Saturday, September 4, 2010

Magic Pie and the Lobster Shrimp

Yesterday was PIE DAY! Glorious, glorious pie. Apple pie.

Since I did not have a food processor available, I used a pastry cutter and my hands for the crust. It... sort of worked. I did not cut the butter in quite as much as I should have, and when the time came to add the water, I had to add an extra 3 tablespoons to get it to hold together. It would have worked if I had kneaded it but you must NEVER knead pastry more than twice. Unless of course, you like tough pastry.

The apple filling worked beautifully, although, granted, there is not much that could go wrong. The pie came together nicely with no patching or tears. And then it went into the oven and that was that.

I wish.

I forgot, as usual, to put a cookie sheet to catch the drips. So there was a bit of smoke and a piece of fallen pie crust caught on fire. But we fished it out. The pie was delicious and warm with fresh whipped cream. Happy Ending.


The Lobster Shrimp
Today we went to one of the few billion fish markets in South Carolina, and bought a pound of "large" shrimp. I took them home and prepared a pot of water with thyme, carrots, celery and peppercorns. The water was boiling and I dropped them in. They turned pink in an instant.

Martha says to drop them in when the water is boiling and then to take them out when they are pink and the water is about to boil again, about 1 1/2 minutes. If you ever make these, just take them out when they turn bright pink.

After we picked of the shells and deveined, them there was not a lot of food left. I said they were like lobsters: Once you've picked off the inedible part, there's not a lot left.

But we ate them anyways, and they were fine but slightly overcooked. There was no flavor whatsoever from the carrots and thyme. I didn't really expect there to be, after they cooked for a minute and a half.The cocktail sauce was yummy and my mom, who does not like cocktail sauce, licked her spoon.

Shrimp. Why bother?




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