Last week my daughter picked Northern Mariana Islands for our weekly family dinner for World Wide Wednesday. I will admit I had never even heard of them; where does she come up with these ideas? If you ask her she will probably say she saw something that looked delicious and we have to try it. My next question to her is, did you see anything sweet that I could make? She tends to make the entree where I try to come up with something to end the meal with.
Where I have never heard of Northern Mariana Islands my crazy daughter said oh I think I have a cookbook from there. Of course she does. I try to pick something that I can either make the day before or something that doesn’t take up to much of the kitchen or my time when everyone is here.
Using her cookbook Chamoru Cuisine A Marianas Cultural Legacy by Gerard and Mary Aflague I decided to try to make my first lemon meringue pie. It wasn’t as hard as I initally thought it might be, honestly it was pretty easy. There are a few steps but nothing crazy and the only thing I needed to pick up was the frozen pie shell and a couple of more lemons.
Lemon Meringue Pie
Equipment
- 1 stand mixer or hand beaters
Ingredients
- 1 9 inch unbaked pie crust
Filling
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups water
- 3 large egg yolks beaten
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
Meringue
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ⅓ cup water
- 4 large egg whites
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla exract
- ½ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
Prebaking shell
- Thaw the shell before baking. Preheat oven to 400℉. using a fork; prick several holes in the bottom of the shell. Place a sheet of foil or parchment paper and fill with dry beans for weight. Place shell in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove pie weghts and foil and place back in the oven for another 10 minutes to brown the bottom. Set aside to cool
Filling
- In a medium saucepot, combine the sugar, cornstarch, flour and salt. Slowly stir in the water and over medium heat stir until the mixture thickens and bubbles. Lower the heat while stirring for another minute or so. Remove from heat. In a separate bowl, add the egg yolks and slowly add 1 cup of the hot mixture to the yolks to temper the eggs. Add egg mixture to the hot saucepot mixture and bring to a boil for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add the butter, lemon juice and the zest until fully incorporated. Set aside filling and proceed to prepare the meringue.
Meringue
- In a small saucepot on medium heat, whisk together the cornstarch and water for 2 minutes, until thickened remove from the heat and set aside. In a mixing bowl add the egg whites, cream of tartar and vanilla. Beat vigorously for a few minutes, add the powdered sugar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Slowly add cornstarch mixture and beat for 2 mintues until stiff peaks form.
Assembly
- reheat the lemon filling and fill the pie shell. Using a spatula, add the meringue all over the lemon filling all the way to the edges of the crust. I used my offset spatula to form swirls.
Baking
- Preheat oven to 350℉ and place the pie in the oven for 15-20 minutes to brown the top. Remove from the oven and let cool on the counter for a couple of hours. Then place in the fridge for another couple of hours. Serve same day.
