Green tomato pie isn’t something you see very often in pie cases, but it’s a farm kitchen staple in many parts of the US. It’s a handy thing to have in your repertoire when either a.) your patch gets too prolific, or b.) cool weather and/or an early frost puts the hammer down on tomato ripening. All you need is 4-5 medium green tomatoes, or about 1 3/4 pounds, sliced about 1/4 inch thick.
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As I mentioned below, Bavarians are a very large family of mousse (or cream) desserts. This particular style has been in vogue lately, and who am I to fly in the face of fashion? Plus it was fun. I hope to do more Bavarians in the future, so stay tuned for an expanding menu. This one can be made with any sort of fruit mousse, I chose peach because the fruit was in season. To begin, prepare your components. As with any multi-component pastry it’s best to make the various pieces-parts over several days leading up to the assembly. Save the last day to make it since you’ll need a couple of hours of build time and at least five hours of chill time to get it done.
READ ONNot terribly often, but often enough that it bears remarking upon, I get comments that this or that recipe has created “leftovers”. I do my best to avoid that, especially in cases of spare materials that don’t freeze well. Pastry cream springs to mind. That said, there’s much to be said in favor of leftovers, especially if you engage in the pastry arts with any regularity. A few cups of random buttercreams, some poured fondant, bits and pieces of various cakes, even crumbs can come in handy for who-knows-what.
READ ONAny time the subject of fruit ripening comes up there are always at least a couple of emails about the evils of ethylene, which is the stuff that commercial fruit distributors sometimes use to “gas” fruits like tomatoes to ripen them before they get to the grocery store bins. I’m not saying I favor that practice (though in truth I don’t know what the alternative is, since ripe fruit would turn to mush after a few hours bouncing around in a truck) but the truth is there’s nothing harmful or “noxious” about ethylene gas. It is an entirely benign — dare I say natural — compound.
READ ONDefinitely not, reader Sally. Refrigeration makes peach flesh mealy. Why? Mainly because cold temperatures inhibit the degradation of pectin in the fruit. Most of us think of fruit pectin as a thickener. However its purpose in nature is rather different. Essentially, it’s the glue that holds fruit cells together. Lots of pectin keeps the rows of cells in the fruit’s flesh strong and rigid, which helps keep the flesh in its entirely to stay firm.
READ ONReader Missy asks what the difference is between freestone and clingstone peaches. That’s an excellent question, Missy. As the names imply, the fundamental difference between the two is the degree to which the pit (stone) clings to the flesh of the peach. Freestone pits all but fall out of the fruit while clingstone pits have to be cut out. Generally speaking, freestones are better for simple eating since the flesh tends to be very tender and juicy. Clingstones as a rule have firmer flesh and that makes them better for canning, drying and pie making since the flesh doesn’t break down as much when it’s heated or stored for a long period of time. Still because they can be such a hassle to process at home, most home cooks tend to avoid clingstones even for pies or home canning projects. Industrial canners have special equipment for removing the pits.
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As fruits go, the peach has one of the more interesting histories. Its genus, prunus is classified within the rose family, and includes other stone fruit (or drupe)-producing trees like the cherry, plum and apricot.
Peach trees have Persica in their name primarily because early Westerners, starting with the Greeks, believed them to be Persian in origin. In fact they originated in China where they were cultivated at least as far back as 10,000 BC. Peaches grow easily from seeds, and that made them easily portable for the traders that moved them along the Silk Road from China westward into Kashmir and ultimately into what is now modern day Iran (where they thrived). That was in about about 2,000 BC.
READ ONHope everyone had a delightful 3-day Labor Day weekend! I returned this morning to find this very interesting question from reader Q in my box. Speaking for myself, Q, I’ve never heard a satisfactory explanation. The one you hear the most is that shortening was given that name because it “shortens gluten strands”. As a technical matter that’s true, however the problem is that terms like shortening and “shortbread” (which is high in shortening, i.e. fat) have been used for hundreds of years, well before anyone ever knew what a gluten strand was.
READ ONThe French once called Bavarian cream “fromage Bavarois”? What on Earth does Bavarian cream have to do with cheese? The answer is nothing. The word “fromage”, as I understand it, refers as much to a process as it does to a specific food. Classically, “fromage” is something which is “made in a form.” We anglophones […]
READ ONWell the painters are finishing up today, it’s going to feel great to have my lawn back after nearly two weeks of dancing around drop cloths and ladders. Among the finishing touches are the front and back porch ceilings. The color picker for the painting company we’re using asked if, instead of the grey-green we’re using for the main body of the house, if we wouldn’t prefer a nice “haint” blue for the porch ceilings. What the heck is a “haint”? Turns out the blue is a Southern thing, a traditional hex supposed to keep evils spirits (“haunts”) out of your house. Explanations vary as to
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