Happy New Year! I hope you all are settling in to good routines and good choices. I’m dragging my feet in some areas of my life and others I’m full speed ahead. As frustrating as that may be, I’m telling myself that it’s a healthy balance of slow and fast. If I was at 100% in all areas I would experience burnout and fatigue, right? After the trials of last year, I’ve just decided to be gentle with myself - and others!
Lisa Congdon, always inspiring with her words and art!
Did you grow up watching the Outsiders movie as a kid? You might not recall it, but I bet you know this famous line: "Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold." Sparknotes recaps it for us: “Stay gold” is a reference to the Robert Frost poem that Ponyboy recites to Johnny when the two hide out in the Windrixville Church. One line in the poem reads, “Nothing gold can stay,” meaning that all good things must come to an end. As Johnny is dying, he urges Ponyboy to remain gold. He wants Ponyboy to hold onto the golden qualities that set him apart from his companions.There’s a tradition from Japan that kind of turns that concept of Nothing Gold Can Stay on its head. It actually proves that gold is strong and lasting.
Kintsugi "golden joinery", also known as Kintsukuroi "golden repair", is the Japaneseart of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.
I’ve known about this concept for awhile, but I hadn’t been a real life witness to this pottery healing yet. One of the families I work for has a treasured set of antique porcelain dessert bowls belonging to their grandmother. I always love serving out of them getting to mix my present day food world with one of the past.
Last year one of the servers accidentally broke one. We were devastated of course, but our host walked into the kitchen and picked up the pieces and exclaimed, ”Oh wonderful, we can find one of those Japanese gold masters to fill the cracks with gold!” Who says that, right?!
I knew the bowl had been taken to a place in Long Island City that specializes in Kintsugi but I hadn’t seen the golden repair yet. I was back at the house recently and after dessert I inspected the antique bowl collection. Isn’t it beautiful? Subtle and delicate. It’s even more of a treasure now.
How many times to we discard broken things or feel ashamed of our own broken parts? How often are we embarrassed that something needs to be fixed? Speaking for myself, but maybe you can empathize, I discard and feel shame and embarrassment all too often.
By investing in the repair of the bowl, it’s actually even more valuable. So why not invest in our own healing adding to our own value? I’ll admit, this last year of my own health issues and greeting the new year with health alarms from my family back home, I'm feeling a bit shattered.
I have to remind myself that even though my surgery was months ago, I’m still repairing. I look at my scar and imagine it being sealed up with gold. I imagine all the layers of tissue that continue to plague me knitting themselves back together with golden thread.
And sometimes our broken parts aren’t as obvious as a surgical scar, like broken hearts and broken spirits. Or broken relationships and broken promises. Are all of these worth a golden repair? And no, we don’t need a Japanese gold master to supply some magical precious metal. We can make our own gold with forgiveness, self care, rest, kindness, therapy, prayer, good food, activity... The list is endless!
These sweet investments in our own healing will make our golden qualities shine. May your 2020 stay gold, dear friends. I even managed to bring some gold into my kitchen to welcome the New Year.
Every year around the holidays I make a special ‘throwback’ treat; something beloved from my childhood that I revisit in my kitchen as an adult. I’ve made homemade Rolos Candy, homemade KitKats, homemade RingDings,and homemade Junior Mints. This year I made a Twix Pie, by way of Jenn’s Chocolate-Salted Caramel Tart from Deliciously Noted. Look at that caramel! Stay gold, indeed!
As you can see in the lead picture at the beginning of this blog, it was perfect, but I wrapped it and brought it home to Missouri for our Christmas dinner and there was a bit of separation in the layers - STILL DELICIOUS.
Chocolate-Salted Caramel Tart
9″ tart
Crust:
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cold water, plus extra if needed
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
Large pinch of kosher salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1″ cubes
Salted Caramel Filling:
4 oz heavy cream
1.5 oz unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt
2.5 oz corn syrup
4 oz granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
Chocolate Ganache:
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup heavy creamflaky
sea salt to finish
Directions:
For the crust:
In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk, vanilla and water until combined. Set aside.
In a food processor, add the flour, sugar and salt. Pulse until combined. Add the butter and pulse until the butter pieces are the size of small peas. Slowly drizzle in the egg mixture while pulsing until the dough just starts to come together. It should clump slightly. To test, take a small portion in your hand and if the dough holds together, you’re done. If it’s a bit crumbly, add 1 tablespoon of water at a time until it holds.
Transfer the dough to your counter and bring together to form a round disc. Flatten to about 1″ thick. The flatter the disc, the more quickly the dough will chill and the easier it will be to roll out. Let chill for at least 1 hour. I like to leave it overnight and resume the process the next day.
Preheat oven to 350.
Once the dough has chilled, take it out and leave on the counter for about 10 minutes, depending on the temperature of your room, to soften slightly before rolling. It should be cold but pliable. Roll out the dough into a 1/4″ thick circle. If at any point it gets too soft, place the dough onto a sheet pan and place in the fridge for 5 minute before resuming.
Fit the dough into your 9″ tart pan. Place into the freezer for 15 minutes or until firm. Then line with parchment, fill with pie weights and bake for 20 minutes or until the dough appears dry. Remove the parchment and weights and bake an additional 5-10 minutes until lightly golden brown. Let cool. Meanwhile, prepare the filling.
For the filling:
In a small saucepan, stir the heavy cream, butter and salt, over medium heat, until the butter has melted. Add the glucose and stir until combined. Remove from heat.
In a medium saucepan, stir the sugar and water, over medium heat, until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil, without stirring, until the sugar syrup is a medium brown color. Remove from the heat. Slowly add the cream mixture. It will bubble up. Stir until completely combined.
Pour the caramel into the tart shell. Refrigerate until the caramel has set, approximately 1 hour.
For the ganache:
In a small saucepan, heat the cream until it just starts to bubble at the edges. Remove from heat. Add the chopped chocolate. Let stand for a couple of minutes. Mix with a silicone spatula until chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Pour ganache over the caramel. Let cool slightly, then refrigerate until the chocolate has set, approximately 1-2 hours. The tart can be made up to 1 day in advance and kept in the refrigerator. Just before serving, sprinkle tart with sea salt. After a couple of hours the tart will soften. I like it best just out of the fridge or slightly room temp.