Mar-a-Lago Key Lime Pie

Donald Trump has a club in Palm Beach, Florida called Mar-a-Lago.  This key lime pie is the club's most requested dessert.  It was recently celebrated on Oprah and ended up on her website, which is where I found the recipe.  Key lime pies evoke feelings of warmth, summer, and Florida, so they can be nice in the middle of a dreary winter when you need a bright, tart little pie in your life. 


As it turns out, key lime pie is pretty easy to make, especially if you just use regular limes (not those tiny, labor intensive key limes).  It cuts down on the time it takes to juice 2/3 cup of lime juice and I've heard that you can't really taste the difference in the limes in the finished product.  I ended up needing about 5 juicy limes.  I always pick fruits that seem to be heavy for their size as this seems to indicate an extra juicy fruit.

To make the pie, you first have to make a graham cracker crust.  This is done by mixing 3/4 pound graham cracker crumbs (which can be bought or made by mashing and grinding graham crackers with the end of a drinking glass) with 4 tbsp. sugar, 1/4 tsp. salt, and two sticks of butter.  I must caution you that 2 sticks of butter ended up to be excessive, at least for me when I was making the recipe; I'd add the butter bit by bit and stop when you've added enough butter for the crumbs to just stick together.  Otherwise the excess butter will prevent a crisp crust.  After pressing the crumbs into the bottom and sides of a pie or tart pan, you bake the crust in a low oven (325 degrees) for ten minutes.


While the crust is baking you can whip together the filling.  The filling is simply 4 egg yolks, 14 oz. sweetened condensed milk, 2/3 cup lime juice, and the zest of a lime.  First you beat the egg yolks and zest with an electric mixer for five minutes until they're fluffy, then you beat in the condensed milk, and then finally, slowly, the juice.  Pour into the baked pie shell, and bake for 15 minutes until done.


After the pie had cooled, it was really pretty to sprinkle some additional lime zest on top.  I opted not to make the vanilla whipped cream contained in the recipe; for me, whipped cream distracts from the tart pleasure of desserts like this.


I loved a couple of things about this pie.  First, I loved the crust.  I usually avoid graham cracker crust desserts precisely because of the thin, overly crisp, preservative laden taste of commercially produced graham cracker crusts.  This crust was fresh, slightly sweet, a little salty, and rich with the flavor of butter.  It was able to form a thick, perfect bed for the tart custard.  The custard was also everything I'd dreamed it would be--it had a smooth, light, sparkling lime flavor.

Quinoa and Avocado Salad with Dried Fruit, Toasted Almonds, and Lemon-Cumin Vinaigrette

I want to share this quinoa salad with you because not only was it delicious, but it's also really healthy.  Quinoa has been around since 3000 BC, but mainstream society seems to have just now discovered the health benefits of this little pseudo-grain.

Quinoa is native to South America, and is actually the seed of a plant related to such leafy greens as beets and spinach.  Since quinoa is a seed and seeds store all the nutrients they need to survive and grow on their own, quinoa is rich in protein and contains all of the essential amino acids.  In fact, it's such a superfood that it's been developed into a cereal to feed undernourished children, and is also being researched by NASA as one of the crops they should try to grow in space since it is such a complete food.  Pretty amazing for a tiny little seed!

I think I first heard about quinoa about 3 or 4 years ago, and now you can find it in regular grocery stores.  While I am really glad that it has become more available, there isn't a great wealth of recipes out there using quinoa, which is probably the only reason why I don't cook with it more often.

Recently I did stumble on a recipe that intrigued a coriander, cumin, and lemon lover like me: Deborah Madison's Quinoa and Avocado Salad with Dried Fruit, Toasted Almonds, and Lemon-Cumin Vinaigrette.  It can be found here on Fine Cooking's website.  Besides being excited by the spices and lemon, I also really liked the idea of nutty quinoa with buttery texture of avocado and the chewy tartness of dried fruit.  In addition, the salad contains avocado and almonds, two other "superfoods" that health experts are always recommending that we eat. 

I followed the recipe exactly, except I substituted the raisins and dried apricots for dried cranberries and dried apples (the fruits I had on hand).  The flavor of the salad exceeded my already-high expectations, and I felt really good about eating so many things that are good for me all at once!  I imagine this would also be good over mild salad greens for a complete (or rather, more voluminous) meal. 

An Attempt at Brioche

For Christmas, Georg got me Ginette Mathiot's translated, updated, classic French cookbook Je sais cuisiner (I Know How to Cook).  It's a brick of a book which contains nearly 1500 simply-written (but not simplistic) recipes that any French home cook should have in his/her repertoire.  Interestingly, it was translated into English and updated to suit the modern cook by Clotilde Dusoulier, the Parisian author of the food blog Chocolate and Zucchini.

I like the book...many of the recipes are beautifully photographed and the illustrations are interesting and eye-catching.  I also find it well organized and there really does seem to be a recipe for almost anything you'd want to make.  The writing doesn't get too superfluous, which I appreciate.  In the index lie several special treats...my favorite being menus and corresponding recipes written by famous chefs all over the world that you can use when you want to throw an impressive dinner party.

I usually find myself drawn to unusual recipes, but this cookbook has gotten me thinking about cooking French classics: vanilla souffle, green beans nicoise, baked eggs.  As a special first recipe to immerse myself into the world of French home cooking, I selected the I Know How to Cook recipe for Brioche.

Brioche is a dense, rich, buttery bread I've had on a few occasions.  It's soft and slightly sweet, and makes great French toast.  The dough contains yeast, sugar, milk, flour, and three eggs.  After this combination has had a chance to rise, you knead in a whole stick of butter to add to the richness.    

The dough turned out to be quite difficult to work with.  At first it was far too dry, and after I added a bit more milk it was sticky and stiff.  It was really difficult to knead.  I was worried, but my fears were assuaged when the rested dough rose to a big, yeasty pouf.

I proceeded to knead in a whole stick of room temperature butter.  The book said to add the butter a lump at a time, and to knead until each lump disappeared.  I followed the instructions faithfully, but in the end I didn't feel like I had the smooth, elastic dough I was supposed to have created.  I let the dough rest in the refrigerator overnight, and the next evening shaped the dough into one large and one small boule, which I then stacked on top of each other (this is a classic French shape for brioche).  I let the shaped dough come to room temperature and I even allowed it an hour or so of final rising time (which was generous, as the book didn't suggest rising any rising time).  When I felt like enough was enough (I had started the bread the previous day's morning) I brushed it with egg yolk, and then baked the brioche. 

On the plus side, it turned out shiny and nicely browned.  On the minus side, it turned out a much more rough and crunchy on the outside than I knew brioche was supposed to be.  The flavor is good--it's got the rich taste of eggs and butter, and you can't beat the fresh, yeasty flavor of bread that's just popped out of the oven.  But the texture is a little off.  Brioche is dense, but this bread didn't rise much after I took it out of the refrigerator and is almost heavy.  

A sampling I took from the brioche boule

I am still perfectly happy to slather the brioche with even more butter and some marmalade and eat it before I've even left the kitchen at completely unscheduled moments in the day.  I am looking forward to trying the brioche recipe again--I think I have to just be more assertive with the dough and knead it more thoroughly into submission.  I will probably also avoid refrigerating it for nearly 24 hours before baking; I wouldn't be surprised if the extended chill forced the yeast into dormancy.

Since I got I Know How to Cook, I also tried a delightful, layered, garlicky tomato and eggplant dish that turned out perfectly.  My next conquest will be vanilla souffle...stay tuned!