Tartless Tatin

Tuesday 26th October

Day 188

Today my contribution to our bring-food-to-share lunch with dear women friends was salad and a pudding. I had Tart Tatin - upside down apple pie - in mind, but being still this jet lagged my morning dribbled away and I ran out of time. So I just made the apple part - you let sliced eating apples bubble away in butter and sugar till they start to caramelise. Mine weren’t quite translucent by the time the sugar was turning into a golden amber so I added the zest and juice of two oranges ( and a squirt of lemon to cut the sweetness) and that bought them a few more minutes to soften.

We ate them in their sticky orange puddle with a swirl of natural yogurt and a sprinkling of toasted flaked almonds. I don’t think anyone missed the tart part.

PS. I just looked up the origin of Tart Tatin - The story goes that it was invented by mistake by Stephanie Tatin who, with her sister, Caroline, owned the Inn Tatin in France. They made wonderful apple pies by first sauteing the filling in butter and brown sugar. One day in 1898 Stephaine was so tired she forgot the apples and they caramelised and burned. To rescue her mistake she covered them with pastry and put the whole pan in the oven. And then served it upside down. Customers loved it. It became a classic when it appeared on the menu at Maxime’s in Paris.

So you never know what you can create even if you are knackered.