On moments of "satori," kitchen measurements, and easy to make tarts

What a wonderful time in the kitchen this past weekend, and I shall explain.
We all have our "transcendent" moments in what we do. You can't predict them, you can't schedule them, you have no way of when they will be coming . But when they come, PAY ATTENTION, and hold onto them. Take a deep breath, hold it, and remember what you were doing, remember what you were thinking, and HOLD ONTO IT. Trust me, those moments will get you through A LOT, as I'm finding out now.
I had one of them on Sunday, as I was prepping food for a dinner party (and it was NOT for the dish that follows). I was in the process of making the macque choux, stirring it, watching how this time the moisture was more than sufficient, and all of a sudden, I was literally floating. For me, see, these transcendent moments take the form of feeling as if I am in black air, just doing what I'm doing , with nothing else around but the feeling that "I'm doing what I love, for people I love." This one lasted for more than a few minutes, and it was absolutely wonderful.
You know what? You've had them. Yeah, you have. And if you remember them, wonderful. If you don't, pay attention in the kitchen, because they will come. "Mindfulness" is something that they teach you in meditation and in Zen, and indeed, in Zen, much of mindfulness comes of working in the kitchen. So be mindful, at all times.

Okay, now to some cooking. And some math. I know that in cooking schools there is always a class on "Kitchen mathematics," which is required for all students. One of the many gadgets you can buy for your kitchen are these wheels, that allow you to make adjustments for doubling, halving, tripling recipes, and so forth. And those are great. But ya know, they're not infallible, and you really should be able to do this stuff in your head. And you can.

I found a recipe in Bon Appetit that just begged to be made; however, it called for a "nine inch tart pan."

I have never seen a 9 inch tart pan. I certainly don't own one. I have an 11 inch one, and every tart recipe I have ever seen calls for that size. So, faced with this recipe, what should I do?

Well, 9 and 11 are not exactly symmetrical numbers, but 9 and 12 are. What I mean by that is that I can divide both 9 and 11 by 3, and can say that, roughly , an 11 inch tart pan is 1/3 bigger than a 9 inch one (By the way, does anyone have any idea why they use 11 inches here? Doesn't that seem like an odd size?). So, by increasing the recipe by 1/3, you should be able to basically have the ingredients you need.

And indeed, I did. For the crust. When you start looking at volumes, however, things get a little bit dicey. In a tart like this, the solution I came up with is very easy: I did increase the liquid volume, but simply kept on adding solid fruit to fill the tart. This worked. It worked beautifully.

This is a tart that should be in your repertoire, especially if you have "fear of rolling," because it's a "push in" crust, and very easy. The brown butter filling does indeed give you a wonderful depth of flavor . And I will discuss variations on the recipe at the end. You'll come up with more.

First, let's make the crust. You'll need a stick plus two tablespoons of unsalted butter. That's 10 tablespoons, and you'll melt this. Add a half cup of sugar to that butter, and 1 1/3 cups of flour and stir this all together really well.

Now, get your 11 inch tart pan, and dump the stuff into it. Take little bits of it, and press it up against the rim, until you have it completely encircling the pan. This is really easy, and you may actually enjoy the feel of it. Press down the rest of the crust, to cover the bottom of the pan, reaching the rim.

Wasn't that easy? Put this on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven, at 375, for fifteen minutes, while you make this filling.

For the filling, you will start with 12 tablespoons (a stick and a half), of unsalted butter. Cut this into pieces and now, here's the hardest part of the recipe. Melt the butter, and keep an eye on it. Stir every now and then, and keep cooking until you get a nutty brown color. It will take about six minutes. When you have that color, pour the butter off, immediately into a cup or bowl or something off the heat. You want to do this, because otherwise it will keep cooking, and perhaps get too brown. (Incidentally, how brown you brown the butter is a judgment call. Personally, I like a dessert that veers toward the burned taste, but not many do. Your call on this. You could also just melt the butter).

In a big bowl, combine 2/3 cup of sugar, 3 large eggs, half a cup of flour, and a bit of vanilla extract. You now add the brown butter, and stir it all together. It's going to be very wet.

When your pie crust is baked and cooled, cover it with raspberries. Be as generous as you like and can afford. Then, set the tart pan back on that baking sheet, and fill it with that brown butter mixture, put the whole thing in the oven, and bake for about 45 minutes.

You don't need to refrigerate this, if you plan to eat it within 24 hours.

This tart, to be honest, is absolutely marvelous. I may even buy a second tart pan so I can make two of them.

Now, for variations that came to mind: blueberries. Substitute the vanilla with almond extract, and maybe add some marzipan. Speaking of marzipan: apricots. Halved, filled with marzipan, and turned cut side down with no changes to the filling. Cranberries in the winter, with a bit of orange peel, and maybe a bit of orange extract. And.... perhaps the purest of all: increase the filling by about a half and flavor it as you like, and make a pure custard pie.

I am sure that the pastry cooks out there will have all kinds of variations that they can make on this. I am already thinking of a savory one, perhaps with potatoes and cheese, and some left over greens, as a simple weekend lunch. I may very well try that. I will keep you posted.


Kitchen satori, kitchen math, and an easy to make dessert. Who says Annalena isn't generous with her ragazzi?