Their curvaceous booty is reminiscent of a group of elderly matrons chilling on a sun kissed beach. As we know to our cost, appearances can be deceptive for this is not a remake of “Les Baigneuses” but a group of indolent young male pears who have left it too late. Green William has gone too far this time. Not only has he turned yellow but he also appears to be rotten to the core. These are the chaps who are left until last when teams are being picked, which is quite apposite for a pear as it’s at the moment of picking that it all starts to go downhill for Poire William. Having established their gender, the shape of these pears is more reminiscent of a certain William Bunter of Greyfriars School than the leaner Just William character, although both of them would have been found wanting in a team sport and I needed to mould these supine pears, grown soft through dolce far niente, into a cohesive group of bronzed flesh who would be remembered, by all that sunk their teeth into them, as Team Tatin. Getting their clothes off was no easy matter as they were clearly embarrassed by the fragility of their once firm flesh. Pears and humans have this frailty in common: we turn our back on exercise and activity for what seems like a couple of seconds and before one can say “who shrunk my trousers” we’re as soft and fleshy as a pear’s booty.
Slipping gently into sanity, I should mention that when a pear reaches this state of collapse it’s not worth coring with an apple corer. I’ve found that option to make life more difficult, leaving one with a handful of soft mush, so I peel them whole, halve them from the top down and scoop out the “pourriture” with a melon baller. This leaves the pear quarters in reasonable shape to get sticky and golden in a tin lined copper bath of sugar and butter. I used 50 gms of demerara and 50 gms of unsalted butter, which was half the amount suggested in the recipe…believe me, it’s enough. There is a time in cooking when even -featured handsomeness must be replaced by asymmetrical fabulousness….”beau laid”..which does not translate as well laid, as my plans never are. The confection that is born of this plan and pan is solely concerned with the enjoyment of flavour and texture. The pear quarters should cook slowly in the butter and sugar for a good 25 minutes and then the heat should be turned up for a further 15 minutes. It’s important that the pale and flabby slobs, that entered this copper gym, will pass out of it as bronzed pear gods prepared to be laid beneath a tart pastry, so short, as to make their eyes water.
This pastry is as easy as it is short, both in creation and consumption. 140 gms of all purpose flour (not unbleached) and 105 gms of unsalted butter are processed together with a teaspoon of salt and 3 tablespoons of iced water. Pulse the ingredients until they start to come together but do not let them form a ball. Put the pastry onto to some grease proof paper, flatten it into a disk and put in the fridge for at least an hour. This is a classic Pâte Brisée and there is nothing better in the world to show off Team Tatin at their best. Once the deeply coloured pears have been tipped into your chosen cooking utensil ( mine is a trusty old tatin tin ) cover them with a blanket of pastry, tuck them in and put them in a hot oven for 35 t0 40 minutes.
The final moment of tarte tatin creation offers no hiding place. So many times have I been fooled by the simplicity of the instruction “place a large flat plate over the tin and quickly invert”. So few words for such a multiplicity of possible fuck ups. On occasion I have coated the kitchen, myself and the cat in a fast hardening layer of toffee, or looked at a still pristine white plate and then into the black depths of the pan to see sticky pears and pastry firmly welded onto lumps of charred sugar or just dropped the plate onto the tiled floor to create a fruit and toffee mosaic that will take the weekend to clear. Sometimes it’s perfect and they are good times. This time it was not perfect but it probably tasted better than any I have made before.
So that’s the booty they are all rapping about!
I used to love Billy Bunter books – I can see why as I get older and my figure assumes the Bunter physique.
Fab post and pictures 😉
Yarooh, Quelch..really, Sir,,,yarooh….I never took Wharton’s cake from his tuck box in his study at 2.30 🙂
Oh crumbs! Can you lend me a couple of bob until my Aunt’s postal order arrives?
“Oh,crumbs” …love it:)
I looked up Bunter on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Campion
I had not idea that Gerry’s, a late night bar that has made me ill on numerous occasions, was named after Billy Bunter (Gerald Campion)!
I thought he had a restaurant in Primrose Hill at one time….
That could also be true, but I got confirmation from a friend about Gerry’s 😉
It was called Froops, I think..
You are right:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1401093/Gerald-Campion.html
Messing up a tarte Tatin is something I find particularly infuriating since it all comes down to this last step you describe ! As of you, you gave those aging fellows a beautiful makeover!
They looked and tasted like new pears:)
People I read are definitely on a pear kick, Roger. I’m definitely not leaving those Asian pears the next time I pass them in the market aisle.
The Asian pear is more about looks than substance…
My husband says this brought back memories of his years living in Paris, before he knew he had diabetes. He just wandered off with The Telegraph and his memories….
>
Sugar has shown itself to be a real danger…however, I’m glad it brought back good memories:)
It looks delicious. What does your cat think?
I think Molly would be very appreciative…if allowed:)
Yum.
Yum indeed, Sara:)
Je suis tres jalouse.
…avec raison:)
I am wondering why the bracketed bit about the plain flour ie, not unbleached? Nothing like a bit of potassium bromate,Benzoyl peroxide and chlorine in the lovely tarte tatin.I am sure a fine short crust can be obtained without the use of such a flour.
A gorgeous post remidning me about the need for a bit of exercise so that I may look like Poire Belle Helene. F
The unbleached warning came from the Patricia Wells’ recipe in Bistro Cooking from which I cooked the tart….I’m not sure why unbleached wouldn’t work either:)
Pears pair always beautifully, no matter if male or female.
Nicely put:)
Shit that looks goods. I fricking love a good pear booty… I also love a bountiful pair 🙂
I remember being asked in a green grocer if I would like a firm pear…I changed my order to plums to stop it going any further:)
Good call 🙂
Voluptuous pears, a gorgeous pear tarte tatin. Beautiful, I still laugh when I think of Julia Child’s tarte tatin episode on the French Chef, a disaster though delicious I am sure. Your’s looks wonderful.
This is the sort of disaster that I can happily live with:)
Yes.. the inverting.. such a troublesome stage.. on a completely dfferent subject .. I was frying some eggs the other day in an indecent amount of butter and thinking of your lovely little egg frying pan, I was feeling envious.. a sad state of affairs when a girl envys another mans pan.. ah well.. there you are, maybe i should haang a shot of THAT on my wall!
c
On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 8:09 AM, Food, Photography & France wrote:
> Food,Photography & France posted: ” Their curvaceous booty is > reminiscent of a group of elderly matrons chilling on a sun kissed beach. > As we know to our cost, appearances can be deceptive for this is not a > remake of “Les Baigneuses” but a group of indolent young male pears who > have lef”
I should add it to the Print Store..
I am still after The Teaspoon, the guys who print for me are called Coopers Ihttp://coopersimaging.com/maging . I like them because you can talk to the guys about what you want. In fact i sent in an image to be printed the other day with the dimensions and he sent me the image printed but uncropped because he said he really liked it and could not bear to crop it. So now it is a good four inches wider. Very very landscape and much better. Anyway.. we will talk turkey when I get back. I am thinking about The Teaspoon as a much bigger image now.. hmm.. c
OK…have a great trip back home….speak when you get back…the All Blacks are in London in November:)
Mmm! Tarte tatin! This looks so so delicious and beautifully bronzed and caramelized- I would try this with apples and pears. Maybe some figs as well? Well. I’ve got all of fall to figure it out! Beautiful post.
Figs, apples,pears…all of them love being in a Tatin:)
Oh, there are those damned pears again. Perfectly ripe for just about 5 minutes or so! Of course you’ve made the best of them, though, Roger. So pretty.
How do they do it to us, those pears…?
“Their curvaceous booty is reminiscent of a group of elderly matrons chilling on a sun kissed beach. As we know to our cost, appearances can be deceptive for this is not a remake of “Les Baigneuses” but a group of indolent young male pears who have left it too late. ” Oh I love this – accurate but hilarious 😛
Thanks, Anna….:)
I think there is a market for a book “Cooking: a multiplicity of possible fuck ups” and workarounds 🙂
Excellent…excellent thought…:)
You have taken these bootilicious pears on a whole new adventure, Roger. Looks delicious.
They had a great time…right up to the end:)
It looks delicious!
It is and I’m making it again tomorrow:)
OH YES! I have booked my tickets for the all blacks already!! c
Oh no…you lucky thing. I know my son’s going but I’ll be over here. He’s trying to get some tickets for some of the World Cup games next year.
Ha! it would be funny if I ran into your son, i cannot imagine that it is a sell out .. however, liam (my kiwi builder) and I booked the tickets for the cheapest seats we could find as close to the beer as he could get find, bloody kiwis! c
Are you kidding…any game with the All Blacks is a sell out in England..
Just fantastic looking pear dessert! Love your story even more.
Many thanks, Teresa:)