Mango Tarte

Here is the latest. I got a box of mangoes for $5 so this might not be the last mango-loaded meal.

Anyway, we started with a steak-frites, together with an intensely good Marchands de vin sauce (reduced red wine, demi-glace, shallots, lemon juice, butter). The steak was from Nature's Harmony.

Maybe it's worth pointing out here that although we do a lot of beef recipes we don't really eat that much of it. I always serve steak sliced. I think it makes it a better vehicle for the sauce that way, plus it encourages a more sensible approach to portions since you don't start with a big slab in front of you that you feel responsible for finishing.

What is pictured is a tarte. The crust is pate sucre, more cookie-like and less absorbant than other crusts. It is filled with pastry cream and coveed with a layer of chopped mangoes, and accompanied by a mango coulis (mango, lime juice, oj, blended and strained).

It was great. The tartness of the coulis cut into the sweetness of the pastry cream well.

We have been having some conversations about pastry cream across the Princeton-Athens axis. So I will include my recipe, which I have borrowed from Jacques Pepin Complete Techniques, which is one of those books that I hope I never have to live without.

I will give the full version of the recipe, although I halved it to make the mango tarte:

Creme Patissiere

2 cups milk

6 egg yolks (time for more meringue now)

2/3 cup sugar

1 t. vanilla

1/2 cup flour

1. Scald milk. Set aside

2. Whisk yolks, sugar and vanilla until mix forms a ribbon when the whick is removed (doing this job by hand makes it easier to check on your progress--it is hard work, though). Add flour and mix thoroughly.

3. Temper egg mixture by adding 1/2 of the hot milk and mixing vigourously. Work quickly here so you don't curdle the eggs.

4. Return tempered egg mix to the pot with the milk. Keep whisking.

5. Return pot to burner at medium heat, stirring constantly to avoid scorching and lumping---watch those corners!

The mixture will thicken quickly. When it does remove to fridge covered with plastic wrap to cool for at least one hour.