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I had a little time
while the dressing was cooking on Thanksgiving, 1998. Since John
loves Key Lime Pie, I concocted one using what I had. I think
it was a hit. We have a small 'citrus grove' in our yard, this
is the first year planted trees. The Key Lime tree never produced
any fruit, but the Ponderosa Lemon and Miewa Kumquat both made
enough fruit for us to sample. I refused to pick the Meiwas until
I had just the right thing to do with them. Fall - Winter is the
season they ripen if you'd like to duplicate this from store bought
fruit.
1/2 dz kumquats These
are about 1/2 the size of a golf ball.
1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3 eggs, slightly beaten
3 cups milk (i had
cold goat milk)
1/4 cup key lime juice
2 tbsp cornstarch plus
1/4 cup milk to blend
4 tsp tequila (!!)
baked pie shell
Directions:
This amount made enough
for one deep dish pie and a little 'custard' left over for something
else, about 3/4 cup left.
A graham cracker shell
would have been much better, but I used what I had. It did get
soggy, even though I baked it first.
Halve the kumquats,
remove seeds and press out the small pulp. Put pulp and skins
in a strainer. Lower into the milk in a saucepan. Slowly bring
to a simmer.
Blend eggs, sugar and
salt until well blended and creamy.
Remove the strainer
from the milk and add egg mixture to the milk along with the thickener
(blend cornstarch with milk)
Add the key lime juice.
Note, the milk will break a little, but cook it till the cornstarch
starts to thicken the whole liquid. Will eventually make a custard.
I scooped out the
little flesh from the kumquats and added back to the milk (now
custard), an even better method would have been to grate some
of the skin in for color and added flavor, too. (For presentation,
this probably should have been left smooth.)
Just before pouring
into the baked pieshell, add the tequila. I wanted a flavoring
but knew that
something sweet like vanilla would not have worked.
Bake at 400* for about
10 minutes to set up, then lower to 300*.
I used a bain marie
and baked for about 50 more minutes.
Actually, I had the
oven temperature varying, as I was warming a turkey on low, and
cooking dressing at a higher temp for awhile. You may have to
add more water to the water-bath, use hot water, if necessary.
I just turned the oven
off and allowed to set up and cool, but this is much better, firmer
custard, etc, if you allow it to chill several hours before serving.
Very light flavor, not very sweet. Unusual and pretty good! I
haven't searched any recipe files yet, but to my knowledge, this
may be a first? nah, surely not!
If you try this recipe,
please let me know how yours turns out!
Text
and images copyright 1998 Martha
Wells
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