I'm a do-er. I'm one of those weirdos that can Not sit still. Good thing is that Mister is the same way. So we are a busy hive.
Last weekend, Mister decided to make some wine.
A note on homemade wine: It's good. It's easy. And you should make some. Because it's "ho-made" there aren't any chemical preservatives, nitrates or other general ick. And honestly, the shit fucks you up.
So Mister decides to make a batch of Raisin Wine. A leftover of the process is 6 pounds of cooked raisins.
I hate wasting anything. Food most of all. What can you do with 6 pounds of raisins?
I consulted some cook books and hit on a solution. In the LOST RECIPES issue of Cooks Illustrated I found: Rice Custard Pie I'll post the full recipe at the end.
Wanna see how it worked out? I took pictures!
Here's the first step. I needed to make a sweetened puree of the raisins. Using a basic 2 to 1 ratio; I added 3 pounds of sugar to the raisins and cooked those buggers down!
I'm a firm believer in Booze. Booze in everything. In went the Berentzen Apfelkorn! Love this stuff. I added about a 2 cups.
When it cooked down about an hour. I got the old stick blender and pureed.
Now that the puree is finished, it's on to the rice custard. Rice Custard can be very easy. Essentially, using a starchy rice, 6 cups of milk to 2 cups of rice.
When the rice is cooked through, you'll add in 4 to 6 eggs, a bit of sugar and cook until it's to the right consistency.
This is what the finished custard should look like...
Are we done yet? Nope! On to the pie crust. I do the old fashioned cold butter cut into a flour and salt mixture. Mind you, I'm not much of machine person. No food processor here; I use a pastry cutter and do it manually. Works great. Add a little ice water a table spoon at a time; and bingo.
Here's what it looks like when I got the crust into the pie plate.
Next step is a adding a layer of the raisin puree to fill the crust. Just enough to cover; about a half inch.
Then pour the rice custard on top of that.
And in the oven it goes.
And here is the finished pie!
I didn't take any snaps of us eating the pie. It's a very old fashioned kinda recipe. The flavor is quite different from what the modern palate is used to tasting. I recommend it if you're looking for something different. If I wasn't looking to use up some raisins, I would make a different fruit puree. I think an apricot puree would match very well.
Here's the recipe from Cooks. I'm an experienced baker, so every recipe is guide versus gospel. I made tweaks and changes along the way. Mind you, I also made a hella lot of puree because this whole exercise was "how do I use up 6 pounds of cooked raisins"?
Puree
1 cup pitted prunes (I didn't use these at all)
1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons brandy (I used 2 cups Berentzen Apfelkorn)
Custard
1/2 cup medium grain rice
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
