RICHARD FRISBIE :: Exploring My Roots

OR - Thanksgiving Fusion Pie: Sweet Potato Coconut   

    There is a large poster-sized picture of Martin Luther King hanging in my bookshop. It is very lifelike, and his eyes seem to follow you as you walk past. It is a very impressive likeness, fully visible from the sidewalk. That’s what almost got me in trouble a few years ago. During the week before Thanksgiving a bigoted neighbor stopped to yell in my shop door “Hey Frisbie! What’s that picture doing on your wall?” While I’m probably the most tolerant person I know, I’m intolerant of bullies and bigots. So I said “I’m just exploring my roots.” That didn’t shut him up. He said “I know your family. Those aren’t your roots.” Now, I’m pretty good at verbal sparring, so to end the conversation I said, “You don’t know my roots. My Aunt Jemima was born in Africa.” (She really was - I also know not to lie!) That did it. He shut up, but went on to start a few good rumors about me around town. The jerk!
                 
    Over Thanksgiving dinner I told my mother that story. A good laugh went around the table. Everyone knew the nature of the man I was speaking about, and I learned a little more about family history. Mom told me that Aunt Jemima’s father was a officer in the British military. The family was there as part of the Great British Empire’s expansion plans, conquering worlds in the name of the Queen or King, or . . . somebody. Many blacks, and whites too, died in what was the British version of “Manifest Destiny”. Who says history doesn’t repeat itself?

    Anyway, that Thanksgiving I served sweet potato pie for the first time. When I was little we had a black neighbor who was transplanted from the South. She often brought food and pies by, so I learned early on that I liked Southern cooking, and ethnic food in general. The sweet potato pie was an homage to her kindness over the years, and the awakening of the love of cooking the different foods of the world that I've learned to call “exploring my roots”.

    This year I’m modifying the recipe to include a new taste, an idea I picked up in Brazil. (My family tree has many roots, and keeps growing!) I’m substituting coconut milk for the evaporated milk to create a taste like the traditional pumpkin stew or marmalade they serve there for dessert. Here’s the original sweet potato pie recipe if you care to try it.

    Remember in my last column: RICHARD FRISBIE : Success (& Failure) in the Kitchen,  I told you how to make pie crust, and that I’d probably use the extra one for sweet potato pie on Thanksgiving? Go there for the recipe - OR - buy a deep dish Pie Crust (tsk tsk) if my simple and easy recipe scares you.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees

1 ¾ cups sweet potatoes - cooked, peeled and cooled
1 Tbsp cornstarch
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt
1 ½ Tbsp melted butter
1 12 oz can evaporated milk (or coconut milk)
2/3 cups sugar
1/8 cup molasses
2 eggs beaten

Sift the dry ingredients into the potatoes and use an electric mixer to combine. Add the rest of the ingredients, mixing until the filling is smooth. Line your deep dish pie pan with the rolled out pastry and set it on a cookie sheet. Pour the filling in, allowing it to settle a bit until it all fits. Place the cookie sheet with the pie on it (you can thank me for the cookie sheet idea now) on the center rack and bake for 15 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 350 degrees and bake another 50 minutes.

    The original recipe above is an old family recipe, and delicious! If you’re trying the fusion version of the recipe, taste the coconut milk for sweetness. You might want to reduce the sugar to ½ cup if it seems excessive. (I did, but I really don’t like sweet desserts.) I’ll post what I think of the taste after Thanksgiving in the comments section below.

BONUS TART -  As you can see in the photos, there was some extra pie dough left over when I trimmed the crust. I rolled this out to slightly larger than the bottom of a pie plate and laid a thinly sliced apple in it. I topped this with raisins and a sprinkling of brown sugar, then poured the last ounce or so of coconut milk over it and put in the oven when I turned the temperature down to 350 degrees. 50 minutes later - I had a Thanksgiving pie AND a delicious and unexpected dessert. It pays to be creative (and frugal) in the kitchen.

    There you have it - a good sweet potato pie with roots going all the way to Brazil. It’s THAT Southern!
    Happy Thanksgiving everyone - And remember - practice tolerance!

Richard Frisbie, FOOD Correspondent:

RICHARD FRISBIE is published twice a month to Gather Essentials: Food 
It is a food junkie's take on growing, raising, preparing and - above all else - eating food. Together we’ll explore the trends, addictions, equipment and regional specialties that make up the sometimes mundane and sometimes sublime cooking and dining experience. You can keep up with my other postings and Gather activity by joining my Gather network -- just click the orange “Connect” button on the upper left-hand side of this page --- I look forward to hearing from you.

BIO - Richard has been writing culinary travel articles for more than five years as a columnist for his local newspapers, and as a regular contributor to the many Hudson Valley, Catskill Mountain and other regional New York publications. His most recent addition to that list is a wine column called “Fruit of the Vine” for Life in the Finger Lakes magazine. Online, he writes frequent articles for EDGE publications and Travel Lady, as well as Gather.

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