Yellow pepper tarte tatin

Did you know…

• Yellow is the easiest colour for the human eye to see and is therefore often used in visibility clothing.
• In heraldry, yellow signifies honour and loyalty.
• For years yellow ribbons were worn as a sign of hope as women waited from their men to come marching home from war.
• Yellow is the colour of  mourning in Egypt.
• Color researchers believe color yellow to increase self-esteem and strengthen the overall well-being.
• In Japan, yellow signifies courage.
• Calling somebody yellow or yellow-bellied is to call them a coward.
• The term “yellow pages” was coined in 1883 when a printer in Wyoming ran out of white paper while printing a business directory and used yellow instead.
• In Islamic art yellow signifies the sun or the element of air.
• According to the doctrines of feng shui, yellow is an excellent colour for children’s rooms or the family room – but using too much in a baby’s room might make them cry more!

• All school busses in the USA are painted yellow.
• Sending yellow roses used to be a symbol of jealousy or dying love, but today yellow roses are seen to symbolise friendship (as opposed to the romance of red or pink roses).
• Both Lance Armstrong’s LiveSTRONG Foundation and Marie Curie Cancer Care have chosen yellow to represent themselves – LiveStrong via its yellow wristbands and Marie Curie through fields of daffodils.
• In motor racing, a solid yellow flag means caution – hazard on track.
• Zimbabwe is one of many countries that has yellow in its flag, but one of very few where the government lost an election and now plans a second round of voting… without an opposition party.
• For over 100 years lawyers have been taking their notes on yellow legal pads.  Nobody is sure exactly why they are yellow.
• 3M have trademarked the canary yellow colour of their original Post-it notes.
• Yellow is popular with lyricists, featuring in such hits as Tie a Yellow Ribbon, Mellow Yellow, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Yellow Rose of Texas, Yellow Submarine, Yellow and the unforgettably-titled Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka-dot Bikini.

Has all that yellow trivia made you hungry?  Well then, let’s get down to the business of cooking!  I have written before of the history of the tarte tatin, an upside-down caramelised apple tart. I mixed things up a little by substituting pears for apples to create a pear and cardamom tarte tatin, but for ages I’ve been dying to try a savoury version of this classic tart.  The arrival of a bag of perfect yellow peppers and the yellow theme of this month’s special Click event (to raise funds for fellow-blogger Bri and her battle against breast cancer) seemed like the perfect opportunity.  So check out my picture below, which is my entry for this month’s Click, and then click here to make a donation towards Bri’s holistic treatments for one year.  If you donate $25, you will also be entered into a prize draw with some amazing prizes, including a book donated by me 🙂

YELLOW PEPPER TARTE TATIN (serves 2)

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 peppers, cut into strips
4-5 silverskin pickled onions, halved (optional)
1 Tbsp runny honey
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
Salt & pepper
ready rolled puff pastry

Method:

Heat the olive oil in a skillet and lay the strips of pepper on the base of the skillet in a pretty pattern.   If using, place a few silverside onions between the strips and one in the centre, cut side down.

Drizzle the peppers with honey and vinegar and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes without stirring.  Add salt freshly ground black pepper and remove from the heat.

Cut a circle of puff pastry slightly larger than the base of the skillet (I have a skillet with a lid and tracing round the rim of the lid is useful for this!).  Cover the peppers in the skillet with the puff pastry, using a spoon to tuck it in at the edges of the pan so as to cover all the peppers.

Bake at 200C for 20-25 mins till pastry is puffed and golden.  Remove from the oven, leave to cool for a few minutes, then place a large plate upside down on top of the skillet.  Carefully flip the plate and skillet over and lift the skillet off so that the tarte tatin remains on the plate.

I served mine with a big green salad, but you could also serve this as a vegetable side dish.  The sweetness of the peppers lend themselves perfectly to caramelisation, but I did love the added zing of the little silverskin onions.  Next time I might try an entire tarte tatin of silverskin onions 🙂

Here are some more tartes tatin:

My apple and sage tarte tatin

Ximena of Lobstersquad made tomato tarte tatin

  Bea of La Tartine Gourmand made ratatouille tarte tatin

Haalo of Cook (Almost) Anything at Least Once made pineapple and ginger tarte tatin

Johanna of The Passionate Cook made a shallot and pancetta tarte tatin