Sunday, December 1, 2019

#LardLovers Recipe Contest Entry: Mangonada Pie for #NationalPieDay

UPDATE: My pie made it into the Top 10 and came in 7th place! 

Happy National Pie Day! If you've been following me on my blog and social media channels, you know I love to cook! I promised one of my competitive cooking friends that I would work on my baking skills. You might have seen my YouTube video of my Biscuits & Jampionship entry, Tropical Biscuits, back in October. I think I have conquered my fear of baking and ready to punch through the "dough" layer and make some tasty baked goods.

I came upon Coast Packing Co.'s #LardLovers Recipe Contest and decided to try out my skills. It took me two tries to perfect it. The first try, I had problems with the crust and the filling. The crust seemed too wet and also not enough to cover the pie dish. The custard filling wouldn't set before it the top started getting brown. UGH! Back to the drawing board... For the crust, I increased the amount of flour and started adding cold water, a tablespoon at a time, until it just clung together into a ball. The crust rolled out nicely and even had enough extra dough to double up on the edges. I decided to forgo the custard and went with a pastry cream filling. There is more attention to be paid on the stove top, but the end result was perfection. It set up nicely after refrigeration and I did my "Happy Dance" in the kitchen.

Mangonada Pie is inspired by a popular fruit snack here in SoCal. It has sweet and savory flavors from the sweet mango, tangy chamoy sauce, and spicy salty Tajin. This pie incorporates those flavors in a velvety mango pastry cream, sweet and tangy glazed fruit topping, and a flaky spiced crust.

Mangonada Pie

Mangonada Pie
Serves 6-8
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Refrigeration Time: 4 hours 45 minutes

Ingredients:
Crust:
2 cups Jovial All-Purpose Einkorn Flour
1 tablespoon Tajin
6 tablespoons cold lard
7 tablespoons cold water

Mango Pastry Cream:
2 large mangos (to yield 2 cups puree)
1 cup coconut cream
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
6 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
¼ cup Jovial All-Purpose Einkorn Flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup salted butter

Topping & Glaze:
2 tablespoons chamoy sauce
4 tablespoons corn syrup, divided
½ cup sugar
1½ cups mango juice, divided
1 teaspoon pectin
1 large mango
1 center slice lime
¼ teaspoon Tajin

Directions:

  1. Crust: Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine flour and tajin in a medium bowl. Cut in lard with a pastry blender until mixture is combined and stays together in a ball. If still dry, add 1 tablespoon of cold water at a time until consistency is achieved. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out to 1 inch larger than the rim of pie dish. Transfer dough to dish and press down to the bottom and up the edges. Use excess dough to double up on the rim crust. Use a fork to poke holes through the bottom of pie crust to let steam through so crust doesn’t bubble while baking. Bake for 15 minutes with pie weights. Remove pie weights and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
  2. Mango Pastry Cream: Cut mango from seed and scrape fruit from skin and seed. Place in a food processor/blender and blend until smooth, yielding 2 cups. In a medium saucepan, combine mango, lime juice, and coconut cream. Heat on medium heat for 15 minutes. While mango mixture is heating up, in a separate small bowl, whisk together egg yolks, sugar, vanilla extract, and flour. After mango mixture has cooked for 15 minutes, add ½ of mixture to the yolk mixture and whisk to combine. Add in the other half of the mango mixture and whisk. Return combined mixture to the saucepan and cook for 15 minutes or until thickened (ribbon stage). Remove from heat and whisk in butter, 1 tablespoon at time, until combined. Pour mixture into pie crust and level off with a butter knife or rubber scraper. Refrigerate for 4 hours.
  3. Topping: Combine chamoy sauce and 2 tablespoons corn syrup. Spoon on top of pie and brush to coat the entire top of pie. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. In a small saucepan, combine sugar and ¾ cup mango juice. Bring to a boil. In a small bowl, combine pectin and ¾ cup mango juice. Once saucepan is at a boil, add the mango pectin mixture to the pan. Whisk until combined and thickened. Turn off heat. Cut mango off seed and scrape fruit from skin in one piece with a spoon. Thinly slice mango into petal-like slices. Arrange from the middle of pie into a flower petal pattern. Place center lime slice in the middle of the mango flower. Brush mango glaze on top of fruits. Sprinkle Tajin on top. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes before serving. 
If you end up trying the recipe, let me know what you think.

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Hatch Chile Season is Here! Spicy Cheesy Hatch Chile Polenta Fries Recipe

Some of the ingredients and products in this post were provided by Melissa’s Produce but the opinions expressed here are my own.

One of my favorite foods in the world is back in season, hatch chiles! Ever since my first experience with hatch chiles in 2015, I have been in love with these fabulous chiles! Capsicum annuum, commonly known as hatch chile, green chile, red chile, and Anaheim pepper, are grown in New Mexico. The Hatch Chile is only grown in the Hatch Valley and the season only lasts for a few weeks in late summer. The intense sunlight and cool nights in this region give this pepper a unique flavor that I crave. If you have ever been to a hatch chile roasting, the aroma that comes from these roasters is intoxicating to the senses. This is also why you may see people buying cases at a time keep in the freezer in order to have them at their fingertips year-round. Hatch chiles are available in mild, medium, hot, and extra hot.

Here is a video from last year’s roasting at Bristol Farms in Woodland Hills, CA. Not only do they have hatch chile roastings but they offer different hatch chile items inside the store from Melissa’s Produce products to deli case items like guacamole, salsa, and sandwiches to bakery items like cornbread and chocolate chips cookies.

Here are dates/locations of roasting happening in SoCal (click here for the full nationwide listing):

Saturday, August 24, 2019
  • Gelson's, 4520 Van Nuys Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403, (818) 377-4140, 11:00am - 3:00pm
  • Gelson's, 3305 State St, Santa Barbara, CA 93105, (805) 687-5810, 11:00am - 3:00pm
  • Gelson's, 635 Foothill Blvd, La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011, (818) 790-0563, 11:00am - 3:00pm
  • Gelson's, 36101 Bob Hope Dr, Rancho Mirage, CA 92270, (760) 770-0010, 11:00am - 3:00pm
  • Northgate, 2633 Santa Ana St, Southgate, CA 90280, (323) 277-3000, 7:00am - 2:00pm
  • Northgate, 4700 Inglewood Blvd, Culver City, CA 90230, (310) 390-9639, 7:00am - 2:00pm
Sunday, August 25, 2019
  • Sprouts, 878 Eastlake Pkwy, Chula Vista, CA 91914, (619) 421-2099, 9:00am - 2:00pm

Saturday, August 31, 2019
  • Bristol Farms, 606 Fair Oaks Ave, South Pasadena, CA 91030
  • Bristol Farms, 810 Avocado Ave, Newport Beach, CA 92660
  • Bristol Farms, 18421 Yorba Linda Blvd, Yorba Linda, CA
  • Gelson's, 24 Monarch Bay Plaza, Dana Point, CA 92629, (949) 488-8147, 11:00am - 3:00pm
  • Gelson's, 2725 Hyperion Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027, (323) 660-0387, 11:00am - 3:00pm
  • Gelson's, 2707 Via, De La Valle Pl, Del Mar, CA 92014, (858) 481-9300, 11:00am - 3:00pm
  • Gelson's, 1736 E Avenida De Los Arboles, Thousand Oaks, CA 91362, (805) 493-4301, 11:00am - 3:00pm
  • Northgate, 11660 E Firestone Blvd, Norwalk, CA 90650, (562) 863-8203, 7:00am - 2:00pm
  • Northgate, 2030 E Lincoln Ave, Anaheim, CA 92806, (714) 507-7640, 7:00am - 2:00pm
Saturday, September 7, 2019
  • Bristol Farms, 8510 Genesee Ave, San Diego, CA 92122
  • Lazy Acres, 2510 Pacific Coast Hwy, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
  • Lazy Acres, 422 West Washington St., San Diego, CA 92103
  • Northgate, 1305 W Whittier Blvd, La Habra, CA 90631, (562) 691-8032, 7:00am - 2:00pm
  • Northgate, 1150 E Vista Way, Vista, CA 92084, (760) 724-4900, 7:00am - 2:00pm
  • Zapien's Salsa Grill, 6702 Rosemead Blvd, Pico Rivera, Ca 90660, (562) 942-7072, 8:00am - 3:00pm
In honor this year’s harvest, I developed a recipe that focuses on the hot hatch chile. It’s spicy yet still imparts the craveable hatch chile flavor. Who doesn’t love cheese sauce?! I created a quick cheese sauce spiced up with hot hatch chile luxuriously flowing over crispy hatch chile polenta fries. WARNING - this dish is addictive so you might want to make more if you’re planning to share!

Spicy Cheesy Hatch Chile Polenta Fries by OC Food Diva
Serves 1-2
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes

½ gallon peanut oil for deep fryer
¼ cup white wine
1 hot hatch chile, stemmed, deveined, minced
1 tsp cornstarch
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tbsp cilantro, chopped

  1. Preheat deep fryer to 375°F.
  2. Cut ends off polenta package and slide out polenta. Cut the cylinder in half and cut into ¼” matchstick “fries”. Set aside until deep fryer comes to temperature.
  3. Deep fry fries for 5-7 minutes (depending on how crispy you like your fries). Remove from fryer and drain on paper towel.
  4. In a small saucepan on medium heat, combine white wine, hatch chile, and cornstarch. Once it comes to a boil, add cheddar cheese. Stir constantly until velvety texture achieved, 2-3 minutes.
  5. Place fries on plate and pour cheese sauce over fries. Garnish with cilantro and ground hatch chile.

For more information:

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