Long weekend provides time to experiment with lemon pie, corn recipes

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Sep 22, 2004 by TERESA J. FARNEY Staff Food columnist

There's nothing like a long weekend and a chill in the air to make me want to do a bit of experimental cooking.

And that's exactly what I did over Labor Day weekend. I dug through a stack of clipped recipes, as well as ones from friends I had promised myself I'd make someday, to test them out.

The first two, from a Denver newspaper, didn't work out so well. One was for a superrich coffee cake; the other was for peach bread pudding. They tasted fine, but both overfilled the pan and boiled all over the oven.

Did I mention the recipes were from chefs? You've got to watch out for those. Although chefs are obviously marvelous cooks, they often don't accurately record what they think they are doing. In the case of these recipes, they hadn't managed to adapt them successfully for the home cook.

One triumph was a chili stew recipe from Alton Brown of The Food Network. It required making my own chili powder -- a wild concoction of several dried chiles, cumin seeds and other spices.

It was a key ingredient in the pressure-cooked stew, which uses chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. The stew meat included a mix of beef, pork and lamb. The result was a thick, rich, slightly peppery, hot-tasting dish.

I will definitely make the chili a lot this winter. Now that I have a stash of the chili powder, it'll be a snap to whip together.

However, I'll stick with using just beef. I'm sure the pork and lamb offered some layers of flavor, but for the little bit of meat I cut from the stew bones, it was a waste of time and money. I'd rather buy stew meat that is already cubed and ready for cooking.

Two other recipes proved successful: lemon meringue pie and baked corn-on-the-cob.

I got the recipe for Bob Hope's Favorite Lemon Meringue Pie from a friend. The pie filling was the standard recipe: sugar, cornstarch, water, egg yolks, lemon juice and vanilla. It was just the meringue that was different. It uses marshmallow crme instead of sugar. The egg whites are beaten to soft peaks and the crme is added in and beaten until it forms stiff peaks.

Perfect results! It didn't weep or shrink from the edges, and it tasted excellent. There wasn't a trace of granulated grit that might linger when regular sugar is used.

Finally, I made a baked cornon-the-cob, a recipe that also came from a friend. It's a takeoff of the corn-on-a-stick that vendors sell from pushcarts in Central Mexico. The vendor dresses the cob with a choice of mayonnaise, a liberal sprinkling of salt and chili powder and a squirt of lime juice.

My friend's recipe calls for mayo, lime juice, chopped jalapeo and cilantro. You brush husked corn with the mixture, rolled it in buttered bread crumbs, place it on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

It sounded great, but I did a little improvising. I had recently spotted a new herb line, Gourmet Garden. Its herbs are chopped and ready to squeeze from tubes.

I used the cilantro and their red chili tubes instead of jalapeo to flavor my mayo. It was much faster than washing and chopping the pepper and cilantro, and there was a lot more flavor. The chili pepper from the tube was red -- rather than green like jalapeo -- which made for a colorful mixture to brush on the corn. I also used some jalapeo and garlic toasts for the bread crumbs.

Look for Gourmet Garden herb tubes ($3.99 each) in the produce section of grocery stores. I found mine at Safeway.

I liked this product so much that I'm going to pick up the other varieties: basil, garlic, ginger and lemongrass.

Above are the recipes that worked so beautifully.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0271 or tfarney@gazette.com

BOB HOPE'S LEMON PIE

Yield: 8 servings

1 (9-inch) baked pastry shell

FILLING:

1 1/3 cups sugar

6 tablespoons cornstarch

Dash of salt

1 1/4 cups boiling water

3 egg yolks, beaten

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons margarine

2 teaspoons lemon zest

MERINGUE:

3 egg whites

Dash of salt

1 (7-ounce) jar marshmallow crme

Procedure: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. For filling, combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in saucepan. Gradually add boiling water. Return to boil, stirring constantly, and cook 1 minute, or until mixture is clear and thickened. Stir small amount of hot mixture into beaten egg yolks; return to hot mixture. Cook over medium heat 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in lemon juice, margarine and lemon rind. Pour into prepared pastry shell.

3. For meringue, beat egg whites and dash of salt until soft peaks form. Gradually add marshmallow crme, beating until stiff peaks form. Spread over filling. Bake 12-15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool completely before serving.

Nutrition data per serving: Calories 419 (27 percent from fat); 12.4 g fat (sat 3 g, mono 5.7 g, poly 2.8 g); protein 4 g; carbohydrates 75 g; fiber .41 g; cholesterol 82 mg; sodium 275 mg; calcium 17 mg.

Source: Arina Drakulich

AB'S CHILI POWDER

Yield: Makes 1/2 cup

3 dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded and sliced