OBA Heartmade Goodies: Pecan Pie is one of my favorites! Nov 2011

Today, as I was returning from my walk, I saw this beautiful dear enjoying the garden. It looked so present and proud. I was impressed with its beauty.

Grits with Cheddar Cheese

Portions 12, 6 oz per size

2 cups Hominy Grits
2 qt Water
1tsp Salt
8oz Cheddar cheese grated

Procedure

Stir your grits with the water. If your grits are stone ground let them settle and skim off the hulls.

Bring it to a boil add some salt and pepper and simmer about 45 minutes stirring every 5 to 10 minutes, until they look thickened and moistened.

Adjust seasoning and add your grated cheese.

You can also garnish them with some diced tomatoes, green onions and parsley. The crunchy texture brings a nice addition to this soft meal.

Collards Greens with Ham

Portions 16, portion size 4 oz

2lb Smoked ham hocks
6lb Collard greens
Black pepper to taste
2 tsp or more Hot pepper sauce
Cider vinegar as needed
Onions, celery and carrots (mire poix)

Procedure

Simmer the ham hock in water until tender, about 1.5 to 2 hours. Remove it and save the water.

Reduce this stock until it tastes strong and delicious.

Now simmer the greens in some water (just until it is covered) until tender, around 45 minutes. Now add the mire poix, your fortified ham stock, some extra bacon pieces, some cider vinegar, your hot sauce and spices of your choice. Let it cook until very tender and flavorful.

This was a very delicious dish, but I would say that what was even more delicious was drinking the very hot collard juice below out of a coffee mug. It was an experience that warmed and nurtured my whole body.

We served it with a piece of hot corn bread and melting honey butter on top.

Pecan Pie

Yield 2 pies 9 inch each

Filling

5 Eggs
3 oz Brown sugar
4 oz Unsalted butter barely melted
0.25 oz Vanilla extract
0.1 oz (1/2tsp) actually, a little bit less Salt that stated
14 fl oz Dark maple syrup
22 oz pecan halves pieces, raw

Pie Crust-Pate Brise (If you want precise measurements, a precise recipe is on previous posts, please look through, but you should be able to eye ball it by the way it feels and tastes)

Butter, unsalted and chilled and in small chunks
Pastry flour or AP
Salt a pinch
Water, chilled

Mix your butter and flour until little chunks are still showing. Now barely mix the rest of the ingredients in your dough keeping the chunks visible and then flatten it in a square shape. Wrap it tightly and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes, until the dough is very chilled and hard.

Now roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface keeping it round. It is easy to keep it round by rolling every side starting from the center equally and not going until the edge. Now mold your pie shell.

Dock it and freeze it.

Pre-bake it with your baking beans on top and parchment paper and once it has a light pale color remove the beans and finish baking the bottom part keeping it still pale but crunchy. Now it is ready to be filled.

Procedure for the filling

Whisk the eggs, butter, brown sugar. Add your vanilla and salt and whisk. Add your maple syrup and whisk until well combined.

Divide the pecans among the baked shells and pour the liquid filling on top of each crust.

Since I was using two big pie shell of about 10.5 inches, I was short on pie filling, so next time I would make 1/4 or 1/2 extra filling for the two large pie shells.

Bake in a 325 F until the center is set. About 35 to 40 minutes.

Here is how it turned out. The crust was very flaky, flavorful, crunchy and buttery. It melted in my mouth after the first crunch...delicious.

Since it was a touch too salty, I recommend lightly diminishing the salt quantity.

Since I diminished the original amount of brown sugar in the filling and omitted the corn syrup in it as well, the custard was a lot less sweet and very enjoyable to eat. People told me it had the perfect amount of sweetness.