amyknyc

Thanks Mottmott -- I added an eggwhite wash to the top and sprinkled some sugar on it too. OK, I'll give the food processor another chance, but pulling it out and mixing in the water by hand was actually much easier than I thought it would be. Thanks for the mixing tutorial!

Thanks Patrick! That was the missing step I was looking for. So this first photo is my finished pie. I pre-cooked the apples in butter and sugar and they released a lot of water, so I scooped the apples out and reduced the liquid while adding my spices and about a tablespoon of corn starch. I put it all in the shell, put the top on, fluted the edges, cut some slits and put it in the freezer overnight. I pulled it out yesterday, egg washed the top, sprinkled on some sugar and baked it on the lower rack on top of a baking sheet for probably an hour and a half total. About a half hour in, my edges were pretty golden, so I covered them with some tin foil, which worked well. Anyways, here it it: And here's the problem I encountered where some of the filling broke through the curst and pulled it away from the edge: It's not a huge problem, but I'm not sure why this happened. I used a larger pyrex so I wonder if my crust was too thin. We're not eating it until tonight, so I have no idea what it tastes like... BTW, I loved the result of baking in a glass pyrex to be able to see the bottom of the crust. Also, for the first time ever, my pie top didn't puff up and then collapse on top of the fruit -- I'm assuming this is because the apples were pre-cooked. One thing I did find out is that I'm really bad at rolling dough on top of a rolling pin and then putting it in a pie dish. Instead, I rolled it out on parchment paper, flipped it upside down into the dish and peeled off the paper. This worked really well for both the bottom and the top.

OK, my pie is finished! I used the extra flaky pie dough recipe and actually made it twice before I was happy with the consistency -- adding the water in the food processor definitely overmixes the dough (my first attempt). I also cooked down the fruit and added cinnimon and ginger. I had a slight problem with fluting, though, mainly that during baking the top slightly seperated from the fluted crust (btw, I found an excellent diagram of how to flute in the CI Baking Illustrated cookbook). I have some photos of the pie and the problem but can't for the life of me figure out how to post them... can someone explain this to me? (I've got them in an album on imagegullet but can't get them on this post). Thanks!

Ah, that makes more sense. So you're basically reheating your filling while the crust bakes. OK, I'm giving it a shot this weekend, I'll let you know how it comes out!

Thanks! Just so I understand, you pre-cook the fruit, put it in the crust and then freeze the whole thing overnight? I'm mystified as to how this doesn't overcook the apples, but willing to give it a shot...

Patrick, I made a precooked apple pie filling almost exactly the same way -- except for the ginger, which I must try next time -- and filled it into a pie crust based on Wendy's all-butter pie crust recipe in RecipeGullet. It was fantastic. I am wondering if you made a 9" pie and if the 3 lb. measure is the weight before or after peeling and coring the apples? I use IQF apples and I'm never quite sure how much to weight out for a 9" pie, 10", etc. I just kinda wing it as I go along Wendy's recipe is for a large quantity, so I scaled it back but must have made a mistake in my calculations. I think a 9" pie shell needs about 12 oz. of dough (approx. 24 oz. for double crust), but I only had about 19 oz. total, so I made a small pie (about 8.5 inches wide) and used about 2 lbs. of apples. I followed Wendy's suggestions and froze the pie, then baked it at 325 degrees (convection) from the frozen state for about 2 hours... maybe a little too long for a small pie, but it was the first pie I've ever baked that had a noticeably cooked bottom crust --almost crunchy. It was great. ← I came across this thread trying to brainstorm ideas for an apple pie this weekend. Do you know if the freezing process would work well if I don't have a convection oven? Would I have to cook the pie even longer or adjust the temp? I'm desperately trying to end up with an apple pie filling that doesn't turn to soup (like so many ones before). Thanks!

Hi Roz - I'm also heading to Istanbul in mid-Sept. and just starting to do food research, etc. Did you see the piece in the travel section of the Sunday NYTimes? The link is here: http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/trav...rkey%2FIstanbul

I had four Hamentaschen for breakfast. I think I'll be done long before Passover!

I apologize for the length of this.... I ate at the new Gari this past Saturday night. We were four people with a reservation for 10 p.m. (caught a movie beforehand) and I thought that maybe the late time would help avoid the crowds. Not quite. Just to be fair to the restaurant, almost everything we ordered was very good quality -- but the service and the attitude were horrible. I will probably never go back again because of this (as an aside, I haven't been to Sushi of Gari on the Upper East in a while, but don't remember it being this bad). We got there a few minutes before 10 and were told that they were waiting for our table to finish dessert. There's nowhere to really wait inside, and you end up being shuttled back and forth between tables and doorways as servers try to move through. At 10:20 we were asked if we wanted to wait for our table at a big, long communal table that was unoccupied and order drinks. We looked over at the table that was supposed to be ours and saw waiters setting down dessert. Hmmm, so much for them finishing dessert 20 minutes before. So we sat and ordered drinks. At 10:30 we were given menus and asked to order appetizers at the communal table, and since we were starving we ordered edemame and a tuna tarare to tide us over. We really wanted to do the omakase and wanted to wait until we were at our table to eat. Finally, at 10:45 we were seated at a different table, where our waiter problems began. When we asked the waiter about the omakase, he explained that it was $60 for 10 pieces of sushi or 10 pieces of sashimi or 5 pieces sushi and 5 pieces sashimi. I asked if we could set our own price and after what seemed like a lot of confusion (the waiter started trying to explain that we could do just tuna omakase or just yellowtail omakase and the chef would only send those pieces out), the waiter told us that it was cheaper if we just ordered a la carte and that he didn't recommend the omakase! I was really surprised by this, but his comment discouraged some of my friends and by that point we were so hungry no one really wanted to argue. We ordered about 30 pieces of sushi -- tuna, salmon, eel, scallop, ebi (which they were out of), snapper but when I asked about several names of fish I didn't recognize and wanted to try I was told they were types of mackeral that the kitchen didn't carry. We also ordered some rolls -- there was a fried oyster one that I remember liking a lot. I had to ask the waiter if there were any specials to which he responded, "Well, sure, but the only one I'd recommend is a special snapper with something like a salad on top." We ordered one, it was exactly as billed and not necessarily something I recommend. Sushi comes and I look at the plate and realize that instead of raw scallop there are four pieces of seasoned, cooked scallop on top of rice. I've eaten at most major sushi places in this city and have never had this happen (and scallop is one of my favorites, so I was disappointed). I practically had to wave my arms in the air to get the waiter's attention and ask if they have raw scallop. I was told "No, no, scallop is not supposed to be served raw," in a tone that implied I was an idiot when it came to sushi. I must have looked at him like he was nuts because he then offered to take it off the bill. The sushi was all of pretty good quality -- no complaints in that department. The service alternated between being condescending and completely absent (we were one of three tables still there and it took forever to get our bill). I think that with 2 bottles of sake and 2 beers, the bill came to about $300 before tip.

These all sound great -- thanks! I think I'm leaning toward the braising book... mmmmmm

well, I own tons of cookbooks and I'm not really looking for a recommendation tailored to me, per se. more interested to hear what other people like to use... just looking for some inspiration

I've got amazon open on the next screen.... hit me with your best book.

Six if you count Tia Pol (my favorite of the lot)

Well, we stayed at the Ritz in Shanghai because that's where my husband's business puts them and so I don't know if they treat the water themselves. But I haven't heard of any of his co-workers getting sick from it either (they also stay at the Westin) and I checked in with a lot of them before I left, so maybe it depends on where you stay. All I'm saying is, I had a relatively easy time there, compared to what I thought it would be like. You know, I'm sitting here thinking of the meals we ate, and I can't remember garnishes or anything raw in any of them. Again, just my experience, and it could have been due to the winter season. Honestly, I've had worse reactions to the food in Germany and Prague (albeit 10 years ago) than to the food in China, so I think it just depends on the individual.

Hi Robyn -- Having just returned from a week in Shanghai and Hong Kong not too long ago, I'd have to agree with HKDave on this. Bottled water is everywhere and I used tap to brush my teeth every night in both cities. I basically felt that as long as I didn't drink glasses of water straight from the faucet, I was just fine (and I am someone with an extremely weak gastro system). I never felt sick there and I ate in tons of restaurants and dumplings from stands on the street without any worries (and if you think about it, how often do you eat out in a restaurant on vacation where you order raw veggies?). Personally, I was more taken with Shanghai than with HK, only because I felt like I was seeing Shanghai at such a fascinating time in its history -- HK to me was a very cool city, with great food, but not too different from lots of other big cities. Honestly, though, if I were you, I would head to Beijing. I can't speak to the safety of water there or the food, but after just going to Shanghai and HK I felt very starved for Chinese history and culture. It was just too cold to go when I was there. I'm happy to pass along any recommendations if you want!