William Penn Life, 2005 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2005-11-01 / 11. szám
The Hungarian Kitchen with Főszakács Béla The Perfect Pie FARADJON BE A MAGYAR KONYHÁBA. Fall is here with the foliage changes, cool weather and the holiday's right around the comer. This is the best time of the year to get into the kitchen and do more cooking. A hot stove and oven warms up the house along with making it smell great. Nothing beats coming in the back door to a hot pot of soup with home made biscuits or the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and a cake right out of the oven. Let's not forget all the fall vegetables we can enjoy like squash, apples, and pumpkins. Yes, we can all enjoy some great meals this time of the year. And what could be better than finishing off that meal with a great dessert like pie. Chef Vilmos and I have come up with some tips that will make you a great pie maker so you can have fun with the recipes we have selected. Once again let's get into the kitchen and start with the basics of the pie and making the perfect pie. PIE: a sweet or savory dish made with a crust and filling such as fruit, pudding, meat or vegetable. Pies can have a bottom crust, a top and bottom crust, or a top crust only as is the case for deep dish pies. Pies can be either sweet or savory. A pie can be eight, nine or 10 inches in diameter and one to one-and-a-half inches deep. Deep dish pies range from nine to 11 inches in diameter and one-and-a-half to two inches in depth. Pies can be baked (like a pumpkin pie) or prepared and chilled (like lemon chiffon). TRIVIA: What other type of pastry has all the characteristics of a pie and can be an appetizer, entrée or dessert but has its own special name? As always the answer will be at the end of the column. Now that you know the basics of what makes up a pie, let's get more specific. The FILLING can be either sweet or savory. Sweet describes food with high amounts of sugar, honey or sweeteners. Most of your fruit pies would fall into this category. Apple, pumpkin and lemon meringues are examples of sweet pies. This pie is usually served for dessert after a meal or by itself with coffee. Savory means a food is not sweet but piquant and full-flavored. Quiche, shepherds pie and chicken pot pies are examples of savory pies. This type can be served as an appetizer, entrée or hors d'ouvres. A filling can come prepared (like a can or jar of fruit or a spread), precooked (like the contents of a shepherd's pie) or have to be prepared (like a pudding or custard). The CRUST of a pie can be made of short crust pastry, puff pastry, cookie or cracker crumbs or even mashed vegetables. Short crust pastry is your basic unleavened pie dough. You could use puff pastry on top of a chicken pot pie. Mashed potatoes would top off a shepherds pie. Cookie crumbs would be under a cream or custard pie. Pie crusts can be prepared in one of three ways:- baked, filled, then baked again, such as a quiche;- baked, filled, chilled, then served, like a cream or custard pie; or- filled, baked, then served, like an apple pie or a pizza pie. While a pizza is not really a pie, it does fall into the third type of crust. You fill the crust then you bake it and serve it. A pizza is really a "tartlet" because it doesn't have high sides like a pie. But it does have a crust and a tomato cheese filling, so it would be savory. How about a lobster pie? If you went to a seafood restaurant, you could find this dish on the menu but it's not really a pie at all. While it has a savory filling, it has no crust but a topping which does not fit the definition of a pie. Now that you know the basics of what goes into making a pie, here are some very helpful hints that will give your pies extra flavor. When the recipe for a crust calls for water, try using another liquid to moisten the flour. I have used apple juice, orange juice and other fruit juices to get that extra flavor into my pies. When I made my last apple pie, I used cider instead of water for the crust. When I made a chicken pot pie, chicken broth was used instead of water. You could also use clam broth, beef broth or any soup base mixed with a little water to wet your crust recipe. Remember: whenever you can put flavor in the recipe, it's good for the end result. Extra flavor is the difference between a great homemade item and something bought at the store. Last but not least, let's talk about finishing the pie before baking it. For a great looking golden brown crust, wash down the top crust with an egg 6 William Penn Life, November 2005
