Apple of My Eye Pie Redux

Way back in November, I made what looked like a pretty darn good apple pie.  Hibernating in the corner of my freezer, Easter Sunday seemed as good a time as any to figure out how to bake a frozen pie in double-quick time in my TurboChef.

An easy 23 minutes later, the pie emerged from the oven, perfectly browned and utterly delectable.  It's the ultimate combination - a slow day of cooking and a super speedy way to eat the results.  Yum!

If you try the recipe, note that I have modified it with the addition of lemon juice and cardamom.  The lemon juice adds quite a pronounced lemony flavour, which I love, but if you want something more subtle, try adding just a tablespoon. Also be sure to let the pie cool sufficiently so the juices "set". If you're baking in a regular oven, pop the pie in a preheated oven at 350°F for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes, check the pie and if the crust is browning too quickly, cover the top with foil (or even just the edges if that's what's really browning). Continue baking for another 30-40 minutes, or until the slits on top are bubbling.

My friend Jenny tells me about baharat, which sounds amazing. See her explanation below.  Next time I'll try some of that to give this pie a spicy note.

For seasoning, in addition to a bit of lemon juice and sugar, I'm using baharat. Mine is from the Spice House in Chicago - the top note of this popular table seasoning from the Middle East (I'm all about ME cuisines this year) is very cinnamon/nutmeg, but the secondary note upon first taste is more complex, leaving one with a little kick that fits in with today's vogue for spicy desserts. Ingredients are: Tellicherry black pepper, coriander, cumin, Ceylon select cloves, Saigon cinnamon, cardamom, Spanish paprika and Chinese Tien Tsin chile peppers. Sounds weird, but really works.

Turbo-charged Turducken!

With the Open House behind us, Christmas Day - and 14 guests for dinner - loomed large.  And fresh turducken - that weirdly wonderful combination of turkey, duck and chicken - was finally in my sight lines for the main course.

Fiesta Farms was the go-to place, as weirdly wonderful as turducken.  A 9 lb. turducken seemed a reasonable amount for 14 people, even accounting for the three vegetarians.  And who better to assemble it for us than Danny, the charming and enthusiastic butcher at Fiesta?



Here it is, pre-cook, in all its fleshy glory:



Umm, maybe we should have gone with the 7 lb....



Into the TurboChef...an extra pan to catch the drippings...



Let me digress a moment while the TurboChef does its magic. 



Our uber-cool, custom red TurboChef makes me happy. The snappy look is by frog design, and while I roll my eyes at their description of the design process - frog sought the honest voice of the consumer audience - it worked. I don't know that it's my "honest voice” that responded to the appeal of the TurboChef. I just know that cooking a perfectly juicy roast chicken in less than 30 minutes can’t be beat. Or having deeply rosy rack of lamb done and cut into chops in less than 10.

So there was no question in my mind that our first turducken would need to be made at warp speed in the TurboChef. 



Setting the oven for a turkey didn't seem quite right - the darn turducken looked more like a veal roast on steroids than a stuffed turkey.  Hmm...veal roast...that seemed like a good setting to try. The temperature was right - 350F.  The time sure sounded good - two hours.  And the results?



Delectable!

To table, everyone...