Soba Noodles in Turkey, Shiitake, Soy and Miso Cod Broth

This is the best and most delicious food ever. It is pure comfort. All the accumulated juices from the dashi or seafood stock, plus the dumplings and the cod will have dripped into the steamer pot, making it the perfect broth for noodles. Now all you do is add soba noodles (I used spelt soba, which is really not soba, since soba means buckwheat) to the broth, bring the pot to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook until the noodles are al dente, about 7 minutes. DO NOT DRAIN the broth. That is sacrilege.

Traditionally the large pot would be in the middle of the kitchen table, so family could all participate in the cooking and take their own servings straight out of the pot. Mmm...hot pot. The broth will be rich and often meaty, and the mix of flavours is completely unique each time.

To serve the noodles, place a bit in individual bowls, or let diners take their own and then ladle the broth over the noodles. I ended up with not quite enough broth, which was sad, and I had to dilute with some leftover vegetable broth. If you boil your dumplings instead of steaming them, you'll also get a much more intense flavour from the meat and the soy sauce in the fillings that leaches out into the boiling liquid. The noodles should be slurped up with the broth. The hit of liquid kind of tunes your stomach into the fact that you're full (or tricks you into thinking you're full if the meal has been small, a useful trick when a family can't afford a lot of meat and vegetables) and you'll end the meal feeling warm and satisfied. Don't worry about thinking it's weird to end a meal with pasta. It's perfectly traditional. If you want more flavour you can drag the noodles through the sauce you mixed on your plate for the dumplings, like chile paste, hoisin or soy. Enjoy.

Brilliant, brilliant Asian cuisine...

Miso-Marinated Cod with Sake and Lychees

I looked for black cod, but it wasn't available in Newfoundland. Atlantic cod, however, was a different story. I could get about 2lbs of it for $6...how is that reasonable? I mean, it's way too reasonable. It can't possibly be sustainable.

For this dish you need to make a marinade and then a sauce for the cooked fish. Make the marinade first because you'll need 3 tbsp of it for the sauce. The lychee juice was leftover from making the lychee frozen yogurt and since it's hard to find mirin in Newfoundland I thought it would be a good substitute. It sounds very exotic and it was a very delicious substitution.

Miso Marinade
1/4 cup sake (don't buy anything fancy or special. A cooking sake or the standard big bottle of Hakutsuru is fine)
1/3 cup lychee juice or mirin
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup miso (preferably "shiro" miso - white miso)

Whisk together the miso and sugar in the top of a double boiler (I used a stainless steel mixing bowl placed on top of a medium saucepan. Fill the sauce pan with a little water and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium or medium-low to keep the water at a simmer). Add the sake and lychee juice, and whisk to combine.

Cook and whisk over simmering water, stirring frequently until sugar dissolves and the colour begins to darken (about 30 to 45 minutes). That's what the recipe says, but mine didn't darken so much. I used a different kind of miso and it was already fairly dark. So I just let it cook for 45 minutes and I was fine. You can't do this directly in the saucepan because miso shouldn't be boiled. It kills the good things in it, or so I thought. The double boiler is annoying, but worth it. After 45 minutes, remove the bowl from the saucepan and the saucepan from the heat and let it cool. Reserve 4 tbsp for the sauce below (the recipe only calls for 3 tbsp but keep 1 tbsp extra aside in case you need to make the sauce sweeter by adding more) and pour the rest of the cooled marinade over the cod in a large sealed container or covered casserole dish. Make sure all the cod is covered in the marinade, and if it isn't completely covered, try to remember to turn it at least once during its marinating period to make sure every part of the fish gets to luxuriate in miso. Place the fish in the fridge overnight or for at least 30 minutes.

Lychee Sauce:
1 cup dashi or fish stock
1/2 cup mirin or lychee juice
1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari
3 tbsp Saiko Miso (above)
1 tsp yuzu juice (or lemon, or lemon mixed with grapefruit and orange, but it's only a teaspoon so don't worry about it)

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat (here I don't understand why you can suddenly boil the miso. Sure, it's only supposed to be a simmer, but I don't quite get it. Perhaps the double boiler above is just so the sauce doesn't burn from direct heat over the long cooking time?). Let simmer gently for about ten minutes and taste. You want a good balance of salty, sweet and tangy. To make it sweeter add more Saikyo Miso (make sure you've reserved an extra tablespoon before pouring it over the fish. You can't use it once its touched the fish, since the bacteria won't be killed from any more cooking), or a bit of sugar (if you didn't reserve enough miso. I forgot to reserve extra and got stuck with less flavourful sugar). Be careful adding extra yuzu for more tang. It can be very pungent, so a little goes a long way.

Cooking the fish:
After making the dumplings you'll have a pot or two of boiling water. Remove the cod fillets from their dish in the fridge when you start cooking the dumplings. This will bring the fish to room temperature but won't let it sit at room temperature long enough for any bacteria to take over. When you're done with the dumplings, add the fish to the steamer apparatus, cover the pot(s), and let the fish steam about 5 minutes over simmering water (medium or medium-low heat). The fish is done when the flesh flakes easily with a fork and is no longer translucent. It shouldn't be tough or dry either. If the fish isn't done, just let it steam for a minute or so longer.

To serve the fish, remove it from the steamer to a serving platter and pour some or all of the Lychee Sauce on top.

So Many Dumplings: Turkey and scallion & Shiitake and Bamboo Shoots

Ground Turkey and Scallion Dumplings

The first course of the Asian-Inspired Dinner Party meal for 8 was a whole lot of dumplings:

Turkey and Scallion Dumplings
2 lbs ground turkey
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
2 tbsp green onions, chopped
2 tbsp sake

Shiitake and Bamboo Shoot Dumplings
2 cups, shiitake mushrooms, diced
2 small cans bamboo shoots, drained and diced
1 tbsp green onions, diced
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted and ground

These work the same way. Combine all the dumplings ingredients in no particular order, stir well, and let the mixture marinate in the fridge, covered, for at least 5 hours (make them in the morning and cook them at dinner, or prepare the mixture the night before). You can also the marinating and the turkey dumplings just won't be quite as tender. The shiitake ones won't really suffer. Oh, bamboo shoots might be tricky to find in smaller grocery stores, but big chain ones and those specializing in Asian products will definitely have them.

Dumplings Wrappers
4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups cold water (approximately)
1/4 tsp salt

Seriously, there are only three ingredients in dumplings wrappers. For this reason I find it ridiculous to buy pre-made wrappers. The labour involved, however, is a lot, so I'm understanding of those who choose to not make their own.This took me about 3 hours total time at different periods throughout the day to make. It was worth it, but I had a rare excess of time on my hands.

Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl and then pour in the water. Stir to just combine the dough and form it into a ball. You may need more water, or you may need more flour if the ball is too sticky. It shouldn't stick to your hands or the bowl. Don't knead the dough now and don't over-mix it. Place the ball in a bowl covered with plastic wrap for 30 minutes. It doesn't rise like bread, so you don't need a warm place, but you do need a draft-free place. After 30 minutes take the ball and knead it for 5 minutes, or until the ball is like elastic.

Well, my ball was sticky and needed (kneaded?) more flour, but after 30 seconds elastic-y so I wondered if 5 minutes would have been excessive. I tore the dough into 4 balls, and then tore one of those balls into large gumball-sized balls (like the ones you put a quarter into the machine to get and all the balls are different colours and you have to turn the handle and one comes out but you really wanted the blue one because it tastes like...well, nothing real, but something delicious...but you got the pink one instead so you tried to pawn it off on your sibling to get a second chance at the blue-flavoured ball. Or maybe that was just in my family. Anyway, about that size).

Now you need to roll the individual gumballs out so they're really thin. Use a rolling pin (or wine bottle or olive oil bottle...) coated in a lot of flour and toss a lot of flour on a clean counter. I needed to knead more flour into each little ball because they were too sticky. I guess I hadn't kneaded long enough initially after all. They shouldn't stick to the rolling pin and they shouldn't stick to the counter. Roll them out into circles and as you roll, rotate the dough on the counter to make sure they don't stick to it. Having to scrape them off the counter like cookies does not result in good wrappers.

When they're very thin (you can make them as thick as you want, but the skin will be more appealing and tender if they're thinner, in my opinion) coat them in flour and place them on a plate covered in a towel. You don't want them to dry out and you don't want them to stick to one another. I rolled out about 80 wrappers and thought I'd floured them enough, only to discover an hour later that some had decided to stick together. Fortunately I hadn't stacked them all directly on top of each other, being scared that this would happen. Instead I'd scattered them around a few large plates, so they mostly could be peeled apart when I tried to pick them up. I could kind of wedge my fingers between them, but if they'd been one on top of the other my entire afternoon's worth of dough rolling would have been for naught. Some weren't salvageable as it was, but I still ended p with just enough wrappers for all my fillings. I would have broken down and cried, probably, if the whole stack had turned into a mis-shapen glob-like hill of failure. It would have wrecked the dumpling course of the meal and would, more importantly, have been very unattractive, what with me crying on the floor. If this had happened (the dumplings having no wrappers, not the crying bit) my fall-back plan was the turn them into meatballs and just brown them in a frying pan and then bake them, which would have worked for the turkey but the mushrooms would have been a disaster. So, please remember to add a good layer of flour to each wrapper after you've rolled it out. On both sides, the flour. I couldn't bear to cause you any dumpling wrapper-related tears by inadequately warning you of impending disaster.

Shiitake Mushroom and Bamboo Shoot Dumplings

Okay, so now you've rolled out all your dough and you're tired, but your wrappers are happily floured and piled randomly around a few plates covered in kitchen towels. Take one wrapper at a time and dip your index finger into a small cup of warm water. Trace the outline of the wrapper with your finger to wet it. Now fill the wrapper with about a teaspoon (or 2 if the wrapper is large. My gumballs of dough were not as uniform as the ones in the gumball machines...so some were small and some were larger, whic makes for uneven steaming) of either the mushroom or turkey filling. Then bring all the edges of the circular wrapper together and try to twist the top to seal it. If you've over-filled the wrapper it may not want to close. Also, the mushroom dumplings are pretty liquidy and like to spill, so you may need to kind of drain your spoonfuls against the side of the bowl of filling before adding it to the dough. The nice thing about rolling the dough is you can make the wrappers thinner at the edges (it usually just happens on its own, but you can do it intentionally) so that the twisted part at the top isn't too thick and doesn't turn into a glob of paste-y steamed dough after cooking. It can get kind of dense and unappetizing, so the thinner and smaller the twisted top of the dumpling is, the better.

To steam the dumplings (hurray! You're on the home stretch!) line a steamer basket with lettuce or cabbage leaves (large ones are better so they don't stick to the individual dumplings) and place the dumplings in them so they're not touching. If they touch they'll stick together when you try to remove them from the steamer. Set a large pot filled with a bit of water (not so high in the pot that it will touch the bottom of the steamer apparatus) on high heat and when it comes to a boil add the steamer insert with the first batch of dumplings. Lower the heat a little and steam for about 7-8 minutes, or until the inside of a turkey dumpling is no longer pink. You'll have to cut it open to check, but you can call it quality control. I did this with two pots steaming simultaneously. Traditionally a steamer basket would have multiple levels so you can steam more than one layer of dumplings at a time. Unfortunately, my steamer is not bamboo and doesn't tier, and my methods are not so traditional. They are also, therefore, more time consuming, but all the dumplings don't come out at once, which means, joyfully, that by the time you want to refill your plate with more dumplings there will be a fresh, hot batch waiting for you. Actually, if you do this with a traditional steamer you can recover the dumplings in the steamer until you want more. This is still less fuss. Traditions are traditions for a reason, I suppose. Years of evolution have led to tiered steamer baskets and the world is a happier place everywhere but in my kitchen.

Serve the dumplings with small dishes, cups or ramekins of (1) hot sauce, like the Guizhou Chile Paste, (2) soy sauce (or tamari) and (3) a sticky sweet sweet sauce, like hoisin. You can use or make a sweet soy sauce, or a black vinegar, or a soy-vinegar, and the sweet could also be oyster sauce. Different Asian restaurants will have different options on the table, so it's up to you what you want to serve even if you're going for authenticity. In fact, a lot of places just put a store-bought bottle of sauce straight on the table and don't even remove the lable. So that's fine too for a casual meal at home. Then diners can pour a little of their desired sauces onto their plate and mix them as they see fit. Let them take their own dumplings one by one from the plate or steamer basket on the table. This should be communal food, not "here is your allocation of dumplings" food, where you place a portion in front of each diner. Placing a whole plate of freshly-steamed dumplings on a table is quite a presentation, even if you need to take the steamer baskets back to the kitchen to start the next batch.

Next up, Miso-Marinated Cod with sake, mirin and lychee...

Asian-Inspired Dinner Party: Dumplings, Miso-Marinated Cod, and Soba

Shiitake Mushroom and Bomboo Shoot Dumplings

"Should we have some people over?" my mother asked.

Well, yes, certainly.

Two hours before the dinner party...

Me: "You have no idea what I'm making, do you?"
Mom: "No. If you got hit by a car I would have no idea what to do for dinner."
Me: "I'm glad that's your first concern when I get hit by a car."

Hilarious, my mother.

I subsequently told her the dinner plans several times, just in case. They were as follows:

1st course
Steamed Ground Turkey and Scallion Dumplings
Steamed Shiitake Mushroom and Bamboo Shoot Dumplings
with hoisin, sweet soy mirin, dark soy dipping sauces and Guizhou Chile Paste

2nd course
Steamed Miso-Marinated cod with sake mirin sauce

3rd course
Soba Spelt (so not really soba, I know) Noodles
Desserts
Mango Jelly
Citrus Jelly
Lychee Frozen Yogurt
Banana Sherbet
Rum Caramel Oranges
The whole concept was to make the dinner a one dish meal (minus dessert). So a pot of home-made shrimp broth was used to steam the 80 dumplings (home-made wrappers this time), then the same dish was used to steam the fish and then the noodles were cooked in the broth that by that time had received all the juices that popped out of the dumplings and some of the marinade of the fish. It became thick and sweet and savoury all at once. The broth is the best part. You serve the noodles in a bowl and ladle over the broth...mmm...

Rum Caramel Oranges

Dessert became ridiculous. I made the rum caramel oranges out of curiosity, but then I wanted something less alcoholic, and the banana sherbet recipe jumped out at me...except it also had rum. For awhile I'd been thinking banana flambé but that seemed a bit over the top. That had rum, too, but flambéing is the most impressive easy thing for a dinner party. So I figured another frozen dessert - the lychee frozen yogurt. The frozen yogurt had dairy, though, and I needed something dairy-free for my mom. So I added a really elegant citrus jelly recipe in Josée di Stasio's A la di Stasio that was pictured served in little port glasses with sprigs of mint.

Citrus Jelly

I couldn't stop there. The next page of the book was a version of kid-friendly jelly where a child could use cookie cutters to cut out jello shapes. Oh, I didn't mention that there was a youngster coming to dinner. She actually ate the dumplings! Loved the hoisin sauce, and loved the jelly. Oh yeah, the other reason for the desserts was to not waste things. I wanted to make the lychee frozen yogurt but you drain the cans of lychees, so I used the liquid as a substitute for mirin (because grocery stored here don't carry the stuff) as well as adding the little bit that remained to the kid-friendly jelly.Anyway, the meal, and especially the amount of fruit-based desserts, was over the top. The funny part was that the meal was really not gourmet. It was home-style cooking. Dumplings, fish, noodles would be standards, simply made. I didn't even do a whole fish. Nothing really exotic. All steamed. No complicated operations. Nothing wasteful.

Disastrous Rabbit Chili Verde

These are words that don't go together for a very good reason, "Rabbit" and "Chili". I should have respected that. I didn't even want to take a picture.

I basically just wanted to use up my dried chipotle chilies that I dragged all the way home from Montreal. These are all the things I did wrong:

1. Chopped the rabbits through the bone. The original recipe called for pork steak cut into 1" pieces. It was impossible to take the rabbit flesh off the bone anyway, but the broken bones kind of splintered and I ended up with pieces of bone in the chili. Very, very not good.

2. There was really not a lot of meat on the rabbits in the first place, and what was there got over-cooked since I'd had to sear the meat first. There wasn't much there to sear so the meat cooked through too quickly and then you can't really make it tender again, no matter how long you stick it in the slow-cooker.

3. I didn't have any tomatillos. Instead I added 4 cups of diced onion and a handful of chopped cherry tomatoes instead of 3 cups onion and 2 cups tomatillos. I figured tomatillo is bland anyway, and especially in Newfoundland there's no way you'll get fresh ones anyway.

4. For some reason my dried chilies didn't re-constitute well. I soaked them for an hour in boiling water and put a plate down on top of them so they were completely covered. Some of them softened and some just really didn't. Then in the chili they still didn't soften. I couldn't chop them well after they'd soaked and I ended up with jerky-like pieces of chili in the final product.

5. The broth is delicious, but it's just broth where as it should be thick and chili-like. It was really nicely spicy and a little sweet and smokey from the chipotles, but no, it still wasn't great because you had to pick through all the bones.

I won't even give this recipe because no one should make it. If some day I decide to make it with pork (don't hold your breath), I will give the recipe. I will also give proper instructions on soaking chilies. Just know that I often mess up, but rarely the result is this poor. In the grand scheme of kitchen potential disasters this really wasn't that bad. Maybe I'll just stick to lychee frozen yogurt from now on...to be continued.

Slippery Thai Noodles with Seafood

My cooking goals in Newfoundland are to cook as much seafood as possible. With that in mind I went in search of a Thai recipe in Wandee Lee's Simply Thai Cooking. We'd been eating a ton of rice and I figured noodles would be a nice change. There's something really gourmet about rice noodles in this dish, which is hilarious because they're so cheap, and even easier to cook than regular egg-based pasta noodles. Unlike last time I didn't feel like making the noodles from scratch because I like the air-like quality of the rice stick noodles you buy in the store and rehydrate.

The recipe calls for squid, which I love to see in a recipe because it's so affordable and also so delicious when done well. The recipe also calls for shrimp, so you can afford to splurge a bit more on higher quality shrimp since the squid is cheap. I went to look for squid but for reason no one had any that day (like my sea smelts that never came to be). They did have lots of shrimp choice.

Oh! An aside on shrimp: The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is in the course of destroying a lot of shrimp, oyster and fish waters. Some of the best seafood from the US comes from those waters. Now, I don't know how I actually feel about this, because according to my trusted sustainable seafood guide, the only fish they list as sustainable coming from those waters is mackerel. Some types of shrimp and snapper are sort of sustainable, but others are very much not. I'm sure, however, that more than three types of fish are coming from that area. The oysters are listed as fine, but are categorized by region under "worldwide".

So my shrimp choice were the tiny frozen Newfoundland shrimp. I have absolutely no idea if they're sustainable. Almost certainly not since they're from Newfoundland. I won't even get into the latest Newfoundland crab fiasco...there's no end to the trouble, except to say that the fishery has subsequently closed for the season.

Anyway, I bought shrimp, and then I figured Newfoundland was the only place you could buy 'chowder mix' in a supermarket. Pre-cut up pieces of cod, Atlantic salmon and squid mixed with baby shrimp and a few scallops. Anywhere else in the country this would sell for a small fortune. Here it's not bad. It's also certainly not sustainable. Alas...I kind of liked the idea of a few scallops and a few pieces of cod, etc. So I bought some. So much for principles.

8 oz. rice noodles (this is half a normal package. I used the whole package, which meant I ended up with a pretty bland dish. In my family sometimes that's a good thing. So I just added my Guizhou Chile Paste to my plate, sat back and enjoyed the Sizhuan peppercorn high).
1 lb mix of scallops, shrimp, cod and salmon (or choose your favourite fish. Squid is a good choice. The recipe says 8 oz shrimp plus 4 oz squid sliced the squid into 1" rings but that seems huge to me. You could wear that as a gaudy bracelet. Think of it as a Thai chastity belt around your wrist. The smell would ward off unwanted acquaintances)
1 bunch of broccoli
A few leaves of bok choy or pak choi
A handful of snow peas (remove the strings of the peas. I kind of try to peel the edges by breaking off the top and bottom and pulling. You can skip the step but you'll be spitting out a lot of fibres while you eat if you don't. Very unattractive, but this is not a date meal. Especially not with your squid chastity belt and all)
2 tbsp oil
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce (find one without MSG and a million preservatives if you can. Caramel colour? Corn syrup? Really?)
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari)
1 cup water
fresh cilantro for garnish

The recipe says to soak the noodles in lots of cold water for one hour. Then add them to 3 cups of boiling water for 30 seconds, drain, and add to the stir-fry at the end. Yeah, that didn't work. Maybe I should have cooked it longer than 30 seconds. I definitely should have tested a noodle before draining it. Pasta 101. So my noodles ended up tough. I think pouring boiling water over them instead of cold is another option. Leave them in the water until you need them. You can also make the whole package of noodles and have a very saucy meal by doubling the sauce ingredients. Seems a waste to make this meal and have no leftovers. You'll definitely be craving it the next day.

Prepare all the ingredients before turning on the heat. This recipe goes quick:
Slice the squid and shell the shrimp. Mine came in the mix so they were pre-shelled. I've also seen Thai dishes cooked with the shells on, but, like the peas, it's a nuisance to take them off while you're eating. Your choice. Like cooking chicken with the bone-in, it probably gives more flavour.

Chop the broccoli and tear off the pak choi greens (baby bok choi can be left as is).

Chop the garlic. In a small bowl combine the fish sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, soy sauce, water and black pepper.

Dissolve the teaspoon of cornstarch in a tablespoon of water (the recipe says to do this later, but later you're rushed)

Now the fun part. Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok on high heat!! I never get to write "high heat". It's kind of the same rush as doing something forbidden. I know, I'm a huge geek. I know.

When the oil starts to smoke, add the garlic and stir frantically for 30 seconds. When it starts to burn, add a tbsp of water. Then add the seafood and cook another 30 seconds. Add another tbsp of water as necessary. Add the broccoli, peas and bok choy and stir for 30 seconds. Add the combined sauce mixture, reduce the heat to medium, and let the mixture cook for 3-4 minutes. This feels so long! Whatever will you do with all the time?

Two things: Put 3 cups of water on to boil for the noodles (unless you soaked them in boiling water. Then they're probably fine). Then stir you cornstarch/water mixture.

Add the cornstarch to the stir-fry and turn the heat to medium-low. It feels like the stir-fry is slowly dying, turning down the heat slowly instead of up. Cook 1-2 minutes until the sauce is thickened a little. Mine didn't thicken so much. Didn't feel like it, I suppose. Remove the stir-fry from the heat. Don't cover! It'll keep cooking the seafood. Over-cooked scallop is not good. Probably it's already over-cooked. If I had sashimi grade salmon I certainly wouldn't even want it cooked all the way through. Next time I think I will cook the fish for the prescribed 30 seconds and then remove the shrimp, scallops, and anything I didn't want to cook through from the pan, while I cook the vegetables and add the sauce. Then I'd put them back in when I added the cornstarch and let them cook for only 2 minutes while the sauce thickened. Yes, that's a better idea.

So now either stick the rice noodles in your separate pot of boiling water for 30 seconds, or until they're tender, or place your pre-tenderized and drained noodles directly onto a serving platter. Pour the contents of the wok straight on top and garnish with some chopped cilantro. Also a dollop of excruciatingly delicious chile paste.

Extra-Musical Mash-Up: Buttered Rum-Raisin Cream Pie with Partridgeberry Glaze

Yes, it could be prettier, but oh god, it was delicious. I took two recipes from Cooking Light Magazine and stuck them together to create what I think was a much better dessert. I felt like making a graham cracker pie crust instead of a normal pie crust, and I needed to get rid of the whipped topping and replace it with something else. I am also, as of late, making a ridiculous amount of custard, and this recipe was slightly different than Alice Medrich's multi-purpose pastry cream.

Crust:
1 cup graham wafers
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tbsp molasses (or just use 1/3 brown sugar instead of the regular sugar and molasses. I like the taste of a bit of Crosby molasses better than the lack of flavor of the bagged brown sugar)
2 tbsp melted butter

Mix the ingredients together with a spoon and press into a 9" pie dish. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Done. Hurray. Next.

Filling:
2 cups golden raisins (I didn't have golden raisins and sultanas are not what you should use. I was out of luck, though. They just ended up a lot chewier and didn't plump up very much)
1/3 cup dark rum
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups almond breeze (or milk)
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla

Microwave the rum and raisins in a microwave-safe bowl for 1 minute. They were supposed to plump up, but nope. Apparently they don't absorb rum as well as I do. It seemed like there were way too many raisins for the amount of rum, so after a minute I stirred them to get the un-submerged raisins soaked in rum too, and then I re-microwaved the dish. I think I got drunk on fumes, but I wasn't going to mess with the amount of liquid in the recipe to get the raisins covered.

In a large bowl whisk the sugar, cornstarch, salt and eggs. Scald the milk in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until tiny bubbles start to form around the side of the pan (180 degrees on a candy thermometre. Don't let the milk boil. Almond milk won't curdle like regular milk, so it's not such a big deal, but it's a waste of time, it may still get a kind of skin, and it may scramble your eggs in the next step). Whisk the milk into the eggs in a thin stream, slowly enough to not scramble the eggs. then pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly (don't use a metal whisk in a metal saucepan that shouldn't get scratched like I did...) until the custard is thick. Then I used Alice Medrich's trick of cooking for an extra 30-45 seconds after you think it's thick enough to make sure it was perfect.

Quickly pour the custard from the pan into a large bowl and add the butter. The recipe says add the butter to the pan, but if you don't have it there ready to go it can be dangerous to stop whisking the custard while you go to get it. You don't want the custard to burn and stick to the bottom of the pot, and it's not going to get too cool to melt the butter that quickly if you dump it immediately into another bowl before adding it.

Then stick the bowl into a pan of ice for 10 minutes until the custard comes to room temperature. A little water along with the ice helps cover more of the bowl surface area and cool it faster. When it's cool, remove it from the ice and stir in the vanilla and rum raisins. Then pour the custard into the crust.

My partridgeberry sauce was just a jam spread over the top of the custard, cheat that I am. A thin layer was all it needed. It wasn't too acidic, and the rich flavour of the eggs was nicely cut by the sweetened fruit. Alternately, you could make a sauce of puréed fruit (raspberries if there are no partridgeberries) with sugar and heated in a saucepan. Maybe add a drop of lemon juice after the sugar melts and you turn off the heat. You can also use gelatin or agar-agar to thicken it into a glaze or jelly. Garnish as you wish, maybe with some fresh berries or sprigs of mint. Ooh! Or maybe some kind of broken butter cookie pieces to match the graham cracker crust.

Absolutely delicious, and lighter than either of the recipes I mashed up separately. My music technology teacher probably would have given me an even better mark on this cream pie than on my final project mash-up of Jason Bajada's "You Are A Runner, I Am My Father's Son" and a cover of Sean Paul's "Beautiful Girls". Much more delicious this way and much less emotional. Girl Talk would probably still kick this pie's ass, though. No disrespect to the pie. Glee? Well, I don't have their budget. If I had the budget for pie that they had for their mash-up episode maybe my pie would win. I could at least bribe the judges with pie...