justpigs

March 5, 2010

Seville Orange Meringue Tart

Yesterday was a day full of new things and a LOT of experimenting in the kitchen. I worked on a few recipes that have great potential (to be posted soon) and one that was a knockout!

At this point, there's no doubt that I'm dealing with a full-blown Seville orange addiction. I hit the jackpot yesterday with Seville Orange Meringue Tart. I was inspired by my neighbor, Wendy who brought us a few pieces of her fantastic Key Lime Pie on Sunday. Why not try it with sour oranges?! I couldn't wait to get crackin'!

The first place I went to look for recipes was David Lebovitz's blog (one of the best, if not the best food blog out there). I was greeted with a great recipe full of new and exciting challenges. First of all, Lebovitz recommends a French tart dough that is made with very hot melted butter. This technique runs completely contrary to the method most of use have used for years of cutting very cold butter into the flour. Once one clears the mental hurdles of preparing the dough in this manner, it is really very easy (just be careful handling the dish of hot butter). This is the most successful tart dough I've ever made (I can't wait to follow Lebovitz's suggestion to fill it with chocolate ganache...).

I slightly adapted Lebovitz's wonderful Lime Meringue Tart recipe in order to use the Seville oranges. The filling is a basic curd recipe, without any milk, which I really like. It was also nice that after finishing the recipe I was left with only one unused egg white, instead of 3 (you could use the third white as well if you plan to cover the whole pie in a light blanket of meringue.)

The next completely new technique I learned was making meringue on the stove. I have the Popeye forearm to prove my mettle. I'm thinking I should get a whisk tattooed over my brachioradialis and forearm flexors, just so people know why my arm looks so unbalanced. In any case, the meringue that results from this muscle building method is sooo smooth with just the right amount of stickiness. It is composed of tiny, densely packed air bubbles. The technique is not overly difficult and the results are very professional looking. The taste and texture are exquisite. My only word of caution is to watch the meringue every second when you brown it under the broiler. I was watching it like a hawk, then Emmy asked me if she could practice piping some of the leftover meringue on a piece of waxed paper and I turned away from my watch to get her started. WHAM-O! My meringue started burning!! I quickly rescued the pie with no flavor implications, but the meringue was a bit shy of perfection for it's dark color.

I highly recommend using Lebovitz's French Tart Dough recipe. But if you would rather not, just use your own favorite tart dough recipe.

Seville Orange Tart

--adapted from David Lebovitz's Lime Meringue Tart

One pre-baked 9" tart shell

For the filling:

1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3/4 cup Seville orange juice (about 4 good size oranges)

1/2 cup plus 3 TBS sugar

zest of one Seville orange

a pinch of salt

3 egg yolks

3 eggs

For the meringue (To cover the entire tart in a light covering of piped meringue use all three whites from the yolks above and a pinch more sugar):

2 egg whites

1/4 cup plus 1 TBS sugar

a pinch of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the over to 375F.

Combine butter, orange juice & zest, sugar and salt in a saucepan over medium heat until the butter is melted and the mixture is just warm.

Meanwhile, separate three eggs and set the white aside. Combine the three yolks with the three whole eggs and beat together with a fork or whisk.

When the butter is warm, add 1/3 cup of the butter/juice mixture to the beaten eggs and yolks, whisking constantly. Now, turn the heat down to medium low and poor the slightly warmed egg mixture into the butter/juice/sugar combination in the saucepan, whisking away while you do it. Keep up the constant whisking while the curd forms (do not boil!! or you will get bits of cooked egg in your curd, which you can strain out if you need to, but easier not to). When the curd begins to thicken and coats the back of a spoon pour it into the pre-baked pie shell and bake at 375F for 10 minutes.

While that tart is setting in the oven, get busy on the meringue. Put a saucepan of water on to simmer. Put the egg whites, sugar, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, beat the whites/sugar/salt until the white are foamy. Transfer the mixing bowl to set over the simmering water. Whisk away (dreaming all the while of Popeye forearms) until the whites reach 140F on an instant-read thermometer. Then bring the bowl and reattach it to the stand mixer and beat on high speed to cool the whites. After about 3 minutes, scrap down the sides of the bowl and add the vanilla. Beat another 3 minutes or so fully cool the dense and lovely meringue. Pipe, dollop, or spread the meringue on top of the set pie.

Heat the broiler and VERY CAREFULLY AND ATTENTIVELY brown the meringue.

Revel in the lip-puckering delights of Seville Orange Tart!

Filed under // Seville oranges baking pie

Comments [5]

January 24, 2010

Weekender: More Pop-Tarts

Ever since trying the homemade version, I've had pop-tarts on the brain. This week for lunch I made a savory little number with sweet potato, red pepper, onion, and goat cheese.

This morning we made a sweet version. Just spoon on a little lemon curd

and blueberry jam.

Fold it all up,

bake, and wake up your taste buds!

A good combination for summer would be vanilla pastry cream and fresh berries. Mmmm.

Filed under // baking breakfast pie vegetarian weekender

Comments [4]

January 19, 2010

Homemade Pop-Tarts

Need a quick, homemade delicious breakfast your kids will love? Nothing is easier than homemade pop-tarts (ok, cereal is slightly easier). This morning I used a 1/2 batch of leftover pie dough (from the weekend's Wake-Up Pie); however, it would be easy enough to make the dough the night before and just leave it in the fridge overnight.

All you need to do is break off a bit of dough, then roll it out into a rectangle on a floured surface. Spoon a heaping TBS of jam on half the dough. Fold the dough over, seal the edges with a fork, and prick a couple of air holes. Glaze it with egg wash; cream; or, if you like a little frosting, powdered sugar mixed with a little milk. If you really want to be fancy you can sprinkle it with decorator's sugar (or raw sugar). Bake at 400F for about 20 minutes. Oh, yum!

Today we made a couple wild blueberry and a couple Cape Cod cranberry. I used an egg wash and a tiny sprinkle of regular sugar on top.

I was thinking that a savory pop-tart would be fantastic as well, like bacon & cheese, or sausage, or one with red pepper and sweet potato hash.

Filed under // baking breakfast pie

Comments [7]

January 16, 2010

Weekender: Savory Breakfast Pie

"Pies needn't be confined to dinner, either. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great American essayist and philosopher who was dubbed a "hopelessly confirmed pie-eater" by his biographer, hewed faithfully to a diet of pie for breakfast. Why not take his cue and try a riff on the classic English wake-up: a pie of caramelized, chopped tomatoes, browned mushrooms, thick-cut bacon and hard-cooked eggs? Or maybe a mash-up of spiced pears sautéed with leeks and country sausage?" -- "The Savory Pie," LA Times, January 13, 2010

This week in the Food pages of the LA Times I noticed an article about savory pies. The writer had me when she mentioned Emerson was a "hopelessly confirmed pie-eater " and that he "hewed faithfully to a diet of pie for breakfast."

I have often had leftover fruit pie with my morning coffee. I was intrigued with the writer's suggestions for savory breakfast pie. So this morning I took her advice and tried my own "riff on the classic English wake-up."

I made a batch of pie dough and set it to chill in the refrigerator while I worked on the filling. When I saw the word "caramelized," my mind also read the word onions, even though "onions" does not appear in the sentence. I decided caramelized onions couldn't hurt anything so that's how I started. I then sliced and cooked about a pound of mushrooms; fried some lardons of bacon; drained, chopped, and cooked down some canned whole peeled tomatoes. I mixed all these things together and bound them with a lightly scrambled egg and freshly grated parmesan cheese. I seasoned the mixture with salt, pepper, and fresh parsley. I wasn't sure if the filling would fill a regular pie or tart dish, so I made it as a galette. I made a depression in the center and cracked an egg into it and cooked the whole thing in a hot oven for 45 minutes. The results were delicious!

I would do a couple of things differently in future. Instead of slicing the mushrooms, next time I will chop them a bit smaller. I also will add the egg later, about 25 minutes into the cooking. I like an egg that's a bit runny. If you like a more hard boiled quality, as is described in the article, go ahead and leave it in for the full time. I could also see increasing the filling by another 50% and filling a pie pan, putting on a top crust with a small hole in the center for the egg and creating a sun design around the hole made of dough scraps. That would be a pretty presentation for guests.

Here's my recipe:

Pie Dough

2 cups flour

a pinch of salt

12 TBS cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1/2 c ice water

Quickly mix together the salt an flour. Add the cubes of butter. Using your hands (or a pastry cutter or fork) work the butter into the flour until it feels like coarse meal. Leave a few larger chunks of butter. Add almost all of the ice water. Using a fork, and then your hands bring the dough together. If you need more water, add it 1 TBS at a time.

Separate into two equal portions and form into balls. Wrap the dough balls in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

Makes a top and bottom crust for a standard pie plate.

Wake-up Pie

1 recipe pie dough

1 large onion sliced

2 TBS unsalted butter

3/4 lb. mushrooms, chopped

3 thick slices of bacon, cut into lardons

1-14oz can whole peeled tomatoes, drained and chopped

2 eggs

2 TBS grated parmesan cheese

2 TBS chopped parsley

salt

freshly ground pepper

1 TBS heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Caramelize the onion slices in 1 TBS of butter and a pinch of salt. When finished remove the onions from the heat and put them in a medium mixing bowl. Add 1 TBS butter to the pan and add the mushrooms. Saute the mushrooms until they have released all of their liquid and it has evaporated. Meanwhile cook the lardon. When they are lightly browned, remove them from the pan and drain on paper towels.

When the mushrooms are done cooking season them with salt and pepper and add them to the onions. Put the chopped tomato in the pan you've just removed the mushrooms from and cook until all of the water is evaporated and the tomatoes just begin to stick to the bottom of the pan and brown a bit. Remove the tomatoes from the heat and add them to the mixing bowl with the onions & mushrooms. Add the lardons and the parsley to the mixing bowl as well.

Lightly scramble one egg. Add the parmesan and some salt and pepper and combine it the onion mixture.

Roll out the pie dough, making a circle of approx. 12 inches. Transfer the dough to cookie sheet.

Spread the filling in the center of the dough, leaving roughly 2 inches of dough around the edge. Fold the edges of dough up and over the top of the filling, leaving the center open. Make a depression in the center of the filling.

Brush the heavy cream over the exposed pie dough to glaze.

Cook the pie for 25 minutes. Pull it out at 25 minutes and crack the second egg into the center. Cook for another 20 minutes or until the crust in golden. Remove from the oven, cut into 8 slices and serve.

Filed under // bacon baking breakfast can be vegetarian eggs mushrooms pie weekender

Comments [0]

January 2, 2010

WASTE NOT: Lamb Pie

My husband used to say that we had the most expensive compost ever. I admit I have not historically been a whiz with leftovers. I am making a real effort to change that. It's inevitable that some recipes flop. The failure sits in your fridge until a brave soul mercifully throws it out. To me, that's justifiable compost. But many things go to rot because we don't remember they're back there or we can't bear to eat the same thing, in the same way, for the third time in one week.

Making something new and delicious with leftovers forces one to be imaginative. There are few, if any, recipes for leftovers in contemporary cookbooks. So, in a way, re-cooking food isn't bound by many, if any, rules--though good intuition does help. The end product doesn't always work, but when it does the dish is doubly satisfying.

We have been cooking a lot of lamb lately. Mostly because it's our favorite meat of the moment and we have been buying superb whole, locally grown lamb from Sierra Farms. We recently had some quality leftovers from a dish of four braised lamb shanks. A couple of nights ago Rob got the leftover shanks out and mixed them with a little tomato and some small potatoes to make a very good lamb stew. Tonight, I warmed the leftover stew, added a bit more lamb and a head of roasted garlic from the leg of lamb we recently had, along with some olives and peas. I baked it all in en croûte. The result was one of my best leftover creations yet: Lamb Pie. We ate it with lettuces tossed with olive oil & fleur de sel.

Filed under // WASTE NOT lamb pie

Comments [2]

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Seville Orange Meringue Tart

Weekender: More Pop-Tarts

Homemade Pop-Tarts

Weekender: Savory Breakfast Pie

WASTE NOT: Lamb Pie