Pecan pie and garden planning

As we waddle into the final hours of the holiday gluttony season, I'd like to share this little-known fact: pecan pie is less fattening if you eat it while planning out a vegetable garden.

Try it. Cut yourself a nice big piece of pecan pie. If you don't have one handy, the recipe my husband uses for his famous pecan pie is below. It really is the very best kind there is. Like all good things in life, it contains obscene quantities of sugar, butter, more sugar, more butter, and some corn syrup (which I normally avoid, but just can't argue with here). Also as many nuts as you can possibly fit into your pie pan — I have no patience for those pies where the nuts are just kind of sprinkled on top of the sugar-custard.

It has about 700 calories a slice, but that assumes each slice is 1/8 of the pie. I, being a paragon of self-restraint, usually go with a much smaller slice. Followed by several dozen forkfuls directly from the pan.

Got your pie? Good. Now, take it to the nearest available sunbeam or warm corner of the house and grab your notebook and pen. The first and most important step in planning a garden is to figure out what you actually want to eat. A beautiful garden full of veggies you hate is, frankly, kind of stupid. 

So make a list of the produce items you love but rarely purchase because they're expensive or hard to find locally. Don't worry about whether they'll actually grow in your climate or if you have the space; just write them down. Fresh herbs, asian vegetables, fancy micro-greens, and other many other gourmet or import items are all fairly easy to grow at home. Unless your list is nothing but truffles and saffron, you'll find things you can grow at home.

Now, have some more pie and add to your list the produce you do buy, but would rather grow at home, because homegrown is just sooooo much better than the supermarket kind. (Yes, everything is better fresh-picked from your garden, but you probably won't notice the difference between a store-bought pumpkin and a homegrown one. Homegrown carrots, strawberries, and corn, on the other hand, are so much sweeter and more flavorful you'll have a hard time eating store-bought ones again.)

Finally, and particularly if you've got kids, consider adding things that tend to carry a lot of pesticides when grown conventionally. Kale, lettuce, spinach, potatoes, green beans, and celery are on Environmental Working Group's "Dirty Dozen Plus" list for 2012, meaning even if you buy conventional produce most of the time, you should consider buying these organic (or growing them yourself). (See the full "Dirty Dozen Plus" and "Clean 15" lists at http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/) 

(And before you get too freaked out, even EWG says that the health benefits of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables outweighs the risks of pesticide exposure, so if organic isn't an option, it's better to eat conventionally grown produce than none at all.) 

At some point before spring, you'll go through the list, see what can actually grow in your region, figure out how much space you have, and all the rest. But not right now. Now it's time to bask in your winter sunbeam and finish eating your pie.  

Pecan Pie

As so often happens, this recipe came to us without provenance, but some Googling suggests that it comes from this Butter Pecan Pie recipe, which appeared in the SF Chronicle some years back. Instructions and photos are all my own. 

Crust

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled
1/4 cup ice water

Combine the flour and salt. Cut the butter into chunks, then use a pastry blender or two knives (or pulse it in your food processor) to cut the butter into the flour until the pieces of butter are pea-sized or smaller.

Now, sprinkle a tablespoon of ice water over the surface. Give it a quick stir (with a spoon or your hands, or pulse the food processor), just enough to distribute the water and mix it all together. No kneading, and don't overmix. Continue adding water, a tablespoon at a time, just until the dough starts to hold together. You want to use as little water as possible, and do as little mixing as necessary — just enough that you can form it into a ball and not have it fall apart.

Form it into a ball, flatten it out to about an inch thick, and put it in the freezer for an hour. After an hour, take the dough out of the freezer, put it on your counter, and let it soften just slightly. Roll it out on a floured surface, put it in your pie pan, crimp the edges, and back into the freezer for 10 minutes (or until the filling is ready). All the freezing ensures that the butter stays solid until it goes into the oven; otherwise your crust won't be flaky.

Filling

2 (or more) cups pecans
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

In a heavy saucepan, mix the pecans, brown sugar, corn syrup, flour, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils. Remove from heat and let cool for 15 minutes.

In another bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla together.

To keep the eggs from turning into scrambled eggs in your pie, you need to temper them. Stir 1/2 cup of the sugar-pecan mixture into the eggs. Then stir the egg mixture into the rest of the hot sugar-pecan mixture, mixing until it's combined.

Pour the filling into your chilled pie crust, and bake it for 10 minutes at 425°. Reduce the temperature to 325°, and bake for another 30 to 40 minutes.