Assorted Recipes

No Frills, Medium Flake Two Crust Pie Dough

My final success after years of failed attempts. Read On Pie Dough: A Scratch Course today and bake a perfect pie tomorrow!

3 cups AP flour 1 cup Crisco 1 teaspoon salt Appx.1 cup ice cold water Cut shortening into flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add water a tablespoon at a time while stirring flour with a fork, until the dough comes together. The dough should not be so wet that it is tacky. Instead, it should be slightly elastic and firm and dry to the touch. If you mess up and add too much water, sprinkle JUST ENOUGH flour onto the dough to soak up the excess liquid. Cut dough into slightly unequal halves and turn each out onto cling-film. Press into a thick disc, wrap up and refrigerate for at least half an hour but preferably 2-24 hours. After chilling: On a lightly floured work surface, with a lightly floured rolling pin, roll your large portion of dough into a circle about 1/8” thick and 10” in diameter (for an 8” pie plate), making sure not to roll over the edges of the dough as you go. Rotate the dough occasionally and make sure to roll from the middle out, being careful not to stretch your dough. Fold dough in half and position in pie plate. Unfold, allowing the excess dough to hang over the sides. Press dough into pie plate so that no air bubbles are present. Fill and set aside. Repeat rolling process with the remaining dough. Drape the other half over your filling and shape your edges however you see fit. Poke several small holes through the top of the pie using a fork and then brush with egg wash. Depending on what kind of pie you’re making, you might want to sprinkle either cinnamon-sugar or Turbinado sugar over the top. Bake as instructed by recipe.

Edith's Get-Your-Sweat-On Spicy Sambal Marinade

If you’re into cooking spicy, you should always have a bottle of Sambal Oelek on hand. There’s not much to it; ground red chili peppers and salt. Use it as a condiment with all South East Asian foods, or as a base with other ingredients like garlic, ginger, galangal, lemongrass, etc. You’ll find it in my forthcoming recipes for Curried Chicken Salad and the Jackson Heights Casserole. It can be purchased in most Asian specialty markets, some gourmet food stores and online at www.malaysianfood.net, where you’ll also find a wealth of great SE Asian recipes.

4 cloves garlic, peeled 2 tablespoons fresh ginger* ¼ cup fresh cilantro 4 tablespoons Sambal Oelek 1 tablespoon corn or vegetable oil 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons lime juice 2 teaspoons sugar Salt and pepper to taste In the work bowl of a food processor, add the garlic and ginger and pulse until finely chopped. Add cilantro and pulse a few times to chop. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. At this point you can adjust level of spiciness by adding more Sambal. Marinade is delicious with grilled vegetables, chicken and fish.

*This is an approximate measurement. I find that grated ginger tends to be a little watery and can thin out this marinade. Instead of grating it first, start off with a medium sized chunk (about a 1 ½ inch cube, skin off), cut it into quarters and then process with the garlic as described above.

A Second Helping

Meander on back