Thanksgiving Day Dinner - PINEAPPLE Tarte Tatin and Delicious Food

It was a great delicious Thanksgiving Day dinner with our families and friends.  It was an International experience.  We had traditional Turkey and Ham, Southern Yam, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Cranberry sauce, Cream Corn, Home Grown Green Beans, Japanese Chirashi Sushi, Hawaiian Purple Yam with Mochi, Chinese Black Sesame filled Mochi balls, Chinese Tea Eggs, Fennel and Pomegranate salad, Persian 'burnt' bottom rice with  lamb stews, ...

 

I made:
Pineapple Tarte Tatin
and
Pumpkin Pie with Lactose free Carnation Evaporated Milk
The result is:
Pineapple Tart Tatin was Great.
The Pumpkin Pie -- I followed the recipe to the "T" that was on the can.... well, not exactly.  I didn't add the full amount of sugar.... But I personally think it's "healthier" than the "Just In Case" COSTCO Pumpkin Pie.
I am glad to have found this Lactose-Free Evaporated Milk.  I used to not have any issue consuming the fresh strawberries with Carnation Evaporated Milk, but I don't know what changed, but when I saw it, I thought I would give it a try to make the pumpkin pie with it.

 I was in a hurry, so I baked it at 425'F all the way through.  No problem.  The next time, I will line the edge with parchment paper before the aluminum.  And I will make my own pie crust.  These store bought frozen pie crusts are okay.... but I don't know what grease they used...

 I think I beat the eggs too much - didn't end with shimmy shine on the top of the pie.

 And here is my Pineapple Tarte Tatin.  This is our family favorite since 50 years ago in Japan.
I think this is my third time making it using Pineapple instead of the apples.
Drain three cans in juice - sliced Pineapple in a strainer over a large bowl.  Keep pineapples stacked.
Place a plate over them, then place an Heavy object to press all the juice out - one day(overnight).
Prepare your Puff Pastry Dough (from scratch!!).   See my previous post.  https://rockdavinci.blogspot.com/search?q=tart+tatin
Looks like I didn't post the recipe.  So, I will post it, if you want it.

PUFF PASTRY DOUGH - for 1 Tatin - Method:  Croissant dough
Bread Flour: 93.75 g
Cake Flour: 31.25 g
Butter Softened: 15 g
Salt:  2 g
Water, Cold:  70.50 g
Use paddle - knead till nice and SMOOTH.
Set aside wrapped.  Rest while preparing butter block.
BUTTER BLOCK:
Butter:  125 g
Bread Flour:  15 g
Knead butter and flour together.
Place them between parchment paper.  Form into nice square about 1/2 inch thick.
*The dough and butter block should be about the same softness.
I am not going to give a full details on how to of the dough.  Please review your favorite site's croissant dough making technique or you can find the similar in my previous blogs on Croissant.
Roll out the Puff dough into a sheet large enough to envelop the butter block.
After enveloping the butter block. Wrap and let them rest in refrigerator for 30 min.  (Overnight is okay also).
Hopefully your kitchen is cool around 60'F.  Bring out the dough and bring them to the room temp - 30 - 45 min.
In a slightly floured countertop, roll out the dough following Croissant method.
Leaving the rolled out dough in a circular shape, "cut" the dough to fit the size of the saute pan that you will be caramelizing the pineapple slices in

After a good straining of the pineapple slices, the pineapple will end up close to 3 mm thick.
Chop one stick of Butter into chunks.
Use a Oven Proof Stainless Steel saute pan.
Place 2/3 of chopped butter in the pan.  Add sugar... roughly 3/4 cup(?)  I didn't measure... check my previous posting.
Flatten the sugar.
Lay Pineapple slices in circular shape, overlapping each other.  Add some more sugar on the top and the rest of the butter on the top.
Do not disturb anything in the pan and cook at medium heat (gas stove's) - watching and adjust whenever necessary to not burn the sugar.    Preheat the oven (gas) to 425'F.
The oven rack should be placed top 2nd row. 
When sugar begins to show the sign of amber color - Place the cut dough on the top.
Bake till the dough puffs up and turns beautiful golden brown.   *Do Not Open the Oven the first 5  to 7 min.  Try to see through the glass door.  You do not want the 'Natural Steam" from the dough to escape.  It needs it to Puff up.  (The steam is created by the moisture in Butter.)
While the Tatin is still cooking prepare a LARGE serving platter "SAFE" enough for you to cover the Saute Pan and Reverse the HOT HOT Sugary pastry onto without Burning You or Woozed out the Delicious Caramelized goodies.
WEAR Long LARGE Oven Gloves on both hands.

 When the Puff is beautiful and Tatin is bubbly, time to take it out.
Wear your gloves, Place the Large Serving Platter on top of the Pan.
BE TRUE and READY and Invert the Pan Quickly and Surely without slipping your Serving Platter off the Pan.  Release the Pan off.
DO NOT LET THE TATIN COOL OFF TO DO THIS (invert within 3 min).  You must perform this when the Caramels are still in Lava state or they will be stuck to the pan.

 This bacon rolled shrimps taste so good!!  baked with Bacon and dipped in Maple syrup with Bourbon and or with brown sugar.  

Fresh Pineapple Tatin

 This is the ultimate best Fresh Pineapple Tatin ever.  It was a lucky accident.  I bought a fresh pineapple over the weekend. I was suppose to have gone to a party, but did not make it back on time to take the Fruit basket that I was going to make. So, I am stuck with a fresh pineapple. The weather is very cooperative - cool.  I decided to make the Puff Pastry that I have not touched for a long time since June.  Everything went very smoothly. I followed the regular Tarte Tatin recipe from our culinary class.  Instead of apples I used Fresh Pineapple.  I was very careful not to over caramelized in the saute pan.   Remembering that once it goes in the oven, it will get browned some more.
I am very pleased with the turn out. My puff pastry is PUFFED.  It was well worth the time waiting - benching the dough after each roll. The taste was delicious and loved the crunchy layers of the puff pastry. I wished there is a way to serve this pastry without sacrificing the "puffiness". What I mean is that - once the pastry has completed its baking, it is inverted out to a serving dish. The whole entire 4 inches of PUFFED pastry is then flattened. That's the way it is supposed to be, but I would love to see the puffiness stay puffed up. There are other recipes such as Napoleon, Cream Horns, Patty Shells, etc.  But, I think I know what I want to try with the rest of my Puff Pastry dough waiting for action in the refrigerator. Maybe I can bake a separate layer of puff dough. Then, place it on top of the finished Tatin after it has been inverted -- like a sandwiched tatin. What do you think? Or an individual small 4" Tatin, roll out two puff pastry dough, one with a hole in the middle. Then, after the baking, place the extra baked puff pastry with hole in the center on top of the finished Tatin. Nope, the puff patty shell is the same idea and easier . . . all right, Palmiers, Pinwheels, and Puff Pastry Tart Shell for Blueberries on the Cloud.

Blueberries on the Cloud Puff Tart

So, here is what I decided to do with the rest of the Puff Pastry dough. 
I wanted to make another Pineapple Tatin, but out of luck.  No more fresh pineapple.
In my effort to find a way to preserve the Puff Pastry's "Puffiness" even after topping it with the goodies, I came up with an idea.  I am sure others have done the same because I have seen puff pastry being used for Pate puff, but in much smaller size, of course.  So, I shaped the dough to fit my 10 " round Tart Pan - Puff Tart Shell is formed, chilled, sprinkled the top with some sugar and egg washed the top, and baked at 425'F.  Beautiful.  It puffed up like an awakening giant stretching upwards.   The sugar and egg wash coating was to help in giving some shine and flavor and not depend entirely on the pastry cream of some sort for the sweetness.  To cut down on the overall usage of sugar, I decided on the beautiful puffy Whip Cream for the topping.  That's it.  Pressed down on the puffed shell with the palm of my hands to make the well in the center (surprisingly, the shell sprang back... no problem.)  Whip cream whipped up with just a tablespoon or so of sugar to taste.  Frozen blueberries are -- I saved a pint of wonderful large fresh blueberries from the summer, frozen -- dipped in the simple syrup flavored with Raspberry Liqueur.

Then, I assembled my Blueberries on the Cloud Puff Tart.   Taste of the fresh puff pastry is just wonderful.   I loved the Puffy pastry coated with sugar.  The combination of lightly sweetened whip cream and raspberry liqueur syrup coated blueberries tasted great. 
So, here are the pictures.