When I told one of my besties, Sue Hall, about this recipe and sent her a first photo, she said, “And so where in the h-e-double hockey sticks are you getting wild goose?” I said, “I have someone shoot them for me.” “Of course you do,” said she.
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One day it’s brats and beers on the sweltering deck. The next you’re turning on the heat along with the tv and searching for game day snacks. (Which still could be brats and beers.) It doesn’t seem as if that would be possible, but in Colorado, it often is. We could see just such a weather change several times over the course of any September. But there’s always one metamorphic day when our whole world definitely changes from summer to fall and that’s when “the mountain” (better known to the rest of the world as Pike’s Peak) looks like Brigadoon from my front yard:
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Cook’s Note: The Turkey Soup police are not out today. You can make this with lots of changes and substitutions, but you have my idea to start. Blessings on your soup pot! Be brave!
**You might have some leftover turkey stock from cooking the giblets, etc to make gravy and stuffing; throw this in if you have it. If you don’t, you’ll use more boxed broth or water, if necessary.
***If your’e out of turkey meat, you can still make this soup; it’ll be tasty, filling, and nutritious anyway!
Sing a new song,
Alyce
This “recipe” originally published elsewhere by me! The underlining won’t disappear; I’ll try later to reformat it. Until then, you have the soup and the underlining.
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| An ultra thin ginger snap smothered with hot pastry cream serves as the “crust.” |
How the Quick Kiwi Tart with Gingersnap Crust came to be…
While I love to bake a pie as much as the next woman (more than most, I’d guess), I also like nearly instant desserts that are luscious and don’t wear out the soles of your trainers. (Like after you’ve cooked for company all day and still need dessert.) I have a pocketful of favorites like a 30-second pumpkin custard (it’ll be in my soup book) and a blink-done individual chocolate flourless “cake.” I also have no-bake favorites like a strawberry ice cream parfait layered with crumbled ginger shortbread and fresh peaches. In cases of real emergencies, I buy ice cream and cones–and not just for the kids.
But today I needed a kiwi something. Not exactly in my bailiwick; I use kiwi in fruit salads or the occasional smoothie. I kept picturing the industrial size, looks/tastes-like-Paris fruit tarts they sell at Marigold Bakery and Cafe in Colorado Springs. The perfectly trained pastry chef turned out racks of these tarts daily–as well as many other pastries and breads. You can’t count on him to spell your best friend’s name right on her birthday cake, but you can count on a piece of a tart at 3pm with your coffee or a full tart at 8pm for emergency company. If you order ahead, you can get 12 for your son’s rehearsal dinner. In other words, you can depend on that tart. It’s topped with all the glories of many kinds of fruit. But it’s not spring; it’s not summer. Berries are over and I don’t need a BIG tart at all. I need a T-tiny tart… (as my fine old friend Susan Gimarc would say) Well, one for me and one for Dave. Maybe two for tomorrow, though he usually gets all dessert leftovers. But that’s it. Enter the very petite and quick “Kiwi Tart with Ginger Snap Crust” made in a small ramekin. The crust for each tart is one gingersnap at the bottom of a ramekin or small bowl. Topped with hot pastry cream, the cookie doesn’t crumble, but softens into a beautiful crust made for a spoon. Here’s how:
quick individual kiwi tarts with ginger snap crust makes 4
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| Make a small pan of vanilla pastry cream (crème patissière, which is very like vanilla pudding). Recipe below. |
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| Place one thin gingersnap in the bottom of each of four ramekins. |
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| These are my favorite gingersnaps. (Except for my own, of course) |
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| Spoon hot pastry cream into ramekins. |
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| If not serving right away, cover each tart with plastic wrap (pressing plastic down to cream) to prevent a skin from forming on the pastry cream. Refrigerate for up to one day. Otherwise, let cool a few minutes, and then go to next step: |
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| Stand 3-4 slices of peeled kiwi in the cream. (Optional: Heat 1 tablespoon apricot jam in microwave and brush kiwi with it.) Serve immediately with extra ginger snaps if desired. |
Ingredients List:
3 kiwi fruit; each peeled and cut into four thin slices
4 thin gingersnaps, store-bought or homemade ( I like Anna‘s Ginger Thins.)
Pastry cream (below)
Optional: 1 tablespoon apricot jam
pastry cream recipe
from The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins*
In a heavy saucepan, combine milk, sugar, cornstarch, and egg yolks. Place over low heat and, whisking, bring to a boil. Cook another minute and remove from heat. Stir in butter, salt, and vanilla extract.
*There are many pastry cream recipes, but a lot of them make a large amount of pastry cream and many more use a larger amount of egg yolks. Use whichever you like best. This one has a very simple and streamlined process, is tasty, and makes just enough for these four tarts. You could also, of course, use a low-fat, light pudding or custard recipe if needed. Difference between pastry cream and vanilla pudding? I can’t tell much, though sometimes vanilla pudding doesn’t have eggs. The difference, however, between pastry cream and custard is that custard is 1. thickened only with eggs (no cornstarch or flour) and is 2. cooked in a water bath (bain marie) in the oven, while pastry cream or vanilla pudding is a stove top process.
**You can also flavor pastry cream with a little brandy or Grand Marnier–try 1/2 teaspoon first and add a second 1/2 if needed.
about those kiwi
Calories: 108 calories per cup of kiwi
Kiwifruit is one of nature’s perfect foods: low in calories, high in energy and an excellent source of antioxidants. Each one delivers a world of nutrition benefits, including:
Vitamin E: Kiwifruit is one just a handful of fat-free sources of vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant that helps lower cholesterol and boost immunity. (Info and photo: Courtesy California Kiwifruit Commission)
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Join our blogging group!
Sarah – Everything in the Kitchen Sink
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two-dog kitchen and around the ‘hood
On the Dinner Place (Cooking for One) Blog this week” The 30-Second-No Pan to Wash Egg
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| This week’s fave post on More Time: Guiness Beef Pot Pie with Cheddar Dill Biscuits |
Today I’m baking oatmeal chocolate chips for the reception after the Historic Organ Recital at Prospect Park United Methodist (where I work as a choir director). It’s 7:30 tonight, Friday, October 19. See you there. A favorite activity, I did it last week, too… 
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| Happy Tuck |
I also meet today for lunch with a wonderful editor/writer who I hope will be doing some editing on the book, 30 Soups in 30 Minutes. This week– test on turnip soup (lovely–no details given away here) and lots of work in Microsoft Word, which isn’t nearly so fun as drumming up new soups in my kitchen. Not sure we’ll be done with this little ditty by Christmas, but who knows?
Sing a new song,
Alyce
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| Scroll down for recipe. |
Come fall, I make crostatas regularly. They’re beautiful, terribly good to eat, and generally make folks quite happy. A free-form fruit pie (often made with homemade jam in Italy), they’re easier to make than traditional American pie and are show-stoppers when you have friends to dinner. I’ve blogged the crostatas before, and have taught them several times for the Italian classes I’ve done at home. But I didn’t think of them in terms of citrus until our Power Foods list came up this week. While citrus (lemon particularly) is a huge part of my cooking, I think about it less in terms of baking.
For instance: I rarely make a green salad without squeezing a lemon over it. Either I have lemon and oil, lemon alone, or lemon before a vinaigrette. Whatever choice I make, lemon, as an acid, is always followed by salt and pepper on my salads because salt dissolves best in acid. For that reason, if I’m making a vinaigrette, I always put the salt in the acid — whether citrus or vinegar– before adding the oil.
Secondly, there’s little to perk up a piece of chicken, a steak, or a lamb chop like a squeeze of fresh lemon. Of course you like lemon on fish, right? Why not red meat or poultry?
Another thing: I love lemon juice in chili. I stuff my roasting chicken with big pieces of orange and a cut-up onion or sometimes roast a lemon in the bottom of the pan for the sauce. I use one citrus or another to keep my cut fruit from browning. There are so many ways I use citrus, I can’t count or write them. I buy lemons by the bagful, but rarely go to the store without also buying limes. Because I don’t eat oranges or grapefruit for breakfast, I buy those only when I’m cooking or baking with them.
These fresh fruit fall crostatas, too, would be very much less without the citrus. I make several kinds of crostatas, but these two, apple and pear, have orange and lemon zest respectively. You could switch them out and use orange with the pear and lemon with the apple; I’m sure it would be lovely.
Citrus is, of course, loaded with vitamin C, provides fiber, folate, lycopene, potassium and other vitamins and minerals. (More below.) Yes, it’s great food… But for me…it’s all about the flavor when I use it for cooking.
A picture story…followed by the recipe. Bake peace!
(Interested in traditional pie? Read my PIE 101 post here.)
First, the apple version:
Option a (below) for moving pastry from board/counter to the baking sheet
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| Apple close-up–ready to eat! |
Option b (below) for moving pastry from board/counter to baking sheet
And, then the pear photos:
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| Baked pear crostata close-up; I liked the pear best. |
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| Here is the apple at left and the pear at right. |
In the food processor, fitted with the knife blade, pulse together the flour, sugar and salt. Add the cold butter and pulse until mixture is the size of peas. Slowly add iced water through the feed tube until dough begins to come together.
Remove carefully from processor and divide in half. Press each into a disc. Wrap one in foil and freeze it. Refrigerate the other for an hour is best, but you can roll it right away if you must. Dust the counter very well indeed with flour and roll the disc, using a rolling pin, into an 11″ circle.
Place on parchment lined baking sheet until you have the fruit ready. (Check out the pics above where I give you two options for getting the pastry from the counter to the pans.) You can a. fold it up gently and quick like a bunny pick it up, and centering it over the baking sheet, place it carefully down and unfold it or, b. loosely roll the dough back onto the rolling pin and move the rolling pin over above the baking sheet, lowering it and loosening the pastry down flat onto the pan.
This is not easy to describe; I apologize for lack of prowess as a technical writer!
I blog with a great group of writers every Friday where we cook our way through the list of foods from Whole Living Magazine’s Power Foods: 150 Delicious Recipes with the 38 Healthiest Ingredients: Read more about tasty citrus this week at these sites:
Sarah – Everything in the Kitchen Sink
.
Want to join us? We’d like to have you as part of the group. Get in touch with Mireya from My Healthy Eating Habits: Mireya@MyHealthyEatingHabits.com
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How are new salads born at my house? Like this……
I’ve had some Israeli couscous (actually a blend) in my cabinet for a few months. Waiting.
Typically I throw some leeks, garlic, and asparagus in a sauté pan come spring and throw those lovely things into a bowl of couscous or orzo with a handful of grated Parmesan and lots of black pepper.
When I realized this was the week to blog winter squash, a different group of ingredients started to percolate. Despite the summer tomatoes still coming on (albeit slowly) and the basil crying for that last bowl of pesto to be made, I kept thinking fall food once the squash got in my head. Cranberries, apples, pears, sharp cheese, nuts.
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| Fall..I adore pears…here I’ve just poached them slowly in port with some orange peel and cinnamon sticks. |
Thursday I had a big pot of turkey chili on the stove and called some friends to run over and help eat it. This salad, which began in my head days before it ended up in our stomachs, started the meal. I cooked the couscous and started chopping fruit and toasting nuts. It came together that easily; it’s fairly fast, too. I did think I might have liked walnut oil for the vinaigrette, but the only can I had was in the frig at our Colorado house where it’ll stay a bit fresher over the time we’re not there.
Could it be a whole meal? Definitely. Since it has oranges to keep the fresh fruit from turning brown, I think it’ll keep a day or so…but no more. It might be a filling and happy side for a quick Thanksgiving meal: roast a turkey breast, make this salad, and cook some of those green beans you’ve been freezing. Anyway, here’s how:
Follow the photo-easy recipe:
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| Cook 8 ounces of Israeli Couscous* according to package directions. Use chicken broth in place of water. You can add a few leaves of fresh sage if you have them (remove before making salad). When couscous is tender, add 1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil and 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil while still hot. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon each kosher salt and fresh ground white pepper. Optional: Stir in 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper. Cool to room temperature. |
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| Toast 1/4 cup pecans in a dry small skillet and chop, reserving a few whole nuts for garnish. |
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| Dice (medium) 1 pear, 1 apple, 1 orange (peeled), 6 dried figs (or fresh), 1 small cooked butternut squash (see below for my microwave directions). Dice (small): 2 oz. each sharp cheddar and Swiss cheese like Jarlsberg or Emmental or even Gruyere. |
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| Mix fruit, squash, cheese, 1/4 cup dried cranberries, and pecans with cooled couscous. Add the juice of another orange and 1 teaspoon honey. Stir well, taste and adjust seasonings and/or dressing. Serve in a bowl lined with fresh spinach leaves and garnish with reserved whole pecans. |
6 servings
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| We liked this salad with coffee cup pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins. |
*I used Harvest Grains Blend from Trader Joe’s (available on amazon.com as well), which is a “savory blend of Israeli Couscous, Orzo, Baby Garbanzo beans, and Red Quinoa.” Regular Israeli or pearl couscous is fine and orzo or even farro would be easily workable substitutes.
Ingredients list: 8oz Israeli couscous or blend, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper (optional), fresh sage leaves (optional), 1 3/4 cups chicken broth (used 1 15 oz. can plus a little water), 1 1/2 tablespoons each canola and extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup pecans, 1 small butternut squash, 1 pear, 1 apple, 2 oranges (1 in salad, 1 juiced), 6 figs (fresh or dried), 1/4 cup dried cranberries, 2 ounces each sharp cheddar and Swiss cheeses, 1 teaspoon honey, 2 cups fresh spinach leaves
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HOW TO COOK BUTTERNUT SQUASH IN THE MICROWAVE:
Place squash in a large microwave-safe dish and, using a sharp thin knife, poke a few holes in the largest section for escaping steam. Microwave on high 3-5 minutes (depending on size of the squash–a 1.5lb squash might take 5 minutes, for example) and remove the squash to a cutting board. Using a large chef’s knife, carefully cut the squash in half horizontally and with a large spoon, scoop out seeds and strings. Place the two halves back in the baking dish with a little (2 tablespoons or so) water and put the dish back in the microwave. Cook another five minutes on high or so (depending on the size of the squash) until tender. Covering the squash with plastic wrap or a microwave-safe cover will decrease the cooking time. I have also filled the center section with butter and a little brown sugar and served it just like that. (I often do this with acorn squash for a quick hot lunch.) Otherwise, you can let the squash cool, and then peel and chop or mash it according to your needs. This is much easier than peeling (or cutting) raw butternut squash, which is, at best, difficult.
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I cook winter squash frequently and my reasons are many. Here are a few:
1. It’s delicious; it’s good for your body.
2. It’s easy to prepare in several ways: Stick in oven, saute, braise, boil, or microwave.
3. It’s useful as a vegetable or side, but is also hearty enough for a main dish. (Stuff with cumin rice, jack cheese and scrambled eggs for breakfast!)
4. It’s an excellent addition to soups and stews.
5. It’s a good substitute for potatoes with pot roast or roasted chicken.
6. It’s inexpensive and easy to find nearly year round, but particularly now.
7. It keeps on the counter for a long time–easily 2 months. (That’s about the limit for acorn; the others can keep much longer.)
Be brave and try whatever beautiful squash you find at the market. Whatever you do with acorn squash, you can easily do with most of the others. Even spaghetti squash is quickly cooked in the microwave. Shred it with a fork, add a little butter (salt/pepper) and you have a beautiful meal. And, yes, you can add marinara and stay on South Beach, phase 2!!
Don’t want to deal with the peel? You can buy peeled and cubed butternut squash or pumpkin at some markets, but you will pay a premium price.
Want more info on winter squash, including nutrition and recipes? Visit the Snap-Ed (USDA) site here.
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If you liked this, you might also like this recipe from my Dinner Place blog.
rosemary chicken thighs with butternut squash, onions, and fennel
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| Throw it all together with olive oil; slip it into the oven on a big rimmed baking sheet. Dinner emerges in about 35 minutes! |
or you might like this:
roasted orange chicken and butternut squash (meal in a pan)
or my butternut and other squash soup
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| This is a lovely soup for someone who is not well or can’t chew, but is luscious as well for a first course at Thanksiving. |
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I blog with a great group of food writers on Fridays as we cook our way through the list of foods from Whole Living Magazine’s Power Foods: 150 Delicious Recipes with the 38 Healthiest Ingredients: Read more about beautiful winter squash this week at these sites:
Alanna – http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/
Sarah – Everything in the Kitchen Sink
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Join us:
If you’re interested in joining the gang writing each week, get in touch with Mireya from My Healthy Eating Habits: Mireya@MyHealthyEatingHabits.com
Sing a new song and cook a new squash,
Alyce
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| Slip some baguette with Gruyère under a broiler. Saute some mushrooms with garlic, shallots, herbs, broth and wine. Spoon the mushrooms over the cheese toast. Dinner is served. |
I grew up in a house that revered mushrooms. In any form, but mostly on their own. Just cooked up in a big cast-iron skillet with some garlic or onions. Eating them on their own was his favorite, but my Dad also loved them with some rice, eggs, or chicken. He’d have mushrooms any old way. As a little kid, I wasn’t buying. It didn’t take long, however, for me to jump on his bandwagon.
My first mushroom love was the famous mushroom stuffed with sausage. That gave way to (Lord) the deep-fried variety with sauce. All the while, regular old mushrooms slowly began to take part in my kitchen pageant. One day I saw that I was buying mushrooms pretty much every time I went to the store. Talking with my oldest son the other day, I woke up and realized he was talking about cooking up a big pot of mushrooms. Never know what you’ll pass on.
Mushrooms are inexpensive. They’re healthy. They’re adaptable. They’re widely available and come in many varieties. They add vegetable and “meat” value to any dish. Mushrooms are quick to prepare and can be eaten raw, fried, baked, sauteed, braised, or boiled. They’re fine on their own, as a perfect omelet filling, luscious crowded together on top a steak or piece of chicken, and they just make gravy. What’s beef burgundy without mushrooms? How about a burger? Portobellos, grilled, or sauteed, are perfect in a bun with all the fixings. I’m sure there’s more!
I don’t know a whole lot about mushroom nutrition, but here are a few things I’ve discovered: they’re full of B vitamins and lots of minerals. In a nutshell:
Mushrooms provide many of the nutritional attributes of produce, as well as attributes more commonly found in meat, beans or grains. Mushrooms are low in calories, fat-free, cholesterol-free and very low in sodium, yet they provide important nutrients, including selenium, potassium, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin D and more. Read on to discover some of nature’s hidden treasures found in mushrooms. more info: mushroom.com
BTW: If you’d like to pick wild mushrooms, be extremely careful, and get some training. Many people become seriously ill every year eating poisonous mushrooms.
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| You don’t need a big herb garden. I just have a couple of fragrant pots right outside my front door. A little dirt. A little water. Not much more. In Colorado, we’re able to bring pots of herbs indoors for the winter. |
When I realized mushrooms were up next on our 39 Healthiest Ingredients, I began dreaming of cooking up a big pot of them with yummy fresh herbs, shallots, etc., and spooning that over toasted baguette pieces that were topped with Gruyère. Last night I stopped dreaming:
mushroom ragù on gruyère toast serves 4
For vegan option: skip Gruyere and brush bread with olive oil before broiling. Exchange vegetable broth for chicken and either use vegan grated cheese for garnish or no cheese at all.
Wine? Please serve my mushroom ragu with an Oregon Pinot Noir. You’ll be so glad you did. I’m partial to Ken Wright or Sineann, but there are many lovely winemakers around the Willamette valley.
Want more great mushroom ideas? Check out the other beautiful 38 Healthiest Ingredient bloggers:
Sarah – Everything in the Kitchen Sink
Anabanana – adobodownunder.blogspot.com
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As we go along, I’m guessing we’ll get some other writers involved. If you’re interested in joining the gang writing each week, get in touch with Mireya from My Healthy Eating Habits: Mireya@MyHealthyEatingHabits.com
Sing a new song,
Alyce
As a kid, I didn’t like brussels sprouts. Did anyone? As a young bride, I occasionally bought a package of frozen ones (just for something different) as there weren’t fresh ones available at the places I shopped. As time went on, they just disappeared from my repertoire until a few years ago when I began to see them fresh in tiny bags or right on their very own totem poles at Whole Foods. (illustration courtesy Merriam-Webster)
A few special recipes began to be part of our regular meals as I developed not one, but several ideas for these special tiny lovelies. (I share a couple of them below- one with potatoes and one without.) Cooked slowly in a sauté pan, the inherent bitterness dissipates into the air, and the gentle beauty of brussel sprouts begins to shine in their sweet, tender nuttiness. Carmelization might be the word. Makes them wine-friendly, too.
PAN-ROASTED BRUSSELS SPROUTS with New Potatoes and Parmesan
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| I’ve served these brussels sprouts for many occasions, but particularly like them for my fast Thanksgiving dinner. |
Brussels sprouts, or Brassica oleracea gemmifera, are related to other better-known vegetables in the Brassica genus like broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. They are part of the cruciferaeor mustard family, so known because of a four-part flower in the shape of a cross.
HISTORY: Sprouts were believed to have been cultivated in Italy in Roman times, and possibly as early as the 1200s in Belgium. The modern Brussels sprout that we are familiar with was first cultivated in large quantities in Belgium (hence the name “Brussels”sprouts) as early as 1587, with their introduction into the U.S. in the 1800s.
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Brussels sprouts are a very good source of many essential vitamins, fiber, and folate. They are especially high in Vitamin C. (Click here to see the nutritional label) They, along with their other cruciferous cousins, have been shown to have some very beneficial effects against certain types of cancer, as they contain many different ingredients that are believed to help prevent the disease
These recipes originally available on More Time and Dinner Place in separate blogs.
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38 Power Foods is a group effort! Stop by these other blogs and see what they’re cooking each week as we team up to bring you some of the healthiest cooking available.
Sarah – Everything in the Kitchen Sink
Anabanana – adobodownunder.blogspot.com
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As we go along, I’m guessing we’ll get some other writers involved. If you’re interested in joining the gang writing each week, get in touch with Mireya from My Healthy Eating Habits: Mireya@MyHealthyEatingHabits.com
two-dog kitchen and around the ‘hood
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| Miss Gab watching Ina with me. |
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| Lovey-Dovey |
I’m busy developing and testing recipes for the soup cookbook. This week, I’m working on
Pozole (Mexican stew–mine’s made with pork tenderloin, corn, and hominy) and Tom Kha Kai (coconut/chicken from Thailand). I’m finding the most difficult part is figuring out how this whole thing goes from a Word doc (actually becomes a pdf first) to the 6×9, 100 printed page.
How can I be sure that the pagination makes sense or that recipes are on one page? Or that the margins are accurate? Did I consistently use “t” or “tsp” for teaspoon? You get the picture! Slowly, I’m starting to see how it works. I have a bunch of home-testers cooking away. If you have a testing recipe and I haven’t heard from you, I’m looking forward to a response pretty soon. Test on!
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| It’s NW blueberry time; I’m eating all I can get and freezing the rest. |
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| You can see how easy it is to move around my kitchen. |
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| In Colorado, we have time for movies with the grandkid. Thanks, God. |
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| Just for grin and giggles, I made homemade mayonnaise for a dressing for a steak and fresh potato chip salad. Dear. |
That’s all she wrote.
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| “Derby” Pie or Pecan-Chocolate-Bourbon Pie. Can you say decadent? |
When someone needs something baked, I do it if I can. If I have the time. Not everyone bakes. I love to bake and need an excuse now that there are only two of us in the house. If I bake for an event, I somehow always manage to make enough so that we can share a sample or even have a tiny sweetness for ourselves. (If it’s pie, it’s usually for Dave; I eat a bite, that’s it. He loves pie too much for me to eat much.)
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| Dave’s baby pie in a 4″ ramekin. He was so relieved. |
My friend Roberta likes to give Kentucky Derby parties and her pie baker was a no-show. I was happy to have an afternoon in the kitchen, though I had never before baked Derby Pie. I had baked many a pecan pie (the easiest pie to make except for custard and, by the way, pecan pie is a kind of custard pie as it contains eggs and melted butter) and this didn’t look much different–once I figured out what it was. And while it wasn’t terribly different, it sure tasted differently. Think of pecans. Then think of what they taste like sweetened up a little. Add chocolate. Bourbon. You have the picture. And oh, how lovely this would be for Thanksgiving.
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| I don’t know from bourbon, but this is what I bought. |
But to begin with, I couldn’t locate a recipe in any one of my many cookbooks. A bit embarrassing. But not much.
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| This is my cookbook corner. That’s not all of them, of course. | And no Derby Pie. Hmph. |
I thought it was odd that there was no “Derby Pie” even in any of my baking books; I have a few baking books! Back to the computer to discover that “Derby Pie” –or the term itself– is patented and can only be baked by the Kern family in Louisville, Kentucky. In other words, they have a monopoly on it. Once I knew exactly what Derby Pie was, I began to look on other sites for a recipe. I found dozens –some too simple and some too complicated– and settled on one (below) from examiner.com, a site I wrote for for a few years. It looked like a recipe I could easily triple or quadruple, which was my day’s goal.
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| Warming the eggs in warm water since I forgot to take them out the night before. Room temperature eggs are needed for baking. I left them about 10 minutes. Warm eggs crack easier and are less likely to leave bits of shell in your bowl. |
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| Collecting the pie plates. I keep a couple in my kitchen and the rest downstairs. I use pie plates for a lot of cooking. They’re perfect for anything in the microwave (vegetables, leftovers) and I bake biscuits in them because you can take the Pyrex plate to the table and the biscuits stay warm. I almost always use glass pie plates for even baking and for seeing the crust when checking to see if the pie is done. Do not ever use disposable aluminum pie plates; they’re just too shallow and lightweight. |
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| Toasting all the pecans at once on a half sheet pan. I like to buy pecans in the fall from Georgia growers. Often churches sell pecans for fundraisers. Buy enough for the year then and freeze them. I make a lot of spicy pecans for Christmas and also at other times of the year for nibbles with wine. (below) |
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| Here I’ve mixed them with other nuts for gift giving or cookie trays. Recipe here. |
For photos of the making dough portion, turn back to my Pie 101 (Step-by-Step) or use your own favorite. My own dough recipe–scroll down. Do not use a sweetened dough here.
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| Dough in all four pie plates, including the baby pie for Dave. |
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| Mixing each pie’s ingredients separately to make sure each pie has enough of everything. |
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| Carefully filling the shells so that I don’t spill the filling onto the pie dough. Some people do this on the oven rack. |
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| This one is baked in a deep dish stoneware plate from Pampered Chef. Emile Henry also makes a good deep dish plate. |
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| Glass Pyrex plate |
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| Side view of deep dish pie. |
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| The baby. You can bake pie in about anything that’s oven proof. Apilco (French porcelain–excellent dishes for everyday and any day) makes large coffee cups that are oven-proof–as does Corning Ware. |
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| The whole gang all done. Enough for a Kentucky Derby Party. How about Thanksgiving? |
derby pie
How To Make Kentucky Derby Chocolate Pecan Pie
*You can also choose an excellent semi or bittersweet baking chocolate like Valrhona or Callebaut and chop your own chocolate if you like. BTW, I sometimes order Valrhona chocolate from amazon.com though it is sometimes available at Whole Foods or better grocery stores.)
Alyce’s Pie Dough Recipe:
Pâte Brisée-— Made in a Cuisinart — This is the dough I use most often.
for each 10″ pie shell
1 1/3 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup or 1/4# unsalted butter, very cold, cut into 8 pieces (1 stick)
1/4 cup ice water (measure 1/4 cup water into a 1 cup measuring cup half full of ice)
Place flour and salt in the work bowl of the food processor fitted with steel blade. Pulse a couple of times to distribute salt. Add cold butter and pulse briefly several times until butter is worked into flour in several different sizes (1/4″ – 1/2″). With machine running, slowly pour water through feed tube until dough begins to come together. Stop machine and carefully remove dough from work bowl. Working quickly to avoid melting the butter within the dough, form into a ball and then flatten into a disc. Roll out and fill immediately (see above) or chill, well-wrapped, 1 hour or up to two days ahead.
Sing a new song; bake a new pie,
Alyce
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| A tender, quite moist gingerbread from Nigella. |
Gingerbread is Christmas, right? Maybe New Year’s Day? Certainly a cold-weather dessert. Except that I love it. I’d eat it in July if I were willing to turn the oven on. Which I’m not.* So that’s why it’s April and there’s Nigella Lawson’s gorgeous Guinness Gingerbread on the blog. (Two “n’s” and two “s’s” in Guinness–tells you alot about how much I know about Guinness. I did tour the brewery in Dublin once and actually drank a tall one.) If you’ve been following along on this trip, I’ve joined a group of great food bloggers who are each week cooking, testing, and writing about one of Gourmet Live’s 50 Women Game-Changers. And, you guessed it, this week (number 44) is Nigella’s week–I’m so grateful. After all, I needed a reason to make gingerbread in the spring. Didn’t I? (Cold and nasty in St. Paul today after a great, warm spring. I was happy to have a warm kitchen.)
*I have just installed a combination microwave/convection oven above my range. This may help with summer baking. More later!
If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching Nigella on tv or reading one of her books, you just need to do it. Picture a well-fed, very pretty British woman with a great accent sneaking out of bed in the dark to raid the refrigerator of crispy fried pork fat or snarfing down the last, well-hid piece of flourless chocolate cake. Not only is she real with a capital R, but she’s fun and brings more than a bit of the seductive into the kitchen, where it surely belongs. Whatever…it’s great to watch someone enjoy what they do and Nigella does that in spades. Isn’t that what really draws us to people? I adore friends who are happy in what they do.
For a biographical sketch that may surprise you, check out Nigella’s Food Network biography page here. Not only has Nigella been a food tv star for several years and written a variety of best-selling cookbooks, but she was Deputy Literary Critic of the (London) Sunday Times before setting out to follow her own drummer as a free-lancer. No small apples.
For a list of all of Nigella’s books, lots more info and recipes, check out her website.
But! If you’re intrigued by the gingerbread: get out a 9×13 pan and get baking. Easy as pie (which isn’t easy–who said that?) you warm up some butter, a cup of Guinness stout and a couple of other things, whisk in a few dry ingredients, pour into a greased pan and bake for 45 minutes. Cool, cut, and serve with whipped cream, ice cream, or Crème fraîche. Nothing better. My own notes are in red. Enjoy!
Guinness Gingerbread by Nigella Lawson
Put the butter, syrup, dark brown sugar, stout, ginger, cinnamon and ground cloves into a pan (2-3qt saucepan) and melt gently over a low heat.
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| Organic Corn Syrup with a little molasses poured in…quite pretty. |
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| Dave was so sad that I bought a whole 6-pack. |
Take off the heat and whisk in the flour and baking soda. You will need to be patient and whisk thoroughly to get rid of any lumps.
Whisk the sour cream and eggs together in a measuring jug (4c glass measuring cup) and then beat into the gingerbread mixture, whisking again to get a smooth batter.
Pour this into your cake/foil pan, and bake for about 45 minutes; when it’s ready it will be gleamingly risen at the centre, and coming away from the pan at the sides.
Let the gingerbread cool before cutting into slices or squares.
Add sweetened or spiced whipped cream, Crème fraîche, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream, if desired. Just a winter dusting of powdered sugar is lovely if you’re into simplicity:
For grin and giggles, watch this Nigella Interview:
If you’d like to read more great recipes, try one of the other blogs on our trip visiting 50 Women Game-Changers in Food:
Val – More Than Burnt Toast, Taryn – Have Kitchen Will Feed, Susan – The Spice Garden
Heather – girlichef, Miranda – Mangoes and Chutney, Amrita – Beetles Kitchen Escapades
Mary – One Perfect Bite, Sue – The View from Great Island, Barbara – Movable Feasts
Linda A – There and Back Again, Nancy – Picadillo, Mireya – My Healthy Eating Habits
Veronica – My Catholic Kitchen, Annie – Most Lovely Things, Jeanette – Healthy Living
Claudia – Journey of an Italian Cook, Alyce – More Time at the Table
Kathy – Bakeaway with Me, Martha – Simple Nourished Living, Jill – Saucy Cooks
Sara – Everything in the Kitchen Sink
Next week we’ll feature Diana Kennedy, the very fine Mexican cookbook author. Join us!
Sing a new song,
Alyce
