Key Lime Pie!

from the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, 1966

The only sensible thing to do after stumbling upon a bag of Key limes in the grocery store is to bake pie! We used a recipe from the 1966 edition of the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery - Vol. 7, which, while having a comprehensive section on cooking with limes, also contains a section entitled "A Kidney Tour of Europe." Good heavens.

This Key lime pie recipe is not to be confused with more common Florida lime pie recipes, which are sweeter and call for heavy cream and often green food coloring. We used a traditional pastry crust but you could also use a graham cracker/digestive biscuit crumb crust.

Key limes: tricky little bastards

Key limes are tricky to juice. We went through four different types of juicers before deciding our old fashioned glass juicer worked best. Patience and a certain degree of manual dexterity are a plus.

Ingredients:

(for the filling)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch/corn flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold water
1 1/2 cups hot water
6 tablespoons fresh lime juice (juice of approx. 10 Key limes)
3 egg yolks, beaten (reserve whites)
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tablespoon grated lime
zest

9" (23cm) pie crust, blind baked and cooled (or a graham cracker/digestive biscuit crust)

(for the meringue topping)
3 egg whites
6 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

lime wedges to garnish

Preheat oven to 300° Fahrenheit/ 150° Celsius/ Gas Mark  2.

To make the filling, combine first 4 ingredients in a saucepan. Mix well. Add hot water and cook over low to medium heat, stirring constantly, until very thick. Stir in fresh lime juice. Return to heat and cook til thickened. Beat small amounts of the hot mixture into the beaten egg yolks, stirring constantly, til the yolks are warm but not cooked. Return egg mixture to pan and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add butter and lime zest. Mix. Allow to cool. Pour into cold pastry shell. 

To make the meringue, beat the egg whites til stiff but not dry. Beat in remaining sugar and salt gradually, beating til blended. Spread over the top of pie (a table knife works well) and shape peaks with the back of a spoon. Bake for 20 minutes.

Serve cold; garnish with lime wedges.

Meringue you could ski down!

This was my first meringue, and I'm pretty excited about it. It's deceptively easy. Now I want to make a meringue Matterhorn!

Smith's PIE, indeed!

I love the mix of tart and sweet... perfect for hot weather. I'm pretty sure it's calling my name for breakfast.

“We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.” 

~ David Mamet

July Juleps

This is a non-alcoholic take on the classic Mint Julep, usually made with bourbon.

Boil 3/4 cup of sugar and one cup of water for ten minutes or until sugar is dissolved to make a sugar syrup. Allow the syrup to cool.

To the syrup, add the juice of three lemons or four limes (strained), four bruised sprigs of mint and one pint of ginger beer or ale. Mix together.

Fill glasses half full with crushed ice and pour in the julep mixture. Garnish the drinks with sprigs of mint.

Enjoy!

little recipe of the month...

I've added a tiny recipe over in the sidebar just for fun. This month's recipe is for sweet spiced chai. It's been getting warmer here, but it's still nice to have a warm cup of tea.

April Chai...

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil & add three Darjeeling teabags or loose-leaf tea. You can also use regular black tea, green tea or rooibos.

Add:

4 ~ 1 1/2 inch slices of fresh ginger (you can make them with a vegetable peeler)
1 ~ 2 inch cinnamon stick
4 whole cloves
1 heaping teaspoon of powdered cardamom or a few whole cardamom pods
1 ~ 6 inch vanilla bean cut up into 1 inch pieces or a splash of vanilla extract
a dash of nutmeg
1/4 cup of honey

Reduce heat & simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add two cups of milk or soy milk & bring to the boil, then remove from the heat. Strain & serve hot or over ice.

If there are any leftovers the may be stored in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

chowdah!

As a reward for cleaning while the rest of the house is away making music, I've made a big pot of seafood chowder:

I adapted the recipe from one I found here.

First, put 1 kg of clams or mussels (or a mix of both - shells scrubbed) in a large pot with a good handful of roughly chopped parsley and 100ml cold water. I cheated and used a pack of mussels from the supermarket, but you could substitute any seafood. Cook over medium heat with the lid on until all the shells are opened. Give the pot a shake to help things along. When all the shells are open remove from heat.

When they've cooled enough strain the shells, reserving the cooking liquid. Remove the fish from the shells and set aside.

Next heat about 40g of butter in another large pot, and heat one chopped onion until soft but not brown. Toss in a bit of crushed garlic if you'd like. Whisk in 2 heaping tablespoons of flour and cook for a few minutes without letting the flour become dark brown. Pour in the reserved cooking liquid and whisk. As the mixture thickens, gradually whisk in 500ml milk.

Add 2 medium potatoes, chopped into small cubes, and cook until soft, stirring occasionally. If the soup becomes too thick, add more liquid. Splash in some white wine or a bit of cream if you have it on hand.

When the potatoes are done, add the fish and the juice of half a lemon. Season with salt and cracked pepper, and toss in another handful of roughly chopped parsley. Serve with warm crusty bread. mmmmmm...