Monday, December 21, 2009

Pie Spy - Dad's Kitchen


I have two stories to relate about Dad's Kitchen and its pie offerings. Check out http://www.ediblesacramento.com/content/index.php/winter-2009/comfort-food.htm for a capsule review of what Dad's is all about.



Dad's Kitchen, at 2968 Freeport Boulevard in Sacramento, was written up in a local publication last summer for its excellent pies. I was not a Pie Spy then, but already a pie snob, so I had to check this out. It was the peak of fresh summer fruit season. Pies at Dad's were reportedly made in-house by a lady named Anne, and the word was that you had to get there early in the day if you wanted to sample her wares. How could this not be good?


Here's how: In July, I ordered a slice of Anne's pie to go, while I was still having lunch, from my very charmingly inked server. Lunch was very filling, mainly because we inhaled the Spuds of Joy, so I decided to save the pie (SOUR CHERRY!) for later. Apparently it took a few attempts to convey the pie order to the kitchen, during which several minutes went by. First, a generously sized slice of pie a la mode was delivered on a plate to the table. We hailed our charming server and reminded her that we had asked for the pie to go. The plate disappeared immediately into the kitchen, and we waited several more minutes. When the box finally arrived , we decided to check and take a look at it. Recall July? Hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk? The kitchen staff decided had scraped the original slice from the plate to a cardboard go-box ice cream and all, on one of the hottest days of the year. Upon discovering this lapse in culinary judgment, we returned the box to a server and explained, no ice cream. Whereupon several more interminable minutes went by, until at last, a dry slice of pie materialized. This slice was about half the size of the original piece, and in addition, it had sort of been mashed into the box. By then, a half-hour had elapsed since we ordered the pie, and I was questioning whether I really wanted it at all.



And to top that all off, it was a $7.00 piece of pie.


I will say that the sour cherry pie was very fresh, not overly sweet, and not gelatinous with thickener. And sour cherry pie is not all that common in restaurants, so just having it as a choice really scored some points with me. The crust was buttery, brown, and - where intact - very flaky and sturdy enough to stand up to the cooked fruit. But worth all the trouble?


Sheesh! This experience is one reason that SacPie was born. We can all improve upon pie experiences like that one, and you can have an entire, fresh pie, all to YOURSELF, for $7.00!


Pie Spy's more recent experience at Dad's Kitchen was an improvement. [Note: In addition to the fruit pie on offer, there are also two varieties of pot pie on the lunch menu. You could conceivably eat pie for your entree and pie for dessert. Not many places can offer you that!]


This past week, the fruit pie was apple. We ordered a piece as we were finishing lunch but decided to dine in with it. We experienced the same difficulty with getting the order placed. When you are waiting for a slice of pie, minutes seem much longer than, say, when you are waiting for a bus in the rain. One reason the order was taking so long, we later learned, is that they warm it up in a standard oven before serving it - nice on a cold Saturday.


The pie arrived with the very smooth and lovely vanilla bean ice cream in a separate bowl. I had forgotten to ask them to hold the ice cream, but now I'm glad I got it. Three compact little scoops of the stuff - a dessert serving all by itself. Apple pie is one of my favorites. This one had very thinly sliced apples, a full double crust, no other embellishments. As you can see, it was good looking as well - straightforward, like-home pie. There was some sugary, spicy brown stuff mixed into the apple filling, and the texture and flavor were pleasant. Just enough cinnamon to enhance the apple without overpowering it. I don't usually eat ice cream with my pie, and least of all vanilla, but the freshness of both made for a wonderful combination. It was still $7, but it seemed like money well spent this time.



The pies are now made in-house by one of Dad's servers, Maria. Anne has apparently moved on. Maria uses all butter for her crust. Be advised that there is only one flavor of fruit pie available each day, and if you want it, I would advise that you get there before 2 or 3 in the afternoon (Maria has other things to do besides bake pies all day) and order it before you start the second half of your sandwich (or pot pie), unless you don't mind lingering. Fruit pies are not offered on the printed menu; you'll need to ask your server, and be sure to tell them that the Pie Spy sent you.

Dads Kitchen on Urbanspoon

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Pie of the Week - Cranberry Pie




This week - a pie and a bonus condiment!
Cranberries are in season and I was inspired by our Thanksgiving hostess, Kim, and her cranberry relish recipe to try to make a pie with it. After my first taste of her relish, I was reminded of a good mincemeat filling, but this was ever so slightly more tart and bright, both in flavor and color.
I've cooked cranberries perhaps twice in my entire life, both so long ago I barely remember how they turned out. It was an orange-noted conserve of some sort, which no one else would eat.

After the Quince Near-Debacle, I was feeling a little more cautious about this pie. Would the cranberries cook inside the pie crust and hold together when the pie was sliced? Or should I hedge my bets and follow Kim's recipe strictly, cooking the entire filling first? Would that liquid component all end up at the bottom of the pie in a gooshy mess? Would it be too sweet or too tart?

Would it be, you know, good?

The recipe for the filling (thank you, Kim!) was

2 packages of fresh cranberries
1 cup of orange juice
1 cup of sugar
to taste: raisins, chopped dried apricots, and other fruit (grated apple?) to taste (I used about a cup total of raisin and apricot)
to taste: cinnamon, grated or chopped fresh ginger (or powdered), clove

Kim's instruction for the relish calls for boiling the juice and sugar on the stove, and then adding the fruit and spices. This mixture would be cooked until the cranberries popped. Using the ingredients listed above, it's the best cranberry relish I've ever had.

For the pie filling, I opted for the following modifications:
1c. combined orange and cherry juice
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. each cinnamon, clove

I cooked the juice and sugar, adding about a tablespoon of chopped fresh ginger. I strained the ginger out and then poured the liquid over the cranberries, raisins, and apricots. I added a tablespoon of flour to the fruit mixture and stirred it in with about 1/2 tsp. of ground ginger.

I loaded all that into two 8" pie shells, topped it with a few pats of butter and a full top crust, and baked it for about 50 minutes. I used a hotter than normal temperature of 425 degrees, to make sure those cranberries really cooked. I watched, I brooded. It smelled nice.
This pie turned out better than I had reason to expect, based on my pie-on-the-fly mods to a recipe I'd never made. No, there was no pool of wet goo at the bottom. Yes, the cranberries cooked thoroughly and sufficiently to hold together upon slicing. As you can see, the pie has a bright crazy pink color - like strawberry-rhubarb pie - and distinct pieces of fruit with their own flavors and textures intact. It evokes a holiday mood and immediately induces good cheer, even before you bite into it.

I would do it all over again; however, next time, it needs the full cup of sugar. Yes, really. As constructed this week, it was pleasantly tart but almost at the edge of pleasantness for sensitive palates. A bit of ice cream would temper that very well if you need a foil for those cranberries. The spicing was a little too conservative in this pie - the ginger, cinnamon, and clove could be increased to 1.5 to 2 tsp. each. Fresh cranberries seem to easily overpower spice, so I don't think subtlety is what you're after. One modification that I will introduce next time is to add a splash of rum to the boiled liquids.

I can't think of too many fruit pie fillings that double as a chilled holiday condiment. I am thrilled that this recipe works for both. Do you have any other recipes like this to share? Sac Pie would love to hear from you!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

About Sac Pie

What prompted you to start a blog about something as humble as, well, pie?

It's true that I not only love good pie, but I may also be a bit of a pie snob. I've been looking for a good piece of pie ever since I moved to Sacramento 3 years ago and all that I've tried so far left something to be desired (which reminds me of a story of a slice of pie ordered to go...but I'll save that for the blog). Although I don't pretend to any expertise when it comes to making pies, I have reached a level of proficiency and appreciation for fine pie-making, and I want to see what we can do to get people creating and sharing great pies in Sacramento. Here, in the midst of the country's agricultural bounty, we can play with ingredients in season and invent new flavor combinations and really have some fun with what I consider an underappreciated element of American cookery.

How did you learn to make pie?

I learned at the elbows of my mom, her mom, and other moms when I was young. And then, I forgot it all and had to re-learn it from yet another mom when I was in my 30s.

My mom used the scraps from trimming the pie to make cinnamon-sugar pinwheels, which were always gone before we ever sliced into the pie.

Are you a professional baker?

No. But I am a professional.

What is your favorite kind of pie?

My favorite is blueberry with honey and lemon. If you do it right, it is like eating summer.

What are your greatest pie fears?

That there won't be enough left for breakfast; that by June, it will be too hot to bake a peach pie.

Butter or shortening?

Shortening. Organic palm oil shortening. I confess I am scared of butter.

What are the main elements of this blog?

Pie of the Week, in which we share the making of a new pie, or a new twist on an old recipe.

Pie Spy, a monthly feature in which we search the local area and the region for a place to go and enjoy fresh and well-made pies. I am also contemplating another feature with a punny name - maybe "Eyes on the Pies" or "A la Mode" or some such, where we relate news, stories, books, web-sightings, tastings, and information about the Sac Pie Scene. And of course, reader comments!

PIE OF THE WEEK - Quest for Quince!


My friend Marina challenged me to make a pie of fresh quince and ground pasilla peppers. She thought the combination of flavors would be exotic, and quinces are in season right now, so she encouraged me to bust out of the comfort zone and experiment with new ingredients.

DEFINITELY OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE. Although I've eaten quince paste (membrillo) in the Spanish style before, I had never knowingly eaten a quince that I had cooked myself. I wasn't even sure exactly how to cook them.

But rather than let all that deter me, or be dragged down by the experience of people who knew better, I bought five quinces (a quint of them), some pasilla powder, and then tried to figure out how to make a pie.

First, you peel. The peel is edible but tougher than an apple's, so I decided to leave it out. Then, you core. This part was difficult. It was much like cutting through a winter squash. The cores were surrounded by some hard, woody material that I resorted to digging out with a knife. And finally, you chop. I made chunks about 1/2" by 1/2".

At this point, I thought to myself, "Self, are you sure this fruit is ripe?" The self was really not sure. But there was all that raw material, cut up and oxidizing. So what could I do? I made pie. I added sugar, a pinch of salt, at teaspoon of cinnamon, and about 1 to 2 teaspoons of pasilla to the fruit. Honestly, I had no idea how this would turn out. The smoky-woody quality of the pasilla combined with the sharpness and familiar tang of the cinnamon to make something different from the sum of their parts. I thought that even if the fully baked result was not completely palatable it would at least be interesting.

The fruit and spice went into a double crust pie in a PYREX pie pan, like Mom used to have. I baked that thing for over 50 minutes, to make sure the fruit was adequately cooked. The result smelled pleasingly of apple pie. That was not what I was expecting.

The fruit ended up not cooking down very much, and although soft and moist, it seemed there was not enough moisture in the fruit to make it smooth and a little juicy. The quince pieces looked like chunks of sweet potato, and lended about the same mouth feel as cooked sweet potato. I thought that quinces turned red as they cooked, so I expected the filling to be a nice rhubarb color when it finished baking. Instead, the chunks of fruit were a dusky orange-brown, again, like sweet potato. And the flavor of pasilla was not evident at all in the final product.

The crust was dynamite, though.

If I look at what could have gone better, I come back to the following potential issues:

  • underripe quinces (maybe get them at the farmer's market next time)
  • too much cinnamon and/or not enough pasilla
  • may need more sugar than the 1/3 cup I added to the filling
  • may need to add liquid to the fruit mixture to get it to cook better; this could be something like cherry or apple juice (or apple sauce?

If you have any other suggestions, let me know. The quest for quince and pasilla pie is not at an end. I think it's a flavor sensation worth pursuing. The first one was not a winner, but I am not discouraged, and have all season to suss it out. I will follow up with my next trial. Fortunately for Sac Pie, someone is always willing to consume the rejects from these experiments.

Next Pie of the Week: Cranberry

National Pie Day

Just to prove that I am not making up a new holiday, take a look at
Find out how you can make your own celebration and proselytize, promote, and prepare pie!

Also, start thinking about how we can reclaim the American Pie Festival from the likes of Crisco and their fellow travelers. How did it get to be theirs in the first place?