Sunday, October 24, 2010

Dim Sum Sunday - Heart Healthy

It's hard to ignore the headlines of rising rates of diabetes and heart disease in America. Our aging population has partied hardy on a steady diet of fat, sugar and salt. However not all is doom and gloom. Chefs and cooks are working hard to come up with healthy choices to replace
our favorite foodie vices. When I went looking for a dish that was heart healthy, I was looking for something that was simple, seasonal and hopefully, tasty. I ended up choosing David Liebovitz's Low Fat Tarte Tatin (oddly enough which not found at his website). Basically it's a single crust apple pie. There's a great video of Julia Child making one back on 1971 (bless you PBS). Let's just say there's no holding back on the butter with this dish.That's a stick of butter she's slathering the pan with, roughly 92 grams of fat. While quite yummy and decadent not exactly the heart healthy dish we're looking for. The recipe I'm following only uses one tablespoon of butter to caramelize the apples. Combined with the thinner top/bottom crust helps bring this down to a much healthier level. First you make and chill your crust. Then you peel, core and quarter your apples. Melt the butter in a 10 inch iron skillet and combine with 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Wedge in your cut apples in a concentric circles in your skillet and then cook for 20 - 25 minutes on the stove top. Once the apples have cooked down a bit you place the crust over your apples, tucking under the edges. It goes into a 400 degree oven until the crust is golden.

tarttartin

As you can see my skillet is more of a dutch oven but it still works. I just made sure I used a springform pan bottom to help me in my flip maneuver.

tarttartin2

Sadly I cooked my apples too long and burned the center but since you're not supposed to disturb the apples while they cook, I'm going to need a little more tart making experience to know when the best time to stop the cooking process.

tarttartin3

You can see by the edges ideally what you want, that golden color while the apples still hold their form and not drown thin crispy crust with apple juice.

tarttartin4

As long as I avoid the really burned parts, still not bad and something I would try again especially with the wonderful apples that are currently in season.

12 comments:

Susan said...

As you know Shammy ... this is my kinda Dim Sum Sunday. Up with my two heart healthy dishes and tonight we had a pear crisp topped with ground almonds & oats, brown sugar and a tsp or so of canola oil. Warm from the oven with frozen vanilla yogurt. Not only heart healthy but gluten free too.

Stop the madness ;-)

Making Space said...

YoyoyoyoI'MUP!!!

Smoothies for all at Chez Making Space!

And dude, I'd totally eat the burnt parts. I'd eat the other parts too. Just sayin'. Good on ya for taking a wildly buttery recipe and keeping flavor while bringing down the potential for a side order of angioplasty.

Happy DSS Day!!

Making Space said...

Also your cast iron skillet/dutch oven is - wow - oh my god. I want.

Dani said...

Looks damn good, burnt parts and all!

I'm up over at my place with grouper veracruz.

Happy Dim Sum Sunday Friends!

Susan said...

ps. I'd like a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a big blob of whipped cream on ma pie (burnt bits et all) ... oh yeah it's heart healthy week. Shucks !
Pass the frozen yogurt ;-)

Looks delish !

Sharon Rudd said...

I'm up too: http://eggplanttogo.blogspot.com/2010/10/dim-sum-sunday-heart-healthy.html. Happy DSS to all!

Big Shamu said...

Susan, Gluten free too? You and that Cowboy are just wild people. Wish I had thought of the vanilla yogurt ice cream earlier.

MS, I don't know if you watched the JC video, she's slathering that butter on like she's frosting a cake. While I did burn some of it, the apples taste so good right now that it really helps. This dish is all about the flavor of the apples.

NO, MS, you are not getting my black cast iron dutch oven.

Dani, I love your grouper. Lots of veggies too. Just a nice refreshing dish.

Susan, help me be strong, many "Getting Older" tests later on this week, MUST BE GOOD, no whipped cream.

Eggy's found at least one way to use up those summer squash that still linger in our garden, good stuff.

Happy Dim Sum Sunday Everyone!

moi said...

Oh, this looks delicious! Since I am vowing this year not to put on my usual Holiday Five, I will definitely try this out.

I didn't have time to participate this week, but I'll be around to visit everyone for sure.

Happy Healthy Dim Sum Sunday!

Dani said...

I love your pictures so much!

Buzz Kill said...

Well, simple is my middle name (and my disposition - according to the Mrs) and I could see me making this. Great pictures as always.

I don't have an entry this time around although I did find a recipe on Epicurious that I had every intention of trying - Strawberry Souffle. Yeah, I know but they said it was healthy.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Strawberry-Souffle-with-Sliced-Strawberries-5247


Happy DSS!

Big Shamu said...

You could absolutely do this Buzz, especially the flipping part. That's what puts the big thrill in this dish.

Have to check out that Souffle.

LaDivaCucina said...

Sham, I'm two days late but I'm up! ha! I was confused and thought it was going to be a fish dish for DSS but you little trickster, you made a dessert! Clever. I wonder if having more butter helps the apples not to burn....there IS a purpose to everything in baking I find! Good luck in perfecting it!