Buenos Aires – Okay, the title doesn’t really mean anything, at least the spider part, I just liked the play on the movie title. I’m giving another shot at a dinner party tonight. Rather than make one massive posting, I thought I’d break it into pieces. Since yesterday was Labor Day in the U.S. (here the closest equivalent is May Day, but it’s different), I thought I’d go with a picnic sort of theme. Plus, my friend Michael who’s coming tonight has been craving fried chicken for months since moving here. The menu? Deviled eggs, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and lemon kiss pie.
I mentioned the pie several weeks ago in response to the poor selection of lemon pies available here. The granular, jello-ish texture that reminds me much of a sandy superball just wasn’t doing it for me. In New York, I used to go to a restaurant on the Bowery called Marion’s Continental just for their Lemon Kiss Pie and a cup of coffee. Then they stopped making it. In desperation, I sent them an e-mail a couple of weeks ago and Richard, Marion’s son, was kind enough not only to respond quickly, but provide me with a copy of the recipe and, in his words, “Share! We need more sharing these days.” Since the pie needs to chill overnight, I made it last evening, snapped a couple of photos (fired one off to Richard who claims to be jealous now – well, hey, he can put it back on the menu…), and now, with his permission, share the recipe. (I do plan to top it with a little whipped cream this eve.)
Crust-
In a processor, process:
¼ cup sugar
¼ pound of butter chilled and cubed
add
1 egg and pulse
add
1½ cups of flour and pulse until like pebblesPress into a 9″ springform pan and hold in the fridge
Lemon Filling-
1¼ sticks of butter melted (140 grams)
8 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons of grated lemon peel
1-1/3 cups of fresh squeezed lemon juiceIn a mixer, beat eggs and sugar; add lemon peel; on low, alternate butter and juice; pour into crust and bake 35-40 minutes at 350°F and chill overnight.
I will note that I don’t have a food processor here at the moment, so I did everything by hand. Let’s face it, people were making pies long before pulsing became de rigeur. Couldn’t find a springform pan anywhere here in the neighborhood, but found this nice ceramic pie plate, and I think it probably looks better this way anyway!
[…] For dessert, the crostata de limon caught my eye. But I’ve been fooled before here, with various versions of this more or less lemon pie. However, when my waiter tried to talk me out of it by telling me that it was very lemony and was “missing” the “proper” pile of merengue on top, I knew I was in for a treat. And I was – this was bright, lemony, delicious, and not masked by the sugary egg white mound atop. It was nearly as good as the recipe that I got and tried out last year from Marion’s in New York. Okay, maybe not. But it was darned good! […]
[…] Working backwards, even though we didn’t eat that way and just because I feel like it, the pie was Marion’s Lemon Kiss Pie that I made last year for Labor Day, which is a personal favorite. It think some folk find it almost a touch too intense, but that’s exactly what I like about it. Michael thinks it needs meringue, a substance I’m not fond of, so it’s never going to have that on it when I make it. But maybe a little whipped cream… something to consider I suppose. […]
[…] tart, and, as I commented below the original posting, decided to sandwich within them, the lemon kiss pie filling I’ve made a few times before. I partially pre-baked the crust, just about 10 minutes, […]
[…] ago I’d contacted the owner of Marion’s Continental restaurant in New York to get their recipe for Lemon Kiss Pie, and Richard was nice enough to send it to me. It’s truly a spectacular lemon pie – really, I […]
[…] minor twist on the Lemon Kiss Tart that I’ve made in various guises many times before – this time with half and half lemon and […]
[…] I’ve been having fun with classic tarts lately – if you look back at the recipe for the Lemon Kiss Tart that I’ve made before – it was that crust, done in small tartlet shells, and the […]
[…] briefly simmered with some sugar. The filling, quite simple, I used the same recipe I use for the lemon curd tart from Marion’s, just substituting strained passion fruit juice for the lemon juice and leaving out the zest […]
[…] some traditional flavors for dessert, but nothing like one them – a lemon tartlet flavored with grated ginger and cardamom, dusted with a sugar, cardamom and ground ginger mix, and […]
[…] with my chocolate lemon tart, done as small tartlets this time. A cocoa based crust topped with a lemon filling, then after cooled, a dark chocolate ganache, and finally candied lemon […]
[…] any ideas for food to me. In the end, journal became juniper, and that was about it. I made a lemon tart and then topped it with slices of nectarines that were macerated in a juniper syrup – sugar […]
[…] book, a lemon and almond tart, and it reminded me of one I haven’t made in a very long time, Lemon Kiss Pie. It’s a very intensely lemony tart. Topped with whipped cream and toasted almonds. I […]
[…] Lemon curd tart, roasted blueberries, grated white chocolate. […]
[…] NYC restaurants have gotten stratospherically expensive). I was headed initially to have lunch at Marion’s Continental, but turns out they’re not open for lunch (didn’t they used to be? or maybe it was just […]
[…] many years now I’ve been making the lemon tart I learned from the owner of Marion’s in New York. Over time I’ve changed it a bit […]