HOW COULD THIS NOT BE GOOD?
I don’t normally make pastry. But this recipe, from a book called How to be a Domestic Goddess, was too much to resist. And it was easy. You take a quarter cup each of shortening and butter and freeze it for 10 minutes with a cup and 2/3 of flour. I used whole wheat, which I know isn’t as good for pie, but I figured with a filling of bacon, I should probably maximize the healthiness whereever possible. And it worked fine. I forgot the salt it, though. Put salt in the pastry, otherwise it’s really weird. You take the fats and flour and run it through a food processor, then add ice water a tablespoon at a time until it binds together. I used four tablespoons. Then you pat the dough into two discs in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge.
The filling is easy. Fry the bacon with a finely chopped onion. Set aside. Beat three eggs with a chopped green onion– and by “a green onion,” they mean not an entire bunch. That’s too oniony. Maybe just a couple. And a couple tablespoons worth of chopped parsley. Salt and pepper!
Roll out the pastry between plastic wrap. This is brilliant! You can’t overhandle it, and it’s easy to turn out into the pie plate. Put in bacon, then the egg mixture. Then put on the top crust and seal. Poke a few holes on top to let out the steam, and bake at 400F for about half an hour.
This is how it turned out. Not really pretty, but recognizably a pie! And in spite of being a little undersalted, it’s pretty tasty. I had it with some more of those tough stringy beans, which I ate in penance for all the saturated fats I was having.
