Well, I only have myself to blame.
One of my favourite desserts is Tarte Tatin . Its inventors, the Tatin sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline, ran a hotel at Lamotte-Beuvron, south of Paris, in the 1880s. The story goes that their oven broke down in the middle of baking an apple tart. Rather than abandon the dessert, they cooked it on the oven top, apple-side down - which, as their juice mixed with the butter of the pastry, suffused the apples with a nutty caramel.
These days, we carmelize pieces of apple with sugar and water, place a layer of pastry on top and bake it. The result, served pastry-side down, ideally with a glob of crème fraiche on the side, brings out the best in all its ingredients.
Nothing to it, one might think.
All cooks know, however, that the simpler the recipe, the more complex the technique (let me tell you about souffles……) A Tatin demands the correct pan, equally suited to the stove-top caramelizing of the sugar and sauteeing the apples, but no less effective in the oven, and easy to up-end when serving the finished tart.
Such utensils are uncommon. When the great chef Paul Bocuse did a stint in Australia at one of its big hotels, a diner complimented him on his Tatin and asked if he would divulge his secret. Bocuse declined, but took his card. A few weeks later he received in the mail a shallow copper pan, 20cm wide, steel handles riveted to both sides. There was no message, except the implied one of “Shhshh!”
I had no such pan. Imagine my delight, then, when, browsing the utensils department of Bazaar Hotel de Ville - BHV to its friends - , I spotted the perfect item. 20cm wide; thick base, non-stick interior, suitable for both oven and stove-top use, with a detachable handle – and on sale!
A few hours later found me peeling and quartering apples and rolling out puff pastry while keeping an eye on the solution of sugar and water bubbling in the pan. As it achieved the correct rich brown colour, I dumped in the apples and pushed them about until they softened and became coated with caramel. All that remained was to lift the pan from the heat, detach the handle….
Ah yes….detaching the handle.
I had never before performed this manouevre under combat conditions, as it were. Perhaps I was too eager to get the dish into the oven - since, as I tried to remove the handle, some hot caramel slopped over onto my hand.
Do I need to tell you about boiling sugar?
Though I thrust my hand under the cold tap within a second or two, the damage was already done. Blisters bubbled up along my left index finger while another appeared on the thumb. Splashes of caramel had already solidified glass-like on the stove and floor.
So naturally I immediately called a cab, raced to the nearest hospital emergency room…..
Well, no.
Instead, I arranged the apple pieces in the pan, cut the pastry to shape, placed it on top, and put everything in the oven. Fifteen minutes later, I had a perfect Tatin. Marie Dominique doesn’t particularly like desserts, but between us we demolished this one at a sitting.
And the fingers? You don’t want to know.
Well done all round. One of our favourite deserts. Although I cheat with filo pastry:)