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gfrancieBuying a turkey is a tough bit of shopping to do. But I did it. Do you realize how difficult it is to buy an all natural turkey that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?
Good gracious I looked at a variety of birds. I looked at a goose or two. Duck and so many varieties of turkey.
There were Kosher ones. French ones, organic, free-range, fresh, frozen, and of course those particular ones that were "enhanced". I wanted to avoid those because there are things in them that shouldn't be.
Eventually I found a rather lovely all-natural turkey that was fresh (right now I have it in my freezer) and it didn't cost a ton and it is about 18.5 Lbs. Slightly smaller then usual. In my family we tend to favor ones that are around 23 Lbs. Which seems a bit obscene, but we like leftovers a whole lot.
I did my exercise today by carrying that damn thing around.
Since it weighs quite a bit I shall begin thawing around Sunday evening. I won't remove the packaging until it is pretty much thawed out. If by Tuesday night it is still a little too frozen I will do a cold water bath. I suggest this to anyone else who is hosting a traditional dinner.
It will make things so much easier in the long run.
So far we have discussed sweet potatoes, jello salad recipes, one pumpkin pie recipe and a few other Thanksgiving related recipe issues.
Today I will talk about Lemon Meringue Pie.
Easy as pie as they say, but it just requires a bit of planning.
I first made this pie on my own for Thanksgiving when I was eleven. I was so excited. This is still my favorite kind of pie in the whole wide world.
The first few times I made it. I used the jello pudding recipe. It is quite easy and I often suggest to people who would like to give it a go to use that method. You want to buy the lemon pudding that needs to be cooked on the stove top. I don't particularly care for instant pudding. (but we will get into that another time)
Now I usually use the recipe on the side of the Argo Corn Starch box. It is reliable and classic. Mind you now I like to mess with the recipe a bit, but when first trying something out it does help to follow the directions. (I have learned this the hard way over the years because I get a little too heady)
So, you want to bake a pie that will wow the folks and still be vegetarian so your whiny sibling will shut the hell up and not talk for years about classes in women studies.
This is the way to go.
First you will need a baked (9 inch) pie crust. I will post about pie crust a little later. But a frozen one will work quite well. All you have to do is pop that in the oven, bake and then cool. To keep it from bubbling up thus losing space in the pie crust, I often will put in beans to act as pie weights. Simple easy and you can reuse them as pie weights for quite awhile. (you just can't cook them for other purposes after wards)
Once you have a pie crust you begin on the lemon filling.
Lemon Filling:
1 Cup Sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
1 1/2 cups cold water
3 egg yolks slightly beaten
grated peel of one lemon
1/4-1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 Tbsp butter
In a medium saucepan combine 1 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup corn starch (also called corn flour in England it seems) and stir in 1 1/2 cups of cold water until smooth.
Then you will stir in three egg yolks slightly beaten. You will want to stir constantly with a handy-dandy whisk (a fork also works if you lack a whisk) and bring to boil over medium heat. It is important not to heat it any higher otherwise you will scorch your filling and it will taste atrocious...and mostly burnt. You will want to boil for one minute and it should be thickening.
Then you will remove from heat and stir in the lemon peel and the juice and butter.
I tend to like my lemon filling quite tart so I will put in 1/2 or more of lemon juice. But if you want it to be fairly mild. 1/4 cup should do just fine.
the butter serves the purpose of keeping the filling from having a chalky aftertaste because of the corn starch. So it is important not to forget that.
Spoon the hot filling into the pie crust.
Now for the Meringue:
3-6 egg whites (depending how high you want your meringue to be)
1/3 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of cream of tartar.
In a mixing bowl you will beat egg whites at high speed. I implore you, if you don't own a hand mixer get one. You don't need a kitchen-aid (though they are super cool, you get those when you get married) you can buy a fairly inexpensive one at Fred Meyer or Target. You can make it by hand, but your hand will be so tired by the end you will want to chop it off. Supposedly you are only able to make it by hand in a copper bowl, but I (queen of perfectionist cooking freaks everywhere) have been able to do it in a aluminum bowl. It took a very long time to do and the meringue wasn't that good, but I did it. I think I could take Martha Stewart on in a battle of Fisticuffsmenship because of that act alone.
But back to the meringue you will begin by beating your egg whites. Now when you separate your egg whites from the yolks it is very very important to make sure no yolks get into the bowl of egg whites and (other wise it won't become pretty fluffy whiteness) you want the mixing bowl and beaters to be very very clean. I often will wash them in super soapy water, then rinse and wash with salt and them use some lemon. Lemon works wonders to make sure nothing will stick to the sides. Then rinse once again.
You do want the bowl to be fairly cold.
So you begin (like I said) to beat your eggs. Three egg whites should work fine, but some people like their meringue as high as Marie Antoinette's hair-do and I can understand the appeal. It is so pretty.
You add the cream of tartar.
Then you slowly add in the sugar. continue beating until stiff peaks form. It should look quite glossy. How you measure to see if the peaks are truly stiff you take a rubber spatula and pull up on the meringue and it should stand up on its own (like a mountain top) and if it shouldn't beat for a couple of minutes.
Once that is done you carefully spoon it over the lemon filling. You don't want to pat it down, because it will lose air. You want it to be light, glossy and equally heavy. Be sure to seal the edges.
Bake for 15 minutes in the oven (preheated) at 350F. Or until golden. You don't want it dark brown.
Cool on a rack for an hour.
Some like their pie hot (as Andrew does) but it is more of an American tradition to serve it cold. Either one is nice.
It looks deceptively hard but in time you will see how pleasant it is to make. You can make it the day before, keep it in the fridge freeing up your time on Thanksgiving.
Next time I can talk about potato dishes and the importance of making that one of the last things you make.
Good gracious I looked at a variety of birds. I looked at a goose or two. Duck and so many varieties of turkey.
There were Kosher ones. French ones, organic, free-range, fresh, frozen, and of course those particular ones that were "enhanced". I wanted to avoid those because there are things in them that shouldn't be.
Eventually I found a rather lovely all-natural turkey that was fresh (right now I have it in my freezer) and it didn't cost a ton and it is about 18.5 Lbs. Slightly smaller then usual. In my family we tend to favor ones that are around 23 Lbs. Which seems a bit obscene, but we like leftovers a whole lot.
I did my exercise today by carrying that damn thing around.
Since it weighs quite a bit I shall begin thawing around Sunday evening. I won't remove the packaging until it is pretty much thawed out. If by Tuesday night it is still a little too frozen I will do a cold water bath. I suggest this to anyone else who is hosting a traditional dinner.
It will make things so much easier in the long run.
So far we have discussed sweet potatoes, jello salad recipes, one pumpkin pie recipe and a few other Thanksgiving related recipe issues.
Today I will talk about Lemon Meringue Pie.
Easy as pie as they say, but it just requires a bit of planning.
I first made this pie on my own for Thanksgiving when I was eleven. I was so excited. This is still my favorite kind of pie in the whole wide world.
The first few times I made it. I used the jello pudding recipe. It is quite easy and I often suggest to people who would like to give it a go to use that method. You want to buy the lemon pudding that needs to be cooked on the stove top. I don't particularly care for instant pudding. (but we will get into that another time)
Now I usually use the recipe on the side of the Argo Corn Starch box. It is reliable and classic. Mind you now I like to mess with the recipe a bit, but when first trying something out it does help to follow the directions. (I have learned this the hard way over the years because I get a little too heady)
So, you want to bake a pie that will wow the folks and still be vegetarian so your whiny sibling will shut the hell up and not talk for years about classes in women studies.
This is the way to go.
First you will need a baked (9 inch) pie crust. I will post about pie crust a little later. But a frozen one will work quite well. All you have to do is pop that in the oven, bake and then cool. To keep it from bubbling up thus losing space in the pie crust, I often will put in beans to act as pie weights. Simple easy and you can reuse them as pie weights for quite awhile. (you just can't cook them for other purposes after wards)
Once you have a pie crust you begin on the lemon filling.
Lemon Filling:
1 Cup Sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
1 1/2 cups cold water
3 egg yolks slightly beaten
grated peel of one lemon
1/4-1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 Tbsp butter
In a medium saucepan combine 1 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup corn starch (also called corn flour in England it seems) and stir in 1 1/2 cups of cold water until smooth.
Then you will stir in three egg yolks slightly beaten. You will want to stir constantly with a handy-dandy whisk (a fork also works if you lack a whisk) and bring to boil over medium heat. It is important not to heat it any higher otherwise you will scorch your filling and it will taste atrocious...and mostly burnt. You will want to boil for one minute and it should be thickening.
Then you will remove from heat and stir in the lemon peel and the juice and butter.
I tend to like my lemon filling quite tart so I will put in 1/2 or more of lemon juice. But if you want it to be fairly mild. 1/4 cup should do just fine.
the butter serves the purpose of keeping the filling from having a chalky aftertaste because of the corn starch. So it is important not to forget that.
Spoon the hot filling into the pie crust.
Now for the Meringue:
3-6 egg whites (depending how high you want your meringue to be)
1/3 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of cream of tartar.
In a mixing bowl you will beat egg whites at high speed. I implore you, if you don't own a hand mixer get one. You don't need a kitchen-aid (though they are super cool, you get those when you get married) you can buy a fairly inexpensive one at Fred Meyer or Target. You can make it by hand, but your hand will be so tired by the end you will want to chop it off. Supposedly you are only able to make it by hand in a copper bowl, but I (queen of perfectionist cooking freaks everywhere) have been able to do it in a aluminum bowl. It took a very long time to do and the meringue wasn't that good, but I did it. I think I could take Martha Stewart on in a battle of Fisticuffsmenship because of that act alone.
But back to the meringue you will begin by beating your egg whites. Now when you separate your egg whites from the yolks it is very very important to make sure no yolks get into the bowl of egg whites and (other wise it won't become pretty fluffy whiteness) you want the mixing bowl and beaters to be very very clean. I often will wash them in super soapy water, then rinse and wash with salt and them use some lemon. Lemon works wonders to make sure nothing will stick to the sides. Then rinse once again.
You do want the bowl to be fairly cold.
So you begin (like I said) to beat your eggs. Three egg whites should work fine, but some people like their meringue as high as Marie Antoinette's hair-do and I can understand the appeal. It is so pretty.
You add the cream of tartar.
Then you slowly add in the sugar. continue beating until stiff peaks form. It should look quite glossy. How you measure to see if the peaks are truly stiff you take a rubber spatula and pull up on the meringue and it should stand up on its own (like a mountain top) and if it shouldn't beat for a couple of minutes.
Once that is done you carefully spoon it over the lemon filling. You don't want to pat it down, because it will lose air. You want it to be light, glossy and equally heavy. Be sure to seal the edges.
Bake for 15 minutes in the oven (preheated) at 350F. Or until golden. You don't want it dark brown.
Cool on a rack for an hour.
Some like their pie hot (as Andrew does) but it is more of an American tradition to serve it cold. Either one is nice.
It looks deceptively hard but in time you will see how pleasant it is to make. You can make it the day before, keep it in the fridge freeing up your time on Thanksgiving.
Next time I can talk about potato dishes and the importance of making that one of the last things you make.
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 02:42 pm (UTC)Sick and twisted I have found.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 02:43 pm (UTC)...and you get major props for doing it by hand :)
no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 02:42 pm (UTC)do you have a lasagna recipe? i have never made lasagna before!!!!
no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 03:07 pm (UTC)i have THE world's best lasagna recipe, and while not vegetarian, it would be super easy to adapt it. it actually comes from grandma.
your mother
no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 03:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 06:07 pm (UTC)where is the recipe?
Date: 2003-11-22 05:17 pm (UTC)Re: where is the recipe?
Date: 2003-11-24 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 04:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 06:08 pm (UTC)Sure...come on over. Bring as many people as you like. heh
no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 09:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-21 05:31 pm (UTC)Are you going to your parent's for Thanksgiving?
no subject
Date: 2003-11-23 12:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-21 01:23 pm (UTC)ehhhh ya!!!!
dk
no subject
Date: 2003-11-21 05:27 pm (UTC)