So, last night our Alma Mater, The University of Kentucky Wildcats took on Ole Miss and walked away with a victory! Go Cats! In honor of The Cats Mrs. K and I had a Wildcat Fan couple over for an early dinner, beers and some tournament action. Mrs. K had her sparkling cider so that she could feel like one of the cool kids. For dinner I wanted to make some Kentucky culinary delights. Namely, Hot Browns and a Kentucky Silk Pie.
The Kenucky Hot Brown is an open faced sandwich created at the legendary Brown Hotel in downtown Louisville Kentucky. It consists of toasted bread, roasted turkey, tomatoes, a Mornay sauce, cheddar cheese and bacon. I hadn't had one of these little coronary destroying culinary delights in years and, like I've said before, when I crave something I just cook it!
To finish off the meal I prepared a Kentucky Silk Pie. Now, I don't know the history behind this dessert but it would be easy to assume the silk has something to do with the Kentucky Derby. You know, jockey's silks. I don't know considering A silk pie is a general Southern confection and could refer to the silky smoothness of the filling. But what makes this pie a little more special is the fact that the "crust" is not an ordinary butter dough or a graham cracker crust. Rather, it is a meringue that takes on the consistency of a candy of sorts. It is a really unique texture and would probably work with just about any custard pie filling.
So, let's take a look at the preparaions:
First things first, when whipping air into egg whites you want to make sure your mixing apparatus is free from any oils and fats. Since I know I've used this stand mixer many times whipping butter, cookie doughs, cake batters, etc and I hand wash all its parts I knew that there would be some traces of fat still in it. So, I use some white vinegar to wipe it all down to remove any oils.
Egg whites and cream of tartar gettin' busy. Did you know that Cream of Tartar is that crystalline stuff you sometimes find on the end of a wine cork? Next time you open a bottle take a peak. Chances are it will be there.
The Cream of Tartar helps the egg whites hold their stiff peaks. This is where you want to be for a meringue. Do not over whip or it will become dull and dry looking.
Once stiff peaks are achieved, add sugar slowly. Oh, and don't throw those yolks out, we are going to use them for our custard filling.
Meringue formed into a pic crust. After adding the sugar it should have a pearlescent sheen to it. Once you see it, you'll know what I mean. This is basically marshmallows except it doesn't have any gelatin in it. We'll talk about that on another day when I make a smoked s'mores pie. In to the oven this goes. I had some left over meringue so I made some meringue cookies as well.
When the double boiler comes out we know that there is going to be some serious whipping involved. In this case, I made a chocolate custard thickened with flour and egg yolks.
Milk, cocoa and some Bourbon for that traditional Kentucky flavor. I had to use cocoa powder because I completely forgot to get some unsweetened bittersweet chocolate. The cocoa powder did its job but the flavor is not very distinctive. Had I used a quality chocolate I think that the filling would have come out much better.
Liquid added to flour and sugar on top of the double boiler.
Don't stop mixing or you will get clumps and crusties all in this. It's amazing just how thick this custard gets with just a little bit of flour in the recipe.
Flour "gelatinized" and egg yolks added and cooked into the mix. Oh, I added a nub of butter to kinda round out the sweetness of the custard.
Meringue shell baked at 225 F for an hour and dried out in a warm oven for another hour as well as bruleed with a torch to give it a bit of a campfire marshmallow flavor.
Ready for the filling which I let cool and fill just before service. I didn't take any pics of the finished product for some reason. I don't know why but use your imagination. It looked like the above picture with a brownish filling. Oh, also, I added a bit of whipped cream very lightly sweetened.
Now, on to the Hot Browns:
For the Mornay Sauce I added grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. I mean the real stuff. The Kraft "Parmesan" Cheese just doesn't cut it for me. I mean, c'mon, they can't even spell Parmigiano correctly. So, yet again, an American marketing person takes another country's greatest culinary contribution and butchers the name. "Crescent" roll anyone? So, buy yourself a wedge of the real stuff, it's a little pricey but well worth it and if left in the block form, it will last for months in the fridge. Just shave off whatever you need and rewrap it. You can even pretend you are a server at Olive Garden. You know you have the real stuff if the rind of the cheese says "Parmigiano Reggiano" in little laser etched dots.
So, roux made, flour cooked a bit and milk is added and whipped feverishly to avoid lumps.
Once the sauce is smooth and cooked out, add the Parm:
Whenever I get a Hot Brown at a restaurant, the tomatoes are generally raw. Well, I hate tepid food so I went ahead and sauteed the 'maters in a little Olive Oil to give them some caramelization and to cook them through. Oh, when I cook with tomatoes I take the seeds out by cutting the vine end off and jamming either a chopstick or my finger into the compartments to get the seeds out. I mean, in general, the seeds don't add anything to the party anyway and it would take much longer to get color on the tomatoes due to all the water.
Is this as boring as watching bread toast?
So, here's a little trick to cooking bacon at the house without having to degrease the kitchen afterwards. I use a griddle pan and line the bacon up all nice and neat. I cover the bacon with parchment paper and then cover the paper with a half sheet tray. The sheet tray keeps the bacon nice and flat as well as making spattering bacon grease non existent.
Trust me, the parchment paper will not catch on fire. Oh, and DO NOT USE WAX PAPER. It is a completely different animal than parchment paper. Parchment is silicone impregnated paper. Don't ask me how that's done but it is what it is. Wax paper is paper coated with wax which WILL MELT onto your food. Now, it is completely benign and non-toxic but unless you want your food to taste like ski wax, don't cook with it.
Using a microwave to cook bacon is ultra convenient but for some reason, I think that a lot of the flavor gets zapped out of the bacon. I don't know if it's the paper towels that suck the fat out of and away from the belly or what. I think that cooking bacon slowly in its own fat really keeps all that bacony goodness intact
So, a base of toast, I actually snuck in grilled cheese sandwiches instead since the bread that I got was too thin for one slice and may be a bit cumbersome to eat if there were two slices. I went to the Publix bakery and asked them if they had any Pullman loaves and the lady looked at me with a blank stare and as if I had just asked her for some donkey bungs, or something. I know all of my readers know what a Pullman loaf is but for the sake of rambling: A Pullman loaf is a white sandwich bread a little denser than just plain old sandwich bread. It has square shoulders and is the perfect white bread for sandwiches, in my opinion. If anyone has access to an asian bakery get yourself a loaf of Japanese Pan. It is a very similar dough, a little sweeter and is just amazing stuff. Soft, yet dense.
Mornay Sauce on top, a sprinkling of cheddar, broiled and topped with some smokey, crispy bacon and green onions.
Kinda makes you want to go to Kentucky doesn't it? If you can't get to the Bluegrass State. Don't fret. Just make this dish at home and you'll be whistling "My Old Kentucky Home" in no time. Oh, by the way, The Wildcats pulled off another victory today! Go Cats!
Nicely done Kang. Big expectations for the next post due to the Final Four weekend and the arrival of Foster.
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