“Even a simple cookie has its own music, its own personality,” says Master Pastry Chef
Alain Dubernard. 
To understand the soul of the kitchen, of artful ingredients, you need passion.
Without real passion, says Chef Dubernard, the necessary hard work is simply too much and it “becomes empty.” A unique and straightforward insight into the real art of making delicious pastry.
Pastry & Passion from Adan Medrano on Vimeo.
The French rustic tart is belovedly famous world-wide. Add Native American peaches and, once again, a beautiful marriage: French pastry genius with delectable indigenous flavor. 
Whoa, I hear you saying, peaches are from Europe! Here’s where I’m happy to enjoy this peach tart with my academic food anthroplogist friends to foster new knowledge. The point I’d make is that Mayan, Aztec and other written documents were burned, destroyed by the arriving Europeans who then wrote their own notations from their perspective. They are the ones who document that peaches arrived in the US in 1600′s. However, they also attest, in their notations, that the newly arrived settlers into the US thought that peaches, being so abundant, were a native fruit. In fact, “this great diversity of peaches in N America tends to indicate quite strongly that they were a traditional crop with the Native Americans long before Columbus.” (Kuchinsky, 2002)
Highway Peach Vendor, Fairfield, Texas
This places doubt on the accepted view that peaches, having originated in China and taken via Iran to the Mediterranean and Europe were thereafter brought to the Americas by Spaniards. I don’t doubt at all the China, Iran, Roman, European record. Only the point about the Americas. As we debate and cheer for continuing research about this ancient fruit, let’s just enjoy these Texas peaches (no offence, Georgia). They’re full of rich flavor, aroma…. and juicy too!
I make the classic rustic tart using puff pastry instead of pie dough. Let me know what you think of it.
Recipe: (makes one 10″ tart)
Ingredients
1 ½ lb Peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced into ¼ inch slices
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 ounces granulated sugar (this measures just a bit less than 1/4 cup)
1 egg
4 Tbsp whole milk
3/4 cup cake crumbs (you can use a crumbled pancake if you want)
2 ounces coarse sugar
10 ounces puff pastry (Making puff pastry is easy but time consuming and for another blog. Buy a frozen high quality puff pastry like Dufour, Trader Joe’s, other)
Method
1. on a floured surface, roll out the puff pastry dough to 1/8″ thickness and cut out an 11″ circle.
2. place it on a parchment lined cookie sheet or pan.
3. mix together the granulated sugar and the nutmeg and then add them to the peaches and toss until fully combined.
4. whisk together the egg and milk to make an eggwash and, using a brush, paint a one-inch rim of egg wash all around the puff pastry dough.
5. sprinkle the cake or pancake crumbs on the puff pastry, but leaving uncovered a 2″ border all around.
6. add the peaches on top of the cake crumbs, leaving the border uncovered, then
7. fold the edges over the fruit, pleating as you go along. The eggwash border you painted will make the pleats adhere.
8. brush the pleated border of the pastry with the egg wash and sprinkle with the coarse sugar.
9. bake in a 400°F for about 60 minutes or until it is golden brown. Cool on a rack and serve piping caliente! It’s also delicious cold with hot morning café!
Sources:
Kuchinsky, Y. (2002, May 5). Peaches in north america. Retrieved from http://www.globalserve.net/~yuku/tran/peaches.htm
Though the French lost out to the Spaniards in their efforts of empire-building in Texas, we nonetheless enjoy their lasting influence on our cuisine. Our traditional wheat roll, bolillo, is French, as is of course the French bread we use in Capirotada. Conversely, French cuisine was forever changed by the Americas (potatoes, tomatoes, haricots verts).
The pissaladière is a perfect example of French country cuisine, straightforward but oh so complex. I first learned about the pissaladière in southern France, but it was Chef Paul Sartory, faculty at the CIA, San Antonio, who pointed out that it is technique (v.g. pastry making, slow cooking in oil) that makes this dish absolutely simple and also very rich. You might say that he helped me see that technique and ingredients are two sides of the same tart!
I’ve served pissaladière often as an appetizer and it is absolutely delicious. It also looks hearty and earthy with those black olives and anchovies. This recipe uses a pastry crust where most will use a crust made with yeast, similar of course to its cousin, the pizza.
No, we don’t have this dish in Texas. I include it here because often we forget that it was not only the Spanish but also the French who interacted with native Texas Indians.
Recipe (makes 18 appetizer portions. Recipe courtesy of the CIA)
Ingredients
2 lbs sweet onions, sliced thinly
2 fl. oz extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 Tbsp thyme, chopped
8 salted anchovies, rinsed, filleted
8 oz Niçoise olives
for the pastry:
8 oz. all purpose flour
5 1/2 oz Butter, cold and diced small
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 fl. oz. cold water
Method
1. Cook the onions in the olive oil on very low heat, covered, until they are soft. Uncover them and continue cooking until all the liquid evaporates. Be patient. You are developing the rich flavor. Be careful that they do not brown with too high heat.
2. Add the chopped thyme, salt and pepper and set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 3750 F
4. To prepare the pastry, combine together the flour and butter, gently crumbling them with your fingertips and thumbs until all the crumbles are the size of small peas. (You could place the butter and flour in a food processor and pulse for a few seconds until the ingredients are pea-size)
5. Add the salt and then enough of the water to form a dough. Work the dough as little as possible to avoid gluten formation which always destroys flakiness.
6. With the palm of your hand, flatten the pastry dough on a well-floured surface and then roll out to 1/8″ thickness
7. Place the dough on a lightly oiled tart pan and crimp the edges as in the picture.
8. Spread the onions over the tart and then arrange the olives and anchovies decoratively. In the picture I’ve done it two ways.
9. Drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil all over the surface and bake for about 30 minutes or until the edges of the pastry are golden and crisp.
Serve hot or warm.
Let me know how your guests like this if you make it. ¡Buen Provecho!
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