Culinary Capers Ingredient of the Week: Pineapple

Yes, I own The Sopranos Family Cookbook.

I used to cook from it way back in the day. I would make the baked ziti and the ricotta-pineapple pie. I took the Culinary Capers pineapple challenge as an opportunity to revisit this old favorite.

You can find the ricotta-pineapple pie recipe in the "Carmela" section.

But just in case you don't have this book lying around... I will type it out for you.

Ricotta-Pineapple Pie

from The Sopranos Family Cookbook

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup fine graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

One 15-ounce container ricotta

2 large eggs

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Topping

One 20-ounce can crushed pineapple in syrup

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

• Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Spread the butter over the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie pan or springform pan.  Add the crumbs, turning the pan to coat the bottom and sides.
• In a large bowl, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Add the ricotta, eggs, cream, lemon zest, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
• Bake for 50 minutes, or until the pie is set around the edges but the center is still slightly soft. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack.
• To make the topping, drain the pineapple well, reserving 1/2 cup of the liquid. In a medium saucepan, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Stir in the 1/2 cup pineapple juice and the lemon juice. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened, about 4 minutes. Add the pineapple. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.
• Spread the pineapple mixture over the pie. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs.

Lemon zest.

Bada bing!

Yous ah bettah make ah this pie!

 Just kidding, I don't care if you make it.
I just wanted to say "yous."

"Homesick Texan Tuesday" Leftovers

I need to reiterate how fantastic Homesick Texan's "Green Chile Posole with Black Beans" recipe is. We have all been raving about it since Tuesday. This one's a keeper.

Pictured here without the shredded Monterey Jack. I can't find this recipe on her blog, or I would post a link. Guess you'll just have to buy the book...

Here's a cute pic of a leftover kolache I heated up for myself. I never really warmed up to these, but Mom and Josh liked them.

Homesick Texan Tuesday

There's this thing that sometimes happens between me and my mom, where I'll borrow one of her cookbooks, become fanatically obsessed with it, then she ends up on Amazon, one-click ordering a new copy. This is how I acquired The Homesick Texan Cookbook. This evening I tried to make it up to my mom by inviting her over for Homesick Texan Tuesday! I made green chile posole with black beans, gorditas with picadillo, and kolaches. (I'm exhausted BTW.)

Green Chile Posole with Black Beans

HT's posole recipe is wonderful. It challenged me to use all kinds of ingredients I had never dealt with, or even tasted. 

Such as tomatillos...

...serrano chiles...

...and a poblano chile. (Lard is new to me as well, but it was used for the gorditas; not the soup.)

 

Here is the poblano in roasted form.

 

So anyway, the posole is really neat because you put all this green stuff in a blender to make the soup base. Then you add hominy (which is the English word for posole), black beans, lime juice and half-and-half. Love this soup!

Gordita with Picadillo

So the gorditas were insane. More specifically, the gordita shell was insane. You make the dough with masa and lard, then you pan-fry it, then you deep-fry it. No wonder gordita means "little fat girl" in Spanish. I know how she feels...

 I'm not sure that my gordita shells "puffed" the way they were supposed to, but we made it work.

The picadillo filling is a seasoned ground beef mixture that calls for one diced russet potato. 

That first gordita was totally staged (Josh's lunch gordita for tomorrow), but this is the actual gordita I actually ate for actual dinner. Not as picturesque, but it's covered in wonderful shredded lettuce.

This is Mom's actual gordita. She likes lettuce and tomato.

Kolaches

Not sure how I feel about the kolaches. I did half with cream cheese filling and half with apricot filling. They're not very sweet. The bread-to-filling ratio seemed off, especially with the apricot. I guess I'm not crazy about these, but I may feel differently tomorrow.

Homemade Corn Tortillas

Today I made homemade tortillas for the first time.

I used The Homesick Texan's recipe from her new cookbook.

 

I have been so excited to use this tortilla press I borrowed from my mom.

Masa balls.

My first tortilla!!!

They were smaller than what I expected. At first I didn't think they would be flexible enough to fold over for tacos; but as I kept stacking the finished ones under this towel, the steam made them more pliable. 

One of my tacos. I didn't get enough fixins on this one. Although the tortillas are small, they are dense, and so require lots of fixins.

Josh's lunch tacos for tomorrow, doused with his beloved Cholula sauce. 

P.S. I'm so into my hair today. It's so calm.