Thanksgiving Continued: SEASON Your Pie Crust!

After the impromptu Mexican-ish Thanksgiving dinner mentioned in the previous post, I decided at the capricious bidding of my 4 year-old (to be henceforth known as 'Inge') to whip up 2 pies, one pumpkin and one apple, from scratch. I took the opportunity to experiment, as there was no expectation of pie from anyone other than Inge and if I totally screwed them up I could simply attribute the smell to the inquisitor's own delusions. Wink wink.

My experiment wasn't a terribly revolutionary one, but a simple question of how much 'seasoning' one could add to a pâte brisée before altering the state of an ideal crust. The basic pâte brisée recipe I used was as follows:

2.5 cups of all-purpose flour * 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter * 1 tp sea salt * 1 tp superfine sugar * .25-.5 cups of ice water

I pulsed the flour, salt and sugar in the food processor, then added the cubed, cold butter and pulsed until it got crumby, then turned the machine to 'on' and dribbled in a .25 cup of ice water and waited a few dozen seconds until the dough formed a ball. I then divided the dough in half, plastic wrapped each flattened half and refrigerated them for an hour before touching them again.

So that's the basic pâte brisée recipe I set about to alter.  I began my experiment with the apple pie...

5 granny smith apples, halved and sliced lengthwise * .5 cup of light cream * .25 cup of turbinado sugar * the juice of 1 lime * 2 TB good white wine * equal parts cinnamon, ground cloves, allspice, black pepper and ground ginger, to taste

I want to note that the combination of lime juice and white wine with any spiced fruit mixture always seems to work.  It is absolutely delicious and I tend to abuse the crap out of it as a cooking tactic.

Now, as for the seasoning of the crust for this apple pie, I wanted to echo the flavors I added to the apples and then take it a step further, and because I made one batch of pâte brisée for 2 different pies, I added the accoutrements during the rolling process.  So after I took one of the discs out of the fridge and divided in half (one half for the top crust and one for the bottom) I began to roll out the bottom crust.  I decided that the bottom crust would be seasoned with very finely chopped dried apples, ground ginger and ground cinnamon, as well as a sprinkling of big fat decorative sugar.  I mixed the above together, making sure it was still quite a dry mixture, and distributed it through dough as I rolled it out.  I laid it gently into the pie dish and decided not to blind bake it, but it wouldn't have been a terrible idea I reckon.  Either way, it's up to you.

For the top crust, I decided on a simple mixture of the zest of about 4 oranges and a few turns of the black pepper mill on the coursest setting, mixed into the rolled top crust in the same manner as mentioned above.  I chose to simply add a smattering of radial steam vents to the top crust of the assembled pie and a generous sprinkling of fat white decorative sugar.

Now for the Pumpkin Pie...

1 27oz can of pumpkin * 4 whole large eggs, beaten for a near eternity (or about 10 min) * .6 cup light cream * 2 TB good white wine * the juice of 1 lime * equal parts ground cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg and ground ginger, to taste

I'll note again the use of the aforementioned lime juice/white wine combo.  Try it yesterday.

 Now for the pumpkin pie I decided to use only a bottom crust, which I seasoned with ground ginger, ground cinnamon and get this: the zest of 6 limes.  Before baking, I sprinkled the top of the filled pie with very finely chopped crystallized ginger and a little more lime zest.

Both pies were a big hit, due as much to my shrewd management of expectation as to their added complexity.  Inge and I beseech you to SEASON your pie crust!

Impromptu Thanksgiving Menu 11/09

Thanksgiving this year was a right psychology experiment.  The night before I had decided loosely on a Mexican theme for our small 'n' casual 4-person dinner, made a very basic grocery list for the morning and felt comfortable with my expectation of a small and relatively effortless bout of cooking for yours truly.  Then what did I go and do?  I put the lack of pressure to good use by cooking for 7 hours straight and improvising the following:

Starters

Thai Peanut Hummus Yes, terribly Mexican of me.

I threw 2 cans of Goya chick peas into the Cuisinart with 2 TB of natural peanut butter, olive oil, a good bit of chili oil (I believe in red oil), one jalapeño chili cut into a few rather oddly shaped chunks, a rather serious amount of lime juice, lime zest and a dash each of soy sauce and fish sauce.  Pretty authentic flavor considering it's probably something that's bound to pop up on Rachel Ray's show any minute now...super duper!!!  <---irony.


Main Course

Braised Chicken Thighs with warm corn tortillas

I promised myself I would NOT allow myself to rip open any of my beloved Goya seasoning packets (¡Sazón!) to braise my dark meat on holidays.  I thwarted my addictive tendencies by first searing the chicken thighs to a crisp in my big enameled stew pot (her name is "Bigg'n") then setting them aside while I fried the living hell out of a small red onion, 8 whole garlic cloves, one finely diced red chile, a splash of lime juice, 4 whole PEELED tomatoes (I detest nothing more than those bullshit little rolled up tomato skins in my finished dish.  Abhorrent.), about a TB of butter and a healthy 1/4 cup of a nice pungent olive oil.  Ah, and salt and pepper of course.  After I fried the above together adequately, I placed the thighs back into the pot, poured in just enough chicken stock to cover them, then popped on the lid and let the stank develop for upwards of 90 minutes.  Then I turned the heat up with the lid off and evaporated the excess liquid to concentrate the flavor and make it a bit more taco-friendly.

The corn tortillas were artisanal and simply warmed for a spell in a 350º oven.

Black Bean Salsa with a little red oil.  I believe in red oil.

Yeah, as a matter of fact I am aware how hackneyed black bean salsa is.  I know what you're thinking, "Sandra Dee is probably semi-homemaking this on her next 'cooking' show".  It's just damn good.  The secret I think is that after you chop the onion, pepper, tomato and herbs to mix in with the black beans, you whisk up some lime juice, big salt and red chili oil until you get a nice vinaigrette going.  I drank a little of it after I made it, I won't lie to you.

Sliced Avocado with a squeeze o' lime and big, fat salt

Sour Cream with grapefruit

You simply mix together a decent brand of full-fat sour cream with both the fresh juice of a grapefruit and the zest.

Dinner itself went quite well, particularly when I made the executive decision to accompany it with tequila, lime and ginger ale mixed in very large glasses with lots of ice and big, fat multicolored sugar on the rim.  Family conflict?  Really?  More on the proceeding scratch desserts in the next post...