Thursday, April 29, 2010

A Julia Child tribute: strawberry tart

I went to the dinner party of some dear friends last weekend, and this is the dessert I brought: a strawberry tart from Julia Child -- adjusted of course to be Food Allergy Queen-friendly.  The pie crust was from the always-amazing Rebecca Reilly, and the filling was from Julia's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking".  I've been wanting to cook more from her books (I have four) after seeing the wonderful "Julie and Julia" movie of course, which got me to read "My Life in France" -- Julia's biography which her portion of the movie was based on.  I didn't think I could be a bigger fan, but after reading her book, I was!  Julia was a rock star.  Luckily, I got to meet and thank her at one of her final book signings.  See our picture below! :)


The tart was a hit, since this crowd doesn't usually get homemade desserts!  (The experience made me wonder how Marie Callendars gets all their strawberries to fit in closer together....I guess you need a bunch of little guys to fill in the holes.  Oh well, it tasted fine.)  Personally, I was cringing inside since the custard didn't set correctly (I switched out the flour with a gluten-free tapioca starch) and the texture was weird.  Tasty, but weird.  Luckily no one else but me noticed.  I'll tweak the custard again and post the full recipe soon!  Meanwhile, start enjoying the season's strawberries!

And thank Julia for saving American palates from the relish trays and weird molded food that were in style when her cookbook came out.  Thanks Julia!

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