I used to laugh when I heard the expression, “easy as pie.” There was nothing easy about pie. Making a crust was difficult–it always came out too tough, soggy, or just wasn’t good. Rolling it out was always difficult–it either stuck to the board or the rolling pin, or it fell apart. Then there was the filling challenge, especially fruit fillings, which tended to be too runny, or too thick. I like a pie filling that is just right, and in a separate post will offer some guidance on fruit pie filling.

One day, many years ago, I was visiting my husband’s family in the mid-west. His grandmother, Cleone Wadman, was 90 years old then Ken always bragged about her pies, and her pie crust, so when I was talking to her, I told her that I heard about her fantastic pies. She perked right up and volunteered to teach me to make a pie crust.

We were at an ordinary kitchen table. “I haven’t done this in years” she said, “I’ve probably forgotten how to do it.” She dumped a pile of flour on the table–she didn’t measure it. She said “that looks like about right amount.” She added a generous pinch of salt with her fingers, a tad of sugar, and mixed it together with her hands. Next, she took a stick of butter and some crisco, broke it up with her fingers, and mixed it in with her hand into a lumpy mess, and then sprinkled a little water over it until it formed a ragged dough. She explained that the best crust is made with pure lard. “Here,” she said, “feel this.” She encouraged me to stick my hands in. “This is too dry.” She added a little more water. “This is right. Feel it.” I felt it. She didn’t bother refrigerating the dough, or adding ice water. Her process was straight forward and unencumbered by pretention. She mixed some cut apples, some cinnamon and sugar. Rolled the crust out effortlessly and threw it all together. We had a delicious homemade pie that night after dinner, and the crust was perfect!

It took me many years of trial and error to get to the point of feeling like making a pie is easy. The lesson I took away from Cleone that was the key to crust-making is learning to recognize the look and feel of the dough. I still measure out my flour and fat, but I know how to make dough by look and feel. Another thing I learned from Cleone is not to overwork the dough. As for fillings for fruit pies, it was hit or miss until I discovered quick tapioca as a thickener. Now I have the filling down too. Below, I will share my process for making a basic crust in hopes that frustrated piemaker friends will advance their own pie-making skills, and get to the point where they think that making pie is actually as easy as pie.

My Standard Pie Crust

Makes 1 double-crust or latticed top pie.

Ingredients

2.5 c All-purpose flour
1t salt
0-2T sugar (depending on pie)
8T chilled unsalted butter
6T chilled crisco (I keep it in the freezer)
7T-8T ice water

Note on fat: you can use all butter, all lard, all Crisco (Ick), basically solid fats work. I havent tried cold coconut oil, but it would be worth an experiment if you were making a coconut pie or something tropical.

Instructions

I used to always use the food processor to make my dough. Then one day out of the blue, I decided to forego the chore of getting it out and to do all of my mixing with my hands, as Cleone had done. I haven’t looked back.

Put flour, salt, and sugar in mixing bowl and stir it together to evenly distribute ingredients. Feel free to use a spoon or a whisk.

Next cut butter and fat into chunks. I prefer doing this with a knife, as the warmth of your hands tends to melt the fat and you want to have pieces of fat visible in your final dough, Mix into flour mixture loosely. Working quickly, pinch and mix chunks into the flour, but just to the point where none of the fat is sticking to your fingers, and it looks like a mix of meal and lumps.

Drizzle ice water over the top. I usually start with 7 tablespoons, mix together rapidly with the other ingredients. When water is incorporated pinch a small amount together to see if it stays together. If it doesn’t, add a little more water until it does.

When it looks and feels good to you, dump dough onto a surface. I use a piece of parchment paper.

Press dough together until it forms a solid mass. I do this by folding parchment paper around it to keep my hands relatively dough-free.

Divide dough into to equal parts. I eyeball it.

Form each part into round disks that are about a half inch thick. You should be able to see pieces of butter in the dough at this point.

Turn on oven to pre-heat to 400º Farenheit.

Wrap in the parchment paper and put in the fridge or freeze to chill while you work on your filling. You can leave it in the fridge for several days, or you can even freeze it for use at a later date (but you will have to thaw it well before you use it).

When you are ready, to roll out your dough, sprinkle a surface with flour. I have a silcone pastry mat, but have rolled it on the counter, a wooden board, and even on parchment a time or two.

Take a round of dough out of the fridge and start rolling gently from the center of the disk outward in all direction. If you have a rolling pin with handles, I have found that it works better not to use them. Put pressure directly on the roller. After I have rolled a bit, I pick the round up, refresh flour underneath, and flip the disk over. Rotate dough, and keep it free from sticking. If you didn’t put enough water in, you will get a lot of cracks, but don’t despair. Your crust will be hard to handle, but it will work out in the end. A crust that is too dry is better than one that is too wet in the end. A lesson for the next time. I roll mine out so that it is about 14″ in diameter for a deep dish pie. Gently, lift one edge of crust over the rolling pin, and use the rolling pin to release and carry the crust to your pie plate. Lay it in loosely so that you can adjust the position. Then press crust into bottom. If you have broken bits or thin coverage you can patch with excess dough.

Fill pie. Brush crust with an egg-white and water mixture and sprinkle with sugar. I used decorative clear crystallized sugar, but you can use regular granulated if you don’t have it, or omit it altogether, depending on what kind of pie you are making.

Put pie in oven and decrease temperature immediately to 375º F, bake for 50 minutes or so. If it is a fruit pie, it should be bubbling up through the vents or latticed top. If it isn’t, leave it in for a few minutes. If your oven runs hot and you find the edges are getting too dark, protect edges with foil. We sure to put a cookie sheet under your pie in case it overflows.

Just a few different pies that I have made with this crust recipe. The principles you learn in making this basic crust will tranfer to other crust recipes too! Good Luck and happy baking.

June 18, 2021

Anne’s Cornbread

Serves 4 to 6

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix ingredients in a bowl:

1 c coarse corn meal
½ c corn flour
½ c AP flour
¼ c sugar
½ t salt
2 t baking powder

Make a well in mixed dry ingredients.

Put 2 eggs in 1c measure and mix, add to well

Plus:

1 c buttermilk
½ c oil

Mix ingredients until all dry ingredients are incorporated–do not overmix; it might be a little lumpy.

Put some oil or butter in a cast iron skillet a couple tablespoons, stick it in the oven to get the oil hot (about 5 minutes)

Add batter and distribute. Using an oven mitt, put skillet in middle of oven.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean

Enjoy!

June 6, 2020June 7, 2020

Anne’s Danish Rye Recipe

This recipe is developed from many different recipes I have tried over the past year. Every loaf I made prior to landing on this one failed in some way–too dense, too hard to cut, too hard of a crust, bubble under the crust, crack in the top, gummy interior, etc. Most recipes omit the “Secret Handshake,” which I am including here. From Christian Mjadsberg I learned that having some white flour is important. Previously, I had gone the all-rye route. The texture is much better now. Hope you enjoy!

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If you don’t have a starter (takes 4-5 days):

3T European Yogurt (the runny kind)—buttermilk would work too
50g Rye Flour
100g warm water

Each day, add 25g of rye flour and 50g of water. You just leave this out on the counter, covered.

After you use it for your first loaf, put remainder in refrigerator in a jar and feed it (25g of rye flour and 50g of water), every couple of weeks. On the day you plan to use it, take it out, feed it, and let it warm to room temperature.

The night before you plan to bake your bread:

For the levain—mix together in a large bowl, cover, leave on counter for ~12 hours:

300 grams dark rye flour
100 grams white flour—I have made all-rye, but the texture is not as good
350 grams water
70 grams ripe sourdough starter—you can use more if you want, not an exact science

Grains and seeds—soak overnight covered

300 grams of grains and seeds (I use rye berries and sunflower seeds, but you can use a mix of anything, flax, pumpkin seeds, etc.)
285 grams water—I use boiling water.

Bread Baking Day

Final Dough—add the soaked seeds/nuts, and their liquid to the levain, then add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and thoroughly mix. I just mix with a wooden spoon—it should be a gooey mess.

200 grams dark rye flour
130 grams white flour
180 grams water
18 grams salt
2 tablespoons molasses

Further instructions:

Grease a 13 x 4 inch (1.5 lb loaf pan). Set aside.

Using a sturdy wooden spoon, transfer the dough to the prepared loaf pan, distributing it evenly across the length of the pan and smoothing out the top with spoon or rubber spatula (if you are having trouble smoothing out the top, dampen utensil slightly with water). Let it rise until it comes to within a ½ to ¼ inch of the top of the pan. This may take anywhere from 1 ½-4 hours depending on the temperature of your kitchen and the dough.

Secret handshake: Just before putting into the oven, take a skewer, moistened with water and poke holes to bottom of pan. I used the following pattern (hocus pocus):

ryeholes

As it turns out, this is very important for allowing steam to escape; it will keep the loaf from popping up in the center, and forming a bubble between the top crust and the bread!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit, bake for ~60 minutes, until bread has an internal temperature of 205 degrees–this is also an important secret to bread-baking success. Remove from pan, place on cooling rack and cover loosely with a clean tea towel Don’t cut it until the next day. To cut, use a good serrated knife, and cut in thin slices.

March 30, 2018March 30, 2018

ken’s awesome Mujaddara

Mujaddara (Arabic: مجدرة‎ mujadarah, with alternative spellings in English majadra, mejadra, moujadara, mudardara, and megadarra) consists of cooked lentils together with groats, generally rice, and garnished with sautéed onions.

I decided to make Mujaddara (or however you spell it). Ken has been making this ever since he had it at a Palestinian restaurant in Jerusalem. He made it for me several years ago, and I found it almost as addicting as his macaroni and cheese. All things considered, it is a much healthier dish. I hunted around on the web, and couldn’t find a recipe that sounded as good as the recipe that he makes, so finally, I broke down and asked him how he makes his. He said, “Look in our cookbook.”

Ken and I have our own hand-written cookbook at home. Ken had received it as a “blank” cookbook from his ex-girlfriend, Julie, when he was in grad school, shortly before we met as a “parting gift.” I thank her for providing a place for us to document our food love 🙂 It is our “recipe box,” full of recipes we have invented, but also full of recipes from friends and relatives, dead and alive. It is also stuffed full of recipes we have used and liked from the Internet. I found his recipe, hand-written, on a numbered page, and it was definitely his recipe, different from anything I found out on the Internets.

Time: 20 minutes active, 40 minutes cook-time, 1 hour total
Servings: 6

Ingredients:

1 c. green or brown lentils
1/4 c. olive oil
2 large diced onions
1 c. rice (or other grain, like bulgur wheat)
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1.5 t cumin
.5 t allspice
.25 t cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
1 large bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
2 c broth or water
salt to taste

1-2 additional onions for frying to garnish

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees farenheit.

Rinse and clean lentils. Place in saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, turn down, and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Lentils will not be soft at this point. Turn off.

In a heavy oven-proof pan, or dutch oven, heat the oil on medium-high. Add onions and cook until they have carmelized to a deep golden-brown. Depending on the onions, this can take from 15 to 30 minutes. Stir them frequently to make sure they don’t burn. Sprinkle with a pinch of kosher salt.

Add garlic, stirring in to the onions for only about 15 seconds. Add grains, and sauté for a couple of minutes, stir in spices, add lentils and broth or water. Add salt and pepper to taste, plus bay leaf and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil, and place dutch oven, uncovered into preheated oven. Set timer for 20 minutes.

In the meanwhile:

Slice 1-2 onions thinly. Add about 1 inch of frying oil (canola, avocado, or peanut) in a heavy pan. Heat oil up over medium heat, test temperature by dropping onions into oil. When it is hot enough, the onion will bubble to top quickly, and will fry with time to a golden color. Remove and dry on paper towel.

Serving Suggestion:

vPAJym1mTqyOgRiyNShZOg — A mixed green salad with lemon and olive oil dressing and Zoë’s homemade croutons, plus a herb yoghurt sauce.

Dish up rice and lentils, and garnish with fried onions. Serve with a lightly dressed salad. We made a lovely herb yoghurt sauce that was super easy to make: a small container of greek yoghurt plus a couple of tablespoons of Trader Joe’s Zhoug Sauce. Harissa is also an excellent accompaniment for this meal.

March 20, 2018March 21, 2018

Simple sweet potato chips

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Every now and then, I just want potato chips with a hamburger for dinner, which is what we had last night. I read a lot of recipes for baked sweet potato chips, but in the end, Ken convinced me that I should just fry them. He was right. One recipe that I looked at suggested soaking the sliced sweet potatoes in warm water with some cornstarch before cooking them, claiming a crunchier result. I am not a Cooks Illustrated type, so I took her at her word and gave it a go instead of setting up an experiment. I had pretty spectacular results.

Time: 1.5 hours total–10 minutes active prep, 15 to 30 minutes soaking, 10 minutes draining, 30 to 45 minutes frying, depending on how many you decide to make.
Servings: 3 medium potatoes makes about 6 servings

Ingredients:

3 medium-sized sweet potatoes (I used Japanese sweet potatoes)
Frying oil (I used a combination of canola and avocado)
1 T corn starch
Salt or other seasoning to taste

Instructions:

Thinly slice potatoes with their skin on. I use a mandolin, but if you are good at hand-cutting, go for it! Put them in a large bowl, cover with warm tap water, and mix in the cornstarch. Let sit for about 30 minutes. Drain potatoes in layers separated with paper towels. In the meantime, pour about and inch and a half of oil into a heavy pan with tall-ish sides. I use a cast iron dutch oven to fry in, because I don’t fry that many foods and do not own a deep fryer. Heat oil to a good frying temperature. If you are the thermometer using type of person, I believe the desired temperature is around 350 to 360 degrees. I usually just test the oil with whatever I am frying and adjust the temperature according to the result I get. I am not anti-thermometer; it is just that my thermometers are almost always broken, or I can’t find them when I need them! When the oil is the right temperature, it isn’t smoking, and when you drop the uncooked chips in they rise to the top immediately in a bubbling craze. If your oil is not hot enough, the chip will sink and stay, yielding an inedible rubbery thing. If it is too hot, you will have a lot of burned stuff and smoke. Make sure you have a lid nearby to smother a fire should one arise.

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I use wooden tongs to push chips around and flip. Wood does not suck heat out of the oil the way metal does. Keep a close eye on the chips as they cook, as they go from beginning to toast to burned very quickly. When they begin to darken, start taking them out and draining on paper towels. If you are seasoning them, you can do it right away. After they have cooled and crisped, you can pile them for serving.

February 28, 2018February 28, 2018

Perfect Guacamole Every Time

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The key to perfect guacamole every time is perfectly ripe avocados! There are many different types of avocados, but for guacamole, I prefer the Hass avocado from California; it has the right balance of moisture and “meatiness,” and when perfectly ripe, mashes to sublime creaminess.

Ripe Hass avocados have nearly black skins, and a little “give” when squeezed gently in the palm of your hand. An avocado that is too mushy is likely to have bad spots, and one that is too hard will not mush or have the delicate sweetness required for perfect guacamole. If you purchase unripe avocados, often the only available choice, leave them out on the counter for a few days until they reach perfect ripeness, and then pop them in the refrigerator. They will continue to ripen in the fridge but much more slowly, giving you time to use them for whatever purpose.

The following is less of a recipe and more of a guide. I learned to make it this way in Yucatan, Mexico from a man who was cooking for are large family reunion.

The basic ingredients are quite simple:

3 ripe medium Hass avocados
Jalapeño or Serrano to taste
Lime juice, one lime for each avocado
Salt to taste

I also like to have garlic and /or shallots in mine, and sometimes add finely chopped tomatoes at the end.

In Mexico, they use a mortar and pestle, and begin by grinding the pepper with the lime juice. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can mince the pepper, or puree it. Scoop out the avocado, and blend in. I don’t like to make my guacamole perfectly smooth. I like it pretty textured. That is a matter of personal preference. You can blend it to the degree that best suits you! If I am using garlic, I add it before the lime juice and pepper to get it well mashed first. I mince the shallots.

Serving guacamole with freshly cooked chips is the best, but any sturdy corn chip will do! My current favorite brand is Juanita’s.

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January 24, 2018January 25, 2018

Zoë’s Famous Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Our daughter is learning to cook, and the first technique she has mastered is roasting. Roasting is a great place to start cooking, because you can make a whole meal in the oven with judicious timing. We often do tag team cooking, and Zoë has taken it upon herself to become the resident vegetable roaster. One of her claims to fame is that she even got her vegetable-hating cousin to eat her brussels sprouts, and to come back for seconds!

Pan-roasted brussel sprouts — Zoë says that her secret is to toast the sprouts rather than burn them. The fresher the sprouts, of course, the better the result.

Serves: 3 to 4

Time: 45 minutes, 30 active

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil

1 lb of fresh brussels sprouts, cleaned and halved

3 cloves of garlic, sliced cross-wise

Fresh rosemary

Fresh thyme

Salt and pepper

Lemon juice to finish

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Arguably the most time-consuming part of making brussels sprouts is trimming and cleaning them, but it is totally worth it! Trim the stem to loosen outer leaves, and cut in half.

Place brussels sprouts in a baking dish with sides that will hold them on when you go to turn them. You want them to be a single layer deep, so we find we often need a cookie sheet with edges. Other times we use a cast iron skillet. We line it with parchment to make clean-up easier.

Drizzle olive oil over brussels sprouts and toss to coat. You can also use an olive oil spray if you prefer. Add garlic and herbs, salt and pepper to taste, and toss again before placing in oven. How long they take to cook will depend on how big they are. We peek at them after 10 minutes, give them a stir, and then every 5 minutes after that until they are done. Squeeze lemon on these before serving.

Serving suggestions:

Brussel sprouts are best in the winter, and are well suited to be served with most any protein.

January 24, 2018January 24, 2018

Sautéed Greens with Other Vegetables

A few years ago we started to make a concerted effort at eating a more wholesome diet, relying less on carbs and prepared foods. One of the staples in our diet has become cooked (sautéed, braised, roasted, etc.) greens. This recipe, may be adapted to different greens and vegetables, which makes it an important piece of cooking knowledge to have. We often don’t plan our cooking, and find ourselves rummaging through the vegetable bins for things that might taste good together. This combo is especially good!

Kale with asparagus — Kale and other greens mixed with vegetables are delicious. The varied textures and flavors bring more interest to the dish than it would have otherwise.

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil

1 lb of kale, chopped

1/2 lb asparagus, or alternatively, broccoli florets and stems (peeled and sliced)

1 onion, diced

1 clove of garlic, minced

Zest of one lemon

Juice of one lemon

Red pepper flakes

Water as needed

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Put oil into a heavy deep skillet, or a wok large enough to hold uncooked greens.

Cook onions and garlic together, until onions are translucent. Try not to burn the garlic.

Add greens and asparagus (or broccoli) and stir for a minute or so. Add lemon juice, and a few tablespoons of water to help the vegetables steam a bit. Add lemon zest, pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. Stir frequently, and test greens and vegetables for doneness. I prefer to turn the stove off when the vegetables are a little under cooked, and let them sit, while I finish the rest of dinner. I turn the burner back on to heat them up just before serving.

Serving suggestions:

This is a great side dish for any chicken, fish, or meat that you are serving, and also is a wonderful complement to legume dishes served with rice. I frequently use my leftover greens in soups. You can use any combination of greens and vegetables, however, I find that collards are better braised since they can be tough and bitter if not cooked for a long time.

January 24, 2018

Spiced Apples: Lovely Any Time

Remember those weird food-color infused spiced apples that women in the 60’s made with red hots? These are not those! There is really nothing easier than making spiced apples. Truth be told, you don’t actually need a specific recipe to make them, like so many of the things that I most enjoy making. So take the following as guidelines, rather than as some sort of immutable truth. If you don’t like one of the ingredients that I like, leave it out, by all means, and add other things that you think will enhance it for you!

Servings: 4

Time: 25 minutes, 10 active

Must-have Ingredients:

4 tart apples, peeled and cut into chunks

1/2 c sugar (I like brown)

1 t cinnamon

Dash of salt

1/4 c liquid (water, apple juice, lemon juice, etc.)

Optional ideas:

Nutmeg

Chinese five spice

Nuts

Dried fruits (raisins, cherries, etc.)

Lemon zest

Calvados

Instructions:

Peel, core, and cut apples into chunks. Sometimes I just cut them into wedges. Depends on my mood. Put these in a medium-sized heavy sauce pan.

Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil and stir, turn down to a simmer. Check apples every now and again to see if they are a consistency that you like. If you over cook it, nothing is lost; it just turns into apple sauce, which is also delicious!

Menu ideas:

Serve this as a side dish with almost any pork dish. It also makes a great dessert when served with vanilla ice cream, especially if you made it with calvados. Leftovers are great for breakfast in your oatmeal, or eaten with yogurt and granola.

January 24, 2018January 24, 2018

Garlic Rosmary Roast Pork Tenderloin

Over the years, I have become a big fan of pork tenderloin, and in the fall and winter it is a staple at our house. I like the fact that it has very little fat, and that it is versatile. You can prepare it quickly in a many different ways. One of our favorite ways to prepare it is roasted at a high temperature, a method that we learned from Barbara Kafka’s cookbook, Roasting: A Simple Art. There are so many fabulous rubs and sauces that you can make with your roasted pork tenderloin, but we like this classic for an any-night easy meal.

Pork tenderloin medallions — Serve on a platter sprinkled with fresh rosemary and a balsamic glaze reduction.

Servings: 3 to 6

Time: 30 minutes, 10 active

Ingredients:

1 or 2 1lb pork tenderloins (about 2 inches thick)

Olive oil

4 cloves of garlic, cut into small pieces

Several sprigs of fresh rosemary

Salt and pepper

Balsamic reduction

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

Rinse and pat dry your pork tenderloins.

Rub with olive oil, and place on a heavy cooking sheet or cast iron griddle or skillet

Using a small sharp knife, make 1/2- to 3/4-inch deep pockets all over the tenderloins, and tuck pieces of garlic into them.

Sprinkle some salt and pepper over the tenderloins, and rub on destemmed rosemary leaves.

Place in preheated oven, and check after 15 minutes. Using a meat thermometer check thickest part of tenderloin. If it has reached an internal temperature of 140 degrees, take it out, and let it rest for five minutes before slicing into medallions. The pork may still be slightly pink, which is good! It won’t be dried out. If that makes you nervous, you can leave it in a little longer, but beware.

Arrange on a platter, and drizzle balsamic vinegar reduction (or prepared reduction like Trader Joe’s Balsamic Glaze). Sprinkle fresh rosemary over medallions, and optionally, red pepper flakes, if you like a little spice!

Menu idea: Excellent served with baked apples or spiced apples, and a vegetable dish like sauteed greens or roasted brussels sprouts.

Category: Food

Easy as Pie

My Standard Pie Crust

Ingredients

Instructions

Anne’s Cornbread

Anne’s Danish Rye Recipe

If you don’t have a starter (takes 4-5 days):

The night before you plan to bake your bread:

For the levain—mix together in a large bowl, cover, leave on counter for ~12 hours:

Grains and seeds—soak overnight covered

Bread Baking Day

Final Dough—add the soaked seeds/nuts, and their liquid to the levain, then add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and thoroughly mix. I just mix with a wooden spoon—it should be a gooey mess.

Further instructions:

ken’s awesome Mujaddara

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Serving Suggestion:

Simple sweet potato chips

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Perfect Guacamole Every Time

Zoë’s Famous Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Serving suggestions:

Sautéed Greens with Other Vegetables

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Spiced Apples: Lovely Any Time

Must-have Ingredients:

Instructions:

Menu ideas:

Garlic Rosmary Roast Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:

Instructions: