MADreads

Tarte, with an E

March 28th, 2008 Molly - Central

I like baking tarts.  I have a nice tart pan.  When I bake using a pie plate and the contents look like pie, I will still introduce it as a tart.  Why not?  I like tarts!  According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, a tart is defined as a dish baked in a pastry shell:  “pie: a small pie or pastry shell without a top containing jelly, custard, or fruit.”   So, tart it is.  I think I am safe.

While we are on the topic of tarts, I have been striving to make a delicious chocolate one for a while now.  I already know how to make an ok one, but it was last described as healthful tasting, not exactly what I was going for, so it was back to the books for me.  Enter Clotilde Dusoulier, a 28-year-old Parisian woman who lives in Montmartre and shares her passion for all things food-related — thoughts, recipes, musings, cookbook acquisitions, quirky products, nifty tools, restaurant experiences, ideas, and inspirations on her blog, Chocolate & Zucchini (I just lifted that whole line from said blog).  Not only does she have a superb recipe for a chocolate caramel tarte (with an E) and shares her mother’s recipe for pâte brisée (short crust pastry), but her book Chocolate & Zucchini:  Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen is very enjoyable.  The book is full of stories, advice, colorful photographs that Clotilde has taken herself and lots of French recipes.

She has tips for the burgeoning home cook:  keep a food journal, organize your clippings, prepare simple day-to-day meals (what she likes to call picnic dinner:  bread, cheese, olives, cornichons) saving your energy for your big cooking adventures.  A lot of her tips abound in many cookbooks:  try to buy locally grown, in-season produce, get to know your butcher, if you want better quality, you will have to spend more $, if you can find something better out there, don’t recreate the wheel (she buys amazing, fresh baguettes, no need to bake her own!), and appreciate regional cuisines and ingredients.  I could see myself working through all of the recipes in this book and really enjoying it. 

Recipes are sorted by categories and there is a very nice index in the back (hooray!).  Possible substitutions are listed with recipes as well as variations that the reader might want to try in the future.  Clotilde has a friend who is an ace at pairing the perfect wine with each dish and does so, in affordable price ranges and varietals from all over.   Much more than a cookbook, Chocolate and Zucchini is more like a recipe storybook, told by a charming, French femme.

Entry Filed under: Nonfiction