Travel Rogue

August 03, 2005

Saucy Tarts at Sur La Table

Cashed in on a Christmas present today! Last year, Brady gifted me a certificate for a cooking class at Sur La Table, one of my favorite stores ever. (Though usually I'm browsing, not buying.) I stashed the certificate away so that I could savor the potential for as long as possible. Finally, in June, I couldn't take it any longer. I pulled out the catalog and started cruising for classes. When I saw a listing for Summer Tarts, I knew that was the one. I am a huge fan of tarts...sweet, fruity noshes; savory, saucy quiches...Mmmm! Basically, put a pastry crust around some kind of filling and I'm a very happy camper. Our chef was Kathy Skutecki, a casualty of the ailing economy. Kathy was laid off from her advertising agency job two years ago. According to her, that was the boot she needed to make the career change. Good move, definitely. Kathy is confident, passionate, encouraging and patient. Her love of fresh fruits and farmer's markets comes across clearly. We have organic peaches and sour cherries, beautiful berries and creamy cheeses. She even apologizes for a slightly bruised peach. You know that she selected each of our ingredients personally.

For the first 45 minutes of the class, Kathy demonstrates how to make a sour cherry tart. As she kneads away, she describes the different types of dough used for different types of tarts. Pate sucree is light and crisp. Its higher sugar content makes it sturdier and great for free form crusts like those used in galettes. Pate sablee is a rich and crumbly crust, similar to the texture of a cookie. With it's high butter content, the dough is creamy and can be pressed into pans. We made some incredible dessert tarts with the latter, filled with vanilla pastry cream and topped with fresh fruits. My first attempt incorporated thin slices of kiwi, mandarin oranges (drained from the can!) and a single, perfect raspberry. I had no idea that something so beautifully edible could be created by my own fingers! It took effort to cut into it...but that first bite was the only challenge, all subsequent bites were heaven.

After Kathy's demonstration, we each went to a different station. Brady and I opted for the peach galette, because we had both experimented with savory tarts and I had been looking to rediscover freeform tarts. I lived in a co-op during my last year of college. This meant we all chipped in on chores, and a communal budget went toward groceries and utilities. Unfortunately, someone had erred in their calculations, so for one sad week, all that we had in the kitchen were stables and a bushel of pears donated by someone else's grandma. In a moment of inspired desperation, I threw together flour, eggs, sugar and pears, and out came the most delectable pear tart. Starving, deprived coeds came from all corners of the house and I was a minor celebrity for about a week. Luckily, we had enough flour and pears to last us till the next grocery run. The crust we made today still wasn't exactly the same, but I think tweaking the amount of butter is the missing link. Shouldn't take too many more tries to recapture my collegiate crust.

While we were slicing peaches for the galette, the station next to us was sauteeing leeks. Oh my God, the aroma. I peeked at their recipe, and indeed, there were absolutely no spices called for other than salt and pepper. So that amazing, warm, lung-filling scent, so fresh that my forearms tingled, that was the simple chemistry of leeks sauteed in butter. You can bet I kept an eye on that table.

Due to the nature of tarts, we worked our way backward on the tasting menu, from sweet to savory. I saved the leek and gruyere tart for my last bite and it tasted as full as it smelled. Got home, made another midnight run to the grocery store, and picked up the ingredients so that I can make it again for a potluck dinner tomorrow. Excellent.

AH! And another dream realized today! With the cooking class, we got a 10% discount on any purchases. As luck would have it, the Riedel wine glasses I have coveted for many years were 20% off! I picked up four viognier chardonnay glasses for $8 each! When I got them home, I spent a good five minutes pinging the side of one of them listening to the pure tone echo off the crystal. Lovely lovely lovely!

Posted by carolyn at August 3, 2005 10:48 PM

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