My first IMBB: Everything's orange

I managed to get my act together and make something orange in honor of Is My Blog Burning Number 14. After a brief research period, I constructed a Frankenrecipe from a number of sources, and eventually came up with a blood orange and mango tart with ginger creme anglaise (recipe below). My family promptly ate it for breakfast. Hey, it has fruit! That makes it healthy!


And now, indulge me while I offer a brief deconstruction of the many and various elements that combined to form this tart. I had never made a curd before, so I'm not altogether sure that I got the consistency right with my made-up laundry list of ingredients. I think it was a bit on the runny side. The crust came from Epicurious, and received rave reviews for its buttery, shortbread-esque texture. The creme anglaise was taken from (meekly) Emeril and the Food Network website. I'm ashamed because really, I loathe Emeril. I guess he sensed this and cursed me from afar, because I somehow curdled his little sauce to a rather shocking extent. Fortunately, this was remedied by a brief spin with an immersion blender.

This dessert was out of character for me, since I tend to stick to the Triple Chocolate Overload Death By Caramel genre. That's probably why I had such fun making it. But also why I didn't really want to eat more than one piece, which is a good thing given how much I've been baking lately. It felt a little too ...bridal shower luncheon. I guess I prefer my sweets with a kiss of the dark and the naughty. Sampling all the fruit was delightful, though. One really can't eat enough blood oranges and mangoes, can one?

Well, yes, one can. I frequently buy an entire box of mangoes in Chicago's Indian neighborhood and gorge on them until I can't even look at another. A few months pass, and then I repeat the process. Lucky for me that IMBB came along at a pro-mango moment.



Tarocco Orange and Mango Tart with Ginger Crème Anglaise

Orange-mango curd:
½ cup mango, pureed
¼ cup orange juice
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1 T. orange peel
6 eggs
2 egg yolks
½ cup unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

Crust:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 T. sugar
¼ t. salt
½ cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
2 T. whipping cream
1 large egg yolk

Garnish:
3 strawberries, cut into thin vertical slices
2 Champagne/Manila mangos, peeled and sliced thinly
1 Tarocco orange, sectioned, pith and peel removed

Ginger crème anglaise:
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
2 tablespoons minced ginger
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar

For mango-orange curd:
Whisk mango, orange juice, lemon juice, sugar, orange peel, eggs and egg yolks in medium metal bowl until blended. Add butter; set bowl over medium saucepan filled with simmering water. Whisk constantly until curd thickens and instant-read thermometer inserted into curd registers 175 degrees, about 12 minutes (do not boil). Remove bowl from heat. Press plastic wrap directly on surface of curd and refrigerate at least 1 day.

For crust:
Blend flour, sugar and salt in large bowl. Add butter and cut in using pastry blender or food processor until mixture resembles cornmeal. Add cream and egg and combine until dough sticks together. Gather dough in ball and place in between two pieces of parchment. Roll dough into 13-inch round; transfer to 10-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom and peel off parchment. Press dough into pan sides; freeze 30 minutes. Preheat over to 375. Bake crust until cooked through and brown, about 30 minutes. Cool crust completely in pan.

For crème anglaise:
Heat the heavy cream, milk, vanilla bean and minced ginger in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Place the egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof mixing bowl and beat until pale yellow in color and all of the sugar has dissolved. Temper about 1/2 a cup of the cream mixture into the egg mixture and whisk vigorously to incorporate well. Add the egg mixture to the saucepan with the cream mixture and cook, stirring constantly with a whisk, or wooden spoon. Be sure to stir in the corners of the pot and lower the heat slightly. Stir the mixture for 4 to 5 minutes or until the custard has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the stove and strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Place the bowl in another bowl half-filled with ice and water to cool the custard. Refrigerate.

To assemble tart:
Spread curd evenly in cooled crust. Place strawberries, mango slices and orange sections decoratively on top. Drizzle crème anglaise around tart before serving.