Green Tomato Pie

Mr. Eat The Blog's reaction to this was interesting:

"If you were Pennsylvania Dutch, and grew up eating this and moved, you'd miss it. It tastes like mincemeat, but the tomatoes taste like dried apples."

Interesting, because the recipe is very nearly identical to the one I have for snitz pie (dried apples). I wonder if his grandmother made something like this years ago, and he's remembering it? He still remembers her lentil soup (I actually have the recipe, written out on a recipe card that she gave him years before I met him. I think it was one of the first things he asked me to make. You have to love a man that adored his granny's cooking and saved her recipes for thirty years to present his future wife with).

My complaint with the pie is that it came up much too wet. It (surprisingly) didn't soak through the crust, but I did end up using a turkey baster to extract some of the juice. I did everything correctly-sliced the tomatoes, let them drain overnight, but this is just the nature of fresh fruit. Sometimes, they throw off a great deal of liquid. It certainly didn't harm it any, and I wouldn't increase the flour because it would be hard to know if the tomatoes were too dry next time. I would however, keep the turkey baster handy at serving time.

As regular readers are aware, as much as I love traditional Americana, I am unable to leave tradition alone. I added a generous amount of diced, crystalised ginger to the pie along with an equally generous handful of raisins. I also dotted it with butter and a swirl of molasses. You can omit these if you're a traditionalist, or if you were lucky enough to have your husband present you with his grandmother's recipe. I went ahead and improvised.

For The Crust:

1 cup unsalted butter cut into small pieces and kept quite cold
1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten1/4 cup cold water
1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in shortening and butter. Beat egg with water and vinegar and add slowly. You may not need it all. Form into a ball and let rest a bit before rolling out. Line the pie plate and then chill it for fifteen minutes while you make the filling and preheat the oven. Roll out the top as well and chill.

For The Filling:

4 cups tomatoes, sliced thin and drained several hours
2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
2 tablespoons chopped crystalised ginger
1/2 cup raisins
Butter for dotting

Combine everything and mix well.

Assembling:

Flour for dusting bottom of pie crust
Heavy cream and sugar for the top crust

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Dust bottom of pie crust lightly with flour. Pour in filling. Dot with a couple tablespoons of butter and seal with top crust. Brush with heavy cream and dust with sugar. Vent in several places. Place pie plate on baking sheet and bake 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees F. and bake another 30 minutes or until nicely browned. Cool before serving.