Banana Cream Pie

We had a string of warm and sticky days this past week, a taste of July in early May. Yesterday, as the storms began to roll through, bringing colder air sloooowly, I started pining for a cold dessert. I also had a bunch of bananas that were ripening awfully fast. The answer seemed very clear to me–Banana Cream Pie.

I’d never made one before, or any other kind of cream pie, for that matter. I make apple, pumpkin, and the occasional peach pie at least a few times a year, but I’ve never ventured into the world of cold pies. Now I don’t think there’s any going back. The beauty of the recipe I used (an adapted recipe from allrecipes.com) was that I had to make my own pudding, something I’ve also never done. The results were ridiculous. Never again will I buy a box of instant pudding! Not when making your own is so much better, and not that much work.

I’m going to cut and paste the pie recipe here, and edit it to reflect my changes. I highly recommend you give it a go this summer!

1/2 c white sugar
1/3 c all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups whole milk OR 1 1/2 c 1% and 1/2 c half-and-half
3 egg yolks, beaten (I have so many egg whites in my freezer right now it’s insane)
2 T butter
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked (this was my least favorite part).
4 bananas, sliced

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, flour, and salt. Add milk in gradually while stirring gently. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is bubbly. Keep stirring and cook for about 2 more minutes, and then remove from the burner. FYI–this is going to take a while. Ten minutes? Something like that.

Stir a small quantity of the hot mixture into the beaten egg yolks, and immediately add egg yolk mixture to the rest of the hot mixture. Cook for 2 more minutes; remember to keep stirring. Remove the mixture from the stove, and add butter and vanilla. Stir until the whole thing has a smooth consistency. FYI–this also seemed to take a while, but that’s because I found a flour pocket stuck to the pan that had to be stirred, stirred, stirred in.

Slice bananas into the cooled baked pastry shell. Top with pudding mixture. Put in fridge for at least a few hours. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

Grilling

Ahoy, folks!

I recovered my sense of taste yesterday, and while everything still smells like stale cold, I was a little more eager to make dinner last night than previously this week. Though I did cook the night before–grilled steak, sliced thin, with some scary rice (an old box I found in the pantry–don’t ask) and roasted broccoli. Last night marked a return to proper cooking.

Last year, Mr. Pea and I bought one of these, a grill grid to safely grill small things, like cut veggies, that fall through the normal grill grates. I busted it out last night for its 2007 premier, and grilled up some green bell pepper and vidalia onion slices, drizzled with a little olive oil and sprinkled with some grill seasoning. I added four sweet Italian turkey sausages to the grid, and twenty minutes later, we had tender, charred veggies and blistered sausages. We sliced open some sub rolls, added the goodies, and topped with some spicy mustard. It opened my sinuses back up for a little while! I made a quick pasta salad to go with everything. It tasted a lot like summer.

Vinaigrette Cole Slaw

I’m ill, people. I thought I was just having a nasty allergy attack, but I’m pretty sure now it’s a cold. Lame! I hate being sick, especially at this time of year, when I have a mountain of work to do. But that doesn’t mean I stop cooking!

Last night, after a fun-filled day of yardsaling and cleaning the house (that latter part was less fun, though we did organize our books, which was interesting), I made cole slaw and portabella sandwiches for dinner last night. I don’t make fancy sandwiches–I merely cleaned the giant mushrooms, brushed them with an olive oil/balsamic vinegar/kosher salt and pepper mix, and threw them under the broiler, adding some cheddar to melt near the end–so if you have suggestions for something that might pack a bit more oomph into that mushroom, I’m all ears.

But the cole slaw was really tasty. Instead of making one with mayo, this one has a light vinaigrette you toss the cabbage with. I used about half of a small head of cabbage, sliced thinly and then chopped up, for four cups of shredded cabbage, and two carrots that I used this handy tool on the peeled carrots, making thin, rounded strips that I then cut. I also added a couple of tablespoons of minced shallot for flavor.

For this recipe, you’ll need:
4c shredded green cabbage (or a combination of red and green)
2 shredded carrots
2 T diced shallots or a couple of green onions, diced

3 T vinegar (I used white, but red wine would be good)
2 T sugar
2 T canola oil
1/4 t dry mustard
1/4 t salt
1/8t-1/4t black pepper

Make the dressing in a small bowl by whisking it together.

Put all your shredded veggies in a large bowl. Add dressing and toss to coat. Put in the fridge to mingle for at least an hour, even longer for more developed flavor. Toss before eating to stir up all the dressing at the bottom.

Incidentally, I bought a couple of heirloom tomato plants at one of the yardsales in our neighborhood. When I get my hands on some soil I’m going to pot them up. One’s a Cherokee Purple, the other’s a Stripey. I can’t wait to try them–I’ve never had an heirloom tomato but have heard they are ridiculously tasty.

Pasta Carbonara

Since I’ve been so lax, today’s a double day. I’m supposed to make something for an afternoon potluck, too, so you may even get three.

One of Mr. Pea’s favorite meals is pasta carbonara. I have fashioned my own recipe for it, though it’s heavily based on one by Lidia Bastianich. I love PBS cooking shows–no commercials, fairly subdued compared to the Food Network–and my grandmother got my one of Lidia’s cookbooks several years ago. I’ve made a number of things out of it, and a lot of the recipes serve as great base recipes upon which you can build and modify for your own tastes. I’ve made this carbonara with plain old smoked bacon (center cut–less fatty) but you can also use pancetta, or, for some variation, diced capicola ham (the hot kind). We’ve made it that way several times, and it’s really tasty.

Here’s the recipe.
4-6 slices of bacon, diced
1 onion, sliced thinly
1 can low-sodium chicken broth
2 egg yolks
pepper
grated parmesan
anywhere from 1/2 lb-2/3 lb of linguine, fettucine, spaghetti

Warm a big, fairly deep skillet over medium heat. Add bacon and cook until mostly done, about five or so minutes, stirring constantly. Add sliced onions, and stir around in the bacon fat. Cook until softened, another five or so minutes.

Put some water on to boil.

When the onions are starting to soften, add anywhere from 2/3 of the can of broth to the whole thing, until the onions are juuuust nearly covered. Cooking, as you might tell, is to me a very intuitive process, especially after I’ve made a recipe a few times. You’ll get the hang of it. Bring the broth to a simmer, and turn down a bit, allowing it to simmer until reduced by half. This usually takes somewhere around ten minutes.

During that time, cook your pasta. You want it to be al dente right when your broth has reduced. Remove pasta from the water and add to your skillet, the heat under it down to medium-low. I do this without draining it, using various implements and burning myself periodically. Toss it around to coat with the sauce. Add your two egg yolks, and toss, toss, toss. Tongs are good for this. Add lots of freshly cracked pepper, toss, toss, toss. If it’s too thick, add some of your pasta cooking water. It’s starchy goodness will pull it together, so long as you’re careful how much you add. Add cheese to taste (the recipe I originally used called for something like a half-cup, which, while delicious, is not entirely necessary. We add a couple tablespoons to the pan, and then add it as we personally prefer).

Serve hot. It’ll serve, in theory, more than two people, but we like it for lunches and tend to keep it to ourselves.

Lots of Cooking, Few Photos

Eating after I cook seems to be a real hindrance to blog maintennance! This week I’ve tried to cook every night (course, it’s only Wednesday) in an attempt to stave off an empty wallet and empty calories. Though I hear the beckoning call of pad thai, I’m resisting.

So far this week I’ve made a vegetable and tofu stir-fry and a roasted tomato pizza. Here’s a photo of the tomatoes, after they finished their time in the oven. These were pretty tasty. I bought 3 roma (plum) tomatoes, sliced them just over 1/4″ thick, and tossed with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper, a bit of oregano, and some thickly sliced garlic cloves before tossing them into a 350 degree oven for around 45 minutes or so. I’d been warned via google that slow-roasted tomatoes–tomatoes sliced very thickly and cooked for hours in a lower-heat oven–would sweeten up more, but I figured it was worth a go. Like I said, these were tasty, and would only benefit by cutting the garlic cloves and half and adding more (makes for sweet, roasted garlic, yum), slicing the tomatoes thickly, and adding less salt. They’ll probably be even better later in the summer, when native tomatoes are available. Either way, they made for a new and interesting addition to pizza. Want to make your own?

You’ll need:
This pizza dough recipe, or some variation thereof.
Roasted tomatoes and garlic

4 oz mozzerella cheese

olive oil

basil

Grease a baking sheet and spread out your dough. Brush on a layer of olive oil, and add some basil. Go lightly if you’re using dried. Mash up the garlic from your roasting experiment and sprinkle–drop in bits–over the crust. Add tomato slices, and cover with cheese. Bake in a 425 degree oven, 15 minutes. Delicious!