Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
It’s always fun to travel and see new places and do new things… but on the holidays, especially Thanksgiving, nothing says it better than being at home somewhere. A lot to be thankful …
My daughters will all be home this year at Christmas … doesn’t happen much, so we soak them in.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Roger
Nothing says ‘Thanksgiving’ better than a great pumpkin pie!
On this blog I have talked about using the best ingredients, taking the extra steps and following the best rules of the road — whether new or old — for developing your recipe into something memorable.
So it goes without saying that to make the best pumpkin pie ever, there must be a little from the old chef and a little new. Before evaporated milk there was cream and this is an old and delicious idea. The abundance and variety of spices one can use is a new and wonderful phenomenon. Adding a topping of glazed nuts makes it complete.
Oh by the way, Nestle’ ( owns Libby and 80% of the Pumpkin Business) says it may not be able to supply the demand for Pumpkin… so… better go out and buy some or make a Sweet Potato pie.
Roger
Thanksgiving is one of the few universally enjoyed holidays in America and the ‘turkey’ is the star. Americans so love this bird that even Benjamin Franklin lobbied for the turkey rather than the eagle as our national bird! Although I do enjoy a plain bird with stuffing, on special occasions there is so much more we can do! I have prepared turkeys in all sorts of ways and there is nothing like a large bird to open the eyes of all the men gathered around! My oven limits what I can cook and a 44 lb was my largest. The size of the bird is one factor, but the flavor of many birds is quite an experience.
There is the TURDUCKEN and it’s many variations. The bird within a bird recipe goes back hundreds of years and I think the record goes back to medieval France with 15 birds in one recipe. This year, we will prepare a simple bird for our Thanksgiving, but during Christmas time while everyone is home it will be a Turducken with a twist. This year we will use: a turkey, a goose, a duck (2) and a chicken along with a wonderful stuffing for each. Obviously, the turkey stuffing will have sausages, including everyone’s favorite… ‘pheasant sausage!’
Is it time to make it yet?
Roger
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
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!
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.
good hunting!
Roger Freberg