The Cookbook Collector and a Perfect Peach Tart

I love, love, loved Allegra Goodman's The Cookbook Collector.  I picked the book because I thought with the title it was about food, but not so much.  While a very rare old cookbook collection does feature in the book, it has a pretty broad range of topics  - it's about family, about sisters, about the dot com bubble, about politics, about trees, about religion, about friendship, about business, about aging, about growing up, about finding oneself, about rare books, about Berkeley and about Cambridge, and in its best parts, it is about falling in love.  The love story that is the center of the book (but as my list in the preceding sentence makes clear, there is a lot going on here with lots of characters though one central story line) finally gets off the ground as the result of a perfect juicy peach.  Jess, one of the two sisters that are the main characters of the book, is a student at Berkley, studying philosophy.  She also works at an rare book store, which is run by George, a wealthy middle aged man.  George made his millions working for Microsoft, quit, moved to San Francisco and opened the book store.  Where Jess is a free spirit, George is uptight and particular - he has the best things - an architecturally significant home, filled with art and rare treasures, he is obsessed with special wines and eats only exquisite food, skillfully prepared.  Jess is scatterbrained, a vegan, and lives in a "Tree House" a group house run by a political group that fights against deforestation.  Through the first half or so of the book it is clear these two have a connection, but it is a gorgeous peach, procured at the farmers market, that brings them together.  This peach tart is a recipe from the classic place that represents the snooty, foodie Northern California scene  - Chez Panisse, and it is made from peaches procured in the other main setting of the book Cambridge, Mass - where I live!  More after the break.

The Cookbook Collector is primarily about two sisters - Jess and Emily.  They grew up on the East Coast, their mother passed away when they were young, and they both now live in Northern California.  The two sisters are as different as can be - Emily, the oldest, is an over achiever, very responsible,  she is the CEO of a hot start up about to go public, is engaged to a guy who is the CEO of another hot start up (except his is in Cambridge), and she takes care of her younger sister, who needs taking care of sometime.  Jess is younger both physically and emotionally, she has a strained relationship with her father, she is aimless careerwise and hops from one political cause to the next, and one boyfriend to the next.  Jess is open and Emily is somewhat repressed.  This is clearly in account of their ages when their mother passed away, Emily was old enough to understand what she had lost and was tasked with being a maternal figure to Jess.  While there is tension between the sisters because of their differences, there is no real conflict, and they are part of each others lives but their relationship is not really the focus of the novel.  While some critics may say there is no focus to this novel - I would disagree - I think the love story between George and Jess is the focus and soul of the book.  Goodman tells the story from all the characters perspectives - so we get to know George through Jess's eyes but also from his own perspective.  He is clearly lonely but also afraid to open his heart to someone.  Frankly, he comes across as a jerk -   arrogant, pretentious, and maybe even misogynistic.  But his soft spot is Jess - she is everything he is not - she is curious, a bit lost, and open to new things.  He is into aesthetics - a beautiful home, special furniture, art - while she, as a philosophy student is focused on the internal.   It was wonderful to read how these two danced around each other for so long, each attracted to the other but wary of getting together, because of the difference in their ages, economic status, lifestyle.   They finally do get together - brought together by George's gesture of leaving for Jess a perfect peach and her letting herself enjoy it.  I loved the other parts of the book too - much of the book is focused on Emily's boyfriend - Jonathan - and his struggling start up in Cambridge.  Emily is clearly earnest and principled, but Jonathan is competitive - he wants to get ahead.  We see him throw away the trust that Emily gives to him and push away his friends in his efforts to make his company successful.   There are many characters and side stories here - the Bialystock rabbi that Jess encounters and his brother in Connecticut, Emily and Jonathan's friend Orion, part of Jonathan's company, and his affair with a glamorous co-worker, Jess's involvement in the deforestation protests, the girls uncovering of their mothers history, and of course the discovery and cataloging of an amazing collection of very, very old cookbooks.  Towards the end of the book 9/11 happens and majorly effects the characters lives.  Some people may have found this a gimmicky plot element - but not me.  Goodman is from the Boston area and her husband is a computer science professor at MIT.  I saw immediately the story of a local Cambridge company, Akamai, must have inspired Goodman here.   This was a great book that combined so many topics, as disparate as business and love, but it felt like real life to me - all the things that Goodman touched on were things that were present in my life, which is what made this book so enjoyable for me.


 Chez Panisse Peach Tart
Here on the East Coast, you can still get late season peaches, grab up the last vestiges of summer and make this tart! It has a lot of steps, but was delicious.

Chez Panisse Peach Tart
Adapted from Chez Panisse Desserts, Lindsey Remolif Shere
(Printable Recipe)
Crust
1 and 1/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon grated lemon peel
3/4 unsalted cup butter
1 and 1/4 teaspoon water
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
 Pastry Cream
2 cups milk
1/3 cup flour
6 tablespoons sugar
6 egg yolks
1 to 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
vanilla extract to taste
3 italian almond macaroons, crushed
Tart
2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1 inch piece of vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 and 3/4 pounds ripe peaches
1 or 2 teaspoons finely chopped almonds

For Crust (Note - I would recommend going to Martha Stewart.com for a better shortcrust recipe, this one was a struggle):  Mix flour, sugar, salt and lemon peel.  Cut up butter into little pieces, add to flour, use a pastry cutter to cut it into the flour until it is in small pebble like pieces.  Combine the water and vanilla and combine into flour mixture and press together with a fork.  Turn out onto a work surface and form into a ball.  Flatten, wrap in plastic and let rest at least 30 minutes.

 

Preheat oven to 375F.  Press dough into a 9 inch tart pan.  Before baking, put the shell in the freezer for 30 minutes.  Bake for 25 minutes until shell is light golden brown and totally baked through.

To make pastry cream: Scald the milk in a small saucepan (heat until just under boiling - little bubbles at the edge of the pan).  Mix flour and sugar in a heavy saucepan.  Beat egg yolks until thick and light colored.  Thoroughly whisk hot milk into the flour and sugar mixture, stirring constantly until the mixture has boiled for a minute or two.  Whisk a little of this milk mixture into the egg mixture to temper the eggs, then stir this all back into the flour mixture on the stove.  Mix well and cook over medium heat stirring constantly until temp reaches 170F.  This is the temp you need for the eggs to be fully cooked.  When this temp has been reached, you will have a nice thick pastry cream, pudding like consistency.  Don't let the pastry cream boil.  Remove from heat, stir in butter, then put through a fine mesh strainer to remove any little pieces of egg.  Cover with plastic, refrigerate till cool, then stir in vanilla and crushed macaroons.

For peaches: Bring water, sugar and vanilla to simmer in a large saucepan.  Cut peaches in half, remove pit, and put skin side up in saucepan.  Poach, covered, for 10 - 15 minutes.  The peaches should be firm, so don't cook too long.  Remove from water (reserve peach syrup).  Refrigerate till cool. When cool, remove peals and cut into thirds.   Boil the peach syrup till a thick glaze like consistency.
To assemble:  Spoon pastry cream onto cooled shell, you will probably use 1 cup of pastry cream.  Arrange the peaches on top, brush with the peach glaze, sprinkle almonds on top.