The chef admits that she was not familiar with Rachael Ray’s “30 Minute Meals” when she started the project, or at least she’s too polite to say that hers are 30-minute meals that would make Thomas Keller say yummo: orzo with dried porcini mushrooms, radicchio and aged balsamic vinegar; white asparagus in brown butter topped with a fried egg and capers; key lime custards with crème fraîche. Some of the recipes came from fellow food professionals, like Ruth Reichl, the editor of Gourmet magazine, whose recipe for blueberry pie calls for frozen berries and a store-bought crust. “You talk to a chef who works all day and comes home hungry, these are the things they make,” Silverton said. “You don’t come home and do a braise.”

"frozen berries and store-bought crust"?! Sacre-mother fucking bleu.

Homemade pie dough freezes really well. It can be made in big batches, and stored in balls big enough for a crust. Blueberries are the one berry I can get year round. (They're a favorite topping for my steel cut oatmeal, which I cook in big batches and freeze in single servings.)

At the very least, one could make whole pies in batches, and freeze them to avoid the travesty of store-bought crust.

Key word: batches.
- mark 4-10-2007 12:39 am [add a comment]