Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

If there is any dessert that defines the American table, it is pie. While there is no simple, true portrait of the American table other than one of abundance and diversity (which are really the same thing), overwhelmingly the images are those of nostalgia, for the very idea evokes our mythology about ourselves and conjures images accordingly. Dessert at this table could be anything from gelatin to lychee nuts, from grandma's chocolatecake to a shot of granddad's whiskey, but ask just about anyone what they consider to be the great American dessert and the answer you will receive most often is "pie."

And what pies they are! Apple is the blue ribbon standard, but there is plenty of room for interpretation based on both the abundance of this fruit and the local traditions concerning putting it under a crust where it belongs. At the diner, that crust is a double thick layer of dough spackled with egg wash and crowned with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a wedge of golden cheddar. That refrigerated case also houses cherry and banana cream, augmented with anything from blueberry to peach to Mississippi mud. In sunny kitchens humming with apronly activity, pies emerge topped with anything from streusel to meringue and housed in crusts made with everything from a shot of white vinegar to graham crackers.

Whether you're being served your pie by your waitress or your grandmother, you can be sure it is a house specialty and there is every likelihood that it is also a geographic one. I had never heard of shoo-fly pie until I found myself in Pennsylvania, but then those relatives had never heard of one made of butterscotch. The south gives us pecan pie while one area of it gives us key lime pie. The mountains give us chess pie and the shore gives us coconut custard. Our own colonial past gives us autumnal apple-cranberry, legendary pumpkin, controversial mincemeat, and cantankerous rhubarb.

Rhubarb is also known as “pie plant,” which some would say is because that’s about the only thing it’s good for. While I personally don’t agree, my grandmother would have, for she shared disrespect not uncommon to the depression-era Oklahoma prairie for what was viewed as a common weed. A local colloquialism for “weed” was “poke,” as in “do y’all et the poke?” In this context, “poke” was any plant that no one in their right mind would eat even though people did, and included not just rhubarb but dandelion, sumac and, yes, poke. But for God’s sake don’t eat poke, because it contains at least three dangerous toxins. Poke berries are a folk remedy and there are some who claim to be able to safely prepare “poke sallit,” which is a cooked dish and not a salad, but consuming any part of this plant is dangerous.

Poke is a weed but not all weeds are poke, and anyway, rhubarb is not poke; rhubarb is rhubarb. It is an herbaceous plant that belongs to a family that contains both weeds and the herb sorrel, but rhubarb has been commercially grown and sold as food for so long that the pie plant is a cultivar. Being both a weed and a cultivar is not the only duplicity that rhubarb engages in. It is a vegetable but for purposes of tariffs and cooking it is classified as a fruit. The vivid ruby exterior of the stalks gives way to pale green interior whose color and texture are reminiscent of celery, itself a vegetable that is one of the last things you’d put in your pie (except, perhaps, chicken pot pie) but to which rhubarb is not related to begin with. The rhubarb plant’s leaves are reminiscent of kale but rhubarb is not a leafy green. Finally, importantly, and in a path that does poke us back towards poke, while rhubarb stalks are safe to eat when handled correctly, rhubarb leaves are poisonous.

Though we plant rhubarb in pies, pie plant is not sweet – in fact, absent sugar, rhubarb is mindbendingly tart. That is why you encounter rhubarb pickles at the farmers market or county fair, and why bakers have to labor over the sweet profile of their rhubarb desserts. Proportionally, rhubarb pies and cobblers have a lot of sugar in them, and they are almost always married to a sweet fruit, the most common being strawberries. That is also all-American, because along with apples, strawberries are among America’s most cultivated fruits. It is also appropriate to springtime at Urban Home Blog, both because strawberries are among our favorite foods and because California is the state that produces the most and the best of them.

The quality of being difficult and even ungiving is, I think, why for every prairie cook who prided themselves on their rhubarb baking there were two who didn’t understand why anyone would bother. To my grandmother, peeling and coring pounds of apples barely counted as effort while prepping rhubarb drove her to distraction. Draw your inferences from that if you wish, but if so, consider the following: “poke” is also what dustbowl grandmothers did at high school football games when the opposing team scored – as in poke their dentures out of their mouths to clack their disapproval. During an especially bad play, the bleachers could look and sound like the Halloween novelties table at the local Woolworths. My grandmother would have so poked rhubarb and dismissed it as poke for all of the fuss it demands. I can all but hear her commanding “chest use the strawberries.” But pie is a great equalizer, and I like to think that if she tasted this one, what it would poke would be her appetite. And her pride.

STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB PIE

True strawberry season is mid-June through late August, but thanks to modern agricultural methods fresh strawberries are available year round. Look for bright ruby-colored rhubarb stalks that are absent any leaves, stems or leaf cuttings.

For the crust
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour plus extra for rolling

1 tablespoon granulated sugar plus extra for dusting

1 teaspoon table salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 sticks unsalted butter plus extra for the pan

1/3 - 1/2 cup cold water

For the filling

1 pound fresh strawberries

1 pound fresh rhubarb stalks

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 vanilla bean

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Prepare the crust

1.   Place the 2 sticks butter into a large mixing bowl. Set aside to soften.

2.   Place the 2-12 cups flour, tablespoon of sugar, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Shake the bowl to ensure the dry ingredients are mixed together.

3.   While the butter is softening, use the remaining butter to coat the bottom and sides of a ceramic or metal deep dish pie pan. Place the prepared pan by the rolling surface.

4.   Sprinkle a clean breadboard or other food safe surface with flour. Place a rolling pin by the rolling surface.

5.   Once the butter is workable, no more than 5 minutes, transfer the dry ingredients into the bowl containing the butter. Use a pastry blender to incorporate the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles small crumbs. Sprinkle the dough with 1 tablespoon ice water.

6.   Sprinkle your hands with flour. Use the heel of your palm to gently bring the mixture in the bowl together, folding the dough up and sprinkling the dough with scant tablespoons of water as needed. Work just until the mixture comes together.

7.   Gently transfer the dough to the floured rolling surface.  Sprinkle the dough lightly with flour. Use a bread knife to cut the dough in half. Transfer one half of the dough to the mixing bowl.

8.   Starting at the center of the ball of dough and rolling outwards, roll the remaining dough half in four directions corresponding to 12, 3, 6 and 9 on the face of a clock.

9.   Turn the dough ¼ turn and repeat step 8.

10.  Continue rolling and turning the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick and large enough to cover the prepared surface of the pie pan.

11.  Fold the rolled dough into half and gently transfer it to the prepared pie pan. Unfold the dough and settle it into the pan, pressing the sides and bottom of the crust so that it is even and pushing together any holes to patch them.

12.  Repeat steps 8 - 12 with the remaining dough half. Gently transfer the top crust to a plate. Place the plate and the pie pan into the refrigerator to settle while you mix the filling.

Prepare the fruit

1.   If the rhubarb stalks contain any leaves, stems or leaf cuttings, put on a pair of food safe rubber or latex gloves and remove all traces of the leaves and their stems.

2.   Cut off the calloused leaf and root ends of each stalk of rhubarb.

3.   Inspect each stalk for fibrous strings similar to what is encountered in celery; use a peeler to remove fibrous strings if any.

4.   Align the stalks on a food safe cutting board and cut across the stalks to form small- to medium-sized dice. Cut larger stalks in half lengthwise if necessary.

5.   Transfer the diced rhubarb to a colander and rinse the rhubarb under cool water. Leave to drain while you prepare the poaching liquid.

6.   Measure ½ cup sugar into a large saucepan. Add the rinsed rhubarb and just enough water to moisten the mixture; no more than a couple of tablespoons. Don’t worry; the mixture will express liquid as it heats.

7.   Turn the burner to low and heat the rhubarb until it begins to release its liquid and to smell sweet and fresh, 5 – 10 minutes.

8.   Place the remaining cup of sugar into a large bowl. Add the cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg to the sugar.

9.  Lay the vanilla bean lengthways on the cutting board and use the knife to slice the vanilla bean lengthways into two long strips.

10.  Working carefully to protect the vanilla bean seeds, hold one half of the vanilla over the bowl of sugar. Carefully scrape the knife down the inside of the bean so that the tiny seeds fall into the sugar. They will also stick to the knife; swirl the knife in the sugar to release those seeds into the sugar. Place the scraped vanilla bean half along with the unscraped half into a glass jar for future use as an infusing agent.

11.  Pick through the strawberries, discarding any that evidence mold or soft brown or black spots. Rinse the strawberries.

12.  Place a strawberry on its side on the cutting board. Use the knife to cut a circle under the leaf. Pull out the leaf, taking the internal hull with it, and discard. Use the knife to cut away and discard any unripened white or yellow flesh. Turn the strawberry cut-side down and cut downwards to halve the strawberry. For large berries, halve the halves to form quarters. Add the cut strawberries to the bowl containing the sugar as you go.

13.  Once you have prepared all of the strawberries, use a silicon spatula to thoroughly combine the mixture.

14.  Remove the poached rhubarb from the heat. Use the silicon spatula to gently transfer the poached rhubarb into the bowl containing the strawberries. Use the silicon spatula to thoroughly combine the mixture.

Prepare and bake the pie

1.      Heat the oven to 450 degrees F.

2.      Remove the pie pan from the refrigerator and place the pan on a rimmed cookie sheet. Check the dough for any tears or holes and repair them if there are any.

3.      Use a silicon spatula to gently transfer the strawberry-rhubarb filling to the pie crust. There will be a lot of fruit; pile it up in the center.

4.      Remove the plate housing the top crust from the refrigerator. Gently unfold the top crust and lay it across the filling. Gently maneuver the top crust until the filling is covered. Press the crust so that it molds to the filling.

5.      Use a paring knife to cut away any excess crust from around the rim of the pie pan.  Crimp the edges of the two crusts together.

6.      Use the paring knife to poke steam holes in the top crust.

7.      Use a pastry brush to coat the top crust with ice water. Sprinkle the top crust with sugar.

8.      Gently transfer the cookie sheet containing the pie to the oven.

9.      Bake the pie at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

10.  After 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 375 degrees. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

11.  After 45 minutes at 375/1 hour total, check the pie. The crust should be golden and the pie should be giving off a lot of fragrant steam. If necessary, bake the pie for 5 more minutes.

12. Once baked, remove the pie from the oven. Place out of reach to cool before serving.