Paul's Pie: Deconstructed BLT Tart

Deconstructed BLT Tart

Paul wanted a bacon crust. 

"Do you want bacon in the crust?" I asked.

"No," he answered.  "I want a crust that IS bacon."

I happily googled "bacon crust recipe" and discovered this very promising recipe.

"How about this?" I asked.

"No," Paul said.  "I want crust AND bacon crust."


Well!  I do like a culinary conundrum, but folks who know me know that I cook more comfortably from recipes.  Still, I wanted to satisfy Paul's quest for pie.  Since it's already June and a crust + bacon crust seems pretty heavy to me, I decided to fill the crust with seasonable vegetables rather than something quiche-like--and backing away from bacon and eggs led me to the BLT, which always tastes best with summer tomatoes.

What follows is my first effort to make a seasonal version of Paul's Pie, which cobbles together the recipe above and vamps on David Lebovitz's French Tomato Tart recipe, which I've made several times with stupendous results.  The bacon comes from Godfrey Bros. Meats, the arugula from my Sterling Farm CSA share on the advice of Jonathan Darby, and the tomatoes from Brogue Hydroponics, who manage to grow delicious tomatoes in early June!  The spinach and oregano were from my tiny shady garden.

Side view of a slice.

This recipe, like many, is pretty easy but takes both time and patience--and you have to trust your own cooking judgment, which I know from personal experience can be hard.  I'm sure you could use a store-bought pie crust instead of making your own tart or pie crust, but I encourage you to make your own.  Crusts are very easy to make, and the recipe below has always worked for me AND is big enough for the 10" spring-form pan.  I've taken lots of photos to guide the beginner.  Humidity really affects baking, since the more water there is in the air, the less you need to add to your recipe.  When I made this, it was so humid that 2 Tablespoons of water was almost too much!

Friday's Tip: Egg-cellent Advice

A Tip  Today's post is all about the glorious, wonderful, incredible, edible egg.  I feel sorry for my egg-eschewing friends, since these little guys are really quite an amazing package:

• They are the perfect protein.  Really, there is nothing better nutritionally.
• They are the cheapest animal protein you can buy, even if you get organic eggs.  Let's say you buy a dozen eggs at $4.00, and you eat 2 at a time--that's a whopping $.67 per meal.  Thankfully, I can get local, pastured eggs cheaper than that.  Serious Eats recently confirmed my suspicion that eggs taste like eggs regardless of how footloose and fancy-free the chickens are, UNLESS they're pasturized (and then they suck).  
• At about 70 calories per large egg, they are an excellent low-calorie, low-fat, high-protein snack, particularly if you are cutting calories, hungry, and don't want to sabotage your weight-loss goals.  Protein is very filling!  I've been keeping boiled eggs in the fridge just for this purpose, and they really do the trick.

Here are some tips to help you get the most out of these little powerhouses:

1. Fresh eggs are desirable for baking, particularly if you need to separate white from yolk.  Less fresh eggs taste the same, but the white deteriorates with age and is less separable.
2. Older eggs are preferable for boiling, since the peels will come off easier.  Boiling, in fact, is an excellent use of eggs on the verge of passing their Best By date.
3. Not sure if your eggs are fresh?  Fill a large pot or bowl with water, and put them in.  If they sink, they're good; if they float, very delicately but decisively throw them out (the reason they float is that they have begun oxidizing).
4. Don't pay more for egg-shell color, which is determined by chicken color and does not affect taste or quality; instead, pay more for eggs from humanely-kept chickens!
5. How to hard-boil eggs with energy efficiency in mind: Fill a pot with cold tap water.  Place eggs in.  Sprinkle liberally with the cheapest salt you own (egg shells can crack, and the salt fills the cracks to keep the insides from leaking out).  Cover (optional step, but it helps them boil faster so saves energy).  Bring to a full rolling boil.  Cover if you haven't already and turn off heat.  Let sit 12 minutes.  Uncover and add a tray's worth of ice cubes.  Let sit 10 minutes.  Remove from water and place in fridge.  N.B.  This process takes less than 30 minutes, but requires you to hang out in the kitchen.
6. Secret ingredient to boil fresh eggs to help with peeling: 1 teaspoon baking soda. (h/t Summer Tomato for this excellent video--I always buy farm-fresh eggs and was losing lots of white when peeling.  This trick seriously works!)
7. Secret trick to separate eggs: Do it when they're cold and the whites are at their firmest, and then bring to room temperature to bake.
8. Have extra egg whites?  Eat them within 2-3 days, or freeze them in ice cube trays and store till ready to use in freezer.
9. Have extra egg yolks?  You can freeze them, too, but you need to liberally sprinkle them with sugar OR salt so that they keep their consistency--if you plan to make a lemon curd or flan with them, for instance, choose sugar.  You have to have a plan in mind for them to know which to choose.
10. Finally, don't be afraid of the cholesterol or other bad press eggs have gotten.  They are a great food for everyone but truly a dieter's friend. 

Here are some recipes that I recommend, all of which are easy and yummy:
A lowfat Egg Salad.
A lowfat version of Eggs in Purgatory.
My current favorite dessert, Lemon Curd Tart with Olive Oil.
A great use for summer's cherry tomatoes, Cherry Tomato Frittata (I use only half the parmesan, and then add hot sauce).

A Tip and a Tool for Friday

TIP  A full freezer is an efficient freezer, and here are some excellent, cost-effective ways to fill it!  Use a gallon-sized freezer bag to save all of your veggie scraps (such as garlic, onion, carrot, and celery ends) rather than throwing them in compost, or worse, throwing them away.   Just pull the bag out of the freezer and toss in these scraps whenever you cook!  When the bag is full, you can use these to make a brilliant homemade vegetable stock.  These bits are actually the best-tasting parts for making stock--so not only do you get more bang for your veggie dollar (more significant if you buy organic), you get some mighty good and pretty dang easy-to-make broth.

I normally combine the veggie-scrap bag with a chicken carcass bag (see below, though you can skip the chicken or add another set of meaty bones) in a large pot, add water to cover, bring to a boil and then simmer for hours. I make sure I add ginger if I have it (that freezer bag is a good place for ginger peels), and herb stems like parsley along the way (though don't get too crazy with the herbs), and peppercorns to the stock.  I never add salt, though.  Strain the broth when you're done, reserving the liquid and tossing all solids in the trash,  and then measure off amounts into glass jars (which I conserve rather than recycle).  Place them in the fridge for a few hours before placing them in the freezer to prevent glass-jar explosion, which spoils all the cooking love. (You can also fill ice cube trays with stock and then store these cubes in quart-sized freezer bags.)

If you prefer chicken stock, use another gallon-sized freezer bag to store raw or cooked portions of chicken.  Since whole chickens are cheaper anyway, simply buy one, chop it up for the usual parts, and throw the rest in the freezer bag.  Then throw leftover bones in there, too, rather than throwing them out. 

TOOL  If you work with dough at all, anything that needs to rest from corn tortillas to bread, King Arther's Dough Whisk will be your new best friend.  I confess I got mine in a happy accident--for some reason, it was included in a box of goodies I'd ordered, and I keep thanking the generosity of the employee every time I use it!  It is So. Much. Better. than a regular whisk--not only does its circular shape mix up dough faster and more thoroughly, but less dough sticks to it (and what does stick is much easier to clean off).  Truly one of my favorite favorite baking tools and a must have for any baker!

A Tip and a Tool for Friday

It's been a busy week, so this one is gonna be fast.

TIP A good rule for buying most vegetables, especially tomatoes in winter, is to go for the ones that feel heavy for their size.  For onions, choose smooth, taut skins over wrinkly ones.  For melons, well, as Dave Dietz at Central Market said: "Melons are like people: only God knows what's inside."

TOOL The Diamond Fingers Knife Sharpener has made my kitchen a much happier place recently (thankfully, all connection to Rachel Ray vanishes with the packaging, in case that's a concern).  When I first discovered David Lebovitz and surfed his blog, I knew I had struck gold when I found this amazing blog post on knives a mere month before my friend Missi was due to arrive.  She: rabid about knife sharpening and preservation.  Me: not so much. In fact, I had never sharpened my knives.  So, I bought the Oxo chef's knife and Blade Savers as David recommended (a damn good deal), a paring knife that Cook's Illustrated liked, and the Furi Fingers.  Oh the difference to me and my cooking to have rescued my knives from their dull stupor!  I thank David Lebovitz for his great and helpful blogging, and Missi for pulling me up to her standards.

A Tip and a Tool for Friday

This post is the first in a series that highlights useful kitchen tools and efficient cooking and baking tips; when possible, these tools and tips will emerge from the week's round of recipes.

A TIP  Use a teaspoon to scrape the skin off of fresh ginger; not only is this method faster than using a knife, you will sacrifice less ginger to the process.  And you get bonus points for throwing the ginger peels into a freezer bag in which you store veggie scraps for making stock!

A TOOL  If you do any baking at all that requires a rolling pin, this Silicone Rolling Mat from King Arthur's catalogue really cannot be beat: it provides an instant clean surface wherever you place it, its concentric circles allow you to roll out your naan, tortillas, and French Tomato Tart crust with ease, and if you need to roll dough for pretzels, challah, or Swedish Lucy Buns to a certain length, the sides are ruled, too.