Pie Recipes (Fruit, Sweet Potato, Oil Pie Crust)

Oil Pie Crust
1 - 1 1/4 c. flour (1 c. flour = 8" pie crust, 1 1/4 c. flour = 9" pie crust)
1/4 c. vegetable oil
2 tbsp. cold milk or water (or more - I've been cooking at high elevation so usually, twice this much)
1/2 tsp salt

Mix ingredients, smash into pie tin until bottom and sides are covered. Makes one.

Fruit Filling
3-4 c. fruit
1/4 - 1/3 c. brown sugar
2 tbsp. lemon or lime juice
2 tbsp. flour
cinnamon, nutmeg (apple filling)
cinnamon (peach filling)

Mix ingredients in a bow, spread evenly on top of bottom pie crust

Oatmeal Crumb Top
2/3 c. steel cut oatmeal
1/3 c. whole wheat flour
2-3 tbsp. brown sugar
cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice
1/2 stick butter i.e. 1/4 c. butter (sliced or diced for easy smashing)

Smash all ingredients by hand until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle on top of filling.

Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. Now, cover oatmeal crumb top pies with aluminum foil to prevent over-baking on top.

Bake at 360 degrees Fahrenheit for 40-45 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool.

Voila! Blueberry Pie, below. Yay for multi-purpose recipes.


Sweet Potato Filling
1 large sweet potato (roughly 1 - 1 1/2 c. sweet potato cooked)
1/2 - 2/3 c. milk
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 egg

Blend ingredients in mixer. Pour onto pie crust. Makes 8" sweet potato pie.

For a sweet potato pie, bake at 360 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour (45 minutes was perfect  for me for an 8" sweet potato pie).

Voila! Sweet Potato Pie, below! (lasted less than 12 hours)

Simple Beef Stew Recipe

Simple Beef Stew Recipe

2 lbs round roast (aka london broil)

1 medium onion

1 can condensed tomato soup

1 lb carrots

1.5 lb red potatoes (when you feel lazy about skinning potatoes since red potatoes' skin is easy to eat)

Seasoning: chicken bouillon, salt, sugar, pepper, garlic powder

For searing: oil

Prep work: Skin and chop up carrots. Wash potatoes and cube them. 

Set stove to medium high heat. Add a few tablespoons of oil, enough to coat the pan with.

While pan is heating up, season the slabs of round roast with dashes of salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Sear both sides of the slab or slabs of round roast.

While slabs of round roast are searing, chop up onions. When round roast slabs are seared, remove from pan. Add in onions and sprinkle sugar (FS used brown sugar since that was what FS had) to promote caramelization. No need to constantly stir the onions, they caramelize better after the occasional stir to incorporate sugar and meat juices/fats.

Meanwhile, cube slabs of meat with fork and knife (it's hot, so this is FS's strategy to cube it).

If onions look nice and brown, then add in the meat again.

Add in can of condensed tomato soup. Add 1 tbsp. chicken bouillon. Add in carrots and potatoes on top.

This was a trick that FS fell upon while making Vietnamese beef stew at home: if you put the vegetables on top while simmering a stew, then the vegetables hold their shape and essentially are "steamed" while the stew is cooking. 

Simmer for half an hour to an hour.

Note: FS likes caramelization i.e. burnt sides of meat. It's tasty to FS. Not everyone likes that. If so, then stirring the stew to dislodge the meat on the bottom or adding more water the stew will be necessary. FS's came out thick, almost gravy like, but FS likes that. If your preference is otherwise - add more water and season to your taste. 

Steamed Flan Recipe

Follow all the directions for the original flan recipe, except instead of placing the mold into one inch deep hot water to be baked in an oven, you will steam the flan instead. Depending on who you are, you might already have a metal or bamboo steamer in which you can fill the bottom level with water and the second level with the mold filled with the flan mixture. If not, you will, like FS, improve. Generally, FS looks for a large pot with a cover. Then, she considers what she can use as a stand: either a flipped over bowl or a metal stand upon which to the place the mold filled with the flan. Then, stand in place, an inch or two of water is added to the pot and then the mold placed on top of the stand. Heat to a simmer and cover the pot, leaving a small sliver open for some of the steam to escape. The water does not need to touch the mold. The steam is enough to cook the flan. Moreover, steaming takes a shorter time than baking and does not result in the eggy, hard layer atop the flan.


Steam for 45-50 minutes instead of a full hour (and maybe less depending on the size of your pot or the intensity of your stove's flame - a small pot or a good steamer may result in only 30 minutes steam time). And voila, flan!

Beautifully whole and perfect with only minimal bubbling along the sides...

Perfection is this: the sweet, smooth feel of flan.