Pie Archives - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Pie

25
Aug
2024

Spice It Up – August 2004

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Apples, Baking, Blue Cheese, Delicious, Indonesia, Lamb, Leeks, Magazines, Pie, Salad, Savoury Pies and Tarts

Hello friends! Welcome to Twenty Years Ago Today! For a spicy twist this month, I turned to the August 2004 issue of Delicious magazine for recipe ideas. While the month wasn’t perfect, one dish stood out as a clear highlight and is easily one of my top ten of the year. But, before we get there, let’s take a little look at what was making the charts pop culture-wise back in August 2004!

Pop Culture – August 2004

So, for the first week of August 2004 and, also for the first time in what seems like eleventy billion years, The Da Vinci Code was NOT the number one selling book. That honour went to R for Ricochet by Sue Grafton. Now, I have never read any of this series. Is anyone out there a fan? I love a good mystery / thriller. Please let me know if you think this series might be good for me! However, before we get too excited about the demise of The Da Vinci Code, it went back to number one for the rest of August.

Collateral was the best-selling film of August 2004 but Garden State, which was a film we covered in my film club was #10. Leave, (Get Out) by JoJo was the number 1 song. I do not remember this song or the singer at all!!! Does anyone?

In the absence of any memory of JoJo, let’s pop the soundtrack for Garden State onto Spotify and get cooking!

The Spice It Up Menu – August 2004

Gado Gado

Spices used – garlic, ginger etc in the Satay sauce, chilli

I adore Gado Gado. It’s the perfect balance of health and indulgence, combining the virtue of steamed vegetables with the decadence of a spicy satay sauce. Unfortunately, despite searching through multiple supermarkets, I couldn’t find the tofu puffs I typically include. To compensate for the protein, I added some eggs. I ate this as a main dish so wanted to make it a substantial meal.

I also took some liberties with the vegetables, using ingredients I preferred or had readily available instead of strictly adhering to the recipe.”

Gado-Gado Recipe

Lamb Chops with Bay, Paprika and Chickpeas

Spice used: Paprika

The Jamie Oliver recipe was…alright. While it wasn’t a favorite, it was certainly edible. I’m not likely to make it again, but it was passable.

The biggest issue was the excessive amount of chili. As someone who enjoys spicy food, that’s a rare complaint for me. The chili completely overwhelmed the other flavors.

Another minor annoyance was the recipe’s use of the term “chops” while actually calling for “cutlets.” For those unfamiliar with lamb, cutlets are significantly more expensive than traditional chops. I used loin chops for my version because I had some in my freezer.

Lamb Chops with Bay, Paprika and Chickpeas Recipe

Apple and Blackberry Pie

Spices used: Cinnamon and Cloves

This. Was .Divine.

Unfortunately, my photos were not. Please don’t judge this on the photo or my really bad lattice work because the pie really truly was AMAZING!!!! This is a top ten dish if ever there was one! There is a version with Rhubarb mentioned which I will also be trying ASAP!

Apple and Blackberry Pie Recipe

Cinnamon Tea and Recipe

Spice Used: Cinnamon

Delicious Magazine also contained a recipe for Cinnamon Tea. I only ever really drink herbal tea, so this was not for me. Howeever, as the name suggests, it does contain a spice so if you are a tea drinker and maybe wanted something to sip on while eating your pie, here is the recipe.

My Nigella Moment – Leek and Gorgonzola Tarts

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious. In these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in because it is too good not to share.

I love leek and gorgonzola anything as it reminds me of a pizzeria I used to go to with my work mates a few years ago that did an amazing leek and gorgonzola pizza! I didn’t think these were as good as the pizza but that could also be nostalgia talking. They were quite nice in their own right!

Leek and Gorgonzola Tarts Recipe

I hope you have enjoyed this trip back to August 2004. Have a great week!

18
Dec
2023

Christmas Adelaide Pecan Pie

categories: 1960's recipes, Baking, Celebrity Cookbooks, Celebrity Recipes, Pie

Hello friends and greetings of the season! Today’s Christmas Adelaide Pecan Pie comes from Singers and Swingers in the Kitchen. I last visited that book in 2013! The recipe comes from Eva Marie Saint, star of On The Waterfront, North by Northwest and many other films. The Christmas Adelaide Pecan Pie is so called because it was a pecan pie, made every Christmas by Eva Marie’s sister Adelaide.

You’ll see from the above that a made little pies rather than one big pie. I had some mini pie crusts in the freezer from another cooking project so I decided to use them up instead of buying a big pastry shell. Cooking time on the small tarts was 30 minutes. I also could not find dark corn syrup in my local supermarket. I subbed in a mix of 2/3 golden syrup and 1/3 maple syrup.

Is pecan pie served traditionally at Christmas? I would love for one of my American readers to tell me? It feels like it should be – it certainly makes sense when Christmas falls in winter and fresh fruit is in shorter supply than in the summer months.

Chrismas Adelaide Pecan Pie Recipe

If you wanted to double down on recipes from this book, the Christmas Adelaide Pecan Pie would be divine with a scoop of Barbra Streisand’s Coffee Ice Cream. This might also come in handy if you need a snack while reading Barbra’s nearly 1000-page memoir!

Singers and Swingers in The Kitchen The Book

This little book is so much fun! As well as Eva and Barbra, it also includes recipes from The Rolling Stones, Jane Fonda, Don Adams and Barbara Feldman from Get Smart, The Mamas and The Papas, The Monkees and a host more “scene makers”and “groovy gourmets”. My records…well Amazon’s records show I bought this back in 2012 for a measly $15. It now regularly sells for over a hundred!!! If you don’t want to be spending that kind of money, please feel free to browse the archives here for the recipes I’ve already shared. I’m also sure this won’t be the last time I dip into this book.

Have a great week!

26
Oct
2020

Savoury Impossible Pie

categories: 1970's food, Books, Pie

This past week saw the 155th anniversary of the publication of Alice in Wonderland. It is one of my favourite books so I celebrated with a savoury impossible pie!

Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day.

Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

This recipe comes from my vast collection of clipped recipes. I think that this one came from the wrapping of the deviled egg plate that my friend Ali gave me for my birthday a few years ago.

Impossible Pie?

“Why it’s simply impassible!
Alice: Why, don’t you mean impossible?
Door: No, I do mean impassible.

(chuckles)

Nothing’s impossible!”

The Impossible Pie was invented by Bis-quick in the 1970s. The idea was that instead of making a filling and a crust you could mix everything together and magically, in the oven, the ingredients would separate out so you end up with a crusted pie.

The OG impossible pie was coconut but since then pretty much every flavour imaginable has been made. Yinzerella over at Dinner is Served 1972 has made a number of them both sweet and savoury so if you want a primer in them, head over there pronto! Then come back here for my try at Savoury Impossible Pie!

My pie had peeled tomatoes, bacon, parsley, corn, spring onions and cheese – someone cue Blink 182 singing “All the good things” please!

It also looked like some sort of Klimptesque art when I started to mix it through. So pretty!

However, the success of an impossible pie surely has to lie in whether or not that magical crust appears. So was this recipe a success?

Was there a crust? There was something. But a proper pie crust? No. So technically…cooking fail.

Having said that, it was absolutely delicious. It may not have turned out exactly as planned but it was still worth making and definitely one to put on the rotation list!

You know what? If it bugs you like it bugged me that it wasn’t impossible, leave out the flour and call it a Klimt Garden Frittata. I promise I won’t tell anyone and believe me, you and your friends will love it!

Savoury Impossible Pie – The Recipe

“I suppose I ought to eat or drink something or other; but the great question is ‘What?’”

And we’re done!

“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end:

Then stop.”

15
Oct
2020

Asparagus and Bacon Tartlets

categories: 1970's food, Asparagus, Bacon, Pie

I’m not exactly sure where this recipe for Asparagus and Bacon Tartlets came from. It has obviously been clipped from a magazine and sticky taped to a piece of paper. But when? And by whom? It has been floating around in my collection of “Recipes to Cook” for as long as I can remember.

The recipe gives both imperial and metric measurements which would indicate it comes from some time after 1970 which is when Australia went metric but not too far after because people still understood imperial measures. So it likely was not me who clipped it but whether it was my mum or my nana or a complete stranger I do not know!

Well, whoever clipped it so it could fall into my hands deserves a round of applause because I thought these were really delicious. Emphasis on the” I” there. The fussiest eater in the world was not convinced. “What’s in these? It is cream? It’s not like the usual quiche you make.”

“I used cream cheese”

“It’s too much”

“Well…you did eat six of them….”

Both sides make a fair point here. The Asparagus and Bacon Tartlets are richer than a normal quiche, primarily due to the cream cheese filling. But you also don’t have to eat half a dozen of them in one sitting.

I made these twice recently which is something I rarely do with recipes for the blog. Usually, I make something, eat it, blog it and move on. However, the first time I made the tartlets I used fresh asparagus. I was going to post that version. But it felt like cheating. Of course a fresh asparagus and bacon tart was going to be amazing. It’s asparagus! And bacon! And for those of us who like a little bit of rich – cream cheese!. Would these taste as good using tinned asparagus?

They weren’t quite as good as the fresh version but they were still really good. And I am not being an asparagus snob here. I grew up on tinned asparagus. My nana’s asparagus rolls which only ever used tinned asparagus are one of my top ten things to eat ever! The only reason I have not posted that recipe here is that I honestly think I could not do nana’s memory justice as my version would never live up to hers!

Anyway…that’s given me some food for thought…maybe I will post that recipe one day. But as for the Asparagus and Bacon Tartlets? They’re really good. And if you find them too rich? Stop at four, or two or one.

These also reheat up well and I thought they were also quite nice to eat cold.

They are also perfect fare for a socially distanced picnic in the park!

The Recipe

Have a wonderful week!

03
Sep
2020

Chicken Salad Pie – Pieathalon 7

categories: 1960's recipes, Bad Retro Food, Chicken, Cook A Long, Pie, Pieathalon

Hello friends and pie eaters!!! Welcome to Pieathalon 7 – that very special time of year when bloggers from all over the world get together and celebrate the weird and wonderful world of vintage pies. And oh boy did it get weird this year! Surly over from at Vintage Recipe Cards sent me a hybrid concoction which much like my detested chocolate cheesecake takes two things that separately are wonderful and combines them into a Franken-monster Chicken Salad Pie!

Are you ready, are you ready for this? Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?

Glorious is it not?

Before we even get to the eating of it, let me tell you that Chicken Salad Pie was an absolute BASTARD of a thing to make! Even before that though, let’s start with possibly the only positive to come out of this which is the perfect late ’60’s styling of the original recipe! Perfection! I want that leaf plate so, so much. And those gold glasses!

So, you’ll notice that my pies are a lot more round that those in the recipe. Let me tell you why.

Chicken Salad Pie: Hours 1-3

I finished work at around 6 and started cooking. Given that I now mostly work from the dining table, I probably started making the Chicken Salad Pie at around…6:01. Put the chicken on to poach. Start cutting the pastry into the right size of rounds. Oh, yeah, did I mention I was doing this on the Tuesday night before we posted today?

6:30: Everything on track. The chicken was poached and was cooling. The pastry had been blind-baked and was also cooling.

6:45 The broth, salad dressing, onion, lemon juice and salt were in the bowl waiting for the pimentos. Oh. That’s right. We don’t have pimentos here. So, in order to get pimentos, I bought a jar of stuffed olives and picked them out of the olives using a kitchen skewer.

How long does it take to pick out a peck of pickled pimentos?

Too damn long.

Especially if you eat half the olives you are meant to be picking.

7:15: Pimentos were picked. Gelatine was added. Mixture was beaten and left to chill.

8:15: Has the mixture thickened? I don’t think it’s thickened. Better give it another half hour.

8:45: The mixture has definitely not thickened.

8:50: Research what do to if gelatine does not set.

Chicken Salad Pie: Hours 3-6

9:00. Tip the mixture into a saucepan and heat it. Add more gelatin.

9:20: Place mixture back into the fridge. Wonder why you chose this week of all weeks to be alcohol-free.

9:45: Mixture shows no sign of thickening. But it was warm so it will probably take longer right?

10:15 Still not thickening. Realise you have not had dinner. Eat some olives.

10:45 It’s like water. Pour runny gelatine back into the saucepan.

11:15 Add more gelatine to the rewarmed mixture. Have a glass of wine. This is not the week to quit drinking.

11:30 Put the mixture back into the fridge. Curse the non-specificity of vintage recipes. How much gelatine was in an envelope of gelatine in 1968? And how does that translate to spoonfuls which is how I am measuring mine. Wonder why you leave everything to the last minute. Vow to change. Eat more olives.

Midnight: The mixture is thickening!!!! REEEEE-SULT! Add the chicken and celery

12:15: Still thickening but still too runny to pour into the pie shells. Because as they keep telling you on The Great British Bake-off, no one likes a soggy bottom! Decide to pour the mixture into teacups, allow it to set inside them and turn them out ~~the following day~~….later that same day.

CHICKEN SALAD PIE – THE VERDICT

Cutting into the chicken salad pie was reminiscent of cutting into that jellied loaf style of dog food which was a real hurdle to overcome when tasting it. I did have a tiny bit and it wasn’t….awful. It tasted and smelled mostly of the dressing. But the association with dogfood was enough to prevent me from eating any more.

So in summary, no sleep, no dinner and a pie that looked like Pedigree Chum. It was certainly no winner, winner chicken dinner. I can’t even feed it to the dogs, who would love it due to the onions! This one, sadly, is going straight into the trash.

Pieathalon 7

Thanks as ever to Yinzerella for organising Pieathalon 7! You’re the best!

Thanks / Curses to Surly for the recipe. It was very fun to make despite it taking forever and being the closest thing to dogfood I have ever eaten.

I really hope Wendy from A Day In The Life on The Farm fared better with my recipe for Cherry Blossom Pie!

To see how Wendy went and to check out all the other pies, please click on the links below. If they are not all up at the time of posting, I will update during the course of the day.

Yinzerella from Dinner is Served 1972 made a Betty Crocker Sombrero Pie. Ole!
Camilla went on a culinary adventure with a Lattice Pineapple Pie
Dr Bobb cooked an Empenada Pescado? Marisco? Mariscada? Something like that anyway!
Kelly from The Velveteen Lounge whipped up a Chocolate Mint and Prune Pie. Fresh breath and healthy bowels!
SS from A Book Of Cookrye made a honey of a Honey Fruit Pie
Batterburg Belle from Kitchen Confidence treated us to a Sour Cream Apricot Pie. Sounds delish!
Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers celebrated with a Party Pink Pie.
Surly from Vintage Recipe Cards made a Crumb Pie. It would be crumby of me not to wish her well. Even though she sent me dogfood pie.
Kari from the The Nostalgic cook made Lemon Pie Reliable. I hope it was Kari!
Poppy Crocker from Grannie Panties made Avocado Lime Pie. I’m there for it!
Judy from the Book Club Cookbook made Pumpkin Pie with a Secret. But don’t tell anyone!
Greg from Recipes4Rebels made an Apple Crumb Pie. Let’s hope it was (red) delicious

Okay friends, stay safe and most importantly…eat pie!