December 31, 2010

• Nutritious Pie

  My experimental kitchen turned out another masterpiece last night.  It would have been perfect (in my far from humble opinion) if I hadn’t forgotten the dash of salt that would have banished any merest hint of blandness from the custard.

  I confess that I never met a carbohydrate I didn’t like.  I especially appreciate carbs when they come in a gooey and/or sweet form, with a bit of crunch for contrast.  I spent many years becoming a proficient baker.  The pinnacle of that pursuit came in the 1980s, when my croissants won the Grand Champion purple rosette at the Alaska State Fair.

  There was then a large serving of poignant irony in my discovery, a couple of decades later, that wheat was a causative agent of much of the illness that had been impairing my comfort and function for most of my life.  It didn’t take me long to figure out that while there are many alternative flours to be used in baking, there is no real substitute for wheat in fine pastry.

  Finally abandoning the attempt to duplicate a tender, flaky pie crust, I worked up a quick and easy alternative that provides an acceptable grainy crunch with much less work than classic pastry.  Perhaps its most splendid redeeming feature is that it can be made with flours ground from beans and rice.  I derive great ironic humorous joy from pouring milky custard goodness into a shell of protein-rich soul food.

  My basic pie crust recipe has remained stable for several years, varying only in the particular flours used, and the kind of vegetable oil:

  1 cup flour (last night it was 1/2 cup garbanzo-fava and 1/2 cup brown rice)
  1/2 tsp. salt

  These are stirred together with a fork in the pan in which the pie is to be baked.  Then I pour over the top of the flour mixture an emulsion whipped up with that same fork:

  1/3 cup vegetable oil (Grapeseed oil is my favorite, but last night I was using olive oil.)
  1/2 Tablespoon (a teaspoon and a half) cold milk

  Stir these together with the fork until all flour is moistened.  The grainy/oily mixture can then be distributed and pressed onto the sides and bottom of the pan with the fork, compacted and smoothed with the back of a spoon.

  My basic custard recipe starts with 3 eggs, slightly beaten, then combined with 2 cups of milk and a small amount of salt.  Sometimes I use no sweetener, if my other additions are sweet enough.  If I’m adding something tart, I add some honey, about 1/4 cup or less.  To taste buds accustomed to (perverted by) a commonly sweet diet, this would not be very sweet, but it is sweet enough for me.

  Several years ago, after having been free of refined carbs for a nice healthy while, I made the mistake of trying a new sweetener, sucralose (Splenda). At first it was so cloyingly sweet that half a packet was more than enough for a sweet cup of tea.  Just as toying with a new drug often precipitates a rapid slide back into regular use of one’s drug of choice, before long I was tearing open the packets and dumping the powder straight onto my tongue.

  Not long after that, I was back on sugar, corn syrup, and, worst of all for my health, wheat.  The natural sugars in the fruit I eat, and honey I use in baking, does not have that effect on me.  Them, I can use in moderation.  Since last February, when an attack of pancreatitis laid me low and showed me the error of my ways, I have somewhat reduced my neuro-muscular disability, and substantially improved the asthma that had been severely limiting my physical activity.

  I also lost about 100 pounds in the first six months, all while eating as much as I wanted of some delicious foods, including a varied succession of experimental nutritious pies.  Last night’s success combined chopped dried apricots (a dozen or fifteen or so), half a cup of pepitas (raw pumpkin seeds), and 1/4 cup rolled oats, scattered in the crust before the custard was poured in, and baked for about 40 minutes at 325°F.

  I cut my pies into narrow wedges, getting about ten or twelve from a 9″ pie.  They provide welcome variety in a diet that sometimes (when I see the variety of wheat-based delicacies eaten by others) seems restrictive.  Along with my sugarless gluten-free muffins, with variations of which I also experiment at each new batch, the pies keep me carbohydrated without pain, weight gain, allergic illness, or guilt.

  I had a slice of apricot, pepita, oatmeal custard pie for breakfast, and I have leftover turkey that needs to be eaten for lunch, but I can, without harm, have another slice or two of pie today, and I shall.  You can bet on it.
  

  • 4:26 pm
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