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Sweet potatoes: Everyone says they’re a superfood. They’re high in fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, potassium, and manganese, and they can also help stabilize your blood sugar – and probably do your taxes, wash your windows, and tell the busybody in the cube next to you at work to mind her own business and not wear so much perfume and maybe enough with the cat stories, already.
But did you know that they’re also delicious? I mean, not if you crap them all up Thanksgiving-style with brown sugar and marshmallows. I mean if you really do them up properly, bearing in mind that they are already sweet. Unless you plan to serve them as dessert, there is no reason to make them sweeter. Instead, you want to bring out the existing sweetness with a spicy, salty, savory counterpoint that will make them super indeed.
Making this pie turned out to be a bit of an adventure. I had everything all set and ready to pop in the oven, when I opened the oven and…no heat. The pilot light was on, but no one was home. Cue running downstairs to the landlord, who does not know how to fix it. He doesn’t know how to work his own oven, so we troop downstairs to the shut-in on the first floor. His oven doesn’t work either. Since I am pretty sure one cannot bake a pie in a microwave, we go back to my landlord’s apartment, and he calls his wife at work to figure out how to run the oven. It was all very Pieces of April, except I do not have neck tattoos or a boyfriend named Billy. (Every time I watch that movie, I want to like, stage an intervention and kidnap Katie from Tom.)
Last fall, I was making a recipe that called for a pie crust. I had never made pie crust before. Naturally, I called my mother for help. She’s famous in our family for her pies, though admittedly it is an easy feat, as no one in our extended family can cook worth a damn. I once visited my grandmother for a long weekend, who made a brisket for the occasion. We ended up going out for burgers, after trying to scrape the char out of the pan.
Anyway, so I’m on the phone with my mom, flailing about, and I’m like, well, if this doesn’t turn out, I can always buy a pie crust. My mom is silent for a couple beats and replies, “Honey. Real women make their own pie crusts.” I’m sure real men can make their own pie crusts too, but my mom and I are both ladies, and real people make their own pie crusts does not have the same ring.
There is a bit of a zen to make pie crust. You may think at some point you’re doing it wrong. But trust the process. It will be OK. I promise. Read the rest of this entry »
