Sugar-Free Sweet Potato Pie

Despite the brown rice, whole wheat bread, massive vegetable portions, and frequent trips to the gym, at my last check-up my doctor told me my glucose was too high, and it was time to change my diet. Sigh. She recommended the Atkins diet to me; high in protein, as much fat as you want, and very, very limited carbohydrates. Okey, doke. No more jam, honey, sugar, pasta, baguette, white flour, cookies, cake..... WINE - ack! COFFEE - double ack! (Although I simply did not find the explanation for dropping the caffeine compelling enough to do it, so I'm still having that double cappucino in the morning.)

Well, I really like sugar; always have. This was not so easy. A week in, and the holiday ads for Trader Joe's were looking like dieter's porno. Then came the holiday parties - ack again! It was time to cook up something delicious, but that Dr. Atkins would (possibly) approve; Sweet Potato Pie!

Despite their natural sweetness, the sweet potato (often erroneously referred to as the yam) is very low on the "glycemic index;" the measure of how quickly the body metabolizes the food into glucose. In addition, it is absolutely PACKED with nutrients - it's really a miracle food!

I decided to cook up a sweet potato pie, but with some major changes to the James McNair recipe I'd been using. The crust would have to be whole grain, of course. My friend Susan had been raving about the butter crust she makes using spelt flour for quite a while. Spelt is a relative of wheat, often used by people with wheat allergies. Susan recommended it because it is not as heavy tasting as whole wheat in a crust. Okay, spelt crust, 1/2 butter, 1/2 lard, check.

I'd just been reading about how good cinnamon is for your blood pressure (also an issue for me) so I decided to raise the amount of cinnamon. Now for the sweeteners; the McNair recipe calls for a cup of sugar - fuggeddaboutit! Stevia, a completely natural, calorie-free extract from the stevia leaf, is very sweet, but has a weird aftertaste, so you have to use it sparingly, and use other sweeteners to help mask the weirdness. I knew that Erythritol, a neutral tasting sugar alcohol, works well, but is 60% as sweet as sugar.  Then there's Xylitol, another sugar alcohol extract, which is fairly neutral and is as sweet as sugar.  The three make an excellent sweetening blend. Okay, stevia plus erythritol plus xylitol; check.

I made the pie over and over again, each time reducing the xylitol and balancing the sweeteners until I had the perfect balance. On my eighth pie, I knew I had hit the perfect balance.

Tonight I gave a little piece of pie to friends Heidi and Richard; Richard told me that the world NEEDS this pie recipe; I'd better blog it right away. So, here goes.



Sugar-Free Sweet Potato Pie

Pie Crust: Follow the recipe posted here -
http://foodierthanthou.blogspot.com/2010/09/pie-crust.html
but substitute spelt flour for the wheat flour
The recipe makes two crusts - save one for later.

1 1/4 pounds orange sweet potatoes (about 2 medium)
1/4 cup Erythritol
2 TB Xylitol
1/4 tsp of stevia powder
1 TB coconut palm sugar (optional but delicious)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 generous tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk



While the crust is resting in the refrigerator:

Preheat the oven to 400 F
Wash the Sweet Potatoes, cut out any bad blemishes, poke a few holes in them, and pop them in the oven until a fork or knife slips into them easily.



After chilling the crust for at least 15 minutes, let it come to room temperature for about 5 minutes. (Save the parchment you wrapped it in - you'll need it in a minute!) Sprinkle your pastry cloth and the dough with flour to keep the rolling pin from sticking. Roll it out until it is even and about 1-2" larger than the widest diameter of the dish. Line a 9" shallow pie dish with the dough, leaving an overlap at the top of about 1". Gently fold the excess crust down, and pinch it into place just above the top of the pan. (It will shrink as it cooks.) Crimp the edges with a fork.

Using the parchment paper you have discarded, cover the interior of the crust and fill it with dried beans, chickpeas, or pie weights. Bake until the crust is just set, 7-10 minutes. Remove the parchment and weights, prick the crust all over the bottom, and bake until the crust is almost done but not completely browned, another 5-10 minutes. The crust tends to poof up as it bakes, so carefully poke holes in the poofy spots to deflate them. Meanwhile, the sweet potatoes are baking at the same time as the crust. Remove the pie shell, reduce the oven to 375F, and let the crust cool for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile...

When the sweet potatoes are done, take them out and remove their skins. In a large bowl, using a fork, potato ricer or masher, mash the potatoes until they are pretty evenly crushed. (If they are still hot, you can add the butter now and use the heat to melt it.) Mix in the sweeteners, spices, baking soda and salt. Then add the vanilla, eggs and milk, and mix it all thoroughly.

Place the pie crust onto a baking sheet, and pour the filling into the crust. Bake until the top feels just firm to the touch and just begins to brown, about 40-50 minutes. If the crust begins to brown too much, you can cover it with strips of foil. (I find this very difficult to do; I prefer to be really careful about not pre-baking the crust too long.)

Notes from Christine:  If you don't have erythritol (it's hard to find), substitute 1/3 cup of xylitol.

Whole Hog: Sausage Making Party with Ondine

When I buy an animal from my rancher friend, Mary Pettis-Sarley, (barngoddess@dishmail.net) one of the first things I think about is sausage. Having a few pounds of sausage in the freezer, whether pork or lamb, is like having a pile of money in the bank. When you come home from work, the gym, ferrying the kid home from swim class or some other event with precious few creative brain cells available to conjure up what you will make for dinner that night, you can quick-thaw some sausages and make something truly tasty in a flash. They are splendid on their own, as a flavoring agent for soups, sauces or beans, combined with vegetables such as broccoli for a filling in a calzone, or served over a delicious whole-grain such as polenta, brown rice, or bulghur wheat - or of course, pasta. With that in mind, I asked the butcher to cut up one of the hams instead of smoking it, with the intention of committing it to sausage-making.

It is indeed true that sausages take some time and effort to make, and there was a time (not so long ago) when I wouldn't have dreamed of making them myself. I still buy and stockpile a number of different flavored sausages that I do not make myself from the local, sustainable charcuterer The Fatted Calf. It's also true that casings are not readily available to the public, and that injecting the filling into the casings adds another time-consuming step. Plus, it seems like most recipes involving sausage seem to start with "first remove the casings from the sausages..." So I say, skip it and make some patties! Joel had some strong feelings in favor of our using casings, so to humor him, we chose to make links out of one of our three varieties. All that said, sausages do not take much high-level skill, and when you grab a friend or two and have a sausage-making party, it's a blast! One person can measure the spices while the other feeds the meat into the grinder. Then one can feed the seasoned, ground meat into the chute while the other makes the links. And finally, one person can make patties while the other makes the packages. Meanwhile, once you've gotten past the brief bit of concentration required to calculate the spicing quantities, you can yak away and get caught up on things while your hands do the work.

So, on a recent school vacation day, I invited my friend Ondine, a 25% stake-holder in this year's Duroc breed pig, to come on over for a sausage-making event. She arrived with five pounds of cubed pork and some seasonings. I, meanwhile, thawed out ten pounds of pork, and checked to see if the casings I purchased from Niman Ranch five years ago, and had been storing in heavily salted water in the deep freeze, were still good - they were (!) I gathered my recipes, doused my meat-grinding attachment for the KitchenAid mixer in boiling water, and got ready to go to work.

Having agreed that Italian-style sausages are one of the major backbones of cooking, we chose sweet and hot Italian sausages to be our main products for the day, and Mexican style chorizo as our third variety. Then, our first order of business was to cut the meat into strips that would fit easily into the feed tube of the grinding attachment for my mixer. As we cut, we assessed whether or not we needed additional fat; we agreed that a little more backfat from my stash was needed to reach the desired ratio of 3/4 of a pound of fat to 3 pounds of meat. (Of course I asked the butcher for all of the fat - I'll be making lard later!)

If you are making sausage, it is easy for your inner Puritan - (or the voice of your mother) - to jump in and say "No! No more fat! No, I said NO! That's enough!" But here's why it's necessary to hush that joy-killer up: first, be aware that home-made sausage is way leaner than most store-bought sausage. Bruce Aidells, in his Complete Book of Sausage, states that commercial sausage can contain from 30 to 50% fat. His recipes, meanwhile, range from 15 to 25% fat; compare that to the ratio for store-bought lean hamburger, which is 15-22%. When you cook the sausages, the fat melts right out and can be drained off (or left in for flavoring or as a sauce base.) However, if you decide to craft lean sausages, there is no fat to be released in cooking, so, needing to give off something, the sausages give off their other juices instead, leaving you with a very dry, tough, piece of (well-spiced) meat. Also, do you remember the discussion of good pig fat in the introductory "Whole Hog" entry? (http://foodierthanthou.blogspot.com/2010/01/whole-hog-around-pig-in-80-ways.html) Executive summary: pig fat is much better for you than you might think. If you've bought a nice, clean living pig, why not indulge in a little of its tasty fat?



Here are our recipes:

New York-Style Spicy Hot Sausage
from Bruce Aidells' Complete Book of Sausage


This is a well balanced spicy sausage - a great all-purpose blend which goes well in tomato sauce, on pizza, or with broccoli.


3 lbs pork butt, cut into long pieces, about 1" wide
3/4 lb pork back fat
2 TB anise-flavored liqueur, such as Sambuca (optional)
2 TB anise or fennel seeds
1 TB minced garlic
1 TB red pepper flakes
4 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/4 cup water, as needed
Medium hog casings


Combine the pork and fat with the liqueur, anise seeds, garlic, red pepper, salt, black pepper, and cayenne in a large bowl. Grind everything through a 3/8" plate. Moisten with the water, and squeeze and knead the mixture until it is well blended. Stuff into casings, and tie into 5" links (or make into 1/4 lb. patties.) The sausage will keep for 3 days in the refrigerator, or 2 to 3 months in the freezer.



Tavella Family's Sausage
from Sunset Magazine, November 2003

This sweet sausage is unusual in its use of cinnamon and nutmeg as its main seasonings. This gives it a lovely aromatic, nuanced flavor.

1/4 cup dry red wine
2 tsp pickling spice (bay leaf, juniper berry, mustard seed, whole allspice, peppercorns, whole cloves,whole mace, cinnamon stick, cardamom seeds, pepper flakes, ginger)
5 lb ground pork butt (shoulder) including around 20% fat
2 TB salt
1 1/2 TB fresh ground black pepper
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg


Step 1: In a small saucepan, bring wine and pickling spice to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Pour through a strainer into a large bowl; discard solids.

Step 2: Add ground pork, salt, pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg to the bowl. Mix very thoroughly with your hands to distribute spices evenly.

Step 3: Shape about 1/3 cup (3 oz.) pork mixture into an oval-shaped patty about 1/2" thick. Place on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet. Shape remaining mix into patties, separating them with layers of waxed paper.


Homemade Chorizo
from California Rancho Cooking by Jacqueline Higuera McMahan

Ms. McMahan, an eighth generation Californian, grew up on one of the last Spanish land grant ranchos in the San Francisco Bay Area; this is one of her family recipes. The classic way to eat this tasty sausage is with eggs and tortillas.

2 lbs. boneless pork with some fat
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp cumin seed, crushed very fine
1 TB sea salt
4 to 6 TB powdered red chile, preferably New Mexican, Californian, or mixed, or powdered red chile and pureed chipotle en adobo
1 to 2 tsp chile seeds, reserved from whole chiles (optional)
1/4 cup paprika
1/2 cup red wine or cider vinegar
2 TB port wine

Grind the pork, using the coarse plate in the meat grinder.

Combine all of the spices, then add to the ground meat and work it in well with your hands. Let the mixture meld in the refrigerator for 24 hours; the flavors will intensify as it sits. Freeze excess in either patties, or small packages.

Christine's notes: Due to the high content of spices and liquids, this sausage is very loose and will fall apart when cooked. The vinegary scent as this cooks is divine....

The Whole Hog: Around the Pig in 80 Ways

"Someone defined eternity as a ham and two people" wrote Irma Rombauer in The Joy of Cooking. I'm sure that this quote, and its history, date to the days before freezers and the ability to subdivide meat, because this is emphatically not how I've ever felt about ham, or any other part of the pig. A versatile and delicious meat, the only things that have ever stopped me from enjoying pork in every form are ethics and health. Happily, I have found solutions to both problems.

First, ethically raised animals are widely available for purchase directly from ranchers. The rancher from whom I purchase my pork and lamb, Mary Pettis-Sarley of Napa, sells 1/2 pigs and whole lambs, as well as beef cows and other farm products. She hires a person to perform their harvest in a humane way, and then small, local butcher shops will cut the meat to your specifications, smoke as much as you like, and then package and freeze it all in nice little bundles. A half of a pig or a whole lamb can comfortably fit in a regular sized freezer compartment of a refrigerator, and finding friends who'd like to share an animal is easy. No one I know has ever regretted buying too much; I have however heard and expressed many a regret about not purchasing more!

As to health, pig fat has been much maligned. If the animal has been raised on a healthy diet, and the fat has not been hydrogenated, the fat actually has a much healthier profile than you might expect. Here's what sausage king Bruce Aidells has to say on the subject in his Complete Book of Pork; "The saturated fat in lard contains about one third of stearic acid,, which may have a beneficial effect on cholesterol, and it helps to relax blood vessels. Lard, which is 40% unsaturated, belongs in the high oleic group, which has a similar lipid profile to olive oil..."

Here is what Mary Pettis-Sarley (wingedspan@earthlink.net) has to say about how she raises her pigs:

"They are Duroc, by breed.... Spotty is their Mom and Arnold is their Dad (your group.) They go out to pasture and eat greens, sleep on a straw bed in the barn and are fed fines (the finer particles from the mill), that I make slop with. Then they eat extra goat milk and whey when I am making cheese, and extra produce from the garden. I grow them Kale, which they love, and now they are eating pumpkins from the garden. They live as a family group, and 'spoon' with each other, which I love. I know two things... where the saying 'pigs in a blanket' comes from - it is just how they sleep, all lined up. And, where the saying 'I waited for you just like one hog waits for another' which they NEVER do....

Before this storm, I moved the younger group up to the top barn, which is drier for them, and makes more room for the goats in the lower barn. It took about half hour to move up to the top barn - we went the slow and interesting way - around the lake, twice, with them lazily grazing the taller grass all along the way. It was a delightful walk, with pigs and dogs strolling along."

If you are interested in finding sustainably farmed meats in your area, a quick google of "meat CSA" (CSA stands for "community supported agriculture," a way of paying the farmer directly for a share of her crop) turns up entries all over the country.

This year I bought 3/4 of a pig, my largest share ever, and I will be chronicling my cook's journey through all of the pig packages from my stash, calling it, of course "The Whole Hog." My friend Ondine, who bought the other quarter of the pig, will contribute pieces about her share, as well. In addition to the superior flavor and all the benefits of buying directly from the rancher, from ethical and environmental, to health and social justice, I love the adventure of figuring out how to cook the cut that I have, instead of cherry-picking at the meat counter and getting the same cut over and over.

Next time: Starting the year right with Hoppin' John; black-eyed peas cooked with smoked hog jowl.