Kate's Global Kitchen: Provençal Seasonal Entertaining

Provençal Seasonal Entertaining

When first published in 1986, Roger Verge's Entertaining in the French Style won the coveted IACP Best Cookbook of the Year Award. Now Roger Verge—proprietor of the famous Le Moulin de Mougins near Cannes and a master of Modern Cuisine—provides a fresh new twist on this unique Provençal-style cookbook with Roger Verge's New Entertaining in the French Style.

In this completely revised book, Verge reinvents his classic menus, presenting lighter, more contemporary versions of over fifty of his signature dishes, described as his "cuisine of the sun," which are characterized by his generous use of Provencal herbs and market-fresh vegetables.

Here is Roger Verge's celebration of seasonal fruits. Freshness, sweetness, fragrance and lusciousness are all combined in these dazzling tartlets.

Les tartelettes aux fruits du temps

(Seasonal fruit tartlets)

Preparation: 40 minutes
Cooking: 25 minutes
Ease: Easy
Cost: Moderate
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 orange
1 pear
1 apple
1 peach
juice of large lemon
1 stick butter. softened
1/2 cup ground almonds
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
10-1/2 ounces raspberries
1 jar apple or quince jelly
6 strawberries
1/2 banana
2-1/2 ounces red currants or blueberries
1 bunch mint

Several hours in advance: Peel and cut into small pieces the orange, pear, apple and peach. Place the fruit in a bowl and stir in the lemon juice to prevent browning.

Preheat an oven to 425 degrees F.

Prepare the almond paste. In a large bowl, cream the butter for 1 minute with the ground almonds. Add 1/2 cup sugar and blend well. Stir in the eggs.

Butter the bottom and sides of 6 tartlet molds 4 inches in diameter and pour in the almond paste. Bake for 15 minutes or until the paste is lightly browned.

Meanwhile, prepare a raspberry coulis. Crush all but 12 of the most attractive raspberries for the garnish) in a food mill held over a bowl to catch the puree and juices. Save the raspberry seeds for later use. Add another 1/2 cup of sugar and stir well. Cover and store the coulis in the refrigerator.

Scrape the raspberry seeds out of the food mill into a small saucepan. Cook them with the remaining 1/2 cup sugar over low heat, stirring fairly often. Cook the mixture down to a jam.

Unmold the tartlets and spread them with a layer of the cooked raspberry seeds. Arrange the assorted cut fruit on top.

Heat the apple or quince jelly. Nap 1 tablespoon of jelly over each tartlet: as the jelly cools it will hold the fruits in place.

Decorate the tartlets with halved strawberries, the banana cut in slices, the remaining raspberries, small bunches of red currants or blueberries and several mint leaves.

Just before serving: Pour a ring of raspberry coulis on 6 large flat plates. Place a tartlet in the center of each ring of coulis.

Chef's suggestion: Pour a ring of raspberry coulis on 6 large flat plates. Place a tartlet in the center of each ring of coulis.

From:
Roger Verge's New Entertaining in the French Style
Roger Verge
Stewart, Tabori & Chang
1997 160 pgs. Hard cover $35.00
Reprinted by permission.

For an additional recipe from the book, see:
Roasted Royal Sea Bream.