Picnic Tourte and A Golden Delicious Digression

I have gone on at some length about my regard for the late Mireielle Johnston, and her wonderful cookbook, Cuisine of the Sun. More than a few of my most reliable and well loved recipes came from this collection of "Classical French Recipes from Nice and Provence," which appeared in my life in the late seventies. It was, to me, a key to a whole world of distinctive, delicious and unpretentious food. No doubt the recipes are classic, but they were also chosen, refined and executed by a brilliant home cook, and very clever lady. I was pretty much never disappointed when I trusted her judgment.

There was not much in this book I hadn't tried or considered in one form or another, but there was one unusual dessert I never got around to making. She called it,"one of the most traditional and well-loved desserts of Nice", but also a "curious blend". The tourte de blettes always seemed odd, including as it does spinach or chard, and cheese in a sweet pie. I had been curious to try it, but shy of commiting time and ingredients to something I might well not like. Now that I had a farmbox, with plenty of spinach and chard, some pine nuts I got for a gift, and the blog to encourage me experiment, it seemed like a good time to give it a try.

The ingredients are these:
(BTW MJ says this serves eight. This borders on the hysterical. I would say it serves at least 12, and I am known for my greed.)

Pastry

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 eggs beaten
1 cup softened butter, unsalted
1/2 cup sugar
about 1 tbsps salt

Filling

4 large golden delicious apples
3 tbsps raisins
1 tbsp dark rum
1 cup of cooked, drained and squeezed and well chopped chard, spinach, or combo
4 tbsps pine nuts
1/2 cup confectioner' s sugar
1/4 to 1/2 pound mild, bland cheese (gouda or mild cheddar, eg.) diced small
2 beaten eggs
grated rind one lemon
2 tbsps currant jelly
3 tbsps confectioners sugar

Digression: It's about those golden delicious apples. I know they are horrible eaten out of hand, a travesty of an apple-the texture is mealy and the flavor insipid; the skin is unusually tough. Crispness, one of the most essential qualities of an eating apple, is pretty much entirely absent. (Caveat: I have never had one freshly picked, usually any apple right off the tree is a thousand times improved from a storage apple.) I assumed, from sampling it, that the golden delicious was bred for storage and transport, and regularly ignored for years directions to use them in cooking. I just substituted something I knew to be a reasonable cooking apple.

I had vaguely remembered a dispute reported in the early days of common marketdom, in which the many fabulous varieties of English apple were seen as threatened by a French proposal to recognize fewer varieties. Since most of the recipes including the golden delicious were French, I guess I just thought that the poor dears didn't have good cooking apples to choose from, or some foolishness of that kind. I may have even been pompous on the topic-it seems likely. I'm here to tell you that this was a Serious Error. In turns out that somehow, in cooking, the golden delicious is magically transformed. It softens, while keeping its shape, and the sugars condense, or something, resulting in an almost flowery, carmelized yumminess. End of digression, I think.

Pastry:On a floured surface, work the ingredients together until well blended, stretching the dough away from you with the heel of your hand. Shape into two balls, one 2/3 and the other 1/3 of the total dough. Cover with a clean nonterry dish cloth, and leave 2 hours at room temperature.

Tourte:Peel the apples and cut 2 in small cubes. Put the raisins and rum in a little pan. Boil and then simmer 2 minutes. Preheat oven to 425F. Mix the greens, raisins, apple cubes, pine nuts, sugar, cheese, lemon rind and eggs, in abig bowl. Slice the remaining apples. Roll the pastry out thinly. Butter a deeper than ordinary pie dish, casserole or mold, and spread the larger circle of dough in the bottom, up the sides, and over the edges of the baking dish. Prick it all over with a fork. Heat the jelly and brush it over the bottom and sides of the crust. Add the filling, and cover with the apple slices.

Cover with remaining circle of dough, and trim neatly. Poke the top crust with a fork, and bake 15 minutes. Turn heat to 325F, and continue to bake until golden- approximately 45 minutes more. (It should be a darker gold than appears in the pictures, which are washed out by sunshine and an inept photographer-me.) Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar. I snuck mine out of the pan, because it was an old beat up metal one, but if you make it in a pretty baking dish, you won't have to upend it.This may be eaten, said Ms. Johnston, warm or cold, and is especially suited to buffets and picnics.

I would agree. I was surprised by the taste. It is simultaneously a very individual flavor and not weird. Not a sharp taste at all, neither the greens nor the cheese stand out. If any taste dominates, it is the apple, but just barely. It's all kind of mellow, taste-wise, in the manner of a custardy sort of thing, though an entirely different texture. It is quite solid, but soft, not chewy- just sort of densely packed. Unlike a ricotta kind of pie, it is not prone to collapse. It is easy to slice, hence good for picnics and buffets- or to take sliced, in a lunchbag. It goes extremely well with strong hot coffee. I'm in favor, and glad I tried it. I'm thinking of making some for company. Meantime, I've got a lunchbag treat for the week. I might pre-bake the bottom crust a little next time.

Comments

[Vicki in Michigan]

You are correct, a golden delicious apple that is fresh from the tree is a nice crisp excellent eating apple. We get them at our farmers' market in the fall when they are picked (in southeast Michigan), and they are lovely, just then, to eat out-of-hand.

[Julie]

I'm always impressed by the number of things you make that are just completely different from what anyone else is making. You really explore a lot of interesting food.

[Rebecca]

This reminds me a little of bisteeya, the chicken pie, that is I think Moroccan. I've read recipes for it and it's sweetened like this one and I've always thought it sounded equally odd. But this seems like it's worth a try!

About golden delicious apples, I, too, scorned them until about a year or so ago when I began to include them in my applesauce mix because they seemed to add such sweetness and complexity of flavor. Like you I was surprised because I had always thought they were a particularly bland and insipid variety like their red sisters.

I know the farmers, or I should say, orchard keepers, down at the farmers' market, recommend eating certain varieties of apple shortly after bringing them home or they will lose crispness and the golden delicious must be one of them.

[steven]

I love the apple/cheese/chard combination and the Golden Delicious really does come into it's own when cooked.

[Baking Soda]

I am with Julie here on your exploration of interesting dishes, love it! I like the Golden Delicious as an eating apple but I think they only have a short season in which they are really good. I meant to ask you about the proper names of fruit, for example I can buy lemons but the only thing I would know about these lemons is organic or not and not the variety. (Meyers? I wouldn't know) The only fruit that is properly labelled by their names here are apples and pears. Am I right in assuming that in the States the variety is almost always stated so you can go out and buy a certain plum/strawberry/lemon? I would love to see that here too.

[june]

Golden Delicious work very well indeed in cooked dishes - they are excellent for Tarte Tatin - because they don't fall to pieces. If you want fluffy apple for a crumble they are all wrong, ditto apple sauce. Which is why the French don't make apple crumble and think apple sauce with pork is a mad thing.

I like the sound of this picnic pie - it seems to contain all the necessities for a meal in one package!

[Clare]

Like you I have been very dismissive of Golden Delicious apples (not least because I grew up among the orchards in Kent and hated the fact that the local supermarkets stocked French GD's in the English apple season!). However last year I had a Golden Delicious picked straight of the tree and it was delicious. Like light molten honey.

[yulinka]

Is the pastry really that easy to make? ;) You used a pastry blender, right?

[Ivonne]

Lindy,

There is nothing like the food that comes from a prized possession in the form of a cookbook. I'm not familiar with Mireielle Johnston, her cookbook sounds enchanting and this tourte ... wow!

[the chocolate lady]

What a wonderful post and picture, Lindy (I automatically did the color correction). For about six years now I've been promising myself that I'd try one of those spinach or chard desserts, but I always end up resolving I'll do it with the *next* bunch of chard (or spinach). Now that you've broken the blette barrier, I feel some courage stirring.

ps
This post would be a suitable fit for the Weekend Cookbook Challenge (This month's theme is picnics) If that sort of thing might ever grab your interest.

[lindy]

vicki and baking soda-If I get a chance to try a fresh one, I definitely will.
julie-I think maybe I am just odd!
rebecca-I'm not sure if they are grown locally?
steven-do you know of other dishes with this combo?
june-it sort of does, except that, being sweet, it doesn't seem a whole meal to me. I wouldn't need to add much more to the picnic, though.
clare-now I really want to try a fresh one!
yulinka-it is easy-but it is not flaky at all-rather cakey in fact, with all the sugar, eggs, and presoftened butter.
ivonne-definitely recommended reading, in my book.
chocolate lady- many thanks.I hope you do try it, I'd be very interested to see what you think.