Peter's pies are always great works of architecture and construction. When you ask him for a pie recipe his response is often:
"The problem is...that I don't have many pie recipes -- I kind of make them up and rarely repeat them exactly."
Just like every experienced and passionate chef he let's the colors and textures lead the way. Bellow are just a handful of them in photos and one delicious macadamia nut cream pie recipe, that we're lucky he noted down in his secret food blog.
RHUBARB CREAM CUSTARD MERINGUE PIE
"It is my attempt to recreate a pie my mother remembered from her childhood, baked by her mother, but I got the recipe from a combination of other sources."
Email us a subject line: RHUBARB and we'll email you back this recipe.
RASPBERRY PIE
A fresh raspberry pie built from a good French vanilla ice cream softened and mixed with mashed berries, then a float of un-berried ice cream on top for color contrast, then the selected best raspberries and some blueberries on top to give it a red, white and blue theme. Peter is trying to reclaim that color combination from the fakers and fraudsters that seek to claim it for political gain...instead he says LET'S MAKE PIES GREAT AGAIN!
PLUM CROSTATA
Peter's fresh plum crostata just after baking. There is cornmeal in the crust!
PEACH & BLUEBERRY GAULETTE
A piece of pie and it's shadow on Edith Heath sea and sand ceramic dessert plate, pointing west in morning sun with triple sec and whipped cream.
MACADAMIA NUT CREAM PIE
"The first macadamia nut cream pie I ever had was in 1974 when our family went to Hawaii to visit our relatives there, and Aunt Ruth took us all to the Willows Restaurant, where I had this pie. It's always been a very fond memory, but somehow I've never made one until now. What made this possible was the trip Mark and I made to the Big Island last month. We stayed near Pahala, and stopped at the Kau Coffee Mill there where they were selling excellent fresh local macadamia nuts from the Kau region. I got a 1 pound bag of unsalted roasted chopped nuts, specifically planning to bring them to Sunny Bay to bake a pie.I looked at a lot of recipes before choosing this one, which is from the Hawaiian chef Sam Choy. I liked this because it calls for a lot more nuts than the others (3/4 cup, but I used more like 1-1/4 cup). I was a little surprised at how yellow the custard was, I suppose mostly from the three egg yolks, which were from very fresh eggs from the farm up the road here on Ford Drive. It often seems like free range farm eggs have yolks that are extra yellow. In any case, the color looked great with the whipped cream on top, and the golden graham cracker crust."
INGREDIENTS
Crust
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup sugar
4 tbsp. butter, melted
Filling
3/4 cup roasted macadamia nuts, chopped
2 tbsp. butter
3 cups milk
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 dash salt
3 lg. egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
Whip Cream Topping
2 cups whipping cream
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
INSTRUCTIONS
Cream all ingredients together and press firmly into a 9-inch gresed pie pan. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely.
Bring milk to boil. In a bowl whisk cornstarch, sugar, salt and eggs together. Temper egg mixture with milk. Return to stove top and cook, scraping bottom of pot with spoon to prevent burning. Cook until it boils for 2 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Stir in macadamia nuts. Pour filling into pie crust. Chill for 3-4 hours.
Begin whipping cream with a hand mixer. When cream starts to form peaks, add powdered sugar and vanilla.