Sweet Tea Pie

Inspired by the 2014 Texas State Fair's Deep Fried Sweet Tea, I decided I would try to recreate the texture of the custard in it in a pie. It was closest in texture, I thought, to a southern buttermilk pie, so I figured on replacing some of the buttermilk with tea with a little extra cream for texture. I used a store bought crust because I'm terrible at crusts and didn't have any graham crackers to make into crust, which would've been insanely delicious and the better choice than standard crust. So you can make and prep your own crust however you like. The State Fair version had a graham cracker coating before it was fried, and was served with a sweet tea syrup, I'm pretty sure it was just sweet tea made into a simple syrup, which I might try at a later date to drizzle over whipped cream on top of the pie.

Sweet Tea Pie Filling

3/4 c granulated sugar
1 tbsp arrowroot powder (cornstarch for those without corn intolerance)
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
5 egg yolks
1 cup strongly brewed black/orange pekoe/strong flavor of your choice tea
3/4 c low fat buttermilk
1/2 c heavy cream
4 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tsp granulated sugar, reserved
1 tbsp cinnamon, optional

Place your cold oven racks on lower middle and upper middle positions, preheat to 300°F. Prep your pie crust of choice.

Brew your tea and let cool to room temperature. Whisk the 3/4 c sugar, arrowroot powder, salt, and cinnamon (if you're using it) in a large bowl with a pour spout. Melt the butter. In another bowl, whisk the eggs until they obtain slight foaming, whisk in the cream, butter, vanilla extract, and buttermilk. Combine wet and dry thoroughly, whisking as you go. Then whisk in the tea, and just before you pour into the crust, whisk in the lemon juice.

Once your pie crust of choice is ready to fill, whether you par bake or use graham cracker or store bought, place your crust in your pie plate on the lower rack, and push in until you can safely pour in the filling but not have to push the rack in too far, to prevent spilling. Bake 15 minutes, so it starts to gel up just a little bit, pull the rack out slightly and sprinkle the reserved 2 tsp sugar evenly across the top. If you don't spread it evenly, you'll have chunks of unmelted sugar on top like I did. Continue to bake for 25-35 minutes, until the pie jiggles slightly when shaken. Take the pie out of the oven and increase the temp to 450°F. Once it's at temperature, place the pie on the upper rack and bake until the sugar on top melts and turns golden brown, 5-10 minutes.

Allow to cool on a wire rack for 30-60 minutes, then refrigerate at least three hours before serving with whipped cream, it'd be really cute garnished with a lemon wedge.

It was pretty solidly well reviewed as delicious and creative, which I'll take.

The Foods of Our People

This month's potluck club theme was "The Food of Our People", which included family recipes, foods from places we grew up, and food from the old country. I don't have an "old country" so much, or really even family recipes, but man did I grow up eating a lot of tritip roasts. I make a rub that comes out to a quarter cup or so, made of a lot of parsley ground with coarse sea salt in a mortar and pestle, and then I add fresh ground pepper and stir in a bunch of crushed garlic. I take about a third and dry rub it onto the roast, and let it sit in the fridge for an hour. Then I add a little less and rub just before it goes on the grill. The remainder of the rub gets mixed with two tbsp good butter (Ina Garten style!). The meat gets seared, and then cooked on medium heat, and when it's pulled, the meat needs to rest a good ten minutes, but while it's resting I spread the butter mixture evenly on top.

For husband's people, we made poutine. Here's my recipe for poutine gravy that was made vegan only by the substitution of a vegan butter sub.
mushroom stock
dried porcini mushrooms
soy sauce
a red wine with body
fresh rosemary
fresh thyme
shallots
flour
butter
garlic cloves
starch - corn, potato, tapioca, or arrowroot powder

Heat half mushroom broth half water (I did 3/4c each), then add a handful of dried porcini mushrooms to reconstitute for 20 minutes. Mix a little of your starch with water and set aside.

Make a blond roux, and caramelize chopped shallots in it. Then pour in 5 cups mushroom stock, 1 cup hearty red wine, and two tbsp soy sauce, followed by the mushrooms reconstituting and the juice, being careful to leave behind a little liquid with sand and stuff that falls to the bottom. Whisk in four whacked garlic cloves, two branches of fresh rosemary, and a handful of fresh thyme branches.

Reduce by half and strain into a bowl or boat. Whisk in your starch mixture a little bit at a time until the back of a spoon stays coated to your preferred thickness.

Pour over fries and cheese curds for delicious.

Movin' On Up

We've had a busy, crazy summer. No need to go into details, but man, has it been rough. And now we're on our way to reaping rewards of our hard work. Last weekend, we partied to celebrate, and to commemorate our separation from the past and closing of chapters to move on in our story as individuals, as a couple, and as a family, I decided a cocktail was in order. 

I couldn't find a drink on the internet named the good riddance anywhere, so I had to come up with my own.

The Good Riddance

Pour into a lowball over ice:

4oz Reed's Premium Ginger Beer (the flavor with no cane sugar)

1.5oz Waterloo gin

0.5oz Benedictine

Add a swirl of honey to taste, let it sink.

Float a dash of peach bitters on top.

Like growth, it starts bitter, passes through complex layers, and ends sweet.

Full English / Fry Up Casserole

The theme of our pot luck dinner party club this month was breakfast for dinner. Most everyone else was bringing something with fruit and carbs, so I decided to go as protein as possible. I fell in love with the full English breakfast while studying abroad at Oxford, and was quickly corrected when ordering it in Scotland to call it a Fry Up while I was there. However, making and transporting all these things over separately was going to be really difficult, so I decided to go full southern housewife and turn it into an egg-based casserole. I can't get white or black pudding here, so I subbed a sage pork sausage, but you could use slices or chunks of pudding if you can find it. I also kept everything really simple, it's definitely a peasant dish.

Full English Breakfast Casserole
9 large eggs (more if they're small, you're looking for roughly 1.5 c)
1 c milk
1 tin Heinz beans
1 lb sausage
1.5 c rough chopped streaky bacon
1 rough chopped white onion
1.5 c rough chopped tomato
1 c rough chopped mushroom
1 c hash browns or sliced potato (optional)
1 c cheese of choice (optional)
1 tbsp herbs of choice, I used sage and coriander
oil, salt, pepper

Par cook the bacon, don't crisp it, just get it past floppy, and set to drain on some paper towels. Remove all but 1 tbsp of grease, use that to cook down the onion and mushrooms. Salt and pepper them to taste, keeping in mind the bacon, beans, and sausage are well seasoned and salty. The onions should be slightly translucent but still have some resistance, and the mushrooms should release liquid and shrink down a bit. Set these to drain as well, and remove any liquid from the pan. Brown the sausage next, but don't cook past medium, then set to drain on paper towels. I roasted my tomato and potato for 20 minutes at 350°F with a little olive oil, but you may skip this step (provided the potato is sliced very thinly or is in hash brown form). I can't eat Heinz beans because they use cornstarch and I have a corn intolerance, but I made my own with bacon grease, a tin of navy beans, 1 tsp white wine vinegar, some herbs, and 1 tsp tomato paste. I'd drain most of the sauce off if I were using Heinz, to keep the casserole from getting soggy. Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl with a pour spout, then whisk in the milk. I recommend adding a tiny bit of salt and pepper to this mix, but again, keep in mind the saltiness of the sausage and bacon.

Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9 x 13 Pyrex, and it's time to layer in deliciousness. Just placing things evenly spread over the whole pan, I put the potato in first, then ~1/3 of the cheese, then sausage, then beans, then tomato, then another 1/3 of the cheese, then bacon. Pour the egg and milk mixture over all of this, be careful not to over fill. If the bacon is sticking out, it'll crisp up nicely. Bake for 35-45 minutes until the egg has set up, then sprinkle in the remaining cheese and your herbs, and cover with foil for at least 5 minutes to melt the cheese.

I used less eggs than recommended, so it's not so full and fluffy.

I can't even explain how good this was. It sounds super complicated, but I can't wait to eat leftovers for breakfast for the next few days. As I understand it, and I could absolutely be wrong, but some people feel as strongly about hash browns not being part of a full English as Texans (incorrectly - but don't shoot me) feel about beans not being in chili, but I liked the texture. Leave them out if you like, I won't be upset. You could use cubed toast or day-old bread in it if you like. My husband doesn't like mushrooms or beans, but he actually ate both in this without realizing it, and liked it. I might try adding spinach, peas, and parm next time. The beauty of casserole is that you can add whatever the hell you want. I love casserole with all my tummy.

Stupid Delicious One Pot Arroz Con Pollo

1 T oil of choice
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 large white or yellow onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper in strips
4-5 chicken breasts or thighs (bone/skin according to your preferences, for skinless add 1T oil)
2 c short grain rice
2 T pine nuts (optional)
3 c water (or your stock of choice), heated
3 T green olives (with or without pimento, sliced or whole doesn't matter)
1 lemon or lime, wedged
1/2 c peas (optional)
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp saffron threads
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp oregano
salt and pepper

Heat pan over medium heat, add oil. Pat chicken pieces with paper towel and salt and pepper them before putting into pan, skin side down if using skin on chicken. Brown first side, then flip and brown the other side. Remove chicken from pan, remove all but 2 T of oil/fat from the pan. Add garlic and onions, cook until browned slightly. Add rice and optional pine nuts and stir until all rice is coated and begins to smell slightly nutty, 2-3 min, add spices and herbs and salt/pepper to taste, then stir in 2.5 c boiling water and scrape the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Lay in bell pepper strips and olives around evenly, then set chicken back into pan on top. Lower heat to a simmer, cover, and cook untouched and unmoved for 20 minutes. If, after 20 minutes, the rice is not fully cooked/is dry, add 1/2 c hot water, cover, and leave alone for 5 minutes. If peas are desired, add and cover for 5 min. Squeeze lemon or lime juice over top before serving. The lime or lemon can be added at the same time as the peas to heat through if desired.

The idea is to get the chicken done cooking at the same time as the rice. Technically this is one pot because I used a kettle to boil my water. If you want to use longer grain rice you can, I used arborio because it's soft and fluffy. I used boneless skinless thighs because I'm lazy, and sliced green olives without pimento because I don't like pimento. I'm trying so hard not to eat it all in one sitting.