Category Archives: Syed Hussain Fareed Bukhari

Are You There, Pie? It’s Me, Hussain

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I looked forward to this week mostly because of two main reasons. The first was Top Chef and the second was because earlier in the week I had come to accept the fact that my pies embodied chaos. So in a manner befitting both my need for unadulterated destruction and Padma’s fondness for deconstructed pie, I began my journey.
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I pondered for a while about what kind of crust I should make. Fresh off the high of my translucent hot water crust, I decided it was time to return to the graham cracker crust. This time, however, I had to put my own spin on it. I crumbled up graham crackers, white chocolate chips and butterscotch. I melted some chocolate and folded it into the crust and there it was. It tasted great, and I will cherish its memory forever.
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For the filling, I used a recipe that asked for condensed milk and in retrospect an awful lot of lime flavoring. The lime zest and juice combined gave the filling a real kick of citrus. Overall, the filling came out pretty well when combined with the flavor of some whipping cream and a little bit of ajave flavoring.
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I decided to serve my pie in chocolate bowls. To make a chocolate bowl, I used balloons. I melted the chocolate, dipped the balloons in and let them dry. The one’s that air dried, came out pretty well. The same cannot be suggested for the one’s that were refrigerated closer to when they were dipped. This is one part of the process I would like to repeat.
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Overall,  this week went great. I was really happy with what I made and how it tasted.It was pretty fun to deconstruct a pie, and serve it in a nontraditional sense that refuted having pastry on the outside. I was happy not to be asked to pack my knives and leave.

The hand that rocks the crust.

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My main beef with savory hand pies is the crust. I’ve always complained its just too thick, and it kills the flavor. Being a self-serving megalomaniac, I decided to make a thin pastry with a filling that would satisfy gluttony itself. Did I achieve this? Let’s find out.

I decided to make a hot water pastry. Something about the words “a very soft pastry dough” made me think it was cool. The pastry itself was fun too make. It took a while for the shortening to melt, so I just put it on the stove, and while it melted, mixed the flour and salt. I decided to go with half the serving suggested by the recipe book. The dough came out well, it was in fact very soft. Into the fridge it went.

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For my filling, I decided to use two separate recipes. The first was lamb chops marinated in honey, mint and cumin (http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/cumin-honey-mint-marinated-lamb-chops). The lamb chop marinade was easy to make, and I added cayenne pepper and paprika to the recipe. The lamb marinated for four hours, while I worked with the other recipe.
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The other recipe was scalloped sweet potatoes and butternut squash (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/228878/scalloped-sweet-potatoes-and-butternut-squash/). I loved this recipe but it took a fair amount of time and chopping. The butternut squash and sweet potato had to get tender in the oven and the butternut squash gave me some trouble but with the amount of cooking it went through by the end, it came out very tender and I don’t think I would alter anything as far as cooking time goes. The recipe was not as spicy as I would have liked it to be, I suppose the next time I work with this filling, I’ll use my fair share of either chili, onions and bell pepper to add another texture and more flavor. On its own, the filling tasted great.
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While rolling out the pastry, I rolled it too thin. I would stick to rolling it out thin, partially because I don’t care for thick pastries.
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Overall, this week went well. I think the pie cut at the table was a little off, because it didn’t taste fine, but the pie I had later tasted great. I’ll discuss this bit with David later. Also, I do think hand pies are great, and might be my forte. Next week is decoration week, and with my odd looking fish, I believe a Koons will be me.

These too are Pies.

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The readings for this week said that a filling needs to be surrounded by pastry to become a pie. I disagreed with this declaration and hence decided that both my pies would not use pastry dough, instead they would use biscuit crumbs. Upon my foray into the world of pie recipes, I discovered that many kindred spirits agreed with me, and fell upon multiple examples of pies with crusts that deigned pastry crusts unnecessary.

The first pie I decided to  make was a Strawberry Frappe Pie with a kick of orange. This pie looked very visually appealing when I first fell upon it my taste buds, in the vein of surely many before, screamed,”NOW.” The crust was made out of 21 graham cracker squares, which in retrospect should have been 25. The crust was a fiasco to make and could have turned out better if the butter was more cooperative. It turns out for some microwaves the melt button means coat the top of the microwave. With a calmer mind the crust making went well. I wish I had used more crackers so the crust could have been better spread. The filling was easy to make, it was fun to work with gelatin and ice cream. I was sad that I had to use frozen strawberries, I am sure the pie would have been even better if I’d gotten fresh strawberries somehow.

Butter is evil.

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Ice cream, and strawberries (The only time I wished a spatula had taste buds I was connected too).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pie came out well. I should have taken it out of the freezer earlier. The candied orange peels used to make the decorative aspect and accent the orange flavor were easy and fun to make, nothing like working with hot sugar. They came out well, and thanks to Neftaly formed a very nice message for the eater.

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The second pie was a Ricotta Nut Crunch Pie. I loved the texture of this pie, and love ricotta cheese so this seemed very appealing. The crust asked for Amaretti almond cookies, I decided to use almond thins instead because Stop n Shop was not well stocked. I used almond nuts, dried apricots, and chocolate folded into ricotta cheese and heavy cream for the filling. The texture of the filling turned out to be lovely.

Julia Cancio, my pie muse and great human biscuit crumbler.

Julia Cancio, my pie muse and great human biscuit crumbler.

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“I may look plain but I taste great.”

One regret with this pie was that I should have spread the apricot preserve on the base at a better time, or used a hotter spoon to do it. It turned out well nonetheless.

Overall,  I think I had a good first week. Things to do for the coming weeks are to be more mindful about the quantities when experimenting with non-traditional crusts and being more careful when it comes to storing pies. Also, I should learn how to cut pies better as demonstrated by photos below.

-Hussain

 

"I sure wish he knew what he was doing with a knife..."

“I sure wish he knew what he was doing with a knife…”