bookcooker: A Gate at the Stairs and a Fingerling Potato Tart

Lorrie Moore's Gate at the Stairs is an engrossing and quick read about the life of a college woman shortly after 9/11. The novel begins placidly but shows how quickly a normal life can become seriously screwed up. The novel takes place in a the college town of a large Midwestern university. Tassie is a potato farmer's daughter - a quirky and lonely college student, whose life begins to go awry when she takes a job as a babysitter for a strange but intriguing woman, Sarah, and her absentee husband Edward. From day one, Sarah asks more from Sarah than the average babysitter, and very few people would have stayed on the job after the first day (when Tassie is asked to accompany Sarah to meet the birth mother of the child Sarah wants to adopt). Tassie is a girl who seems to be floating through her life with a great level of ambivalence, and it is this ambivalence that causes her life to fall apart. I put together this potato tart because Sarah's father specialized in special gourmet potatoes, such as fingerlings. Sarah, the owner and chef of the university town's fancy French restaurant, especially loved Tassie's fathers fingerlings. I combined the potatoes with cheese, bacon and eggs, for a decadent and delicious brunch tart, where the potatoes are still the star of the show.

A Gate at the Stairs is a sad coming of age story of Tassie Keltjin. Tassie is an interesting character. She has few friends, no real academic drive or particular interest, she does not appear to be close to her family. She is goofy (she plays the bass and writes her own songs) and funny and real as well. But I never really got a sense of what drove her, what was really going on inside her. As I said above, one word I think that really describes her is ambivalent, she appears to be living her life as if she is just along for the ride. It is this ambivalence that gets her into trouble. First, by taking a job as a babysitter for Sarah and Edward. Sarah is a restaurateur in her mid forties who seems somewhat out of place in the small Midwestern college town. She is liberal, and cosmopolitan and edgy. She also seems quite uncomfortable in her own skin, and as a result she always is making silly, corny jokes. Sarah hires Tassie as a babysitter for a child she wants to adopt. She asks Tassie to come along for her first meeting with a potential birth mother, a highly unorthodox request for a babysitter. That birth mother falls through and eventually Sarah, and her somewhat absentee husband Edward adopt Mary, a mixed race baby. They change her name to Emme, and Tassie quickly bonds with her. Her relationship with Sarah and Edward becomes weird, and soon she learns they are not who they appear to be. She also falls in love with a boy in one her classes, falls hard, and then also learns that he is not who he appears to be (she purposefully ignores the clear signs that he is trouble). This story line I found somewhat unbelievable, and maybe even kind of cliche in the post-9/11 world. Tassie's ambivalence towards her family results in the most heartbreaking parts of the novel. She does not like her mother, though the real reason why is never really revealed. Her father is quiet and quirky and a somewhat passive figure in her life. Finally, Tassie's brother Robert is still in high school and just as lost as she is. Tassie fails to listen and engage with her brother, which causes disastrous results. The story Moore tells quietly builds until Tassie's life falls apart, and it gets more engrossing as the drama builds. I read the book in a couple days, Moore's writing is engaging and witty.

Fingerling Potato Tart

Ingredients (for 5 mini tarts)

Tart Crust (adapted from Tartine Cookbook)

1 and 1/2 plus 1 tablespoon of flower

1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup ice water

Tart

5 or 6 fingerling potatoes

3 strips of bacon

1/2 cup grated gruyere cheese plus more for top of tarts

5 eggs

1/4 cup cream or milk

1/4 cup chopped chives

salt and pepper

Directions for crust: I did this by hand, but it is even easier in a food processor. Dissolve the salt into the water and chill water. Combine flour and butter in a bowl. Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter. Combine until the butter is still in large chunks, bigger than peas.

Add the water and stir with a fork until the dough barely comes together. Toss the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and bring together. Form into a disk and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375. Roll out the dough and fit into mini tart shells. You could also do this with a full tart shell or maybe even in muffin cups. I find that tart doughs shrink a lot when I prebake, so I did not fit these to the tart shells perfectly.

Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes and longer if possible. Take out of the fridge and line with foil. Add pie weights or rise or dried beans and bake for 25 minutes, until just lightly browned.

To make filling: Cook bacon and drain. Then chop into small pieces. Cut potatoes into medium sized slices (about a 1/4 inch) and cook in boiling water till tender (just tender).