I used to be a beekeeper — an urban beekeeper — back in my old neighborhood in Chicago. The missus and I kept several hives on a rooftop on the Northwest Side and had the time of our lives doing it, except when we got stung a lot, obviously. But then the days of getting […]
READ ONIt may not be traditional, but I can tell you how it tastes: phenomenal. The assembly goes like this: roll out your puff pastry to about 1/4″ thickness and cut out your crusts. You want the circles to be as big around as the outside lip of the ramekin molds. Once they’re cut, store them […]
READ ONOnions are sweet little bulbs. In fact they’re unusually so, only their sweetness is hidden in the form of long chains of fructose molecules. Unadulterated, those fructose chains don’t register as sweet sensations on our tongues because our taste buds don’t have receptors capable of recognizing them. Add to that the fact that they’re disguised […]
READ ONTwo inquiries from readers overnight, as to whether I suggest any particular type of heirloom tomato for this week’s project. I’m very glad for those questions, because they give me just the opportunity I wanted to re-post this 2009 feature from the Washington Post, which as far as I’m concerned should have been nominated for […]
READ ONNary a year passes in which I don’t slow-roast at least a few tomatoes to stash away in the freezer. In the bleak month of February, their bright, concentrated flavors serve as a reminder of happier days past, and to come. Before I had a backyard garden, my standard operating procedure was to prowl the […]
READ ONThough tomatoes are classified as fruit — berries, technically — they’re sorely lacking in the thing we primarily associate with fruit: sweetness. Your typical farm stand tomato has as much sugar as a Brussels sprout. Some tomatoes, depending on the variety and the degree to which they’re allowed to ripen on the vine, can achieve […]
READ ONLook around a little and you can find recipes for full-sized tomato tartes tatin, however I think the original mini-tarts still work the best. The New York Times’ large version from 2008 calls for a pound of cherry or grape tomatoes, but I think that’s still too watery, and I don’t much care for the […]
READ ONPosting will be a little thin. The post-vacation schedule is a little hectic, but I shall do my best!
READ ONBecause they’re wet. Very wet. Plop a few thick pieces of fresh sliced tomato on a pastry crust, add a little salt and heat and the result is…goo. For tomatoes have a lot of water, did I mention that? Some varieties of tomatoes are 95% water, which is more water than is found in your […]
READ ONYes, I know, this is something of a curveball for all you regular Joe Pastry readers, since this blog is devoted first and foremost to classic preparations and techniques. However I’m drowning in tomatoes just now, and good tomato-oriented pastry recipes are few and far between. Tom Colicchio’s tomato tarte tatin, which became famous as […]
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