It was a lunch break about a year ago. It was the time when Cindy and I had our little afternoon chats. We started talking about cooking. She said she makes a pecan pie which her husband loves. That time I had no idea what a pie was. In the next few months, I tasted chocolate pecan pie . By then Cindy had taken up a new job, so I mailed her to ask if she will share her recipe with me. She is very sweet to send it to me. I tried it couple of days later and absolutely loved it. V has become a great fan of it.
Now, I feel it is very difficult to cook something which I have never seen/tasted. So when the pie was baked, I thought something was wrong because of the color. But then I googled and I think I got it right. It does not look as good as it tastes, may be next time, I will do a better job.
With Cindy’s permission, I am posting her recipe as is with exact wordings because she has explained all the steps so well. Thanks dear.
Pie crust: 1 1/8 Cups (5 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus some for dusting work surface 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon sugar 8 Tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces About 3 Tablespoons ice water, plus more if necessary
Method: Combine flour, salt, and sugar in food processor, pulse twice. Add butter and turn on machine. Process until flour and butter are blended — will look like cornmeal, about 10 seconds.
Place mixture in a bowl and sprinkle water over it. Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to gather mixture into a ball. if mixture seems dry add 1/2 teaspoon more water. When you can make into a ball, do so and wrap in plastic.
Flatten ball into a disk and freeze dough for 10 minutes. Roll out to 10″ round (less than 1/4 inch deep) and sprinkle with extra flour. Put into 9″ pie pan and prick sides and bottom with a fork. Bake in a 425F oven for 12 minutes after lining pie shell with foil and weighting with a cup or two of dried beans (to keep the pie shell’s bubbles down).
Remove pie from oven and turn down temp to 350F. Bake another 10-15 minutes more — until golden.
Pie Filling: 2 Cups shelled pecans 5 eggs 1 Cup white sugar — I used just 1/2 cup of white sugar because we usually like less sweet 1/2 Cup brown sugar pinch salt 6 Tablespoons butter, melted 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
Method: Set oven to 375F. Place pecans on baking sheet, toast lightly for 5 minutes or so. Cool pecans. Coarsely chop half or all of the pecans. Beat eggs well, until foamy. Beat in sugars, salt and butter. Warm mixture in a medium saucepan over medium low heat until hot to touch. Don’t let mixture boil. Stir in vanilla and pecans.
Assembling the pie: Place pie plate on a cookie sheet to catch any spill over. Pour pecan mixture into prepared pie crust.
Bake 30 – 40 minutes until mixture shakes like Jello but is still quite moist. Cool on a rack and serve warm or at room temperature.
Serves : 8 big pieces
While going through Bunt/Nadvar’s special recipes, I came across this recipe of motte/thatthi (eggs) paladya (I think it is a type of gravy, not sure). I have heard a lot about Nadvar/Bunt non-vegetarian dishes. So I gave it a try. I changed the recipe according to our taste. Check at the end of the recipe for the changes I made.
This gravy turned out to be very aromatic. Fenugreek seeds give a very nice aroma to the gravy. Addition of curry leaves enhanced the aroma. I served it with hot rice. These days, I use 25% boiled rice(I use rosematta or palakadan matta rice) to 75% white rice( sona masoori ). I have started including boiled because it is good for health. Since boiled rice is a bit hard and we are not used to this type, I mix 75% white rice with it which gives softness. With this proportion, rice takes a bit longer to cook but tastes great. I want to increase the proportion of boiled rice slowly, lets see how that goes.
Ingredients: 4 boiled eggs 2 tbl spn fresh/frozen coconut 1/2 tea spn coriander seeds 1/2 tea spn cumin seeds 1/4 tea spn fenugreek seeds A pinch turmeric 4-5 red chilies Ghee /oil 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup onion 1/4 cup + 1/4 cup tomato(optional) 4-5 curry leaves(optional) 1/2 tea spn chopped garlic Salt
Method: Heat oil and fry coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, red chilies, turmeric, garlic and 1/2 cup onion. When onion turns translucent, add 1/4 cup tomato and fry for few minutes. Grind to a paste along with coconut. Cook the ground paste with remaining 1/4 cup tomatoes. When it starts boiling, slip in the halved boiled eggs and salt. Cook for about 5 mins. Take off the heat. In a pan, heat ghee and fry remaining 1/4 cup onions and curry leaves. When the onions turn brownish, add this to the cooked gravy. Close the lid. Serve hot with rice.
Serves : 3 Preparation time : 20mins
PS: Changes from the original recipe – – It didn’t include tomatoes, but had 1 cup coconut. To reduce the coconut, I added tomatoes to the paste and some more in the gravy. – Curry leaves are my additions. I thought it gives more aroma, so included them. – It had raw eggs instead of boiled ones as I have mentioned. When the gravy is cooking, recipe called for breaking the eggs directly into gravy and letting it cook there.
