favorite annual moments.  And the smell of a tomato plant, when you rub your fingers on the leaves or brush your arm against them as you are picking the tomatoes...that tart, tangy fragrance....mmmmm, love that.  Nik doesn't agree...but what does he know, he has cologne that smells like Play-Doh.

But we didn't get to Willcox this year.  And I'm not really sure why.  True, we did become The House Of Limping Men in the past several weeks...but that shouldn't have stopped us.  And I did make a trip out of town one weekend...but there were several other weekends in September and October when we both were home, so that shouldn't have stopped us.  And none of the other real-life barriers (illness, money, work) were an issue, so they didn't stop us.  I hate to say it, but it was inertia that did it.  The dreaded black-cloud/quicksand/empty tank/myopic/impotent fact of inertia.  We just didn't get it together to do one of our favorite events of the year.  We allowed life to stall for a period of time. 

So we don't have a freezer full of green chiles, tomato sauce, peeled/sliced apples, or okra.  Too bad but not a big deal, not really...we can always buy those things at the grocery store.  But Willcox isn't really about the produce.  It's about the fun, and the sunshine and dirt, and the tradition, and the familiar, and the "remember that one year when..."  And we let that slip by this year.  Too bad, sure, but we won't next year.  And in a few years, when we are drinking our Starbucks and heading east on I-10, lunch in the cooler in the back of the car, maybe a couple of friends in the back seat who (can you believe it?) have never before been to Willcox to pick apples, we will remember when we didn't get to Willcox that one year and we won't remember why.  And we'll just keep talking and laughing and driving east.

French Apple Tart
Makes a 9-inch round tart
(filling based on recipe from Baking with Julia)
Crust
AP Flour........................1 1/4 cups
Whole Wheat Flour...........1/4 cup
Salt..............................3/4 tsp
Unsalted Butter, cold.........5 oz
Shortening, frozen............2 1/2 Tbl
Ice Water.......................approx 1/4 cup
1.  Pulse the dry ingredients in the food processer a few times to combine.
2.  Cut the butter and shortening into Tablespoon-sized pieces and add to flour.  Pulse until the butter is broken into pea-sized pieces. 
3.  Drizzle in some of the water, pulse, some more of the water, pulse, etc...until the dough begins to come together.  Don't overmix it. 
4.  Turn the dough onto a worksurface or into a large bowl and knead it briefly (just a few turns) to get it to form a ball.  Wrap it in plastic and flatten it into a disc.  Let chill at least an hour.
5.  When ready to make the tart, roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to 10-inch round, and fit into the tart pan.   Poke holes in the bottom of the crust with a fork and let chill for at least 30 minutes (while you prepare the apple compote).
6.  Fit a piece of foil into the chilled crust and fill with pie weights or dry beans.  Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.  Remove the foil/weights and bake for another 4 minutes.  Let cool slightly before filling.

Apple Compote
Granny Smith Apples...................6
White Sugar. ...........................1/2 cup
Brown Sugar.............................1/4 cup
AP Flour..................................1 Tbl
Cinnamon................................Largeish pinch
Fresh Bread Crumbs....................1/2 cup
Lemon Juice.............................2 tsp
1.  Preheat oven to 375.
2.  Peel, core, and chop the apples (each apple should yield about 24 pieces).  Toss the apple pieces with the remaining ingredients, and turn out into a large roasting pan.  Cook for 25-30 minutes, until the apples have released some of their juice and are easily pierced with a fork.
3.  Mash with a potato masher, but leave a few small lumps of apple for texture.  Let cool while the crust bakes.
4.  Fill the crust with a layer of the apple compote, bring it just below the rim of the crust.  Smooth the top.

Apple Topping
Grany Smith Apples......................3
Lemon Juice..............................approx 1 Tbl
Butter, melted...........................2 Tbl
White Sugar..............................1 1/2 tsp
1.  Peel, quarter, and thinly slice apples.  Toss in lemon juice.
2.  Arrange apple slices atop the apple compote in an tightly overlapping pattern.  When the outside circle is completed, arrange an inner circle, overlapping the outside row slightly.  (You can lay some of the odd shaped apple pieces underneath the inner row to make it level with the outer row.)  Cut a small circle of apple and place in the middle of the inner circle. 
3.  Gently brush the apple slices with the melted butter and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.
4.  Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes.  Let the apple slices get a little dark along the edges.


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