Chef Wiet Wauters - Tarte à l'Orange

JANUARY! You have to be in it, to win it... Hi again, to all of you darlings, standing patiently on Platform 13, nodding politely to 2026 and all she promises. The middle of January doesn't announce very much to the kitchen - the farm is not really yet on its way to our forks, AND... darlings..Kris and I are moving house.. Oh the stress and the strain of it. But good discovery... you really get to see all the stuff you have accumulated, not just kitchen stuff, darlings, but 90 pairs of shoes and 400 t shirts... Mon dieu..

Anyway, the opposite was true last week, when Kris and I found oursleves at the local market with nothing more than a bunch of kale and a huge ball of celeriac. We couldn't even find a couple of stiff carrots - unusual for me and Kris, if you know what I mean. But.. we did find a seller with a basket of joy that made Kris do a Jack-in-a-box celebration in mid-market."Blood Oranges"..

Needless to say, we bought the lot. Much to get excited about. Mid-January is exactly when they usually start to appear. For us, finding something to cook with colour, is not about strawberries from Peru or Mangoes from Mali, but something that is "seasonal" to us, although perhaps picked in Sicily, and not in Southwest France."Oranges Sanguine".. They will be all over the markets this month and right into February. What's so special? Well, in a word - Anthocyanins...super antioxidants and red flavonid pigments that give these jewelly fruits their beautiful colour.

The first crates off the camion are a bit like the English on holiday - modest and pale, but in mid January, big, pink, & fleshy - the fruity equivalent of German sex tourists - arrive to be squeezed and juiced and made into luscious cakes and tarts. I also make gallons of the juice, and freeze it for use in mocktails, cocktails, sorbets and ice creams. Talk about fruits that just will not quit, darlings. The blood orange is back !

So here it is.. my most celebrated January dessert. It takes time and a bit of focus, so wait for a rainy day. Luckily, in January, you won't have to wait long, darlings. Here we go...

Ingredients / Equipment:

• a cake tin with a diameter of 23-24 cm

• a round sheet of puff pastry

• baking beans

• 50g + 50g + a further knob of butter

• 50g powdered sugar

• 50g almond powder

• 10g flour

• 1 egg + 1 egg + 2 eggs

• 5 ml rum

• zest of 4 blood oranges

• juice of blood oranges: 85g + 170g (should be just enough with 4 blood oranges)

• 180g + 80g + 25g sugar

• 15g cornstarch

• 1g salt

• 1 lemon: you need 15g + 5g lemon juice.

• 5 ml + 15g orange liqueur (Cointreau/Grand Marnier etc)

• 35-45g orange marmalade

• 3gr + 6gr gelatin

Baking paper

1. Brush your cake tin, base and sides with soft butter.

2. Drape the puff pastry over in into the cake tin, pressing in to any edges firmly, but gently darlings.

3. Prick the pastry with a fork in a nice dotty pattern, then line the pastry with a sheet of baking paper, add the baking beans, stand back, and admire your work so far. Well done, darling..

4. Pre-heat your oven to 180 C and "blind bake" the pastry for 30 mins. When done, set it aside to cool.

To make the Orange / Almond cream

1. Melt 50g of butter. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, put 50g of sifted icing sugar. Add the 50g almond

   powder and 10g of flour. Add the melted butter, 1egg and 5ml rum.

3. Now time to get zesty... Take your nicest looking blood orange and put it aside. Using a zester, microplane or a mini grater, zest another orange and add the zest to the same large bowl.

4. By now, your pastry case will have baked. When (and only when, darlings) it is cool, beat and egg and brush over the bottom and sides of your pastry (yes darlings, remove the baking beans first..) Turn the oven down to 160c, spread the zesty almond cream from bowl to pastry base, and bake at 160c for 20 minutes.

5. Time now for that nicest blood orange I put aside. Slice the fruit quite thinly in "rondelles" round, even slices of about 3mm.  I take a medium saucepan and put in 180g sugar and 250g water and get it boil until the sugar has completely dissolved.  Then, carefully put in the orange slices and let them boil on a low fire for 30-45 minutes. When done, add your orange liqueur, Grand Marnier or whatever you have on your bedside table, darling. Let it cool...

6. Next steps towards delicious.. dissolve 3g of gelatin in a bowl of cold water. Take a large saucepan. Put 15g of cornstarch in a glass and dissolve it in a little water. Add 80g sugar, 1tsp salt and the dissolved cornstarch in the saucepan. Add 2 complete eggs and whisk it all together. Add 85g orange juice and 15g lemon juice, whisk and put the saucepan on the heat. I start three-four minutes on high fire, and then put it low. Whisk about every 10-15 seconds and suddenly the mixture starts to thicken very quickly.

7. In yet another small pan, melt another 50g of butter. While the butter is melting, Add a splash of orange liqueur to the mixture and whisk.  Time to finish this.  I add the melted butter, the orange-mandarin jam and the dissolved gelatin.

8. Take the cooled tart and carefully (!) spread the orange cream. Simply swirl gently and shake gently so that the cream is evenly distributed.

9. Don’t worry.  The last steps aren’t taking much working time, just focus time. Start with dissolving 6g gelatin in cold water (10 mins).  Take a saucepan and put in 170g orange juice, 25g sugar and 5g lemon juice. 

10. THE FINISHING TOUCH. Take out the cooled orange slices and dry gently on kitchen paper. Take otange slices and (artistically, darlings) arrange on the top. Pour the orange jelly on top of the tart and stand back darlings.. this is it. It's finished.

    
    
    
    

    

    
    

    Happy cooking, Chef Wiet xxx