Blueberry Pie

Pie is one of those classic, iconic foods that marks the celebration of both fun and tradition. It can be the perfect finale to a holiday dinner, and or the ideal treat to take to a casual picnic outing. Pie seems to be way more of an American thing, however, as I always see them gracing the covers of the summer issues for Martha Stewart Living. And as cliche as it may sound, whenever I think of pie, my mind conjures up images of the hot pastries cooling on the window sill of an eighteenth century farmhouse (yep, I read a lot of them Little House books back in the day).



Yet despite all of this tradition, growing up in a Korean family meant that pie was hardly ever a part of my daily repertoire. It wasn't something where I could say my grandmother had taught me, with a secret family recipe that had been passed on from generation to generation. Nope, no memories of nostalgic childhood baking here (tear). In fact, I think my family only began having pie at home when I first learned to start baking a couple years ago.



To be completely honest, I've never really been a pie person, and it may be because whatever little exposure I did have as a kid, it was with tasteless, store-bought, frozen pie. But upon discovering the joys of making pies from scratch, I've become very fond of making them. Now, every summer I wait in eager anticipation for the perfect moment to make a summer fruit pie. With the season bursting with such an array of peaches, nectarines, cherries, and berries of all kinds, it can be hard to settle on just one. Should I go for peach? Or maybe peach-blackberry? Maybe cherry?

In lieu of Father's Day that took place on Sunday, I made my first pie of the summer - blueberry.






Apart from the filling being a little soupy from using flour instead of cornstarch, it turned to be very tasty - a flaky butter crust filled with chunky bits of blueberries, spiced with a hint of nutmeg. We didn't have any ice cream to serve it with, but it didn't matter - all but a single wee slice was gone by the end of the day. And I think that means that this one's a keeper :)

Fresh Blueberry Pie
adapted from allrecipes.com. makes 1 pie; serves 8

2 recipes of Butter Flaky Pie Crust
4 cups fresh blueberries
3/4 cup white sugar (*note: if your blueberries are veryd sweet, you can cut down to 1/2 cup)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
egg yolk or milk
turbinado sugar

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. In a large bowl, toss together the sugar, blueberries, cornstarch, salt, lemon juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Roll our your bottom pie crust, line the pan and trim the edges with a pair of kitchen scissors. Add the filling and cover with your second pie crust to form the line. Seal the edges by pressing down with your fingers and crimp with a work. Cut 4 air vents in the center of the lid with a paring knife. Work quickly so that the dough stays as cold as possible.

Brush the lid with a beaten egg yolk or milk and sprinkle generously with turbinado sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes on the lowest rack of your oven. Then turn down the heat to 350 degrees F and bake for another 30 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes and serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Quiche!

Quiche is an odd sort of food. It's not something people seem to eat, or make, or even think about eating on a regular basis. Unfortunately it seems to be underrated and I think more people should try it out more often. It's like an omelette. Only with pastry. And burnt cheese. I mean, c'mon people!

Okay, I kid. (Not really). To be honest, I was never very familiar with this savoury eggy pastry myself either, until I was in the eleventh grade and working part-time at a bakery (serving, not baking, to be exact). The bakery sold two types of quiche - broccoli and... I think it was either spinach or mushroom. I'm banking on the spinach. They also came in two different sizes - 9 inches and 3 inches. I would sometimes help myself to the 3 inch during my breaks, as it was perfectly proportioned for individual eating pleasure.



I've only ever made quiche twice before, and both were a bit of a fail. So needless to say, I was a bit hesitant to try again, but I was having a hankering to make sort of pastry dish, and quiche was the perfect excuse. Homemade pastry is awesome, and a homemade pie crust is just even more awesome. It's on a whole different level from taste-less, cardboard frozen pie crust, while still being surprisingly easy and quick to make. Once you've tried homemade, you just can't go back to the frozen stuff - the difference is unbelievable. A good pie crust recipe is really great to have under your belt. It's so versatile and you can use the same recipe for both an apple pie and meat pie (or in this case, a quiche!).

Butter Flaky Pie Crust
adapted from allrecipes.com. makes one 9 inch pie crust (double it for a lid).

1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
generous pinch of sea salt
1/2 cut very cold unsalted butter, diced into small cubes
2 to 4 tablespoons ice water

Combine the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut in the butter to resemble coarse crumbs. Stir in the water, a tablespoon at a time until the mixture starts to come together.

Dump the mixture out onto a clean work surface and gather the pastry together with your hands, pressing firmly so that it sticks together to form a ball. Handle the dough as quickly as a little as possible, and DO NOT KNEAD. If you start kneading, you're going to end up with a chewy crust like bread. And resist the temptation to add more water. Don't worry your end product looks like a shaggy mess and you have bits of pastry hanging off - it's not supposed to look smooth and elastic. Note: The less you handle it, the more flaky it will be. You want to make sure you have little bits of butter spotted throughout the dough (when this butter melts in the oven, it will create little flaky pockets of air).

Flatten the ball into a disc, 1-inch thick and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 4 hours overnight. Or if you're like me and never manage to do these things in advance, stick it in the back of your freezer for about 30 minutes, flipping halfway. Check to make sure it doesn't get rock hard, or else you'll have to wait for it to thaw out again before you can roll it.

When you're ready to use it, sprinkle some flour onto your work surface and onto your rolling pin. Roll the dough out to fit a 9-inch pie plate. It'll be able 1/4-inch thick, depending on how much overhang you want. To transfer the rolled-out crust to the pie plate, roll it around your rolling pin and then unroll it over your pie plate. Trim off the excess with a pair of kitchen scissors.

Fold over the overhang, if you have any, and style. My pie crusts are generally very rustic looking, and I like to take some of the bigger leftover scraps of dough and stick them around the edges of the crust to maximize crust surface area. Now you're ready to fill your pie crust!

Note: Try to do this whole process as quickly as possible, and keep all your ingredients very cold. If your pie crust has gotten kinda soft and warm from working on it too long, just pop the whole plate into the fridge to chill up a bit.



The great things about quiche is that there is often no set recipe, and you can add in whatever you happen to have in your fridge that day. It's a great dish to bring to potlucks since it can be made ahead of time (it actually tastes better the second day). It cuts and serves up beautifully, and you can easily change the recipe to please either your meat or vege eating friends.

I was very pleased with how the quiche turned out, despite the fact that I had to use milk since I was out of heavy cream. The green asparagus just looks so cheerful and spring, don't you think? Look's like third time's a charm!

Quiche with Mushroom, Asparagus, and Havarti
adapted from The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz. makes one 9-inch quiche

a 9-inch pie crust
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups heavy cream (I used milk)
1 cup havarti, cubed up really small (havarti doesn't shred well)
10 spears of asparagus
1/4 cup of onion, chopped
3/4 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees C and set a large pot of water on to boil (preferably a steamer pot if you've got one). Line your pie crust with pie weights or with aluminum foil and a handful of uncooked rice or beans. Prebake the crust for 20 minutes and let cool. Change the oven temperature to 325 degrees.

When the water is boiling, steam the asparagus for about 8-10 minutes until tender and brigh green. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and saute the onions for about 5 minutes. Add in the mushrooms and continue to cook until browned, about another 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Take a large bowl and whisk together the eggs and heavy cream/milk. Stir in the havarti, onions, mushrooms, and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Pour the filling into the partially-baked crust, and place the asparagus carefully on top in a row, alternating the orientation. Pur the longer asparagus in the middle and the shorter ones on the outside (you might have to trim them to fit).

Bake at for 45 minutes. Insert a toothpick to check for doneness.