Sunday, February 24, 2013

Sunday Dinner: British Colonial

Menu:
dhal

curried eggs
brown basmati rice
garnishes: chopped cilantro, lime wedges, golden raisins, hot lemon pickle, plain yogurt
banoffee pie (recipe below)




Saturday:
make dhal - no need to refrigerate
hardboil eggs - have a child peel them and keep in fridge
thaw graham cracker crust - keep tightly bagged on counter

Sunday morning:
make tomato sauce part of curried eggs - allow to sit on stove next to dhal
put basmati rice in oven on timed bake
put bowl and beaters in freezer for whipped cream



Sunday noon:
reheat dhal
add eggs to tomato sauce and heat
chop cilantro and limes
whip cream
assemble pie
set table



 
 
 

Banoffee Pie
[ban OFF ee]

This is a British pie.  I got the recipe from Pam Anderson, but I tweaked it a bit.  I made two of these to take to dinner with friends and made a third one today to use up the final jar of dulce de leche in the fridge.  It's a rather chilly pie for winter, but making dulce de leche was a kitchen project I could not pass up; the resulting pie is terribly delicious, I must say.

1. Make dulce de leche (caramelized sweetened condensed milk, beloved of Latin America):

Open 14-oz. can of sweetened condensed milk.  Scrape it all into a canning glass pint jar or 2 half-pint jars.  Put on the lid and screw on the ring.  Place in saucepan with water to cover the lid by an inch (or put it in the crockpot with water to cover - my crockpot wasn't deep enough, so I used the stove method).  Bring to a simmer with the lid on and keep at a simmer for 2-3 hours, until milk has turned a deep tan.  Allow to cool before opening - either carefully take the hot jar out of the hot water or else let the whole business cool down. This is now dulce de leche.  It will keep for several weeks in the fridge.

2. Make a graham cracker crust:

Combine:
1 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt

Press into 9" pie plate to form crust.  Bake at 375 for 8 minutes.  Cool completely (can be made ahead of time and tightly bagged and frozen or kept at room temperature for several days).

3. Assemble pie.

Spread about 2/3 (about a half-pint) of the dulce de leche in graham cracker crust (or use the whole thing and fewer bananas).  This is tricky to spread thick glop on a crumby crust.  The crumbs that got mixed into the dulce de leche didn't bother us, but you could warm the dulce de leche slightly to make it more spreadable. 

Slice over top:  2-3 ripe bananas

Whip in chilled bowl with chilled beaters:  1 cup heavy whipping cream.  As it is taking shape, sprinkle in gradually 2 Tbsp. sugar and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract. 

Spread whipped cream over bananas.  Chop up some semisweet or bittersweet chocolate to equal 1/2 cup.  Sprinkle artistically on top of the whipped cream. 



Serve immediately or chill for a few hours.  The pie loses its loveliness after that and weepy liquid will appear in the bottom - but don't despair, the flavor is still there!  The sugar stabilizes the cream well enough that it will be fine the next day.

7 comments:

Hazel said...

Sounds delicious! Dahl is one of our regulars- I like a cauliflower and a parsnip version too- both vegetables lend themselves to the gentle spicing.
The sultana/raisin addition reminds me of tea with my best friend in the 70's. Her mum was considered an adventurous cook and curry made an appearance every so often- always in a floury yellow sauce, served in a ring of rice with sliced banana and sultanas!

We had Banoffee pie over the weekend as eldest daughter had made it in her food tech class (lasagne the week before, chicken curry next week). It's always nicer than I remember- the banana adds a surprising sharpness to the cream and caramel. As an aside, I suspect most British people think Banoffee pie is an American invention, though it actually originates from somewhere rather low key, like Eastbourne.

Polly said...

Yum to all of it!!

I've never made dhal before, but I love to eat it. I need to put this on our winter menu.

oukay said...

Thank you for the great idea. I have wanted to make dulce de leche, but was not thrilled with the idea of simmering it in the metal can. I never thought to put it in jars!

jenny_o said...

Everything sounds delicious - especially that beautiful pie.

Sew Blessed Maw [Judy] said...

Love the pie, Never knew where the recipe came from.. My son is a preacher and one of his church members made it for him,and he gave me the recipe.. They called it banana carmel pie.lol
anyway, They boiled the sweet condensed milk in the can, just immersing it in water. I was scared to death it would explode when cooking.ha But, I have made it several times.. My family loves it.
Thanks for sharing.. I will definitely try putting the milk in the jar.. I would feel much safer.

helene said...

Your daughter is so cute! I also have to turn my daughter's sleeves at the cuffs. Why do they make girls' tops with such ridiculously long sleeves? Fab food.

Margo said...

Helene, actually, she has long arms and sleeves usually aren't long enough (I have the same problem)! In this post, she's wearing a dress my mother-in-law bought her a full size larger in the hopes that it will last for 2 seasons. We'll see!