Recipes from the Road:
Tarte Tatin

Olivier Maillard

Whether you’re slurping soup from the best cart in Chiang Mai or staring down a heaping helping of homemade pasta from nonna (someone’s nonna, anyway), partaking of the freshest, most delicious local fare is essential to becoming one with where you are.

While there’s no substitute for experiencing a cuisine in deep and up close, recreating a region’s signature dishes can bring a taste of its culinary tradition into your home—and whet your appetite in advance of your next trip. In Recipes from the Road, we help you do just that.

Tarte Tatin Recipe

As they didn’t have an oven, the Tatin sisters, who ran a hotel and restaurant in Lamotte-Beuvron, just south of Orleans, had to cook this classic French apple tart on a stove. The pastry always ended up burned and the apples raw, so one day they tried putting the apples on the bottom, and then the pastry on top … et voilà! The Tarte Tatin was born.

Ingredients

2 kg apples
butter
sugar
1 prepared pie crust

Directions

1. Peel, quarter and core the apples.
2. Melt some butter, adding some sugar and the apples to the pan. This can be done on the stovetop, or by placing sugared apples in a buttered pan and heating it in a hot oven. (You’ll want to use a ceramic or glass pie dish, or a solid cake pan.)
3. Cook until the apples start to caramelize. Remove them from the heat and cover them with the crust, pushing the edges down into the pan.
4. Bake in a hot oven for 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.
5. Turn the tart onto a serving dish so the apple side is up, and garnish with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. You can also try to flambé the tart with pear or apple eau de vie.[/content]