July 22, 2009

The Best Summer Pie

I found them last week at the Saturday market in Portland and made a pie with them that day. It was terrific. Canned or frozen cherries are OK to use but pale in comparison to the fresh, just picked variety.

I also found a box today at the Portland farmer's market and had several quarts from a grower in upstate New York, which I brought back with me. I'm using both varieties for tonight's pie. You'll need about 5 cups of cherries or about 2 to 3 quarts.

I've just spent the last hour pitting these red devils, which is messy and difficult but worth it. Leroux has three styles of cherry pitters, ranging from $13 to $35. The former works beautifully and is a good investment because it's also good to pit olives.

I'm going to make a pie for dessert tonight, though my menu is a bit strange since I'm also preparing a Mexican dinner of Poblanos stuffed with chicken and cooked in a Mexican-style tomato sauce. With it will be a green bean salad, which I prepare by steaming the beans first and then grilling them on the grill and mixing it in a classic tomato salsa. In addition to the cooked chicken the chillies are stuffed with cilantro and corn. It's a wonderful recipe from Rick Bayless

With enough time to clear the palate I think the cherry pie will cap off the meal nicely. Of course I still have about a pint left of my own vanilla ice cream, which is a must have when serving cherry pie. Here are the recipes.

Note that almost all ingredients, even the flour for the pie dough, are from local sources. For the ice cream both the unpasteurized heavy cream and milk are from Bisson's meat market in Topsham; the eggs are from Summit Springs Farm in Poland, Maine and the butter and lard are also from Bisson's. The lard I rendered myself from leaf lard that I bought at Bisson's. The only nonlocal products are the sugar and the chillies.

Note, do not use store bought lard but try the freshly made if possible. If not replace the 2 tablespoons lard with more butter

Classic Sour Cherry Pie
Pastry
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
Pinch salt
8 tablespoons sweet butter, very cold
2 tablespoons lard, very cold
About 4 to 6 tablespoons ice water

Filling4 to 5 cups sour cherries, pitted
3 tablespoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoons lemon juice
1 cup sugar plus 1 tablespoon
2 tablespoons butter

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Combine the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and process for 15 seconds to combine. Add the butter and lard and pulse 8 to 10 times until the fats are incorporated into the flour and are as large as peas. Add the water, a tablespoon at a time, and process until the dough just comes together. Alternatively, combine the flour and fats using a pastry cutter and mix in the water with a fork.

Gather the dough mixture together and knead very lightly once or twice and form into a ball and flatten it slightly and gently. Wrap in wax paper and chill for at least one hour.

When ready to roll, reserve about ¼ or more of the dough for a lattice top. Roll out the remaining dough large enough for a 9-inch pie pan, preferably glass. Roll out the reserved dough and cut into strips for the lattice. Chill until ready to use.

Combine the filling ingredients in a bowl and add to the pie shell. Top with 2 tablespoons of butter scattered in small pieces over the filling. Make the lattice strips and put over the filling. Any overhang of dough can be folded over the lattice strips to form a decorative border. Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon sugar over the lattice top and crust.

Place on a cookie sheet and put into a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes and then lower the heat to 375 degrees and continue to bake for about 1 hour until the filling is bubbly and the crust is brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream

Perfect Vanilla Custard Ice Cream
This is a great base for ice cream. I use Tahitian vanilla beans and extract because their flavor is more pronounced. They are available at Whole Foods Market in Portland or at Gryffon Ridge Spices (www.griffonridge.com) who are at the Cumberland (Falmouth on Wednesdays) and Crystal Springs (Saturday) farmer's markets. Their jar of three vanilla beans for $5 is a great buy, and the quality is first rate.

Use the best local large eggs you can. For a richer ice cream use 5 yolks, though 4 yolks is plenty rich. For the milk and cream, unpasteurized has a noticeably different flavor than pasteurized, which in comparison has a slightly cooked flavor. Unpasteurized offers pure, crisp, clean milk/cream flavor. Of course it can be made well with pasteurized cream (do not use ultra pasteurized) from Spring Brook Farms or Smiling Hill. Spring Brook's is often slightly thicker. Note that I add a pinch of all purpose flour to the custard base, which helps prevent the custard from curdling easily. With a lot of flour it wouldn't curdle, but this small amount prevents such a mistake from happening easily.

If you don't have a mini processor you can use a regular size processor to process the bean and sugar. Note that I give two measurements for the milk and cream. Either use 1 cup each or for slightly more ice cream yield measure to the 250 ml line shown on the glass measuring cup.

1 cup or 250 ml heavy cream
l cup or 250 ml whole milk
½ cup sugar
1 vanilla bean
1 tablespoon Tahitian vanilla extract, optional
4 to 5 egg yolks
Flour

In a mini food processor, process the vanilla bean and ¼ cup sugar until the bean is slightly ground and roughly chopped. Mix with the milk in a heavy saucepan and heat it slowly until steam starts rising and just a hint of bubbles develop around the edges. Do not let it boil or simmer. Cover and let steep for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile mix the egg yolks with the remaining sugar and slightly less than 1 teaspoon flour. Using a whisk, beat the eggs until thickened and light yellow.

Pour the milk mixture slowly over the eggs mix well then return to the pot, scraping all the yolk and vanilla bean mixture into the pot. Over medium low heat stir the custard with a wooden spoon until it coats the back of a spoon. This takes about 10 minutes. The mixture will become lighter in color and will coat the back of a metal spoon thickly, about as thick as very thick heavy cream. Test the mixture with an instant read thermometer. It should be about 175 degrees.

Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl set over a larger bowl of ice and some water. Optionally add the 1 tablespoon vanilla extract. Stir occasionally until the mixture is cool. Add the heavy cream and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours but preferably overnight. The longer cooling time will make the ice cream smoother, richer and creamier. When ready process it an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. Put the ice cream into a container just large enough to hold the ice cream. I use pint containers which are available at restaurant supply stores; they're often called "deli containers." What's important is that you use a container no larger than the amount of ice cream you're filling it with in order to have an air tight seal. Refrigerate 1 hour before serving, but always let the ice cream temper a bit if it's been frozen for longer than 1 hour before serving