Papaya Salad for Passover

 

Papayas want to be vegetables!

Sometimes, folks are disappointed by papayas.  Their flowery scent and deep orange-pink color seem to promise mango-like tropical lushness and sweetness, but in fact, papayas are low in sugar and acid and not especially fruity at all.  Their flavor is more peppery and vegetal.  When you start working with papaya as a salad vegetable, it gets a chance to shine.  For this salad, I pair papaya with avocados, another fruit with vegetable aspirations.

Papaya salad

Papaya
Avocados (so that there is about an equal volume of avocados and papaya)
A few very thin shavings of sweet onion, or regular onion (optional)
Watercress (optional)
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
lime
Salt

Cut the papaya and avocado into slices or chunks.  Add the onion if you are using it and toss or layer the vegetables together. Drizzle with olive oil and add a few drops of vinegar and juice from the lime and salt to taste.  Serve as is or on a bed of watercress.

For a Caribische Seder, serve with Cassavakoek and vegan Sancocho.

Chard or Spinach Cutlets and Rosheshone Silka Round-up (Rosh Ha-Shanah)

Five foods are recommended in the Gemore (Talmud Bavli Horayos 12A and Kerises 6A) for the Eve of Rosheshone.  They are silka סילקא ( בוריק־בלעטער beet greens or chard), kra קרא ( קירבעס zucchini or squash),  rubia רוביא (   לוביע, שװאַרץ־אײגעלע black-eyed peas), karsi כּרתי ( פּאָרעס leeks) and tamri תּמרי ( טײַטלען dates).  This recipe is for chard or beet greens, and can be adapted for any leafy greens.  These are lovely on their own, but I imagine they would have no objections to a yellow tomato sauce, or any tomato sauce, a cream sauce, or a horseradish sauce.

Vegan Chard or Spinach Cutlets

For the cutlets:

2 bunches (about 1 pound) spinach, beet greens,  or chard

1 tablespoon olive oil (or other oil)

1 tablespoon Chickpea flour of fava garbanzo flour 

salt, pepper, paprika

oil for frying 

For the batter:

1/2 cup  tablespoons (56 grams) sifted chickpea flour or fava garbanzo flour

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

optional: 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, paprika, and/or cumin

Remove the stems, wash the greens well and cook them in the water clinging to the leaves.  Allow them to cool and squeeze out as much water as you can. Chop the greens fine or pulse in a processor.  You should have 1 cup (6 ounces, 170 grams) chopped greens.

In a bowl, mix the chopped greens with 1 tablespoon chickpea flour and seasonings.  Form the mixture into pancakes with your hands.

Heat oil in a wide skillet.

Combine the chickpea flour with the salt, baking powder and optional seasonings, if using.  Whisk in enough cold water (about 1/2 cup) to make a thin batter.

Dip the cutlets in the batter and fry on both sides until golden.

 

This recipe is a vegan, gluten-free adaptation of Fania Lewando's Spinach Cutlets.

Other Silka recipes for the New Year:

Dill and Chard Frittata

Fedelini with Walnuts, Chard, and Garlic Scapes

Braised Chard Stems with Oregano and Chile

White Bean Soup with Chard Stems

Pokey Leek Soup (this recipe has 3 simonim)

Spinach with Pumpkin Seeds

Green Rice

Beet Greens Soup and Beet Soup

 

Rosheshone Vocabulary from the League for Yiddish part I

Rosheshone Vocabulary from The League for Yiddish part II

Paw Paws are a Thing דער פּאָפּאָבוים

Counter clockwise from bottom:  Paw paws, ground cherries, Michigan honey, apples and pears from Centennial Community Farm, pomegranates.

One of the mystifying songs we had to sing in grade school was "Way Down Yonder in the Paw Paw Patch."  I liked this song well enough, but it never occurred to me that paw paws were a real kind of fruit.  I thought that like wizards, dragons, flying carpets, and Kalamazoo, they were just made up for children's literature.  Last month I took a train through Kalamazoo, and this month I learned that paw paws are in fact a thing.  I can't wait to see what month  brings.

On the inside they look a little like orange cherimoyas, with soft, creamy pulp and smooth hard seeds.  The fragrance is lush and tropical with notes of mango, papaya, banana, and lichee.  It is hard to believe they are native to this cool temperate area.  I will have to wait until after the holiday to tell you how they taste.

Also photographed above are ground cherries, which you may have encountered in the Little House books and My Antonia.

For tonight  am planning to make a cake with Michigan star thistle honey and Michigan sour cherries, and maybe even a sour cherry tsimes.  We are very proud of our cherries here in Michigan, but not proud enough to call them sour cherries.  Locals insist on calling them "tart cherries."  That makes me sad.  Sour cherries and not lesser cherries. Own your cherries, Michigan!

Other honey cakes:

Date Honey Cake
Pomegranate Honey Cake
Chocolate Honey Cake
Classic Honey Cake

דער פּאָפּאָבוים

Der popoboym, the paw paw tree

דער פּאָפּאָ

der popo, the paw paw

דאָס כינעזישע לאַמטערל

Dos Khinezishe lamterl, the ground cherry

Here are the Seegers singing Paw Paw Patch:

And one more film from Nature Boy Crabmeat 

Make pudding.

And of course, Honey Pie!

Have a sweet and beautiful year.

ליליע לוביא Purple-Eyed Peas

Violet eyes to die for

Get a load of these jewels, these amethyst morsels.  I found these purple-hulled beans at the Berried Treasures farm stand in Union Square.  Lavender Loubia.  Rubious Rubiya.  I had been planning to make black-eyes peas with tomatoes and vegetables, but I will have to come up with a recipe to show these off on their own, perhaps with some purple onions.

May it be Your will that our merits increase.
יהי רצון . . . שירבו זכויִותנו

Zucca Tonda Padana

Will you look at this thing? Might I possibly trouble you momentarily to cease all multitasking and just devote your undivided attention to this handsomely lobed and loopily striated Tonda Padana pumpkin?

There now, Isn't that better?

This will be our Thanksgiving pumpkin, mertseshem. I have not opened it yet, so I can't tell you what it is like inside, but the pumpkin-sites I have found so far are promising sweet, dry, densely-textured flesh.

The colors and contours of this pumpkin could inspire some wonderful hats. In fact, I can't decide whether I would rather cook this pumpkin or wear it on top of my head. Walking around with a gigantic squash on one's head may very well turn out to be the next big thing, as this forward-looking lady in the Abruzzi could tell.

Pregnant woman with squash on her head. Image copied from Savoring Italy by Robert Freson (New York: Harper Collins, 1992)

Collard Greens with Spices and Ginkgo Nuts

These thrilling greens are adapted from a recipe The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi that calls for greens cooked with either plantain or parsnip. It seemed likely that plantains and parsnips are dissimilar enough that I just might dare try something else. What plantains and parsnips have in common, I thought, was richness, starchiness, mild sweetness, and protein. Ginkgo nuts have all of these, as well as a luxurious satiny texture that combines beautifully with all kinds of mixed vegetables. I harvested these ginkgo nuts by shaking a couple of trees immediately in front of my building. Local food cannot get much more local than this.

Collard Greens with Spices and Ginkgo Nuts

4 ounces ginkgo nuts (40 nuts)

1 bunch collard greens or other greens

6 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds

3 tablespoons chickpea flour (gram flour, besan)

½ teaspoon turmeric

¼ teaspoon sweet paprika

1 rounded teaspoon kosher salt.

Roasted salted almonds (optional)

Lemon wedges (optional)

Remove the outer husks of the ginkgo nuts, and shell and cook them according to the instructions here.

Wash the greens well and remove the stems. Cut the leaves into a fine chiffonade. Bring salted water to the boil and cook the greens until they are quite tender, and strain. This will take 25-35 minutes for collards, less for other greens. You can drink the pot liquor or reserve it for another recipe.

Melt the butter in a wok or wide kettle. Add cumin, mustard seeds and chickpea flour and cook, stirring for about five minutes, or until the flour has darkened, and the seeds pop and sizzle. Add the nuts, turmeric, paprika, and salt and cook for another few minutes. Add the drained greens and toss and cook until everything is nicely hot. Serve with lemon wedges and chopped roasted almonds, if you so desire.

This recipe is my contribution for Haalo's Weekend Herb Blogging (founded by Kalyn) and hosted this week by Winnie at Healthy Green Kitchen

All-Pit Avocado

A couple of months ago I had the good fortune to find a delicious seedless avocado at my local grocer, but you can't bet on this sort of thing happening every time.

This week, the same grocer sold me Big Stony, seen above, with barely a third of an inch of pulp insulating a billiard ball-sized pit. Big Stony was as tough and bland as Almond Girl was satiny and voluptuous, so there would seem to be an inverse pit-size to lushness correlation.

Non-Cooked Escarole

Arguments for cooking the escarole are well known:

• Braised escarole is one of the best things in the world.
• Raw escarole is bitter.
• Raw escarole is hard to chew.
• You are going to get another seventeen pounds of greens from your CSA tomorrow whether you cook this week's greens or not.

The overwhelming iron-clad logic of these arguments, however, wilts into a soggy heap on days like today when our very brains are fricasseed in the 90-degree heat. Of course you can make salads, but just as you need raw salads even in the coldest days of winter, you need vegetables in some way relaxed, if not quite cooked, even in the hottest days of summer. Viana La Place has a recipe for Smashed Salad, for which you put your salad greens in a clean pillow case, and then smash them against the side of your counter, bang, boom, whap! I would love to try this some day, but I was not quite up to that today. What I did was combine two processes for relaxing raw greens. I rubbed them between the palms of my hands with kosher salt to break down the cell walls, and then let them marinate a while in olive oil and cider vinegar. The resulting dish is pleasantly mellow, but with the live vital flavor of raw food. I learned about marinating raw greens, even the really tough one like collards, from Lillian Butler, founder of Raw Soul. I will have to tell you more about Raw Soul soon, no solemn vow implied.

OH, and don't be scared about washing your greens. It is easy-peasy-lemon-squeezey.

This is my submission for Haalo's Weekend Herb Blogging, founded by our fearless leader Kalyn, and hosted this week by Anh at A Food Lover's Journey.

Non-Cooked Escarole

1 bunch escarole
kosher salt
olive oil (be liberal)
about 3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 small onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
black olives or tapanade (optional)
orange juice or zest or both (optional)
lemon juice or zest or both (optional)
sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
a pinch of cumin (optional)
fresh or dried chiles (optional)
a tiny bit of sugar or agave (optional)

Wash the escarole and spin dry. sprinkle the leaves with kosher salt. using your hands, massage the salt into the leaves. Chop the kneaded leaves as soarsely or fine as desired. Drizzle a liberal amount of olive oil over the leaves and mix well. add the vinegar and minced onion and garlic and optional aroamtics and mix well again. Taste for seasonings. You can serve it right now if you just can't wait, but it will be even better in half an hour

Seedless Avocado

I got this unusually rich and buttery avocado at Integral Yoga on West 13th Street. It had no stone at all, just a little almond-sized hollow in the center. Never saw that before.

Serendipitous Recipe Transmission (Zucchini with Mustard Seeds)

Folks frequently ask where I get recipes. Well, heavens, recipes are everywhere. I read cookbooks, newspapers, blogs, the backs and sides of boxes, and of course I make things up, but I think my favorite mode of recipe transmission is the serendipitous viva voce connection, which occurs at those fortuitous creases in the space-time continuum when a total stranger will thrust upon you a recipe that will end up enriching your life endlessly. This is what happens when you go to Queens.

A while back I was shopping in Patel Brothers in Flushing Queens. I am going to have to tell you about Patel Brothers in more detail soon, because this is a place where very, very good things can happen, but I will just give you one example for now: I was looking at some small firm zucchini-like squash and wondering what I would do with them, and the gentleman immediately next to me volunteered that you cut them into slices, heat black mustard seeds until they pop, and then add the vegetables. You have to try it, he insisted, it is just so good.

It is indeed. This week I made it with the miraculous ribby zucchini from Stoneledge Farm.

Zucchini with Mustard Seeds

Oil (I used grapeseed oil; coconut oil might be interesting)

chiles (optional)

1 ½ teaspoons black or brown mustard seeds

½ pound zucchini or other firm summer squash

salt

Scrub the squash and slice into thin rounds. Heat the oil in a skillet and add the mustard seeds and the chiles if you are using them. When the seeds turn grey and begin to pop add the zucchini and cook, stirring until lightly browned here and there. Salt to taste.

Red Bananas רױטע באַנאַנעס

די אָ רױטע באַנאַנעס האָב איך געקױפֿט מיט מער װי אַ װאָך צוריק. זײ זענען, דאַכט זיך מיר, נאָך נישט צײַטיק, אָבער װי אַזױ זאָל איך װיסן? זײ זענען דאָך פּערפּל!

I got these purple bananas (commonly called “red bananas”) more than a week ago, and they still seem unripe, but how can I tell? They are purple, for crying out loud!

Carrot and Parsnip Puree

Carrots by Shih

Here’s something to do with the root vegetables when you want to make a clear soup, especially for peysekh, which as I hardly need to remind you, is hurtling toward us like a hyper-caffeinated ostrich (I have an amazing soup recipe in the pipe for you--oh, I just can't wait!). Amounts are approximate. This will work just fine if you don't have parsley root and celeriac, but I think the carrots and parsnips are essential, both for the puree and for the broth which is the pretext for the whole thing.

Root Vegetable Puree

1 pound carrots

1 pound parsnips

1 bunch parsley roots (about 1 pound) with attached parsley (optional

1 celeriac (about 12 ounces)

1 medium onion

12 cloves garlic

2 or 4 tablespoons butter

2 7-ounce packages farmer cheese

several sprigs snipped dill

salt, paprika, and white pepper to taste

Cook the vegetables in salted water until they are quite tender. Strain, and use the liquid in soup. When the vegetables are cool enough to handle, puree them, and mix in a few tablespoons of butter, the farmer cheese, and dill. This was delicious just like that, and it is just fine if you leave out the butter and cheese.

Happy Republic Day to India, surrogate homeland to all who are devoted to deliciousness.

One Ginkgo Nut

The good news is that more and more New Yorkers are discovering the many uses of the delicious and protein-rich ginkgo nuts joyfully leaping off their trees free of charge just around now. Last year I wrote

Every year in late November, the ginkgo trees on my block shed pounds and pounds of edible and healthful nuts. The ginkgo nuts lie trodden underfoot because nobody knows what to do with them.

That was last year. So far this year I have successfully gathered one (1) ginkgo nut.

Clearly the word is out. I am trying to keep in mind that this is good news. Maybe there is still a big ginkgo windfall coming. Yes, that must be it. Fall weather is starting very late this year.
If you are lucky enough to get some local nuts, have a look at my recipe for Brussels sprouts with ginkgo nuts, along with instructions for gathering and shelling the nuts is here.

Tomato Love

We are still getting exquisite summer tomatoes here in New York. Last week I got four pounds of wonderful tomatoes and made a double batch of Madhur Jaffrey’s cream of tomato soup, and then I got another four pounds of wonderful tomatoes and made another double batch of tomato soup.This week I got carrots, beets, celeriac, potatoes, leeks, and shallots and made a mixed vegetable soup and I am mad at it for not being tomato soup. I have never been angry at soup before.

I will post my adaptation of the tomato soup recipe shortly, but more urgently, I cannot let the tomato season go by without sharing this perfect movie on the subject of Southern food in general and tomato sandwiches in particular by tomato guru and YouTube goddess Lemonette. There is only one way to make a tomato sandwich, Lemonette will have us know, and I credit her on this as on every subject in the universe. You just have to watch this. Go ahead; I'll wait:

Is that not the living end? Are you going to watch all her movies forever? You know what really sends me? When she imitates the other lady's Southern accent. Otherwise we totally would not have an idea. About Southern accents, I mean. I will be crushed if I learn that Lemonette is in fact the creation of a bunch of artists in Williamsburg, but if she is, they have done an amazing job. I had never heard of adding sugar to rice as a Southern practice, but I do love to combine bananas and rice.

Grape Stomping

The sweet and dizzying aromas of freshly crushed concord grapes filled Union Square today, as dozens of discalced shoppers participated in the annual New York State grape-stomping demonstration. I was reminded of this unforgettable episode of I Love Lucy in which Lucy, hoping to "soak up local color" goes grape stomping at a vineyard. Watching it again today, I am impressed anew with Lucy's comic virtuosity. Every part of her body is working; she does not have one unfunny muscle.
But so much of the effect is in the sadness of the story; it is really a shame that she falls out with her vat-mate, and she will be too purple to appear in the movie role she so desires.

The grape guys advised me to go slow and try to find the whole berries. It is very satisfying when you get one. Wine grapes are nature's bubble wrap. Ah, bubble wrap.



Oh yes. Don't let the season go by without trying grape pie.

Cranberry Beans

On the outside, these look a little like dragon's langerie beans, but the pods are not edible and they need to be shelled. the pretty markings on the beans fade during cooking. I added these beans to a soup of mixed greens and hemp seeds and pureed everything in the blender.

Dragon's Langerie Beans

Pretty snazzy eh? These heirloom beans are sweet and flavorful raw, and will lose their distinctive striations when cooked, but I still prefer cooked beans. On Sunday I will be preparing a recipe, possibly involving these beans, from What Did You Eat in loving memory of Sher,
whose remarkable work and generous spirit will continue to be an inspiration to me as long as I cook, write, and eat.

ETA: OK, Here's what I did. I cooked them in boiling salted water for eight minutes along with two large garlic cloves (and subsequently used the bean-water for pasta, ans then the bean-pasta water for sesame sauce for the pasta. When the beans and garlic cooled I sliced the beans, diced the garlic, minced half a bunch of curly-leaf parsley from Monkshood farm, and drizzled everything with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Salt to taste. Stripey they are not, but delicious and life-giving they are, this bean I had never seen. Have you sen these, Sweetnicks??We waited for shabes to indulge in these delicious tender beans so we could make a shehekheyonu. It truly is a remarkable this when life allows you to taste a new type of bean. Submit to the wonder.

New-Moon Radishes ראש־חודש־רעטעכלעך

ראש־חודש־רעטעכלעך

אױף ייִדיש זאָגט מען „ אַז עס גײט די סדרה קרח, קומט אױף׃ קאַרשן, רעטעך, כרײן” די ראשי־תּיבֿות פֿון די דרײַ געװיקסן זענען „קרח“. אין דער װאָך, כאָטש, איז דער אַגריקולטורעלן לוח דאָ אין ניו יאָרק דער זעלבער װי אין דער אַלטער הײם.

רױטע רעטעכלעך הײסן אױף ייִדיש „ראש־חודש רעטעכלעך“ צוליב דעם װאָס זײ קומען אױף אין דרײַסיק טעג אָדער װײניקער. די אָ רעטעכער װערן דערמאָנט אין דער באַרימטער אָנבײַסן סצענע אין „דער קונצנמאַכער פֿון לובלין“ פֿון באַשעװיסן׃

אין דער צײַט װען יאַשאַ האָט זיך געפּאָרעט אין הױף, איז אסתּר אױפֿגעשטאַנען און צוגעגרײט אָנבײַסן׃ אַ פֿלאַם־פּלעצל מיט פּוטער און צװאָרעך, יונגע ציבעלע, ראש־חודש־רעטעכלעך, אַ זיסע אוגערקע, און קאַװע, װאָס זי אַלײן האָט געמאָלן אין אַ קאַװע־מילעכל און פֿאַרבריט אין דער מילך.

אַ, טעם גן־עדן! איך װאָלט זײער געװאָלט אַמאָל צוגרײטן דעם אָנבײַסן, מערצעשעם. איך װאָלט אױך באַמערקן אַז מע טאָר ניט גלױבן אַלע אױסגעריסענע רכילות װעגן ייִדישע עסן אין דער אַלטע הײם. געגעסן האָט מען אַ סכערלײ גרינסן.

זך עץ האָט נאָך נישט אָפּגעבאַקן קײן פֿלאַם־פּלעצל, קאָנט עץ זיך באַגײן דערװײַל מיט רעטעך קאַנאַפּײען.

קאַנאַפּײען מיט רעטעכער אױף אָנבײַסן

דינע רעפֿטלעך פֿון ראַזעװע ברױט
פּוטער
כּשר זאַלץ
צװאָרעך אָדער שמירקעז
דינע רעפֿטלעך ראש־חודש־רעטעכלעך

שמירט'ץ אָן דאָס ברױט מיט פּוטער און באַשיט'ץ מיט זאַלץ. שמירט'ץ מיט קעז, און לײגט'ץ צו די רעטעכלעך.

A Yiddish saying about this week’s portion reminds us “Az es geyt di sedre koyrekh, kumt oyf: karshn, retekh, khreyn” “When the week of Korakh comes around, cherries, radishes, and horseradish come up.” The initials of the three seasonal products form an acronym for “Korakh.” this week, at least, the agricultural calendar of New York is in sync with that of Eastern Europe.

In Yiddish red radishes are called “roysh-khoydesh retkhlekh,” or “new-moon radishes,” not because they have anything to do with the new moon, but because they seem to spring up so soon (less than a full moon cycle) after being planted.

These radishes appear memorably in the famous breakfast scene in The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer, which begins at just this time of year:

While Yasha was busy in the courtyard, Esther got up and made breakfast: a griddle-pletzl with farmer cheese, spring onions, new-moon radishes, a sweet cucumber, and coffee she had ground herself in the coffee mill and seethed in milk.

(A pletzl is a flatbread similar to focaccia). I would love to try to reproduce this gorgeous breakfast sometime. It is worth noting that contrary to dreary and slanderous stereotypes, seasonal vegetables in great variety were central to the diet of Jews in Eastern Europe.

If you haven’t got around to baking a griddle-pletzl just yet, these colorful breakfast canapés will tide you over.

Radish Canapes for Breakfast

Thin slices from a whole-grain baguette
Sweet butter
Kosher salt
Cream cheese or farmer cheese
Red, pink, or purple radishes, sliced thin

Butter the bread, sprinkle with salt, spread with cheese, and arrange radishes on top.

Other antioxidant-rich tastes from old world and new are to be found at Sweetnicks.

Flowering Bok Choi

Spring is in the air. The blossoms on the callery pear trees are at their beautiful peak and Yuno’s farm has returned to a somewhat smaller stand in for the duration of construction in Union Square. This thrilling vegetable is not flowering broccoli, as I first guessed, but flowering bok choi (look at the leaves). They call it “over-winter bok choi”

Flowering Bok Choi

Trim the bottoms and cook in liberally salted water for ten minutes. Drain and dress with oil and salt.

To preserve the pristine beauty of the blossoms I tried to do as little as possible to cook the bok choi, and this may have been a mistake. I was fooled by the slender stems into thinking that this might be another vegetable suitable for one-handed cooking, like this lovely yu choi, but the stems, while slender, are pretty tough.

Even so, I urge you to try this if you can find it. Tricky as it is to describe the variations in flavor between different strains of bok choi, I would say this bunch at least was sweeter, milder and more flowery than any I have tasted. I had never seen this before, and I bet Sweetnicks hadn’t either.

Kaffir Limes and Limequats (Alternate Lime Meringue Pie)

That in not a lime that I left out in the rain overnight. It is a kaffir lime, a delicate and fragrant variety of citrus sometimes available at my neighborhood grocer. K-limes are prized mostly for their flavorful leaves, but the fruit is lovely. The zest is very strong, so use just a bit in combination with other citrus zests, and the juice is pleasantly tart and floral, but scant, so you may want to stretch it with some lemon juice as well.

These are limequats, a kumquat-lime hybrid. Are they not very cute? They are way too sour to eat out of hand (I can see Krakow and Lemberg) but the zest is really something special, and the tart juice combines beautifully with lemon for a lemon and alternate lime pie, a dressing, or to squeeze into tea.

I had no sooner finished the lemon pie I made yesterday (I had some help with this) than I just needed to have another, made even more wonderful by this delicate crisp pastry, and the addition of the juices and zests of these alternate limes to the mix.

Seen these before, Sweetnicks?

Lemon and Alternate Lime Meringue Pie

This will make about eighteen little tartlets or one 9-inch tart

Sour Cream Crust for Custard Pies

6 ounces (1 ½ cups) all-purpose flour

pinch salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar

4 ounces (1 stick, ½ cup) sweet butter

2 tablespoons sour cream

2 tablespoons water

combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or your fingers until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Stir together the sour cream and water in a glass and pour into the dough. Mix with a fork so that everything holds together. Wrap the dough and chill for twenty minutes or so.

Roll the dough to 1/8 inch for a full-size pie, or somewhat thinner for smaller tarts, and line your pie and tart pans. Bake at 350 for ten to fifteen minutes, or until golden.

Lemon and Alternate Lime Filling

1 cup water

¼ cup cornstarch

½ cup sugar

3 yolks

2 tablespoons butter

3 ounces juice (Juice of 1 or 2 lemons, one kaffir lime, and 2 limequats, depending on your yield)

zest of 1 lemon, 1 kaffir lime and 2 limequats (1 generous tablespoon zest)

1 teaspoon vanilla or vanilla-scented bourbon

Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and let rest 5 minutes. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together. Add the mixture gradually to the hot water, whisking until completely incorporated. Return to the heat and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. The mixture will be very thick. Add some of the hot mixture to the beaten egg yolks, whisking until smooth. Then add the warmed yolks to the pot and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in butter until incorporated. Add the citrus juice, zest and vanilla or bourbon. Allow the filling to cool somewhat before filling the tart shells.

Meringue

3 egg whites

½ cup sugar

mix the sugar and eggwhites in the large bowl of your mixer. If you remember to do this when you start, leave them in a warm place to dissolve while you prepare the pastry crust and citrus curd. Otherwise, whisk the sugar and egg whites together over simmering water until the sugar is dissolved. Transfer the bowl to the mixer and whip to soft peaks. Taking the step of melting the sugar will give you a more delicious and satiny meringue. It will also be prettier than a raw meringue.

Assemble the tarts

Raise the oven to 400. Spoon the citrus curd into the tart shells and pipe or spoon the meringue on top. Place the tarts on a sheet pan, and bake in the top part of the oven for ten minutes, or until browned on the tips and edges.