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COOKING WITH SCRATCH © Learning From the Best My mother, Gertrude Kertscher, used to say: “Mann wird so alt wie eine Kuh und lernt immer noch was dazu.” (You get as old as a cow and always learn something more.) Yes, it is one of those expressions that loses something in the translation, but basically means you’re never too old to learn. And it rhymes so nicely in German. Gertrude had a million of these little proverbs, or “Sprichwörter,” pretty much for any life situation that arose. In the 1990s when my kids, Erika and Francis, were little, I presented my mother with a small, red leather-bound blank journal and asked her to write down all of the funny sayings 36 by BARBARA SIMMONS Photos by KAREN FUCITO LAKE HOPATCONG NEWS <strong>Midsummer</strong> 2020 and proverbs she would say to me while I was growing up. She was happy to do it and as you can imagine, I treasure it now. It is written in German and in English in her distinctive handwriting, called Lateinische Ausgangsschrift (Latin/International Cursive), which she learned in grammar school. This type of cursive writing allowed you to write fluently without having to lift the pen at the end of letters as each letter is designed to connect to every other. Since German has lots of very long words (Bandwürmwörter—literally translated as tapeworm words), this handwriting style makes sense. I sure do love these hilarious convoluted paragraph-long words. Here’s my favorite. It was said to have been German’s longest word, at 80 letters long: Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft, which translates to: Association for Subordinate Officials of the Head Office Management of the Danube Steamboat Electrical Services. Ahhhh….German. So, in the little red Sprichwörterbuch from my mother, there are six or seven of her most frequently used sayings per page. She also recorded the life stories of her mother, her father and her brother, Kurt, who lost his life during World War II. (He was a U-Boot Kommandant—a submarine commander.) She also dedicated a special section to my father, Horst Kertscher, and his life stories, along with his own sayings and proverbs that were mostly about carpentry. And gardening. And the weather. These German expressions, Sprichwörter, she heard from her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. She believed they truly shaped her life. Gertrude recorded these sayings in German in the Summericher dialect from the Sonnenberg section of the town of Wiesbaden. This dialect was my first language, and I still speak it now. I have to say I’m a bit self-conscious about my spoken German—it is full of grammatical errors and uses a lot of archaic vocabulary. I’ve been told that I sound like a 95-year-old woman when I speak. My pronunciation is great, and I understand almost everything that I hear or read. I can say what I need to say. But getting back to being as old as a cow, I am still learning new things. Like how to make a really good pie. As you know, I’ve always considered making a pie “with” scratch to be way too much work. (see Vol. 7, No. 7 Apple Crisp) And, as much as I love to eat pie (especially for breakfast), I’ve always had difficulties making pies and the trouble was mostly with the pastry. I’ve tried so many recipes and struggled with the dough tearing and sticking to the counter and rolling pin when I rolled it out. I’ve made so many pastry crusts that were tough, tasteless and downright homely. Fruit pie fillings would ooze out the sides of the pie pan during baking and create a hellish mess in my oven. Pie baking was fraught with peril. So, I am starting a pie chapter in my “old age.” The following are a few things I have learned from some of the best. My brother, Harry Kertscher, learned to be a great baker in his retirement. His secret weapon for pastry crust was using his “Coosinart” (that’s how he pronounced Cuisinart) food processor for whizzing the fat into the flour and using half ice-cold vodka and half water to moisten it. Harry, a retired chemist, learned this technique from Cooks Illustrated, a magazine that always presented the science behind the recipes. I found the following on its website: “Unlike water, alcohol does not contribute to the formation of gluten, the network of proteins that can cause a crust to turn leathery. Because the alcohol burns off quickly in the oven, drying out the crust, we could add enough vodka to keep the dough wet and extremely supple.” For preventing the filling from being too runny, I learned about collecting the accumulated fruit juices from the pie filling and cooking them into a syrup from Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. This month’s recipe is for a plum galette, an open-faced, free-form kind of pie. You could certainly make a regular two-crust pie if you wanted, as this crust recipe will yield two. But I figure if you are going to make a mess in the kitchen, you might as well double the recipe and save half for later. An extra pie crust in the freezer is like money in the bank.
PLUM GALETTE VODKA PASTRY CRUST Make 2, freeze one Ingredients ¼ cup cold vodka ¼ cup cold water 2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon table salt 12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) cold butter cut into slices ½ cup vegetable shortening, cut into slices Procedure 1 Pour the water and vodka into a small measuring cup and put it into the freezer. 2 Add 2 cups of the flour and the sugar and salt into the work bowl of a food processor. 3 Pulse two or three times to combine. 4 Add in the butter and shortening. Pulse until the dough starts to collect in uneven clumps; about 15 seconds. 5 Add in the rest of the flour (1/2 cup), give it two or three pulses. 6 Add in the chilled vodka and water, giving the mixture a few more pulses. 7 Scrape the dough onto a floured work surface, knead very lightly and then gather the dough into two balls. Flatten them, then wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to overnight. PLUM FILLING Ingredients 2 pounds red plums (about 10), washed, pitted and sliced into crescents 1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar (taste the plums—if they are very tart, use the greater amount of sugar) 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg A pinch of salt 2 teaspoons cornstarch 2 tablespoons coarse sugar (“sugar in the raw” or turbinado sugar), plus additional for serving Note: any summer stone fruit can be used: peaches, nectarines, pluots or a combination of these. Procedure 1 Add the sliced plums, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt to a large bowl. Let them macerate for up to an hour. 2 Strain the plum mixture through a sieve or colander over a bowl to catch the juices. 3 Heat the juices in a small saucepan until the volume is reduced to about 1/3 cup, creating a thick syrup. 4 Put the plum mixture back into the large bowl and add the cornstarch, mixing thoroughly. 5 Pour the syrup over the plums and stir well to combine, reserving about a tablespoon of the juices to glaze the edge of the galette. 6 Preheat the oven to 400°. 7 On a floured surface, roll one pastry dough into a 12” circle, flipping the dough once or twice and sprinkling additional flour to ensure the dough doesn’t stick to the surface or the rolling pin. 8 Transfer the rolled-out dough to a rimmed cookie sheet that has been covered with greased parchment paper. 9 Pile the plum filling into the center of the circle of dough leaving about a 1 ½” border. Make slits along the border at even intervals with a knife and fold each segment in over the edge of the filling. Overlap the edges as you go. 10 Brush the overlapped edges of the galette with the reserved thickened plum juice and sprinkle with the coarse sugar. 11 Bake on the lowest rack for 40 minutes or until nicely browned. Let cool and serve with ice cream, crème fraiche, sour cream or a dollop of thick Greek yogurt, sprinkled with some additional coarse sugar. LAKE HOPATCONG CRUISES @LHCRUISES LakeHopatcongCruises Fresh air and fun await aboard SIGNATURE CRUISES THEMED CRUISES WEDDING CEREMONIES CORPORATE EVENTS BIRTHDAY PARTIES BRIDAL SHOWERS REHEARSAL DINNERS BABY SHOWERS VIEW OUR SCHEDULE & MORE AT WWW.LHCRUISES.COM 37 Nolan’s Point Park Rd. Lake Hopatcong, NJ 07849 • 973-663-5000 lakehopatcongnews.com 37
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