Homegrown Tomato Pie

Poole's: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner

We had our first opportunity for a direct comparison of one item between two cookbooks! Which one did we prefer? Was one easier than the other? Watch to find out!

This uses a few separate recipes we have made in other videos.

Poole's Pie Crust: https://youtu.be/ozfQYb_G1jY

Basic Cider Mayo: https://youtu.be/-AnSp2RvCtM

The recipe for all of the parts needed for the pie is included here: https://andrewzimmern.com/2016/09/23/ashley-christensens-homegrown-tomato-pie/

Captions

[00:04]: hi and welcome to cooking the books with
[00:07]: Heather today we are making the
[00:10]: homegrown tomato pie out of the pools
[00:13]: diner cookbook hopefully by now you have
[00:17]: seen the roasted and fresh tomato pie
[00:20]: that we did out of the deep brown roots
[00:23]: cookbook but now we're gonna make the
[00:25]: homegrown tomato pie out of this I have
[00:29]: made it before but it's been a while and
[00:31]: I want to say a couple things about the
[00:34]: recipe the recipe itself is for two pies
[00:38]: I'm going to have it because we don't
[00:40]: need two tomato pies today so luckily
[00:44]: 1/2 is one egg because the whole recipe
[00:48]: is two eggs so I didn't have to worry
[00:50]: about having an egg and also it calls
[00:54]: for buttermilk cheddar I have never seen
[00:58]: such and really didn't feel like trying
[01:02]: to look for it and call around didn't
[01:03]: have time this week but she says extra
[01:06]: sharp cheddar is a suitable substitute
[01:08]: and so that's what we're using today
[01:10]: we're think we're using some Vermont
[01:12]: sharp cheddar white cheddar and also the
[01:17]: pie shells are supposed to be pre baked
[01:21]: and cooled I'm baking our pie shell
[01:23]: right now and this is from the pools pie
[01:27]: crust recipe that we used for the
[01:29]: buttermilk chess pie recently we had
[01:32]: three left over from that so we're using
[01:34]: one for this recipe if you want to see
[01:37]: me roll out a pie crust and and blind
[01:40]: bake it you can go look at that recipe
[01:42]: so I think that's it our first step for
[01:47]: this recipe
[01:48]: other than the pie crust that we've
[01:49]: already started is to peel tomatoes so
[01:54]: we're gonna get set up over by the stove
[01:56]: and
[01:57]: we'll see you in a minute okay so for
[02:01]: peeling my your tomato she wants you to
[02:04]: blanch them just like we did peaches so
[02:07]: you just slice a little X into the
[02:09]: bottom here and then drop it in the
[02:13]: boiling water and it takes 60 to 90
[02:16]: seconds you can kind of see it start to
[02:18]: peel peel away from though that X mark
[02:21]: when it's done I have I think three
[02:27]: different kinds of tomatoes here but
[02:29]: it'll be fine it's what I had on me that
[02:36]: it was just enough so it's perfect I
[02:38]: also have an ice bath here so things
[02:41]: work in the refrigerator like I like my
[02:45]: peaches usually are when I peel them
[02:46]: this way I will put me putting these in
[02:49]: the ice bath when they come out of the
[02:52]: boiling water and I'm not gonna really
[02:53]: time this have a time we're going
[02:56]: already I can kind of look at it and see
[02:58]: but you can kind of tell when it's when
[03:02]: it's ready
[03:04]: in fact it's starting to split a little
[03:07]: bit around the edges so it might be just
[03:09]: about ready anyway and just like peaches
[03:12]: the riper it is the more ready it is the
[03:16]: less time it will take to be ready to
[03:21]: peel
[03:24]: I think we are just about there
[03:34]: they're all sort of starting to split so
[03:37]: I'm going to put this in the ice pack
[03:38]: and then I'm going to keep doing this
[03:41]: with the other three Tomatoes I have
[03:45]: will peel them and slice them up and so
[03:50]: that's our next step see you too man
[03:52]: our tomatoes have been blanched for
[03:56]: peeling and been in the ice bath so now
[03:59]: all we have to do is peel them and slice
[04:03]: them up and I'm gonna peel this one you
[04:06]: see how easily the peel just sort of
[04:08]: comes off of here and that's good there
[04:16]: I use a serrated knife generally to peel
[04:21]: or to cut Tomatoes they're very slippery
[04:29]: all right so I'm supposed to cut these
[04:32]: into 1/4 inch slices
[04:41]: and lay them out on this sheet pan and
[04:47]: so I'm going to do that with all of
[04:50]: these Tomatoes and when we're done I'm
[04:58]: gonna cut this core out a little bit
[04:60]: that'll just be highly yucky when we're
[05:05]: done we'll be done slicing the tomatoes
[05:11]: they were very slippery I have to say
[05:15]: that and what I'm supposed to do now is
[05:18]: generously salt both sides of these she
[05:24]: says about double what would you what
[05:26]: you would normally put on if you were
[05:28]: putting it on your sandwich if you don't
[05:31]: have don't have tomato sandwiches in the
[05:33]: summer when they're fresh you really
[05:35]: should and you have to salt your
[05:38]: tomatoes for that so I'm going to
[05:39]: generously salt these on this side and
[05:41]: then turn them over and salt the other
[05:46]: side the salt will draw out a lot of
[05:51]: moisture and we're gonna get rid of that
[05:56]: in a little bit and I'll show you how
[05:59]: when it's time for that we need to let
[06:01]: these sit though for 20 minutes for that
[06:04]: to start happening and we'll be back
[06:07]: then other than tomatoes this pie has
[06:14]: basically a custard filling that sort of
[06:17]: holds everything together and that's
[06:20]: what would make now while we wait for
[06:21]: our tomatoes to pull out some water and
[06:25]: wait for our crust to cool I'm gonna go
[06:29]: ahead and make the custard so we need
[06:32]: one egg because I'm having the recipe
[06:35]: like I said
[06:38]: whip that up there's there's no salt or
[06:45]: pepper in the custard the tomatoes are
[06:48]: nice it will be nicely salted there's
[06:50]: cheese in it that's salty so there's
[06:52]: gonna be plenty of salt and we put
[06:53]: pepper in as we as we build the pie I've
[06:57]: got some mustard some dijon mustard and
[07:00]: some horseradish here that goes in
[07:15]: and I've made a mess we have some heavy
[07:22]: cream and some milk are useful fat milk
[07:31]: and then the rest of this is the basic
[07:37]: cider mayo from her book we've done her
[07:41]: mayo on on-camera before in a video so I
[07:46]: will link to that below however I do
[07:48]: highly suggest you use an immersion
[07:50]: blender instead of the big food
[07:52]: processor if you have one super easy and
[07:55]: that's what I did today to make this so
[08:02]: there we go
[08:05]: oh I'm also supposed to put in so the
[08:08]: recipe calls for either time or basil
[08:11]: it's getting toward the end of basil
[08:13]: season here so I have plenty of that and
[08:16]: go ahead and add this into your custard
[08:21]: and you just tear it small so I'm gonna
[08:25]: do that and mix it in and our custard
[08:32]: will be ready for us when the tomatoes
[08:34]: and the crust are ready to build the pie
[08:38]: so we'll be back when that's all ready
[08:41]: our tomatoes been sitting for probably
[08:45]: about half an hour to 40 minutes and our
[08:50]: next step is to spin out all of the
[08:53]: juice that the salt has pulled from the
[08:55]: tomatoes using a salad spinner she has
[09:00]: to do this in about three batches but
[09:02]: we're doing half so it'll probably take
[09:05]: us maybe twice I'm just gonna kind of
[09:08]: put these in here not overlapping so
[09:13]: much they can go up the sides a little
[09:17]: bit
[09:18]: and try to get about half of them in
[09:19]: here and I'll probably do two batches
[09:22]: anyway so get these in here and yeah
[09:37]: that's probably a little more than half
[09:41]: get this and spin it
[09:59]: they're not super dry but I don't think
[10:02]: you're gonna be able to get them really
[10:03]: dry now I'm going to just play these out
[10:07]: on a plate so they'll be ready for the
[10:09]: next step I'm gonna do the other batch
[10:12]: and then we get to put the whole thing
[10:15]: together I was kind of curious how much
[10:18]: liquid came off and from my tray and
[10:21]: from in this spinner it looks like we
[10:23]: got about half a cup
[10:24]: she says she saves this and and makes
[10:27]: like a tomato vinaigrette I'm not sure
[10:29]: if we will or not but I'm gonna gather
[10:31]: all my ingredients and we're gonna put
[10:33]: this together so these are all the
[10:39]: ingredients that we're going to layer
[10:40]: into this pie crust and it seems like an
[10:43]: awful lot she says that it will all fit
[10:51]: it might you might have to have a little
[10:54]: faith and build it up kind of high but
[10:55]: it will cook down a little bit but I'm
[10:59]: gonna cook mine on a sheet pan because I
[11:01]: don't trust that it won't overflow a
[11:03]: little bit in the other so we start with
[11:06]: a little bit of the cheese to kind of
[11:07]: make a barrier on the crust I did blind
[11:11]: bake this a little bit extra because the
[11:14]: first time we did it the bottom was
[11:16]: pretty underdone so new cheese and then
[11:21]: a layer of tomatoes which see she says
[11:24]: should slightly over lap so
[11:34]: we're gonna try it that way
[11:44]: and
[11:44]: [Music]
[11:49]: when you use some of these little pieces
[11:51]: in the middle that kind of fell apart
[11:55]: fill in my holes alright that should be
[12:00]: good and then we put on a cheese nope
[12:06]: yeah another layer of cheese and then
[12:09]: nope pepper pepper first pepper another
[12:18]: layer of cheese she says she gets about
[12:21]: three layers of tomatoes so I'm gonna
[12:24]: try to do about keep enough for two more
[12:31]: layers and now we pour just enough of
[12:34]: this to sort of get through those
[12:36]: ingredients
[12:43]: so about a third
[12:46]: all just by eye
[12:52]: and then layer it up again alright now
[12:59]: this goes into a 350 degree convection
[13:02]: oven for 30 minutes and then you're
[13:06]: supposed to sort of rotate it well
[13:07]: usually it's two paws so one on top and
[13:09]: one on the bottom and then rotate those
[13:11]: I'll check it at 30 minutes see if I
[13:13]: need to turn it back and forth back to
[13:15]: front just because see if my oven is not
[13:18]: that even and we'll come back when it's
[13:21]: all done baking so this is what it looks
[13:24]: like when it comes out of the oven it's
[13:26]: been exactly an hour I think it's
[13:29]: perfect
[13:30]: the cheese should be all brown and
[13:32]: delicious and it's bubbly around the
[13:34]: edges and the sad part is we have to
[13:37]: wait at least an hour to cut it and eat
[13:40]: it so we'll be doing that
[13:51]: on this episode cooking the books with
[13:54]: Heather we made the homegrown tomato pie
[13:56]: from the pool's diner cookbook and I've
[13:60]: had this before but not recently enough
[14:03]: to compare it with the recipe from deep
[14:07]: run roots that we made very recently so
[14:09]: it was it was a good idea we already
[14:11]: made pie crusts so go ahead and try this
[14:14]: pie and see if we can spare and that is
[14:16]: a new thing here on cooking the books
[14:18]: with Heather this is the the only time
[14:20]: we've made something that really is
[14:23]: close enough to something we've already
[14:25]: made that we can compare two versions so
[14:28]: I think compared to the deep run roots
[14:35]: version this was maybe slightly easier
[14:37]: all we had to do was salt the tomatoes
[14:40]: but we did have to peel these so peeling
[14:43]: them was an extra step but we treated
[14:45]: all the rest all of them the same and
[14:47]: just salted them and drained them well
[14:50]: she did have to do with with half of the
[14:52]: ones in the deep run routes but cookbook
[14:54]: so I think as far as ease goes that's
[14:56]: you know pretty comparable but then deep
[14:60]: run routes has an extra step of roasting
[15:02]: half of your tomatoes so that's that's
[15:05]: you know one thing but as far as flavor
[15:12]: I think we actually did prefer the deep
[15:16]: run roots pie because of the roasted
[15:21]: tomatoes because there was a little bit
[15:23]: more sweetness to those Tomatoes there
[15:27]: is a little bit of sugar in her recipe
[15:28]: but really not a lot it's like a
[15:30]: teaspoon of tomatoes in a teaspoon of
[15:34]: sugar in the tomatoes so not a whole lot
[15:37]: but it was it was noticeable it was
[15:41]: noticeable about it was sweeter than
[15:43]: this recipe this did require a little
[15:49]: extra effort as did the one in deep
[15:51]: brown root so I'd say maybe slight edge
[15:55]: to this recipe as far as effort but both
[15:60]: both were really good so if you prefer a
[16:02]: sweeter
[16:03]: I go with deep run routes if you prefer
[16:05]: a more savory pie the one here in in the
[16:09]: pool Steiner cookbook is probably the
[16:11]: one for you
[16:12]: other than that relatively similar both
[16:15]: really delicious so if you've enjoyed
[16:19]: this this recipe if you enjoyed watching
[16:21]: me cook please hit the like button and
[16:23]: hit the subscribe button and come back
[16:25]: next week and see what we make next
[16:29]: [Music]