Guest Post : Kristy from “Eat, Play, Love” featuring Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Every Mondays and Fridays of June and July we will be featuring some my favourite food bloggers for the first time here at Ang Sarap. These bloggers are exceptional and served as a big influence of what is Ang Sarap now, so please do visit and follow every one of them (if you haven’t yet) and I will assure you that you won’t be disappointed.

Our guest for today is Kristy, Mike, Mr. N and Miss A  from Eat, Play, Love.

If there is something more diverse than what Ang Sarap has to offer then it would be Our Family Food Adventures.  True to its name their food adventures are diverse, so varied you can see dishes from cuisines I even never had tried before like Romanian, Greenlandic and Mongolian, they even made some Filipino dishes like Pork Estofado, Baked Tahong and Chicken Adobo.  A very impressive site with lots of diverse recipes reviewed by the family, informative posts, good food photography as well as cute children (I love Kristy’s little sous chef) this blog is a must to follow, so if you haven’t been following it yet what are you waiting for? But before that let us all welcome Kristy and her lovely family for today’s guest post.

This is Kristy, I blog with Mike, Mr. N (8 years old) and Miss A (4 years old) over at Eat, Play, Love. Our goal is to explore different cultures around the world with our children by cooking traditional recipes from different countries every few weeks. It’s our way of opening ourselves up to the many cultures, religions, and ethnicities around the globe while also expanding our palates. Each one of us participates in the country selection as well as the cooking which is always an adventure.

We were so excited when Raymund asked us to guest post on Ang Sarap. I’ve often told Raymund that my son, who has a serious passion for Asian food, would love to eat dinner with his family every night. We’ve made several of Raymund’s recipes (and drooled over many others) and each one has been a huge hit. In fact several are on my son’s “favorites” list, including Raymund’s sticky garlic chicken which Mr. N requested I make for dinner every day.

So in keeping with our blog’s theme, we wanted to choose a recipe for Ang Sarap that reflects the American culture. While there are many options from which to choose, we also knew that someone’s birthday just happened to be the week of our guest post. Now since birthdays are a special occasion marked with numerous celebrations in our house, we wanted to share one of our favorite homemade desserts – an American pie. Again, there are many pies from which to choose, but it being summer and knowing Raymund’s love for interesting ingredients and strong flavor combinations we chose the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

To begin the recipe we made our all butter double pie crust. The butter crust is perfect for this pie as it’s a thicker crust and holds up well to the juicy pie filling. While the dough chilled, we prepared and combined our pie filling ingredients. For this recipe we included rhubarb, strawberries, lemon zest and juice, sugar, flour, salt, vanilla extract and agave nectar.

Rhubarb is an herbaceous perennial plant whose raw stalks are used in cooking and most often in dessert. (Although we recommend it in risotto too!) While we were making the pie Mr. N asked me if rhubarb was a vegetable or fruit and I must confess I didn’t know the answer to that. In terms of how it grows vegetable seemed more likely, but when you consider how it’s prepared, fruit appeared more appropriate. After consulting the Internet we learned that rhubarb is a vegetable, but in 1947 a New York court deemed it a fruit in the United States. Mr. N insists it’s a vegetable.

We should note here that many pie makers will use cornstarch, tapioca or excess flour to help absorb some of the juices created by the fruits and sugar in the pie filling. If you prefer a pie that appears thicker, holds up when sliced and isn’t as juicy, feel free to adapt the recipe accordingly. We, however, aren’t going for looks and prefer a juicy, pie with the fruit flavor naturally featured in all its glory. Plus there’s just something that freaks me out about a pie that holds together. It seems unnatural. But again, there are many variations and schools of thought on the subject.

Once assembled, we brushed the pie crust with a bit of milk and sprinkled it with Miss A’s favorite thing, sugar. The pie baked for 20 minutes at 400F. The oven temperature was then reduced to 350F for the remaining 30 minutes. Another quick note here, since we don’t make use of a thickening agent, it’s important to line the bottom of the oven with foil as there will be dripping from the pie juice. When done, the pie is beautifully golden brown and full of sweet, tangy goodness.

We let our pie cool for about an hour before serving.  Then we got out some candles and made a special birthday wish. Happy birthday Raymund!! From all of us to you, we hope you have a fabulous year full of deliciousness, joy, love and laughter. Cheers!

And finally as is tradition on our blog, after digging in, we provide a spoon rating for every dish. Well, I think it will come as little surprise that this pie received top marks from each and every one of us – 4 spoons all around! (And adding a little freshly whipped cream with a hint of lime certainly doesn’t hurt!)

Thank you again for the opportunity Raymund. We love Ang Sarap and how much we continue to learn from your posts. It was an honor to be a part of something we admire and respect from across the globe. Happy birthday!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

★★★★★ 5 from 13 reviews

• Author: Kristy from "Eat, Play, Love"
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 50 mins
• Total Time: 1 hour 20 mins

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Ingredients

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crust

• 2–1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 lb. unsalted butter (2 sticks) cut into small pieces
• 6–8 T iced water
• 2 T milk
• 1 t turbinado sugar

pie filling

• 2–1/2 c rhubarb, chopped
• 3 c strawberries, chopped
• 2/3 c sugar
• 3–4 T flour
• Zest and juice of one lemon
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 t vanilla
• 1 T agave nectar

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Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour and salt. Next cut large pieces of the cold butter into the dry mix. The mixture should look coarse and damp with both large and small clumps.
2. Next add the cold water to the dough one tablespoon at a time and use two forks to mix in the water by pulling up the dry ingredients from the bottom of the bowl and then pushing it down again. Continue adding the water until the dough begins to form. It should feel damp, but not wet. Don’t add more water than is necessary.
3. When the dough is ready divide it into two portions, one larger than the other for the bottom pastry. Form each portion into a ball, wrap them in plastic and store the dough in the fridge for at least an hour, if not more.
4. While the dough is chilling, combine all the filling ingredients into a  bowl and reserve. Preheat the oven to 400F.
5. Next, remove the dough from the refrigerator and unwrap the larger of the dough portions. Place the ball on a floured surface and roll out the dough. (Make sure to flour your rolling pin as well.) Once the dough has reached adequate size, place it in the bottom of your desired pie pan. Fill with the reserved pie filling.
6. Repeat the rolling process for the top crust and roll it out over the top of the pie. Pinch the seams of the crust, brush with milk, sprinkle with turbinado and cut air vents over the top of the crust.
7. Bake for 20 minutes at 400F, then turn the temperature down to 350F and bake for another 30 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. Serve warm or room temperature.

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