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How I eat local: American pie

pie I’ve never met Paula Haney, but I definitely have a crush. She’s the baker behind Hoosier Mama Pie Company, a tiny gem of a shop on Chicago Avenue near Ashland in Chicago. I visited her shop not too long ago and was flooded with memories of my grandmother’s pie.

Grandma O’Brien’s lemon meringue pie was what put me on my path to being a local eating enthusiast and farm advocate. As a child, eating pie in her kitchen, I discovered a lemon seed, and was struck that she must have used real lemons, not the vibrant plastic jar with the bright green cap. In a time when everything processed was considered better, I noticed — for the first time — that there was another way.

Local purists will pooh-pooh seeing a recipe for lemon pie written by someone in the Midwest, but even though the farmers markets have opened, we have absolutely no fruit yet, not even rhubarb, and we can still get good citrus from Florida and California. After all, if we ate completely local we would never have chocolate or coffee, or vanilla to make ice cream. Mindfulness is the important thing to me, and it’s important to make knowledgeable choices about our ingredients.

Just as important as the ingredients, it’s also important to preserve our foodways, in this case handmade pies. Paula and Hoosier Mama represent the best of this approach. They use all butter and roll each crust by hand, and the recipes are based on Paula’s research into vintage cookbooks.

So buy a lot of Paula’s pies, or find your own local pie baker. Or even try making your own from my grandmother’s recipe. It’s a delicious way to eat local.

Grandma O’Brien’s lemon meringue pie

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook

For 9-inch pie

1 baked 9-inch pastry shell

Filling

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

7 tablespoons cornstarch

dash salt

1 1/2 cups water

3 beaten egg yolks, room temperature

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup lemon juice

Meringue

3 egg whites, room temperature

1 teaspoon lemon juice

6 tablespoons granulated sugar

In saucepan over medium high heat, combine sugar, conrstarch and salt. Stir in water. Bring to boil and cook, stirring constantly, until thick, about five minutes.

Remove from heat. Stir small amount of hot mixture into egg yolks, then return yolks into the pan, stirring contantly. Add lemon peel and butter. Slowly stir in lemon juice. Cool to lukewarm and pour into cooled pastry shell.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat egg whites with teaspoon lemon juice until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, beating until stiff. Spread meringe over filling, sealing to the edges of pastry to avoid shrinking. Bake until meringue is golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. Cool thoroughly before serving.

Disclosure: the picture is of Paula’s lemon meringe pie. Can’t guarantee grandma’s 1953 recipe will look the same.

And more about local eating:

How I eat local: artisan honey

How I eat local: community supported agriculture

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Tags: pie

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 9:36 am and is filed under Local eats, Recipe posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

2 Responses to “How I eat local: American pie”

Jill, The Veggie Queen says:
May 13th, 2009 at 9:34 am
I am not a big fan of lemon, or any other, pie but I so agree with your comment about mindfulness and making choices. When I eat chocolate, I choose fair-trade, organic as it supports people in cacao-growing regions, and they need that. Same for tea. I am not giving up either of those any time soon. When it comes to vegetables and fruit, I eat what’s in season but I live in California so I can do it all year.
Thanks for sharing.
Andrea says:
May 14th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Lemon Meringue is my dad’s favourite! This one looks delish.