Dear friends,
You asked, I listened. Behold, the recipes from last weekend's baking ExpoFest-O-Rama. (Here is where I give my usual caveat: the recipes are the authors', but the words are mine.)
Shaker Meyer Lemon Pie: I have a lot of pie books, and as a result I have a lot of recipes for Shaker lemon pie, but I was pleased to find a Meyer lemon version in Sweet Stuff: Karen Barker's American Desserts. I followed Chef Barker's filling recipe, but for the pie crust, I used my old standard, an all-butter crust from Ken Haedrich.
You need to start the pie the day before you want to serve it, as the lemons need to sit in the sugar for a long time to take their bitter edge off. Slice to paper-thinness 3 Meyer lemons. Karen Barker recommends using a serrated knife to do this job; I would also recommend cutting the lemons in half. Once they are sliced, they need to be cut into quarters anyway, and starting with them halved will greatly increase your chances of slicing them to uniform thinness. Slice the lemons, half them again lengthwise so that you have wedge-shaped quarters, and place them into a medium-sized nonreactive mixing bowl. Be sure to include any juice they have yielded. Add 2 cups granulated sugar, mix thoroughly, cover and let macerate for 24 hours. (I didn't let them sit the whole 24 hours when I made this pie; I let them sit for about 16, and the pie was fine. I would not do this for less than 6 hours, though.) Be sure to stir them two or three times over the macerating period to help the sugar dissolve.
The next day, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4) and move a rack to the lowest level of the oven. Roll out your bottom crust and place it in the pie plate (see below for more detail). Add a pinch of salt and 4 lightly-beaten large eggs to the lemon and sugar. Pour this mixture into your pie shell, top the pie with the top crust, apply the egg wash, cut some steam vents into the pie, place it on a baking sheet and bake for at least 45 minutes. (I gave mine an extra 7 minutes and it was perfect.) Let it cool completely before you slice into it.
You can use your favorite crust recipe; for mine, I made a double crust from 2 cups (8 oz.) pastry flour, 1 1/2 cups (6 oz.) all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, 2 egg yolks and 10-12 tablespoons ice water. Make your pastry, let it rest, roll out the dough for the bottom crust and fit it into a 9" pie plate. Fill the pie, roll out your top crust, seal and flute the edges, brush the crust with an egg wash made from 1 egg yolk plus a little water, beaten together; cut some steam vents into your pie, and bake. It is not a bad idea to put the pie on a baking sheet to catch spills; if you include some parchment paper or a Silpat, cleaning up is a snap.
Meyer lemon curd: As I mentioned on Sunday, I adapted Sherry Yard's Master Lemon Curd recipe from The Secrets of Baking for this curd. When the time comes to beat the butter in, Chef Yard says you can either beat the curd in a food processor or whisk the butter in by hand. Doing the latter produces a denser curd, while the former produces a lighter, slightly foamy curd. I am a fan of the denser textures myself, but really, you can't go wrong either way.
For this curd, you need 2 teaspoons Meyer lemon zest (obtained by zesting or grating the peel on your lemons, taking care not to lift off any pith), 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 3/4 cup Meyer lemon juice, 3 large eggs, 4 large egg yolks and 4 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" chunks. (You can use up to 8 tablespoons for a richer curd.) Run the zest and sugar together in a food processor for about one minute until the sugar smells intensely lemony. You can also grind them together in a mortar and pestle, or rub the peel into the sugar with your fingertips. In the top of a double boiler (or in a bowl that you can fit over a pan of simmering water), beat the eggs and egg yolks, add the sugar and beat until everything is combined. Put the bowl over simmering water and stir with a whisk. Feel some of the eggs and sugar with your fingers; if you can still feel sugar granules, keep stirring. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the lemon juice and cook to 160 degrees. If you don't have a thermometer, just watch for the following signs: The curd will become very foamy; then the foam will subside and the whole mix will start to thicken and tighten. When the curd starts to approximate the texture of loose sour cream, that's when it's time to pull it from the stove. Strain it into a clean bowl, or into the washed-and-dried bowl of your food processor, and beat in the butter, piece by piece. Chill the bowl in an ice bath; when the curd is cool, decant it into a jar and refrigerate -- after you perform a quality-control test, of course.
Cornmeal-millet toasting cake: It is my belief that a weekend breakfast, leisurely prepared, is a mood elevator, but a weekday breakfast, prepared from things you took time to make ahead on the weekend from Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe, is an instant mood elevator. My mornings have felt much sunnier since I made this cake, and I find myself with more energy for my lunchtime workouts to boot.
Although the cake has lots of ingredients, it is not at all difficult to prepare: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (Gas Mark 4), position a rack in the middle of the oven and spray a Bundt pan (10-12 cup capacity) with nonstick spray. Cream 4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter with 1/4 cup granulated sugar for several minutes. Beat in, one at a time, 2 large eggs and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, combine 3 cups (12 oz.) all-purpose flour, 1 cup fine-ground cornmeal, 1 cup soy protein powder, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1 1/2 cups cooked millet and 1 packed cup light brown sugar. (Blend the millet and brown sugar in with your fingers after you have combined the other ingredients.) Add the dry ingredients to the butter, sugar and eggs in three parts, alternating with 2 cups plain yogurt. Be sure to stir well after each addition to incorporate everything, and don't overmix. This is a stiff batter. Spoon it into the pan and smooth it out with a rubber spatula. Bake the cake for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake rest in the pan for at least 45 minutes before turning it out. This cake can be eaten as is, but it's really lovely if you toast it, as Ms. Katzen recommends. I have eaten this with butter, with damson jam, with cashew butter and with nothing at all. It is all perfectly correct, and perfectly lovely.
Cock-a-leekie soup: Yes, that's really what it's called. Please stop laughing. Since it's late in the day, I'll let you all make the call...shall I post this sooner, rather than later? Or shall we save it for prime cock-a-leekie season, also known as January 25, also known as Robert Burns' birthday?