Meet Bill!

I have mentioned Nigella Lawson as being an inspiration for my baking. Bill Granger is my recently encountered inspiration for cooking. His dishes are simple, easy and quick to make, yet give quite an experience to someone trying them.
Oh, and what is more, even my above mentioned husband finds his food "edible" - which in his dictionary means that it is lovely. What more can a girl dream of?

Although I've mainly tried savoury dishes from my two BG books, now I chose to make a sweet pie from Open Kitchen. I'm trying to be a good girl, you see: fruit is healthy, isn't it? And this is a fruit pie with peaches and blackberries. The idea to bake this came to me when I realized that I haven't made anything from pears this season. And I had half a box of frozen blackberries to clear out from my freezer. So I thought I'd use this recipe and substitute pears for peaches.

Pear and blackberry pie

For the shortcrust pastry:
500g plain flour
60g icing sugar
a pinch of salt
360g butter
125g sour cream

For the filling:
1kg firm pears
150g blackberries
1 tbsp lemon juice
115g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp cornflour (or starch)
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp caster sugar (I used raw cane)

I threw everything but the sour cream in the food processor and blitzed until the mixture resembled coarse breadcrumbs. Added the sour cream (bit by bit) until the mixture came together in a ball. Divided in two, packed in plastic wrap and refridgerated for about 30 min.

By the time I put the pastry in the fridge the blackberries had thawn. I peeled and cut the pears in wedges and mixed with the berries in a colander on a bowl to reserve the juices (I added the juice from the blackberries as well). I spritzed them with lemon, vanilla extract and sprinkled them with sugar. Since the pears were hard there was no need to let them sit in the colander for more than 30 minutes, I thought. Then I transferred the juices from the bowl to a pan and boiled it until it thickened. I mixed the corn starch with 1 tbsp warm water and added. Then I poured all this in the bowl and mixed in the fruit.

On a lightly dusted surface I rolled out both pastry balls 5mm thick and transferred it to a 27cm pie tin (the recipe called for a 23cm but I only had this one) then I added the fruits. Isn't it a lovely colour?



Then I folded over the overhanging pieces, brushed with egg yolk and covered with the other pastry. Some cuts with a sharp knife on top and it was ready for the fridge for a 30 min chill.

In the meantime I heated the oven to 200C, put in a tray for 10 min, then transferred the pie (brushed with more egg yolk and sprinkled with raw cane sugar) to the tray and baked for 30 min. After lowering the temperature to 180C, it remained in the oven for 30 min (and some extra mins to get a more golden top).

So, the result was this lovely golden pie, with lots of fruit inside. Really yummy, but next time I'd serve it with vanilla ice cream as Bill suggested or with custard.

As I had two egg whites left and I hate wasting food even if it's only two insignificant egg whites, I whipped up some meringues.

Coffee meringues

2 egg whites
80-90 g superfine caster sugar
1 tsp ground coffee (not instant!)
few drops of red wine vinegar
a pinch of cardamom
1 tsp cocoa, sieved

Proceed as usual.