Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Pie

Rhubarb is something new that I've gotten into since moving to Minnesota. I'm not sure why I never tried it before, but I think it was people constantly saying how sour it was. My mother-in-law made some great dishes, however, so this year when the rhubarb was ripe behind our our 'country' house, Chris picked some for me to experiment with. For my first baking experiment with rhubarb, I wanted something that was a classic, and what's more classic than strawberry-rhubarb pie? Unfortunately, pie is not totally my thing. I don't have the knack for the crust like my Aunt Lori does, and I don't have the talent at lattice work like my mother-in-law. Luckily, though, I came across this recipe by Joy the Baker, and was brave enough to try it. The crust (amazingly!) turned out really flaky and the filling was sweet but not overpowering. Plus, who doesn't love a great oaty crumble on top? (I particularly liked it because it saved me from having to roll out a top!) I decided to bring the finished product into work with me, and let's just say, it was gone by lunchtime. So, if you have some time on an afternoon to bake and putter, then give this recipe a try!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Adapted slightly from Joy the Baker 

Ingredients:

For the Crust:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounce) COLD unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
juice of 1/3 lemon
1/4 cup milk 

For the Filling:
3 cups rhubarb sliced into 0.5cm chunk (sorry, we measure skin lesions in millimeters, so that's what I'm used to....) 
1 pound (1 box) strawberries with the green part cut off and then cut in half
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
large pinch of salt 
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

For the Topping:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup granulated sugar
large pinch of salt 
large pinch of cinnamon 
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks

Directions:

Make the crust:
1.) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. Add the cold butter chunks and either using your fingers or a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour mixture until the butter pieces are the size of small peas or oat flakes. Pour in the lemon and the milk and use your hands or a fork to bring together coarsely. Don't over do it. You're not kneading dough here. Just try to moisten all of the flour bits. 
2.) Flour a work-surface and dump the pie crust mixture onto the work surface, shape it into a small disk (can be quite coarse), and then wrap that in plastic wrap and put into the fridge for 1 hour. 
3.) When ready, roll out the pie crust on a well floured surface until it's about 1/8 inch thick and 12 inches across. Transfer to a pie plate. Trim the edges and fold with your fingers to make a pretty design. Place in the fridge. 

Make the Filling:
4.) In a medium bowl, toss together the rhubarb, strawberries, sugars, cornstarch, lemon, and salt. Mix until all the fruit/rhubarb is covered with the sugars and cornstarch. Allow to rest as you make the crumble topping. 

Make the Topping:
5.) In another bowl, mix together the flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add the cold butter chunks and work them into the flour mixture by hand until the butter is the size of peas. 

Assemble the Pie:
6.) Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
7.) Remove the pie crust from the fridge.
8.) Take a big handful of the topping mixture and put it into the fruit mixture. Stir. 
9.) Pour the fruit mixture into the pie crust. Sprinkle the crumble evenly on top of the fruit mixture. 
10.) Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and place it on the bottom rack of the oven (this will catch any drippings and prevent them from burning and stinking up your oven). Place the pie on the middle rack of the oven (v. important that it's the middle rack). 
11.) Bake the pie at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 and bake for 35-40 minutes longer, or until the pie is juicy, bubbling, and golden brown. 
12.) Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 2 hours before serving. This will help congeal the juices and allow them to mellow. 
13.) Serve with vanilla ice cream or store in the fridge. 

This will seriously make your house smell wonderful. 

Homemade Pasta

Maybe the cooking / baking slump is over? Today, I decided for Sunday dinner (by myself since the hubs is up camping with his high school friends) to make pasta from scratch. I had tried in the past to make pasta and always horribly failed or never got it thin enough. Then last year, one of my co-interns, Dr. Erin, kindly invited me over to her house and went through the ins and outs of how to make a great pasta. It took me a little time to get down all the steps again, but once I got my muscle memory going, the pasta turned out great. It's actually quite easy and doesn't take that long once you get the hang of it. The results are so worth it. Homemade pasta tastes so much better than the boxed stuff. Plus, you can throw in any herb or even finely chopped sundried tomatoes to make an exquisite dish. Here's the recipe and the steps: 

Homemade Pasta (basic)

Ingredients:

4 eggs 

4 cups of all-purpose flour 

4-6 Tablespoons of water. 

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients into a bowl or mixer affixed with a dough hook and mix until the ingredients just start to come together into little clumps. It should be VERY crumbly. 

2. Take a about a baseball sized amount of crumbly dough and pack it together into a little flat-topped mound:

3. Squish this mound through your dough machine at the widest setting (mine is 7). It should come out like a really coarse, fat piece of pasta dough:

3. Fold this piece of dough into halves or thirds to make another little packet of dough:

Run this through the pasta machine at the same wide setting. 

4. Now you should have a smoother, but still thick piece of pasta dough. If you don't, keep folding and running the packet through the dough machine at the widest setting until there are no "runs" or other major imperfections in the dough. (It doesn't have to be perfectly smooth, but shouldn't have any holes, etc.) It should look something like this: 

5. Now, once you have a piece of pasta like this, you WILL NOT fold it any more before putting it through the pasta maker. You'll just put one end in and glide it through. So, put the pasta through the maker, again (one more time) on the widest setting to smoothen it out. Then, adjust the setting to the next narrowest and run the pasta through end-to-end (no folding). Keep doing this with one or two passes per each narrowing of settings until you get down a thickeness that you like. (I don't like to use the smallest setting. I usually stop a little before that). It often helps to have two sets of hands helping as the pasta sheet gets longer:  One to crank the machine and one to feed the dough / catch the dough on the other end to ensure that it goes through smoothly. Eventually, you will end up with a REALLY long piece of thin perfect pasta dough! 

6. Now, you can use this piece of pasta to make raviloli or lasagna, or you can run it through the "chopper" part of the pasta maker and make it into strands of spaghetti or linguine. 

7. Once you have your pasta, cut it to the desired length and either boil it right away for 3-4 minutes or hang it on hangers to dry and then store in the fridge for another day. 

Enjoy!!