Citrus Envy!

The Lemons of Andros, Greece were renowned throughout Europe for their exquisite aroma and flavor.

The Great Atlantic Crossing

Please excuse our incredible lack of posting the past few months but with the economic crisis in Greece spiraling out of control we made the decision to return to New England after twenty years. Needless to say organizing the move took a great deal of time and energy and the culture shock has been indescribable. A day hasn’t past in the three months that we’ve been here where we haven’t:

 a) said: “What in the world is that?”

b) wondered why the wealthiest nation on Earth eats the poorest quality food on Earth, and

c) missed Greece.

There are far too many facets to America’s food quality (or lack thereof) problem for one post and there are some rays of light also. We’ll be incorporating these topics into our recipe posts over the coming days and months starting with: Citrus Envy

The first order of business after we arrived in Boston was to pay a visit to the local supermarket. Would we be able to find decent honey, bread, cheese, olive oil, yoghurt or anything else that would even come close to the quality of what is available in Greece? With one exception, the answer is unequivocally no.

We found one brand of “organic honey” among a shelf full of what can only be described as honey-flavored syrup. Upon sampling this “honey”, we realized that something wasn’t quite right. We turned the jar around and around seeking a declaration of what type of “honey” this was; which we never found. What we did find was a tiny, barely readable notice stating: SUGAR ADDED.

Really!...........Sugar!......... You can’t be serious.

And we have yet to find a single jar of supermarket “honey” which states in any way what type of honey is inside. Is it Clover, is it Heather, is it Orange Blossom? WHAT IS IT?

Bread? We’re not even gonna go there.

Cheese? We are going to go there and do a separate post about our disappointing cheese experiences and show you how to make your own fresh cheese.

Olive Oil? Atrocious and we don’t think that we’re ready to talk about it.

Yoghurt? Hurray! We found Total full fat yoghurt made by the Greek company, Fage. This is what we ate back home and we were very happy to find it in the supermarket. There were several other brands of “Greek Yoghurt” and we’re not naming names, but they are nothing like the real thing.

At any rate, we have quickly come to the disturbing realization that we have been incredibly spoilt for twenty years. This brings us to the subject of citrus.

After twenty years of carefree consuming of any and all kinds of citrus we are now faced with paying 50¢ for a lemon. That’s right 50¢. Our first reaction was an emotion akin to being offended. How dare someone ask for 50¢ per lemon! This is an outrage!

Citrus grows everywhere in Greece so someone (a neighbor or relative) is always trying to push a bag or two on you and we have very rarely actually paid for citrus. Whether it’s oranges, tangerines, lemons, bergamots , grapefruits, pomelos, etc. you don’t have to go far before you find yourself being handed a bag and in most towns and cities, the streets are lined with bitter orange trees overflowing with brightly colored fruits ripe for the picking. Because of the enormous surplus, Greeks have devised a particularly enjoyable way of preserving these fruits called Gliko Tou Koutaliou which in translation means Spoon Sweet or Sweet of the Spoon. This confit is prepared by cutting sections of the rind and preserving them in sugar syrup while tangerines and clementines are preserved whole. It is quite sweet which is why only a very small portion is served with a glass of water as an afternoon “pick-me-up”.

Despite this overabundance of citrus fruit we did suffer from citrus envy when we first arrived in Greece in 1992. It was very difficult to find limes as it was not part of Greece’s traditional citrus offerings although nowadays, persian limes are cultivated and sold everywhere. So how do you make Key Lime Pie without the limes? It’s simple, you make a different pie.

From Key West, Florida to Andros, Greece

Key Lime Pie was created in Key West, Florida by the locals otherwise known as "Conchs". This traditonal recipe was created when the only milk available in the area was canned milk brought in by ship and later by truck. The traditional Key Lime Pie wasn’t baked, instead the acid from the lime juice would set and thicken the egg yolks but here we’re going to bake it to set the eggs properly and safely. What does this have to do with Andros, Greece? After years of wanting to make a Key Lime Pie but not having limes to make it with, we started to experiment with the available citrus and here are the results.

Fill in the blank  ___ Citrus Pie

Preparation Time: 20 Minutes

Cooking Time: 22 Minutes

Total Time: 42 Minutes

Servings: 6

Difficulty: Easy

Dietary Information: | Vegetarian |

Ingredients List

For  The Crust 

16 Crushed Graham Crackers

3 tbs Sugar

1 stick or ½ cup Butter

For The Filling

4 large or extra large Egg Yolks

1 14 oz. can of Sweetened Condensed Milk

Choose The Fruit For Your Filling

Persian Lime

Key Lime

Bergamot (if you can find these they're well worth it )

Orange

Bitter Orange

Tangerine

Grapefruit

And Make:

½  cup Fresh Juice

2 tsp Grated Zest | Take special care not to grate the white part of the rind as it is very bitter.

Step 1 Preheat your oven to 350˚F.

Step 2 Crust: Mix the graham crackers, butter and sugar until well blended and crumbly. Press the mixture into a 9 inch pie plate or spring form pan. Bake in a preheated 350˚F oven for 10 - 12 minutes until lightly browned. Place on a rack to cool.

Step 3 Pie Filling: Use an electric mixer and beat the egg yolks until they are thick and turn to a light yellow, don't over mix. Turn the mixer off and add the sweetened condensed milk. Turn speed to low and mix in half of the citrus juice. Once the juice is incorporated add the other half of the juice and the zest, continue to mix until blended (just a few seconds). Pour the mixture into the pie shell and bake at 350˚F for 12 minutes to set the yolks safely.

Caution: Don't overcook the pie or it will become rubbery.

Step 4 Serving

There is much heated debate about what should be served on top of a Key Lime Pie; meringue or whipped cream. It’s most likely nothing was used since the pie wasn’t baked (hence no meringue) and lack of fresh dairy (hence no whipped cream). Meringue is the more practical of the two since you already have the egg whites leftover from the filling. Here are the instructions for both so you can decide.

Whipped Cream

½  cup Whipping Cream

2 tsp Sugar

¼  tsp Vanilla Pod Scrapings or Vanilla Extract

Beat cream and vanilla with an electric beater in a chilled metal or glass bowl until soft peaks form. Add sugar and continue to beat until peaks are stiff. Serve a spoon full with each slice of pie.

Meringue 

4 large or extra large Egg Whites

1 pinch Cream of Tartar

2 tbs Sugar

Beat egg whites with an electric beater in a chilled metal or glass bowl until soft peaks form. Add cream of tartar and sugar. Continue to beat until peaks are stiff. Spoon meringue onto pie and place back in the oven until brown for about 5 minutes.

The Basics For Successful Meringue

Use a clean, dry bowl. The bowl must be grease-free, because any trace amount of fat will kill a meringue. Glass, stainless steel, and copper bowls are all suitable. Plastic bowls may appear clean, but may still have trace amounts of oil, so don’t use them.

Cold eggs separate easily, but eggs whip to a higher volume when at room temperature. The solution is to separate the cold eggs, and then set them aside for 10 or 15 minutes.

Separate each egg into two small bowls, one for the white and one for the yolk, and then add the white portion to the larger bowl. This allows you to reserve any with broken yolks for another purpose. Even a small amount of yolk can deflate the egg whites, so be careful.

Try This

If you want a larger pie with more volume, double this recipe and use a 10 inch springform pan. Bake for 20 minutes.