Crimp My Pie

I have never really gotten the point of the whole food presentation thing. I refuse to subscribe to Gourmet, can't afford it anyway. In my humble opinion food is to be eaten not looked at. Sure there are reasonable limits to how you put something on the table to eat. I would agree that it should not look like something that cat just dragged in. However, when it looks that good I am not convinced that it is going to taste that good.

You can gussy up a pie with a fussy upper crust, you know, a crust that has also sorts of designs cut out. I guess that is cool, but not sure that I get the point. Are you going to eat it or look at it.

There is one one design aspect, however, that may be worth paying attention to and does make some sense. I am speaking to the edge or the crimp on the crust. I have used the technique that my mother showed me (click here to examine and learn the technique) for years. While effective, it does not always add to the overall visual impact of the pie.

Recently, I have been using a slightly different approach that you see in many cookbooks, magazines, and blogs. You take the crust that is hanging over the edge of the plate (you need at least 1/2 inch), bring it up, fold it, pinch it, and tuck it back down into the pie plate. There are many examples of this technique on the web.

So, even though I am not convinced that fancy makes anything better, I will have to admit that taking some time and care in crimping your pie crust does add a certain something to your pie.

Rhubarb, going, going, ...

For the past weeks, I have been trying to make all things rhubarb. But because work always seems to get in the way of what is really important, I have only been able to make cobbler and pie.

Rhubarb seems to be one of those things that people either love or hate with nobody really on the fence. Growing up, I was introduced to rhubarb by way of pie and thought that was the way it was to be eaten. Later in life I was shocked to learn that you could have rhubarb jam, compote, cake, ...

The pie I grew up with was rhubarb and nothing but rhubarb. No rhubarb strawberry, rhubarb raspberry, rhubarb whatever. The pie was a simple pie that consisted solely of sour cream, sugar, flour, eggs, and of course rhubarb. You can check the recipe out on The Upper Krust web site. Simple as it is, the ingredient combination creates a pie of complex taste. The eggy custard filling creates just the right foil for the outrageous tartness of the rhubarb, creating a silky taste sensation with zing.

This year I thought I would branch out and try some variations on the recipe I grew up with. However, when combining rhubarb with strawberries or raspberries it seemed that there was a major war going on in your mouth, with each fruit vying for center stage. So back to the tried and true.

Rhubarb pie is the perfect "breakfast pie". Breakfast pie, for the uninitiated, is pie that begs to be eaten in place of the Danish or coffee cake that you would have with your morning cup of coffee. I am not sure what makes a breakfast pie a breakfast pie. Maybe it's entirely in the taste of the beholder. Maybe in this case you could say it's the eggs, but don't really think so.

As rhubarb season draws to a close, run to the nearest supply and make your favorite rhubarb pie and be sure to save some for breakfast.

In Praise of the Spatula

Several months ago I was visiting my brother who, like me, has some strong opinions about how things should be done in the kitchen. As I was scraping pie filling out of a bowl and into a pie plate with a wooden spoon, he pointedly remarked on how inefficiently I was carrying out the task at hand and shoved a rubber spatula my way.

A month or so after that incident, I still had not learned the lesson. We were at our mother's house this time, and once again I was pouring pie filling from a bowl into a pie plate, using a spoon to assist in the process. After emptying the bowl, my brother took a rubber spatula salvaged another 1/2 cup of filling from what I thought was a pretty clean bowl.

So what's the point. I now use a rubber spatula for everything from mixing ingredients to folding in ingredients to releasing a Bundt cake from the pan. The rubber spatula is an extremely simple but versatile tool that can bring simplicity and elegance to the most mundane and trivial of tasks. Sometimes we get caught up in thinking that the high tech cooking gadgets and toys are what are essential in creating the masterpiece when really all we need is a good spatula.