Over the years, I have made it my life’s work to try to understand the complexities of the female minds in my life. Admittedly, I need all the help I can get. Albert Einstein offered the following amusing quote:
“Some men spend a lifetime in an attempt to comprehend the complexities of women. Others pre-occupy themselves with somewhat simpler tasks, such as understanding the theory of relativity.”
Recently,Laura had the opportunity to take some students down to the MRI Lab at UCSB and had herself scanned! Laura was happy to find that she was ‘normal’, but we could have told her that! However, I thought she was quite the ‘student’ to continue her investigation into herself!
The truth is that I have always loved Key Lime pie. As a young boy in South Florida it was my favorite dessert. However, I do understand that it was originally developed in an age before refrigeration and air conditioning was commonplace. To prevent spoilage, the original key lime pies were made with sweetened condensed milk and key limes. The natural ‘souring’ process of the lime juice and condensed milk allowed the filling to solidify. This tradition continues to this day. The original pies were yellow in color and not green. The green color was added probably to distinguish key lime pies from lemon pies in the eye of the consuming public. The crust is varied: Graham Cracker, Oreo and or a nice flaky crust. The topping has been either whipped cream or meringue and both are nice.
So how would one build a better key lime pie? Oh, I would add heavy cream instead of condensed milk (which is 40% sugar) and prepare the pie more like my lemon pie. There was more to it than that… but it turned out wonderfully!
Ingredients for the filling:
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups cream
5/8 cup key lime juice or lime juice
2 teaspoons finely ground key lime zest or lime zest
1/2 cup corn starch
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 egg yolks ( save the egg whites for the meringue)
4 tablespoons butter
Preparation:
1) mix your sugar, sea salt and cornstarch together
2) wisk in lime juice
3) add egg yolks and mix thoroughly
4) stir over medium flame until mixture begins to form a shape
5) after it becomes custard like, take off the flame and add butter, vanilla and lime zest
6) pour in prepared pie pan
7) cover with foil and cool
8) add meringue ( see Meringue recipe)
9) Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, checking often
Here’s how to make the MERINGUE:
a) In a small pan, combine 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 1/3 cup water and 1 tablespoon sugar. The mixture will thicken after several minutes on the stove stirring constantly. Once thick, emove and allow to cool slightly.
b) Beat your 4 egg whites until frothy, add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar and 1/2 cup of sugar… beat until puffy. Add the cornstarch mixture with a blender at high speed until you can make peaks with the meringue.
Bake: 350 degrees for around 20 minutes… check often
Although this key lime pie is a bit different from what you are used to, I am sure it will bring a smile.
Roger Freberg
PS. if you can’t find the rare ‘Cal Poly Chicken’ for your naturally green eggs… place one drop of green food coloring into your egg yolks
Before our daughter Kristin redeployed to Iraq, Kristin and I started the process of making a wine that would be ready to consume on her return… and there it sat until now. I had promised to open a bottle to ensure that it was developing along acceptable lines and waited until she had returned … it is a bit dry but nice.
So, I offer a toast to all my family members present and past who have carried arms in service to our country… and especially a thank you to my daughter Kristin (Iraq) and her Uncle Jim (Afghanistan)… and to all the men and women in in our armed services… thank you.
I love reading cookbooks because they don’t always tell the truth. Often they will omit key steps or ingredients and the picture of the culinary marvel in the book may not always match up with the disaster you prepared. For those of you who have blamed yourself, it may have not really been your fault.
There are some genuine reasons for the discrepancies. First, the pictured food product may not even be what it is purported to be! For example, an old photographer’s trick was to use flat Coca Cola to substitute for coffee in a layout. Why? Because, real coffee looks muddy with a matte finish in a photography while Coca Cola has the right glossy shine and deep black color.
However, another reason is that it might not even be the same product. This became apparent when I was asked recentl about WHY my ‘Meringue’ turned out so well. At first, I was going to tell the usual lies about how their Meringue didn’t work out because of the weather, phases of the moon or their marital happiness… but I opted for the ‘truth.’ Not everyone can handle the truth and the revelation that their cookbook had ‘lied’ to them came as a bit of a shock. There was a bit of reaction as they referred to my cornstarch addition as ‘goop’… but jealousy is an awful thing! 😉
So how do we avoid being ‘lied to’ in our cookbooks? Well, there are a couple of easy rules to follow:
1) Add some very old cookbooks to your collection that contain more steps and more ingredients… the pointers will be invaluable. Chef Escoffier , at the turn of the 1900’s, was saddened by the trend towards recipe simplification and ease of preparation which has continued to this day. 30 meals in 30 minutes has it’s place, but not when you want to make something special.
2) Buy ‘nitch’ cookbooks. These are cookbooks that teach you everything about something specific. I just bought a cookbook produced by a Baking Powder company in 1908… invaluable!
-- no secrets are held back here! --
3) If a recipe doesn’t work out in your cookbook, set the book aside because the other recipes are probably going to be just as flawed. Albert Einstein once said,”Insanity (is) doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Cookbooks are like people, they have personalities and you have to find those you like.
Abebooks.com is one of my favorite on-line sites for… yes… books! Recently I found two books that were amusing. The first book is a look into how and why alcoholic beverages developed around the world and the importance of various berries and grains as well as honey. The author, Patrick McGovern travels the world to see exactly how various civilizations produced beers and wines… “Uncorking the Past” is an excellent buy for those interested in how things all began.
My second book is a simple cookbook from 1908 the Rumford Complete Cookbook by Lily Maxworth Wallace who went on to write through the 1940’s on cookery and etiquette. Rumford — as many know — makes baking powder including the ‘Clabber Girl” brand familiar to those here in California. One can already see the trend towards recipe simplification, cost reduction and minimization of preparation time. However, the book is fun in that it covers a wide variety of subjects not addressed in many cookbooks today… for example, how to properly bone a fowl.
