Skirt in the Kitchen
It’s a crumble-pie, grabbing the already-made pie crust from the freezer from several weeks back, now on a lazy-day baking spree– It’s quick, easy… and it’s savory but sweet. It’s got onions in it, bacon, what they can’t detect unless you tell them. Dress it up with vanilla ice cream sprinkled with cinnamon or nutmeg when it’s out of the oven– or slam some whipped cream on top or drizzle a little bit of heavy whipping cream around the bottom after it’s been placed in individual serving bowls.
Lightly fry 1 slice smoked bacon in a small skillet. Do not fry it to a crisp, keep it soft, stirring often. Remove from the skillet and keep the bacon grease.
Finely chop half of a small red onion. Saute the onion and small lemon thyme leaves in the skillet, still stirring often– Don’t get the onions too done. Lightly salt and add red pepper flakes. Remove from the skillet.
Open a regular-size can of apple pie filling.
But first, deglaze the skillet with coffee liqueur, enough to cover the entire bottom of the skillet. Add dark brown sugar, a pinch of cinnamon, and freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Stir in the apple filling adding a little more lemon thyme, then more freshly squeezed lemon juice,
then the onions and bacon. Taste for likeness whether needing to add more lemon juice or not.
The crust suitable for this is a lard-butter or all-lard pie crust with rice or apple cider vinegar. It makes this homestyle/old-fashioned pie crumbly, uneven but falling apart on top. It’s perfect for the style of this pie, it bubbles up more, and it’s a delicious crust. Work quickly and keep it cold. The chunks of lard and butter you see in the dough is a must, melting while baking. I don’t process my pie crust thoroughly because it causes a flakier crust this way. I want some of it visible.
Roll out the crust, having to piece it together, even in the pie plate. Use a shallow plate for this amount of pie filling, and using only 1 pie crust disc. Put a thin layer of flour in the bottom of the unbaked pie crust, then a good sprinkle of demerara sugar over the flour. It instills a firm crust when something warm goes down over it, insuring that it will not be a soggy finish in the bottom of the pie. You don’t have to ‘blind bake’ because of this trick. It works just fine when you’re in a hurry. For some pies, you’ve got to ‘blind bake’ but for this, you can pull it off going the short route. Pull the sides of the crust over the top. It will break into pieces, so lay the pieces over the top of the pie, leaving some cracks of filling still showing. Sprinkle demerara sugar and granulated sugar over it right before baking in a 400° oven.
Here is the pie crust: 3 cups flour with 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, cut in 1 cup cold lard. Add 2 tablespoons rice vinegar or 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, then
3 or 4 tablespoons iced cold water, sprinkling 1 tablespoon at a time while working the crust in a large bowl. Move fast to keep the crust as cold as possible, then flatten into 2 discs and refrigerate to chill cold or freeze for use on a later date.
Allow to firm once out of the oven, up to 20 minutes before serving.
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