Pi Day! (Chocolate Chess Pie)

Declaring March 14th Pi day was someone's good idea to amuse nerds and give everyone an excuse to make/eat pie. My household observes pi(e) day enthusiastically. Since one of the recipes in EveryDayCook is a pie, this seemed like a good excuse to try it out; enter the Chocolate Chess Pie.
There is a note in this recipe that Alton will "allow" this to be made with a store-bought crust. Meh. I don't buy pre-made pie crusts, just like I don't buy pre-made pie filling. So I made a simple mix & pat in the pan pie crust, no sweat. The pie has a rich custard filling and is covered in a pecan meringue topping.

Freshly Baked Chocolate Custard

I asked for a mini-torch for my birthday so I could brown the meringue with it. The birthday blow torch delivered.

Yes, it was fun to brown this with a little blow torch.

I took this into work, where it was greeted with awe and eaten in record time. I got several comments along the lines of "by the time I heard about it, it was gone..." along with glowing feedback from the people who did eat it.

I reserved the first piece for myself.

Less then an hour after putting it out this what what was left.

Difficulty Level: Complex, mostly due to the topping. Making this topping uses a style where you will be folding 210 degree sugar syrup into whipped egg whites before firing up the blow torch.

Will It Get Made Again? Yes. This one qualifies as worth the effort, and several people didn't get to try the first one.
The rich custard filling is delicious. The meringue topping has a marshmallow-like flavor (and smells like a toasted marshmallow when it's getting browned) and looks as good as it tastes. If you want a dessert to impress a crowd with, this will do it.

Belated Birthday Cocktail (Jungle Bird)

My original plan was to make a fancy for myself on my birthday. Life happened, and by the time I got home from work & a make your own terrarium workshop I wasn't feeling that ambitious anymore. So this got made the next day.

I'll give anything with pineapple and rum a shot.

This is Alton's version of a cocktail called the Jungle Bird, Alton's version uses a liquor called Cocchi Rosa Americano and is garnished with freshly grated nutmeg. It's also full of rum, pineapple juice, lime juice, and fresh pineapple.
It's one of the more complex cocktails I've ever made at home, but also one of the most delicious I've made myself.
Difficulty Level: Medium
Will It Get Made Again? Yes, I can see whipping this up again some night when I'm looking for a taste of the tropics.

Dusting Off The Wok (Fried Rice)

Whenever I see recipes for fried rice, they always talk about leftover takeout rice. This is not a thing in my house. I ordered extra rice along with takeout to get the leftover rice...
Then I dug out the wok that's over 30 years old (still in fine condition). It was part of my mother's kitchen collection, acquired when she and my father took a Chinese cooking class when they were in college (my dad still makes the Chinese mushroom recipe he learned in that class regularly). For whatever reason, the has rarely been used in recent years. This was a good excuse to have it justify it's presence.

Never Buying Unshelled Edamame Again

Fried rice isn't something I normally measure ingredients for, but for this batch I followed the recipe. Alton's version is vegetarian with tofu as a the protein, edamame, scallions, basil, soy sauce, chili paste, and sesame oil. Prep time is low as long as long as you buy pre-shelled edamame, which I forgot to check for this time >_< . After shelling a bunch of edamame, it came together fast.

Wok On

Difficulty Level: Easy
Will It Get Made Again? I was pleasantly surprised that the 2 tablespoons of chili paste was a good heat level, since I was concerned it would be too spicy for me. I'm not in love though. I won't be repeating this exact version of fried rice, but I think I should be using the wok for fried rice (or stir fry) more. Time to hunt up some pineapple fried rice recipes.