Witchy Kitchen

Tag: pie

  • Red Room Cherry Cider & Black Lodge Coffee Pie

    Red Room Cherry Cider & Black Lodge Coffee Pie

    It’s Cops ‘N Killers month on Nightmare on Film Street, and Twin Peaks, 1990’s wacky noir television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch, has plenty of both. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) comes to the quaint, quirky town of Twin Peaks to investigate the death of local beloved teenager Laura Palmer, and the unfolding mystery is a wild ride to say the least.

    Agent Cooper is equally quirky as the town, charming, and sharp as a tack. His childlike curiosity is what makes him a great detective – and it’s not limited to crime. He has keen observations on the picturesque Pacific Northwest landscape, the often eccentric citizens, and of course the food that he’s frequently describing with glee. Mention Twin Peaks and anyone familiar can quote “You know, this is – excuse me – a damn fine cup of coffee.”

    It’s true that Twin Peaks makes amazing use of food to showcase both place and character. One of the key settings is the Double R Diner where Norma (Peggy Lipton) serves up humble small town diner fare and of course, her famous cherry pies. And it’s not limited to cherry; peanut butter pie, huckleberry pie, and more appear in the series. Cooper and team return often for sustenance and to unpack what they’ve learned about the case. Lynch has said of diners “There’s a safety in thinking in a diner. You can have your coffee or your milkshake, and you can go off into strange dark areas, and always come back to the safety of the diner.”

    Food permeates the series; there’s breakfasts at the Great Northern Inn, awkward family dinners in several awkward family homes, elaborate donut spreads at the police station. And then, as mentioned, the coffee. Agent Cooper’s effervescent personality is certainly fueled by caffeine. Whether damn fine, black as midnight on a moonlit night, or – ahem – even a little fishy, coffee is everywhere.

    You can find many recipes for Norma’s cherry pie (that look absolutely delicious) and I’m sure most of you are capable of making a damn fine cup of coffee. So for this we’re doing something a little different and slipping into the red room of Agent Cooper’s dreams. Or is it the Black Lodge? There, the dead are alive, time and space are irrelevant, and nothing’s as it seems. Things are sometimes – backwards? Like…cherry cider and coffee pie?

    Yes, we’re flipping two of the most standout Twin Peaks foods, and the result is quaint, quirky and delicious.

    Red Room Cherry Cider

    I had a brief moment of snobbery at the thought of using Jello of which I am ashamed. After all Agent Cooper is from the big city and is never is condescending. Plus, the bright red color it results in is perfectly reminiscent of the heavy velvet red room curtains.

    • 6 cups apple cider
    • 1 3 ounce package cherry Jello
    • 2 cardamom pods, cracked
    • 2 slices ginger
    • 1 cinnamon stick

    Heat all ingredients in a pot, and gently simmer for at least 10 minutes. Serve hot.

    Black Lodge Coffee Pie

    Adapted from A Taste of Home. Note: these women’s magazines are great for beautifully simple recipes particularly when you’re going for a small town feel. We’re swapping out the topping for cocoa chevrons for the iconic red room floor, whipped cream on the side.

    For the crust

    • 6 ounces chocolate wafers
    • 4 tablespoons melted butter
    • 2 tablespoons sugar
    • Pinch salt.

    Heat oven to 350°. Pulse all ingredients together in a food processor. Press evenly in a 9 inch pie dish and bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool before fill ng.

    For the filling

    • ⅔ cup sugar
    • ½ cup flour
    • ½ teaspoon salt
    • 2 cups milk
    • 3 tablespoons instant coffee granules, crushed
    • 3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
    • 2 tablespoons butter
    • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    • cocoa powder to garnish, slightly sweetened whipped cream on the side

    In the top of a double boiler (or in a heat safe bowl over a boiling pot), mix sugar, flour, and salt. Add milk gradually and stir until smooth. Cook and stir until thickened, 8-10 minutes. Stir in coffee granules.

    Temper the egg yolks by stirring a small amount of the hot liquid into them, then add all to the pan. Cook and stir for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla extract. Cool thoroughly, pour into crust and chill.

    For the garnish: you can sprinkle the cocoa evenly or get crafty. Make chevron strips out of paper and arrange across the pie. Sprinkle cocoa powder between the strips, then peel them off. Serve with whipped cream on the side.

    First published on Nightmare on Film Street.

  • Violet Beauregarde-inspired Three Course Dinner

    #FFDahlicious is a month for tasty eats inspired by Roald Dahl hosted by Katarina @ Pretty Cake Machine. Check the hashtag or the link up for lots of Dahl-inspired dishes.

    Violet Beauregarde, the gum-smacking, slang-slinging, disobedient daughter of a car salesman, is the second child to meet her demise in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, but not before enjoying a lovely three course meal in the form of gum. 

    Before she’s rolled away to be juiced, she enjoys tomato soup, roast beef with a baked potato, and then the cause of her downfall: blueberry pie. 

    Without Willy Wonka’s assistance, I was unable to create this gum exactly as it was described (probably a good thing), but I did create the meal that inspired it! This tomato soup was completely simple, yet fabulous thanks to the slow roasted tomatoes, it had become my go-to recipe. The roast beef was nicely cooked with a red wine gravy. And the blueberry pies were miniature with an almond crust, a sweet bite at the end of a lovely meal. Don’t feel bad for Violet, all in all it’s not a bad way to go.

    Violet Beauregarde’s Three Course Dinner


    Tomato Soup

    • 2 pounds roma tomatoes, cut into thick slices
    • 1 head garlic
    • 1/2 an onion, sliced
    • olive oil, salt & pepper
    • 5 cups chicken broth (homemade and flavorful if possible, I made mine from the bones of an Arabic style roast chicken)
    • cream to garnish
    Heat oven to 350°. Toss tomatoes with a good amount of olive oil, salt and pepper, and spread in a single layer on a baking sheet (or two if you don’t have a very large one). In another baking dish, toss the onions with olive oil, salt and pepper. Cut the top off a head of garlic and wrap it in foil, drizzled with a little olive oil. Put everything in the oven. Bake, flipping the tomatoes every half hour and stirring the onions once in awhile, until tomatoes are cooked and caramelizing and onion is golden (tomatoes will take about an hour and a half, onions probably only a half hour – check and make sure not to burn). Leave garlic in until roasted and soft, an hour to an hour and a half. Puree tomatoes, onions, and garlic in a blender with a little chicken broth, then pour into a pot. Stir in the rest of the chicken broth, adjusting seasoning if necessary, and gently heat, slowly simmering for 15 minutes or so. Serve hot with a little cream for garnish.

    Roast Beef

    I shall direct you to Simply Recipes, whose detailed method I followed pretty much exactly, including making the red wine gravy.

    (Mini) Blueberry Pie (with almond crust)

    For the crust
    • 2 cups almond flour
    • 2 tablespoons butter
    • 1 egg
    • good pinch salt
    Blitz together almond flour and butter in a food processor, then blitz in egg and salt. Press into a prepared mini muffin tin and bake (before filling) at 350° for 8 minutes. For the filling I made this lightly sweetened, still very tart. You can increase the amount of honey to 1/2 cup if you’d like.
    • 1 pint blueberries
    • 1/4 cup honey
    • pinch salt
    • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
    In a small saucepan, heat half the blueberries with honey and salt. Mix cornstarch in 1/4 cup of water and add to the saucepan, stirring until blueberries are broken down and mixture is thick. Remove from heat, and stir remaining blueberries into the mixture. Spoon into the crusts in the mini muffin tin and bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Cool in the muffin tin before removing.

    Recipe for Fiction Kitchen Episode 21: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in which Carrie and Diana talk the book and movies, including awful and/or bland children, mint sugar grass production techniques, wistful buttercup sipping, questionable treatment of animals and small humans, a little chocolate and a lot of vegetables.

  • Myers Lemon Pumpkin Pie

    Myers Lemon Pumpkin Pie

    ‘Tis the season! We’ve decked the halls with cobwebs and pumpkins, and are so ready for the final confrontation between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers in 2018’s Halloween, directed by David Gordon Green.

    John Carpenter’s original Halloween film (1978), is iconic. We get the fearsome, stalky villain that launched a thousand slashers, the original Scream Queen, goddess Jamie Lee Curtis, and the spooky synth soundtrack that became a genuine classic. The film is almost beyond reproach. Almost.

    The one problem…it doesn’t feel like Halloween at all! The houses are barely decorated, and a few half-hearted trick-or-treaters do not a proper Halloween make. Most of the lack of seasonal feel comes from the fact that though it’s set in the Midwest in October, it was filmed in Southern California in May. The film crew struggled to find pumpkins, used artificial fall leaves on streets lined with fully green trees, and every once in a while you even get a glimpse of a palm.

    Here’s hoping the new film is every bit as scary and trope-y as the first, but pumped up with pumpkin spice! To honor the original, we’re making a pumpkin pie – the official pie of Illinois (which also happens to include our fictional town of Haddonfield) – marbled with California citrus. And not just any citrus: Myers, I mean Meyer, lemons. Meyer lemons are sweeter and less sharp than your basic lemons, but they aren’t quite in season – so if you have trouble finding them, using a mixture of lemon and orange works as well. The pie has a very snappy gingersnap crust, which is unfussy and compliments the filling well. There’s also a ribbon of pomegranate molasses flowing through, a quite autumnal ingredient with a gorgeous color that I never miss a chance to use. It works particularly well here to evoke blood. Slice with a BIG SHARP KNIFE and serve!

    Myers Lemon Pumpkin Pie

    For the crust

    • 9 ounces gingersnap cookies
    • 3 tablespoons butter, melted

    Heat oven to 350°. In a food processor, blitz the cookies to crumbs, then add melted butter and pulse several times to combine. Press into a greased 9 inch glass pie plate, using the heel of your hand to flatten and gently spread it up the sides of the plate, and toast in the oven for 10 minutes until golden. Cool slightly before filling.

    For the pumpkin mixture

    • 1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
    • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
    • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 stick butter, melted
    • 3 eggs, beaten
    • 2 teaspoons vanilla
    • 1/2 cup heavy cream
    • 1/4 cup flour

    Using a hand mixer or whisk, blend together pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, butter, eggs, vanilla, and heavy cream. Sift flour into the mixture and blend until combined.

    For the citrus cream cheese

    • 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
    • 2 teaspoons Meyer lemon zest (or a combination of lemon and orange zest)
    • 2 teaspoons Meyer lemon juice (or a combination of lemon and orange juice)
    • 1/4 cup sugar
    • 3 tablespoons heavy cream

    Using a hand mixture, blend all ingredients.

    To assemble

    • 2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses (you can purchase this at a Middle Eastern grocer, or make it yourself by boiling down pomegranate juice to about a third of its volume and cooling)

    Pour pumpkin mixture into pie crust. Spoon cream cheese mixture over top and use a knife to marble it into the mixture. Drizzle pomegranate molasses on top and give it a last swirl with the knife before putting in the oven, at 350° for 50 minutes until just set.

    Allow to cool at least 3 hours and even better, overnight, before serving.

    First published on Nightmare on Film Street.

  • Food recap: Twin Peaks s01e01 (the pilot)

    I’m recapping all food from Twin Peaks! Spoiler alert…because there is SO much food it often overlaps with actual plot.

    …

    Recipes (so far) from this episode

    …

    Right from the first episode we get the motifs of coffee, cherry pie, and donuts that pretty much define the show. There’s a ton of food in the feature-length pilot, so let’s get started….

    The very first food scene we are treated to in Twin Peaks is when Pete comes in to fill his thermos with coffee and is greeted by Catherine’s resting bitch face.

    You know who else drinks coffee? Sheriff Harry S. Truman.

    Two average, not at all creepy households.
    The Palmers: some sweet product placement with Quaker oatmeal and Captain Crunch. Fruit in a basket. Shiny carafe. Coffee perhaps?
    The Briggs: Also a carafe, cute little spice rack.

    Nice big hotel breakfast at the Great Northern for the Norwegians. Braided bread? And a carafe, of course. Not food related, but this watch I’m noticing how Ben Horne is always in front of a roaring fire, à la Satan.

    First sighting of The RR! Based on the real-life Twedes Cafe. So much of our show food comes from here.

    You know who else drinks coffee? Bobby Briggs.

    Norma serves coffee, and behind Shelly is a full case of pie. This is not the last we’ll see of that pie.

    I don’t think that’s coffee.
    PS, “I thought I was your little pick-me-up” is the cutest line ever and Shelly is the best.

    Ed to James: “Buy you a coffee?” TV seems to think highschool kids drinking coffee is a thing – is it really? I guess I shouldn’t get too hung up on highschool accuracy since they don’t really bother to go to school much after the first couple of episodes, that is until Nadine becomes a mental teenage, gets superhuman strength, and joins the wrestling team.

    COOPER!!! To Diane: Lunch was $6.31 at the Lamplighter Inn on HWY 2 near Louis Fork. That was tuna fish sandwich on whole wheat, slice of cherry pie and a cup of coffee. Damn good food. Diane, if you ever get up this way, that cherry pie is worth a stop.

    From Laura’s diary: Asparagus for dinner again. I hate asparagus. Does this mean I’ll never grow up?
    Oh wow, sad. Feel the weight of that one for a minute.

    Diane, I am holding in my hand a small box of chocolate bunnies.
    This may be the moment I decided I loved Twin Peaks.

    It’s a beautiful day for a picnic.

    We don’t yet know if Audrey Horne drinks coffee, but we do know she’ll use it to eff up your desk. Audrey is way more annoying than sexy in the pilot.

    The Hornes, having a SUPER awkward tea.

    Between Husband of the Year Leo, Your Idiot Boyfriend Bobby, and actual decent people Norma and Ed – well, they are having an affair, but compared to these other two? – there’s a fair amount of beer drinking going on.

    “Do you think they spotted us?” “Get me a donut.”
    …and I guess they got donuts!

    Aaand we wrap up the episode with one of Lucy’s classic donut spreads. A policeman’s dream. Extra jelly donuts for Agent Cooper, extra decaf for Andy.

    …

    Check back soon for another damn good food recap. In the meantime, you can check our Twin Peaks episode on Fiction Kitchen Podcast!