local flavor

The word on the street is that 2011 is the year of the pie. Music to my pie-loving ears. If you don't believe me, read this or this or this. In my opinion, the secret to great pie is in the crust. I don't use shortening. It weirds me out, and there is no need to be weirded out when you can make a supremely delicious crust using good old fashioned butter. Mmmm butter. My recipe is very easy and very tasty...two of my favorite things.

Pie crust
practically identical to the recipe featured on Smitten Kitchen
makes 2 pie crusts (or a top and bottom if you are making a topped pie)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks cold butter (or 226 grams if you live in a place where butter doesn't come in either sticks or tablespoons- dang metric system)
1/2 cup water with ice cubes in it

Mix all your dry stuff together in a large bowl. Cut your butter into little pieces and add them to the flour mixture. Use your hands to break the butter apart, really mixing it in with the flour, and ensuring that the butter gets evenly distributed. After a couple of minutes of this you should have pea-sized pieces and the contents of your bowl should look sort of crumbly. This is good. Next add a couple tablespoons of the icy water, and continue to mix the dough with your hands. Continue to knead, adding water slowly if needed, until it all comes together into a big non-sticky ball. Too sticky? Add a touch of flour. Lovely. Now split that ball in two, flatten into disks, wrap them in cling wrap, and chill it in the fridge for at least an hour. The dough will keep in the fridge for about a week, and longer if you freeze it. Voila. Easy as pie.

So what did I do with my pie crust this weekend? I made a nectarine and passion fruit pie with a lattice top. I chopped about 10 nectarines from the Kirstenbosch market and mixed that with a tin of passion fruit, some cinnamon, ginger, lemon juice, and flour. Baked at 350 for about an hour. Scrumptious.


In other food news, I had some litchi sorbet yesterday at the Italian ice cream shop on Hout Bay main road. Yum.


And this sign gave me the giggles at the Imhoff farm stall in Kommetjie.


My guess is that it's the chocolate chips that make those cookies American style...you can't get chocolate chips here to save your life. I've already mentally allocated space in my suitcase for a bag of Nestle's Tollhouse chips when I return from the States in July.