A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [192]
8 medium-size green tomatoes (2 to 2¼ pounds), cored and sliced ¼ inch thick but not peeled
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup unsifted all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
4 tablespoons (½ stick) ice-cold butter, cut into small dice
Pastry for a double-crust 9-inch pie (see Tip above)
1 tablespoon light or heavy cream
1 pint vanilla ice cream (optional)
1. Slide a heavy baking sheet onto the middle oven shelf and preheat the oven to 425° F.
2. Place the tomatoes and lemon juice in a large nonreactive bowl, toss well, and set aside.
3. Combine the two sugars, flour, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a second large bowl; then, using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the texture of lentils and set aside.
4. Using your favorite recipe, make the pastry and divide in half. Roll one half on a lightly floured surface into a circle 12 inches across, then ease into a 9-inch pie pan. Pat firmly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, letting the excess overhang the rim. Note: If you prefer, substitute the commercial unroll-and-use pastry circles (see Tip at left).
5. Layer the sliced tomatoes and crumbly sugar mixture into the pie shell, beginning with the sugar mixture and ending with the tomatoes—there should be about 4 layers of each.
6. Roll the remaining pastry into a 14-inch circle and cut into strips ½ inch wide. Lay half the strips on top of the tomatoes, spacing 1 inch apart; brush lightly with the cream. Now form a lattice top by laying the remaining pastry strips at right angles to the first, again spacing 1 inch apart and brushing with cream. Trim the bottom crust and strips so they overhang the pan 1 inch all around. Roll the two up together so they rest on the rim of the pan, then crimp in a zigzag design. Brush with the remaining cream.
7. Set the pie on the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes; reduce the oven temperature to 375° F. and continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes or until the pastry is richly browned and the juices are translucent and bubble thickly. What’s key here is baking the pie until the flour thickens the juices that exude from the tomatoes. An underbaked pie will be soupy. Note: If the crimped edge is overbrowning, cover with a strip of foil.
8. Remove the pie from the oven. Lift off the baking sheet, set on a wire rack, and cool for several hours before cutting.
9. To serve, cut into wedges and top, if you like, with scoops of vanilla ice cream.
VINEGAR PIE
MAKES 6 TO 8 SERVINGS
In olden days when lemons were scarce, enterprising cooks would counterfeit lemon chess pie by substituting cider vinegar, which was cheap and widely available, for precious lemon juice. This recipe comes from Lillian Waldron, an old friend of my stepmother, Anne Anderson; the two grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia. Anne says that vinegar pie is one of her most requested desserts and a particular favorite of her granddaughters, Linda and Kim Anderson. Tip: To catch boilovers, bake the pie on a baking sheet.
1½ cups sugar
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
3 large eggs
1½ tablespoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
One 9-inch unbaked pie shell (see About Pie Crusts, frontmatter)
1. Preheat the oven to 325° F.
2. Beat the sugar and melted butter in a small electric mixer bowl for about 1 minute, first at low speed, then at moderate, until well combined; scrape the bowl down at half-time.
3. With the mixer at low speed, beat in the eggs one by one and continue beating for about 30 seconds or until light. Mix in the vinegar and vanilla, and when thoroughly combined, pour the filling into the pie shell.
4. Slide the pie onto a baking sheet and bake on the middle oven shelf for about 1 hour or until puffed, nicely browned, and a cake tester inserted halfway between the edge and the center comes out clean.
5. If you want to serve the pie warm, cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Or, if you prefer, cool the pie to room temperature before serving. Note: