Trinculo's Cafe: Exploring the Epicurean with The Stray Gourmet
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Trinculo's Cafe has won the
award!
June 24, 2002
Some years ago, when we were extremely active in community affairs, our local
library mounted an ambitious $1+M fund-raising campaign. Living in a tight-
fisted, conservative, generally non-intellectual community, we trustees of
the library knew it was going to be an uphill struggle to find generous local
donors to pony up the necessary funds to match the government grant for which
we qualified. The town fathers had already informed us that they weren't
inclined to foot much, if any, of the bill for something they considered
frivolous as well as unnecessary.
The library trustees (a disparate group if there ever was one, consisting
of a political wannabe, a real estate agent, an eccentric gentleman farmer
and spouse, a society matron, a globetrotting, book-loving animal rehabilitator
and our own jill-of-all-trades self - all of us burdened with a bipolar
librarian) put our heads together and tried anything and everything to pull in
a suffiency of funds to secure that government grant.
The gentleman farmer's wife volunteered to write applications for other grants,
the society matron promised to come up with an irresistible mailing to bring
the dollars rolling in, the animal rehabilitator planned a gigantic book sale,
the Friends of the Library sponsored bake sales and junk sales and handcrafted
item sales. There was even a coffeehouse in the basement of the Congregational
church featuring live music, gourmet coffee and homemade goodies that was
moderately successful. But what were we here at the Lazy F to do?
Well, being the foodies that we are, we dug around a bit and found a recipe
contest sponsored by Newman's Own that promised cash awards for non-profit
organizations for the best recipes incorporating a Newman's Own product.
We were off and running. Baking being our particular passion, we concocted the
following recipe using Newman's Own Old-Fashioned Roadside Virgin Lemonade
(now there's a marketing mouthful!). We were sure this delightful
summery treat couldn't miss.
Well, miss it did. We didn't win anything from Newman's Own but a paper-
bound book full of the prize-winning recipes. However, we still think
our recipe is a winner, and herewith offer it to you for your critical
assessment.
(By the way, don't feel obligated to use Newman's Own Old Fashioned
Roadside Virgin Lemonade. We just like the name of the recipe).
July 4, 2002
P.S.: Dot the whipped cream with blueberries for a red, white & bluelicious
4th of July treat!
Sophisticated Virgin Pie
Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 stick (4 TBSP) unsalted butter
1/4 cup lemonade
2 squares (2 oz.) bittersweet baking chocolate
Mix flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender
or fingers until mixture forms coarse crumbs. Sprinkle with lemonade, stir
lightly with a fork and gather dough into a ball. Roll out to fit 9" pie
pan. Place dough in pan, trim crust and flute or crimp edge. Prick all over
with a fork and bake 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool thoroughly.
Melt chocolate, stir well and spread on bottom and sides of cooled crust.
Chill in freezer until filling is prepared.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Filling:
1 1/2 pints fresh raspberries
3/4 cup lemonade, divided usage
1 cup granulated sugar
1 envelope (1/4 oz.) unflavored gelatine
Reserve a dozen or so raspberries for garnish. Store in refrigerator until
ready to use.
Place balance of berries in a medium saucepan with 1/2 cup of the lemonade
and the sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and
simmer, continuing to stir from time to time, until slightly thickened
(approximately 15-20 minutes). While mixture simmers, soften the gelatine
in the remaining lemonade. Add to the filling when thickened. Cool slightly,
pour into the chilled pie crust and refrigerate 3-4 hours.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Topping:
1 1/2 cups heavy or whipping cream
1 TBSP powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Reserved raspberries
2 TBSP chocolate sauce (optional)
Just prior to serving the pie, beat the cream, powdered sugar and vanilla
together until peaks form. Spread on top of pie. Garnish with reserved
raspberries and drizzle lightly with chocolate sauce if desired.
A slice of paradise for 8-10 lucky people!
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Until next time, see you around the galaxy.
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