Well, I don't live in California, and I have a way to go before the local fruit is ready. I've been pretty good about this all winter...it's not usually that hard. I don't like supermarket strawberries anyway, and there have been plenty of pears, and gorgeous citrus to placate me. I have my preserves from last summer; they are not totally gone yet. But I also have lovely, snowy lard I rendered for my rilettes project, and I've been wanting to try a butter-lard piecrust. I have a birthday pie to make for a friend.
I just didn't feel like making another pumpkin pie or a custardy one. And much as I love a lemon tart-I make them all the time, and wasn't in the mood. So I went to the store and bought some strawberries and rhubarb. Rationalization: The potato-y qualities of the steroidal supermarket berries are mitigated by cooking, and the store-bought rhubarb is just fine, usually.
I made the crust from 2 cups of flour ,a pinch of salt, 3 quarters of a stick of butter, and an equal amount of lard. I processed these in the cuisinart, in bursts, until it looked mealy. I added icewater in a stream, while it was running, just until it clumped-into the fridge to chill for just over an hour, before rolling out. (Have I mentioned recently how I love my little bargain basement pastry marble? It is amazing how much easier rolling out pastry can be.)
The filling was made of one pound each of strawberries and rhubarb, cut in chunks, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 "brownulated" sugar, a generous sprinkling of cornstarch, and a tsp of cinnamon. I took shuna's advice and just gave the rhubarb a sponge bath before cutting. I did not want it to go watery, and so did not wash it after cutting. I glazed the top crust with beaten egg-yolk for color and shine.
The pie baked for 20 minutes at 400F, and took over an hour after that at 350F to finish and get golden. The fissure you see occured when I stuck my thumb in some scalding overflowed juices, and plonked the pyrex pie pan back down hard. I now have an unsightly bandage on my thumb, as I cannot find any bandaids of the correct size and shape to protect my free-form abstract-expressionist blister. Sigh.
Pie Analysis/Wrap-up
The verdict on the crust: Best texture of all pie crusts made to date. Thin, tender, flaky. Taste is very good, not as wonderful in this department as all butter crust, however. All aspects considered, though, this is my favorite of all piecrusts I've made-especially for a 2 crust pie (vs. open tart). Definitely will not go to all lard-I need some of that buttery flavor.
Verdict on the pie as a whole: Very good. Much less runny than prior rhubarb pies-cooked for a long time, but rhubarb kept some shape. Thank you, shuna. No more washing cut up rhubarb for me. Not a lot of strawberry taste, but it was yummy because the rhubarb was very good. However, with rhubarb, a second, firmer fruit is needed to give the pie body. Next time I make this, if there are no real strawberries, I am going to use pears instead, and ginger instead of cinnamon.
Ouch. That thumb thing sounds painful.
I love how comforting and homey pies look. This one sounds delicious and I think your idea for a future pear, rhubarb, ginger pie is inspired.
Posted by: Julie | April 13, 2006 at 01:20 PM
That is the most beautiful pie crust I've ever seen. I've never had a problem using just rhubarb in a pie and ginger and orange peel are very good additions.
Posted by: Lynn D. | April 13, 2006 at 02:47 PM
My son love rhubarb pie and makes them often. I'll show him this one. Looks delish! Thanks
Posted by: tanna | April 13, 2006 at 04:23 PM
thanks Julie-Thumb is now recovered, I'm glad to report.The bandage had a derelict look.
Lynn-you are too kind. Hm-why did I think I needed something else in the pie? Possibly because the rhubarb was expensive? And then maybe I grew to believe there had to be a cooking related reason I always mixed the rhubarb with another fruit? Could be. I like the idea of orange and ginger.
Tanna-It is a lucky woman indeed who has a son who makes many rhubarb pies!
Posted by: lindy | April 13, 2006 at 08:57 PM
In a better world, there'd be plenty of rhubarb growing wild nearby, and you could gather it when you were out for your evening constitutional.
Or from someone on craigslist. Whatever works.
Posted by: anapestic | April 14, 2006 at 09:56 AM
I was thrilled to see that my backyard rhubarb was starting to grow, just this week; pie isn't out of the question within a month.
About an all-lard crust, my husband's band was playing down south at Ferrum College and the wife of the college president treated all of us to dinner at her house. Among the fried chicken and trimmings dinner (delicious) were several pies. After several bites I asked her how she made her crust and she replied, "Lard." It was crisp and beautiful, but to me tasted too much of the pig. I like my pig over here, and my pie over THERE, nice and sweet and buttery!
Posted by: Rebecca | April 15, 2006 at 09:15 AM
'Pestic: Yup. The only things that grow wild around here, in my city neighborhood, are some really nice purslane, later in the year and mulberries. Both really good- just have to make sure I don't take any from areas that get sprayed. (There are a few cherry trees too, on the hill behind my apt.-but usually the birds get them before they are ripe.)
Rebecca-Quite honestly, it didn't taste at all porky to me..just a bit less intensely buttery than an all butter one. I'm not sure I'd mind a bit of pork flavor...it was just slightly less flavorful overall. The texture was my favorite ever.
Posted by: lindy | April 15, 2006 at 03:16 PM