OMG A Recipe: Thanks, Mom

It's a little early for Mother's Day, but I have to say that Moms are great. Along with the whole giving birth thing, they also happen to pass along some lifelong wisdom that you'll carry with you for the rest of your life... including a darn fine pie crust recipe.

Mom's Vinegar Pastry Crust - for reaching Dessert Nirvana - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I've talked a good game about Wasabi Mom's Vinegar Pastry Crust, which has pretty much become my staple. I have plenty of recipes and tried different versions, but quite frankly, this is the one I have decided is my forever go-to, and that's that. Strong words, yes, but aside from the fact it's the pie crust I grew up around, it's a pretty solid recipe to use, whether your'e doing fruit or custard-based pies. It bakes up crisp, flaky and quite sturdy. This is a real crust, like Plate Tectonics, the whole Pangea nine yards -- it will not get mushy or fall apart against any pie filling foe. This is likely due to the vinegar, which don't worry, doesn't flavor the crust, its purpose is to keep the dough moist while it's getting mixed and disappears upon baking. Since vinegar is basically wine gone sour, the alcohol burns off in the baking process and helps ensure a flaky and crisp crust. There's also egg in the recipe, which I know sounds a little odd -- most recipes don't use an egg, but this one does and I don't question the Wisdom of Mom, so I just leave it be, believing it to add to the crust's signature sturdiness. Most of the pies I've been making lately are overloaded with fruit and I'm never completely certain how much liquid the fruit filling will give off, but this crust remains a good old soldier and stands up nicely to whatever kind of pie you make.

I made an apple and pear pie recently, a nice treat after a cold weather dinner of the equally carbohydrate-laden roasted squash and fennel-topped risotto. I blame the chill of a rainy evening on the need to just go balls-out for the carbs, making a creamy batch of risotto while some fennel and kabocha pumpkin roasted away in the oven. Can you not hear the lyrics of Milli Vanilli's Blame it on the Rain right now? Maybe that's just in my head... I know doctors recommend medication for this sort of problem. Bah -- silly details!! The risotto was another CSA-inspired meal -- I like how fennel loses its strong licorice flavor and gains more sweetness after a good roast, and kabocha has such a pleasant natural sweetness to it already. After the oven had its way with them, I thought they would be a hearty topping to risotto and be a comfortable thing to tuck into one cold night. Especially when you have 1990's lip-synch pop stars singing in your head.


Roasted Kabocha and Fennel over Risotto on a Cold Winter's Night - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Dinner was dropping bombs of nomz as the rain pelted the windows and turned the Seasonal Affective Disorder knob to Eleven on the Misery Scale, but of course the highlight is always dessert. And maybe that's why I made the pie. Aside from the fact that our CSA box included a small commune of apples and pears, there's nothing that lifts the spirits quite like something delicious being baked in the oven. And Mom Knows Best -- when she bakes, the house smells amazing and all the problems and stresses of the world just seem a little smaller, knowing there's going to be fresh-baked pie coming out of the oven. Having made the dough a few hours earlier in the food processor and letting it rest in the fridge, it was soft and rollable, easy to split into two rounds, with one half used for the bottom crust and I rolled and sliced the remainder of the dough into strips to make a lattice top. I can never weave it perfectly, there's always some wonky weave action happening, but covering a big pile of peeled and sugared pear and apple slices covered in cinnamon and nutmeg, no one's going to care if you should have over-ed instead of under-ed.

Pie and Risotto, and much like Milli Vanilli, I Blame it on the Rain - Photos by Wasabi Prime

So, without further adieu, here's my mom's pie crust recipe. I'm sure she doesn't mind me sharing it with everyone, just send out a Wasabi Mom Shout-Out when you're baking pies on rainy days. Pie Thug Life 4-EVER.

Wasabi Mom's Vinegar Pastry Crust (makes two pie crusts)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups cold shortening or butter, cut into cubes
3 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp vinegar
Up to 5 tbsp cold ice water

In a mixing bowl or food processor, add all dry ingredients, sifted together. Cut shortening or butter in, until the mixture resembles small peas. Add the egg, vinegar and slowly add the ice water until the the pastry just holds together. You may end up using less water than the 5 tablespoons, it just depends on the weather and humidity of the air. Gather the dough together and form into a large disc, wrapping tightly with clear plastic. Place wrapped dough into the refrigerator and allow it to chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling into the shape of a pie crust.

When you're ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake until golden brown. To give it a more rich color, lightly brush with milk or cream before baking. Add a sprinkle of sugar to caramelize and add texture.

OMG a Recipe: There's No Crying in Baseball and It's Never too Cold for Ice Cream

I think that's pretty much my double-mantra for life: a stubble-faced Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own, screeching to a weepy Racine Belle player that there is absolutely positively no crying in baseball, and no matter how many inches of snow are piled atop the ground, it is never too cold for ice cream. Not ever!! Also, it's never too late to enjoy the flavor of peppermint, especially when you've been saving the best of the holiday candy for last!

The last of the Christmas-themed posts (I swear) - Photo by Wasabi Prime

This is one of the biggest challenges of blogging, which is notoriously known for getting backlogged with posts: getting holiday-sensitive material posted somewhere near its relevant holiday. Nobody wants to hear about a Christmas roast in the middle of June. Sure, I could plan all the holiday festive eats and treats ahead of time and have tinsel-festooned posts appearing all throughout December, but that would mean kicking off the holidays a month or two earlier, and frankly, I just don't wanna be decking the halls with Christmas cookies in September. All that being said, yes, this is a peppermint chocolate ice cream, using a holiday-specific candy, to boot. But I hold my belief to be true -- ice cream knows no season, and that goes for its flavors, too.

Keep Christmas in your heart, or your freezer, it sets up real nice - Photos by Wasabi Prime

We received a lovely bar of Theo peppermint and dark chocolate over the holidays. Score, right? Theo Chocolate is amazing, both in flavor and principle. They're local, organic, free trade -- it's like the trifecta of goodness and quality that Portlandia loves to make funny-but-true skits about. And it also becomes such a precious thing that I get all Gollum about it and don't want to just eat it, I just sit in a corner, all hunched over, petting it like the One Ring and the Mister asks if I'm gonna share that thing or what? Fair question. So my solution, much like the Lord of the Rings story: destroy The Precioussssss! Well, pulverize the heck out of the chocolate bar and spread its tasty goodness across several portions by making ice cream out of it. Portlandia, are you listening? After you've Put a Bird on It, decided We Can Pickle It, you can now Make Ice Cream Out of It!

How Wasabi rolls when making ice cream at home - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Along with the Precious Chocolate Bar that I was in danger of hoarding like a house full of cats, we replaced our old n' busted ice cream maker with a fancy-schmancy version that gets tacked onto a KitchenAid mixer. Happy Boxing Day to us! Yes, the KitchenAid attachments are great, with the one teensy drawback that you have to spend a small fortune or pre-sell some organs to get the KitchenAid mixer itself. I admit, we are fortunate to have this mighty appliance, but if you want to make your own ice cream, don't feel like you have to buy a bunch of extra crap. A smaller, less expensive ice cream mixer works dandy (which was what I was using before) -- it's all about having a good-sized freezable container that gets super-cold and either an electric mixing attachment or even a hand-cranked paddle to churn the ice cream as it freezes. I have to admit, the KitchenAid attachment's maiden voyage had it working almost too well -- the freezable container is big, so more surface area than other smaller ice cream makers; after it's had a couple of days to get super cold in the freezer, it makes the ice cream mixing super-fast. As in, don't let the paddle idle for one second, because the motor will just get stopped in its tracks by the rapidly thickening ice cream. It doesn't freeze solid as a brick, but enough to where the mixer's motor gets stuck and that's a bad thing, so just keep all the parts moving.

But back to the good stuff, the ice cream itself: it's not rocket science and once you start making your own, you'll think twice about buying the mass market stuff because you can really customize the flavors. The way I make ice cream is like how I cook -- I make things based on the ingredients I have. The holidays left us with extra heavy cream, plenty of eggs and holiday candy, so my brain went: Ice Cream. I love peppermint ice cream, but I also love chocolate mint, and that's where the Theo candy bar came in -- I melted down half the bar into the ice cream batter/mixture and bashed up the other half with a candy cane to make a crunchy texture to add to the churned ice cream. When I make chocolate ice cream, I prefer a bittersweet chocolate flavor, so I always add a small bit of finely ground coffee -- like, just a scant half teaspoon's worth. It just gives it a little more depth. It might feel too strong for some, but that's just my personal preference. You don't have to worry about large grounds getting into the ice cream, as I always strain the ice cream batter before it's chilled -- a metal strainer is the best thing and it's probably one of my favorite kitchen tools, since it can work for hot and cold uses.

For the basic ice cream batter, this is my base recipe -- it starts off with less sugar, in case you add extra ingredients or flavorings that are sweetened, and you can always add more sugar to taste as you simmer it. It's basically a frozen custard base -- eggs, sugar and milk/cream. It's your choice to add vanilla, chocolate or any other flavorings, which usually are added in small increments if it's strong like vanilla. If you're wanting to make chocolate ice cream, I melt down about a cup and a half's worth of chocolate chips into the heated milk and sugar. It's also fun to mix things, like vanilla with orange zest, to make a creamsicle flavor. Or in this post-holiday batch of ice cream, I melted chocolate and added more crushed chocolate and peppermint. If you decide to add some crushed bits of something into the ice cream for texture, sprinkle it into the already-mixed batter, layering it with the churned ice cream as it's poured into a container (preferably glass) to finish setting up in the freezer. As you scoop the finished ice cream, the bits will mix itself into the ice cream and it's less hard on the motor of your ice cream maker if it doesn't have to churn chunky solid bits like nuts.

Wasabi's Ice Cream Base

Ingredients:
3 cups whole milk or 2 cups whole milk, 1 cup cream if you want it extra-rich
3 whole eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Special tools: ice cream maker, metal strainer, whisk, silicone spatulas

Place a medium-sized pot on the stove and set it to medium. Add the sugar and milk/cream, warming to a simmer, whisking to make sure sugar is melted. At this point, add whatever custom ingredients you wish to the mixture, including the salt, whisking to fully combine and spend a few minutes to develop its flavor. Drop the heat to medium low.

Take the lightly beaten eggs and add some of the heated cream and sugar liquid into the eggs and whisk to temper them; this helps bring the temperature of the eggs up gently. Add the egg and liquid mixture slowly into the pot, whisking steadily to incorporate and keep the eggs from scrambling. This will thicken mixture and it will start to resemble a loose pudding. Check the temperature to make sure it hits 160 degrees - this ensures that the eggs have been cooked. Keep whisking until it gets to that temperature and then remove from the heat. Pour the mixture through the metal strainer, using the spatula to help move any of the solid bits around to get any excess liquid from them. There's going to be little chunks from the egg, plus any solid bits from the flavorings you may have added, so it's good to not skip this step -- no one wants unpleasantly chunky ice cream!

Let the mixture cool and chill in the refrigerator overnight or at least six hours so that it's fully chilled before churning in your ice cream maker.