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In this Issue: Vintage Summer Salads Omar Khayyam's Spinach Salad with Zesty Dressing, Spice 'n Easy Hash Brown Potato Salad, Crunchy Cauliflower Salad, Swedish Potato Salad, Nut Tree Green Frosted Potato Salad, Gone But Not Forgotten Resto Recipes Bill Zuber's Rhubarb Kuchen, Fritzel's Creamy Griddle Cakes with Blueberry Sauce, Anna Maude Cafeteria German Chocolate Pudding, Green Goddess Chip Dip, Pie Revival Whoopie Pies, Banana Cream Pie, Montana Mom's Rhubarb Custard Pie, Cream Plum Pie, French Silk Pie, Taco Pie, Natchitoches Fried Pork Pies, Pork Apple Brunch Pie, Zesty Lemon Sponge Pie, Old World Sour Cream Raisin Pie, Poppyseed Refrigerator Torte, Celebrity Citings Joel Grey's Chinese Chicken Salad, Sinatra's Spicy Sausage and Sweet Green Peppers, Reader favorites Chocolate-frosted Peanut Butter Cake, Armenian Manti, Pickles, Preserves & Such Zucchini Relish & Dixie Relish, Famous Nut Tree Bread with North Carolina Pear Honey, Calumet Baking Powder Biscuits, Kumquats in Syrup, Old-fashioned Creamy Coleslaw, “You know...for the kids!” '50s Picklenik, Back from the Bar Oak Bar Plaza Sweet, Better Left Lost Canned Asparagus Casserole,

 

Natchitoches Pork Pies

I probably don't need to rave about James Villas. Writing as he has for so many top food magazines and newspaper food sections, he's famous already. But he's such a good storyteller--so good his newest book won a James Beard award this year :) Every one of the 300 pork recipes he's packed into, “Pig,” from John Wiley & Sons, starts with a good story. And most include some Southern bit of food history, too. My husband shooed me off of preparing the recipe I wanted to test from this book for ya'll this issue (said I'd done too many chili type dishes already.) So I'll get around to that one, a Bryce Cafeteria-style Texarkana Pork and Bean Pie with Cornpone Topping, in chilly (chili) weather. But for this month, here are some of tastiest half-moon, Louisiana-style, fried pork pies you've ever had. Eat some. Then buy a copy of the book.

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Makes 16 small, fried pies
Filling Ingredients
  • 2 Tbsp peanut oil
  • 1 ½ lbs ground pork shoulder (Ask your butcher to grind it for you)
  • ½ cup chopped scallions (include some of the green tops)
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
Pastry Ingredients
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 3 Tbsp ice-cold vegetable shortening
  • 1 large egg, beaten
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1 cup peanut oil for deep frying
Instructions
  1. Make filling: Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet over moderate heat; add pork, scallions and garlic and cook, stirring and breaking up the pork until it loses all traces of pink color; about 8 minutes. Add salt, pepper and flour and cook until mixture is almost dry.
  2. Transfer meat to a bowl, let cool, then chill.
  3. Make pastry: Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl; add shortening and cut with pastry cutter or two knives until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add egg and milk and stir until a ball of dough forms. Transfer dough to lightly floured surface and roll out to 1/8-inch thickness with a floured rolling pin. Using a clean, empty coffee can, cut out rounds of dough.
  4. Assemble pies: Heap a Tbsp of filling on each round of dough. With fingertips, dampen the edges with water. Fold over to make half-moon and seal edges with a fork dipped in water. Prick twice on top of pie, with fork.
  5. Heat oil in medium cast-iron skillet to 350 degrees. (I used deep-fat fryer) Quickly fry each pie until golden; about 2 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot.

To me, these porky pies just beg for good mustard and crisp, garlicky pickles to go alongside. Villas bemoans difficulties finding good bulk pork sausage outside the South. HA! He should try buying pork in our virtually ham-less hamlet of Skokie, IL :)

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