We do not celebrate Thanksgiving as it is am American Holiday, despite John Howard’s best efforts 
However who am I to let borders stand in the way of celebrating, or more to the point, making something delicious to eat? A dish that doesn’t turn out as expected can ruin a day. A much anticipated package not arriving can also do the same. Online shopping is one of those things that I love in theory but when it takes over a week for a package to arrive to me from another large capital city in Australia I get mighty peeved. I’d rather drive down to the shops and buy it myself. But I couldn’t, for what I was after was the Dexter Season 2 DVD with evidence kit and tshirt. All of the stores had their supply of tshirts depleted (allegedly by ardent Dexter fans on the staff) so I dutifully put in an online order and waited. And waited. And waited. I let my frustration out the only way I know how - rolling pastry.
Pies are also things that I love in theory and if they work out. When I made the filling for this pie, I thought “Uh-oh” it looks like it has curdled. More specifically the filling looked like it has dessicated coconut in it which it didn’t.
However the pie came together in the end and the addition of rum and molasses gave what is normally a eggily sweet pudding, a caramelised coconut tone to it, not so much so that you’d think it was a different flavour at all, just enough to be distinct and have people murmuring that it was one of the best Sweet Potato Pies they’d ever tasted. And I was put out of my bad mood when the pie was baking in the oven, the buzzer sounded and it was the delivery guy with my Dexter DVD.
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Yes I am somewhat obsessed with picnics. And Picnic food at that. There are certain foods that are just made for picnics and tarts and quiches are one of them. Earlier, I gave a recipe for a Picnic Quiche where you can make your own meltingly good quiche crust. You could of course use the same pastry for this one but for this recipe, I’ve just specified a sheet of shortcrust pastry.
I finally broke out my packet of ceramic pie weights. A few months ago, I asked my mother in law to make me some as she does ceramics but after trying to explain these to a non baker (a raw foods enthusiast to be exact) it seemed altogether easier to buy them. I’ve started noticing that we seem to incorporate more and more vegetarian food in our diet nowadays, not because we are turning vegetarian (there’s absolutely no chance of that, I like eating meat too much) but in an effort to try and eat more vegetables. I won’t say try and be healthier as the amount of cream, pastry, eggs and cheese puts any claims of that to rest.
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Don’t you think that if you give anything a French title, it sounds much more appetising? This gorgeous tart is hardier than the title suggests. Cinnamon is one of those scents that you can never get enough of in baking and apples and cinnamon go together like Sonny and Cher…I mean Britney and KFed…hmmm how about Naomi Campbell and lawsuits? And because it’s so incredibly quick to put together I’ve even made this to order with guests waiting.
The recipe for this comes from Stephanie Alexander’s Cooking and Travelling through South-West France. A lovely book but one where I’ve only really made some of the desserts due to the difficulty in obtaining some of the ingredients. The stories and pictures however are lovely. The key to the pastry is the heating of the baking tray. I found that when I didn’t do this, the tart didn’t become as crispily gorgeous. So if you’re intending to bake any pastry, I can wholeheartedly recommend sliding the baking tray in the oven while it preheats.
For the cinammon ice cream, you could make that from scratch using the recipe below or just stir some ground cinnamon through some store bought vanilla icecream. The recipe below uses the creme anglaise method which I prefer. It’s not exactly low in fat but that is all part of the fun. And if you’re cutting a round from a frozen square sheet of puff pastry, you can roll up the excess and re roll the pastry and get yourself 2 or 3 mini tarts using the extra half apple for a truly lovely cook’s treat!
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I was never been a huge fan of Quiche. Despite having a Quiche that shares my name, Quiche Lorraine, I’ve been nonplussed by it. It’s not for lack of sampling, I’ve tried them from various places and have found them passable but hardly something to get excited about. Until my friend M made me a Quiche. Then the doors to the Secret Quiche Fan Club opened and I finally saw the light. In a semi religious moment I bulldozed my way through a quarter of her quiche and would have gone back for more were it not for decorum.
The key to this quiche is the pastry: flaky, buttery and golden, the addition of cream cheese giving it that extra deliciousness. It will have you ditching your regular savoury pie crust for this quiche crust permanently. As for the word Quiche, every time I hear the word I remember a quote from Designing Women (that great 80’s sit-com, yes 80s sit-com addict here) where one of the characters called a Quiche a “Quickie”. And in the way I was disappointed to learn that Dixie Carter who played the liberal Julia Sugarbaker was in fact a conservative in real life, I was conversely elated when I tasted this quiche. Dixie let me down but M’s recipe didn’t. And don’t forget, now that Springtime is upon us in the Southern Hemisphere, Quiche also happens to be perfect picnic food.
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I made this dish, called “Cindy Crawford’s Strawberry pie, at the risk of getting a flood of traffic from porn seekers. To those who came here looking for something of the less clothed variety, I say a bright “Hello!” and warn them that there’s only food porn on this site.
I saw Cindy Crawford making this pie on Oprah three times (yes they run rerun after rerun of Oprah here) and it wasn’t until I saw it for a third time that I thought I’d give this a go. I am naturally suspicious of a Supermodel dishing up cooking advice - someone who used to get paid to not eat telling us what to eat seems somewhat ludicrous but I liked the idea of a strawberry pie. One thing that I thought was hilarious was that her hotel and bar entrepreneur husband apparently wouldn’t eat something if he knew it had rhubarb in it. Snails maybe but harmless rhubarb? Truly odd.
Of course when it’s done on TV it sounds breezily easy and it’s not especially hard, especially as you are making your own pastry, but it does take time to roll out the pastry which I found somewhat resistant to all of my rolling pin manipulations. It’s a good opportunity to get out any frustrations though and picturing someone loathed under your rolling pin will make the time rolling more satisfying. Once the pastry is done, washing and slicing the strawberries takes a bit of time unless of course you’ve got those giant hulking GM strawberries the size of a child’s fist. Cindy made hers with rhubarb but I stuck to just strawberries as the rhubarb I saw at the shops this week was in woeful condition at a criminally high price.
My friend Nic made this a few days before me at the risk of hearing some of her husband’s jokes about “dreaming of Cindy Crawford’s Pie” and both of us forgot the step of adding the cubed butter which doesn’t really matter in the long run. She made the strawberry and rhubarb version which she declared really, really delicious.
If you’re eating it warm from the oven, one word of warning: it is by no means one of those “solid packed” pies, the filling is quite runny and wet as you can see from the picture. Perhaps the addition of cornflour would help thicken it and keep the filling together. The crust however is quite good and as far as pie crusts go as it’s low maintenance (no rolling then putting the the fridge for an hour or blind baking) but tastes as good as, or better than, a regular sweet pie crust. The top is a little crunchy whilst the bottom is sturdy and delicious and does well to soak up the juices without going entirely soggy.
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