Mangoes have been dropping faster than frozen iguanas this year. And that’s a good thing, because there are plenty of recipes around to turn them into marvelous dishes for Floridian foodies to fuss with. Surveying our seasonal bounty, the proverbial lightbulb suddenly went off over my head: mangoes … French … bingo! Let’s make a mango tarte tatin.
I am blessed with a great mango cultivar that gives up very fiber-free, medium-sized slipper-like mangoes that make me smile. These mangoes certainly cool off my palate after I make an occasional soft French-style omelet with mashed Moldovan hot peppers. That’s another blessing.
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The sweet, juicy star of the show.
My good friend Andriana brought me a sealed pack of little red hotties from her father’s garden. I used many of them when making pickles but saved the seeds that sprouted this winter. I am now generating hundreds of edible little firecrackers. Mmm … fire in the hole! But before I slip into that particular reverie, let me return to the sweeter mysteries of life.
As I’ve gotten older, I joyfully experiment with foods much more than I did when I was younger and working my way through the positions of the Kama Sutra. An apple tarte tatin is a signature French pastry often made using standard apples with sugary caramelized butter. But I like to think that Johnny Appleseed traversed South Florida with mangoes.
I am sure that Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin wouldn’t mind if I honored their memories using our local fruit. New Yorkers can use apples, Georgians can use peaches, but as Floridians, let us use the mango. Tart ’em if you got ’em, I say. And as a bonus, I’m including a quick recipe using lychees to make a tasty and exotic gelato you can spoon on your slice of “Sid’s Mango Tarte Tatin.”
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Simple ingredients make this delectable mango dessert.
When it comes to picking the right mangoes, some are less fibrous than others, and I prefer them like peaches – less fibrous and more meaty. Palacio de Jugos is where I scored the ones used for this recipe. The ones growing in my backyard are sparse this year; I’m saving those for breakfast starters. Ya gotta grab the best mangoes for this recipe, and the best are the ones that are still firm against a light press of the thumb. Any softer and they’ll fall apart in the baking.
I sauté the slices in caramelized sugar-butter before placing them in the pan for
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Arrange your sliced fruit in a scalloped, sunburst-like pattern for a beautiful top when flipped over.
baking. When cutting slices off the seed (nobody can ever find the flat side on the first cut), I go for shapes like apple wedges – they look great when I assemble the tarte. Visualize your pattern in reverse; when the tarte is done, you have to flip it over. Another tip: Rubbing softened butter in the pan and then sprinkling with a layer of sugar is the way to get all that gooey buttery goodness to beautifully bake. Foodgasm again!
There’s a definite art to making pastry and I never use my own; store-bought layered flaky puff pastry crusts are very well made and work just fine. Lazy me, happy you. It’s the butter and sugar that really make the whole deal work. This is not a calorie-saver dessert, so forget about that blood test the week after. Butter, sugar, butter, and 100% white sugar is my pick for this dessert rather than dark, rich brown.
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Mom’s original Sidney pan is perfect for flippin’.
I also get to use my favorite cast-iron skillet, my Sidney pan. Yes, one that I inherited from my mom. Don’t use a thin pie pan because it won’t hold the heat needed to make the dish just perfect. An enameled cast iron skillet is OK, but my choice is Mom’s seasoned beauty. Plus, a cast-iron skillet comes with a handle that’ll help you work out the flip side later.
A properly seasoned cast-iron pan is essentially a nonstick pan. That carbonized coat does the job of the nasty nonstick surface some may opt to use. Stay natural, be brave and make like those famed French Tatin sisters of 150 years ago, who created perfection with nary a nonstick pan in sight.
Get to work and get flippin’, and you’ll soon be smellin’ what I’m tellin’. And don’t forget to top off a slice with a great big dollop of my lychee gelato. Bliss!
CHEF SID’S MANGO TARTE TARTIN WITH LYCHEE GELATO
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Arrange your sliced fruit in a scalloped, sunburst-like pattern for a beautiful top when flipped over.
INGREDIENTS
· 1 box puff pastry dough (It usually comes two to a box; Pepperidge Farm makes a good one.)
· 1 cup blasphemous processed
white sugar plus some extra for the pan
· 5 ounces unsalted butter cut into small chunks, then set aside to reach room temperature (Kerrygold is my personal choice.)
· 6 cups roughly thick-sliced firm mangoes, set aside to reach room temperature (That ended up being about 2 pounds of sliced mangoes for me – and remember, think wedges.)
· Two cups fresh lychees, peeled and pitted with juice kept in reserve (If you use canned, drain off and discard syrup.)
· 1 cup heavy whipping cream
· 8 ounces sweetened condensed milk
· Dash salt
PREPARATION
· Preheat oven to 375º F.
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Fork your crust to allow for steam release during baking.
· Defrost puff pastry and roll out on floured board, cutting an oversized circle to place over sautéed fruit in pan when in place; set aside.
· Create rope with leftover dough to edge the tarte tatin for looks and keeping in the “sauce”; set aside.
· To make caramel sauce, place sugar in saucepan and melt over medium heat until it turns into a light brown syrup; stirring frequently to avoid uneven melting is essential.
· As sugar melts down and syrup starts to bubble, turn down heat to medium low; when fully “syruped” turn heat down to low and slowly add butter, constantly stirring until you have caramel.
· Carefully add mangoes to caramel pan and sauté several minutes to lightly cook fruit – don’t worry if fruit is still a bit cool and thickens caramel. Keep cooking on medium-low heat for 3 minutes while stirring to let sauce bathe fruit and melt any clumps.
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Perfectly done crust on a tarte tatin waiting for the final flip.
· Immediately remove pan from heat to avoid overcooking fruit; allow it to cool and excess liquid to drain.
· Butter cast-iron skillet and cover bottom with layer of white sugar; arrange cooled fruit in pan in scalloped pattern (see photo). Fruit will release more fluid as it bakes; if you see extra liquid building up, tilt pan to drain it off and keep liquid in reserve to later drizzle on served slices.
· Place circle of puff pastry on top of arranged fruit and tuck in edges to seal in fruit; add ring of roped leftover dough to create an outer crust (it will shrink a bit when baked).
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A top view of the baked tarte tatin before being topped with gelato.
· Use fork to poke holes in crust to allow for steam release while baking and place pan in oven; placing an empty pan on the shelf below to catch any drips and save you oven cleanup later is a good idea.
· Bake about 45 minutes, until crust is golden brown; remove from oven, tilt pan to drain off and reserve any excess liquid, then allow tarte to cool until warm to the touch.
· Be a daredevil and get an oversized pie plate, place it on top of pan and flip the whole thing over so crust is on bottom; place in refrigerator to cool completely.
· Now, onto the gelato! Place lychees in food processor and blend to a very fine, smooth purée; cover and set aside in refrigerator.
· Whip heavy cream with electric mixer until it becomes a slightly “liquidy” whipped cream; immediately place in refrigerator to chill.
· Once whipped cream is thoroughly chilled, place in deep mixing bowl with lychee purée, sweetened condensed milk and salt, then combine with electric mixer until well blended – but don’t overdo it or the whipped cream will flatten out.
· Place mixture in freezer a minimum of six hours before serving.
· Plate a generous slab of tarte tatin, top with an equally generous dollop of gelato, then drizzle with reserved mango syrup. Repeat as necessary.
Sid Hoeltzell is an award-winning Miami-based commercial food and beverage photographer and former “MasterChef” contestant. He has completed more than 450 commissioned works for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, teaches food photography seminars and is a preferred fine art photographer for Christie’s, Sotheby’s and private collections.
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Fresh lychees after being pitted.
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It takes an iron will not to munch on these beautiful lychees before they’re turned into gelato.