Oh man, you guys, what a shitty, no good, terrible day. It was the kind of day that made me ask the cheese guy, when I bought cheese from the cheesery on my way home, to sell me whatever would make me forget today happened. The only thing that kept me going was, one, 'Greys Anatomy' and 'Brothers and Sisters' on the old broadcast tele (amirite ladies??) and, two, reinventing this tomato and corn pie in my head all day. All I wanted to do was sack out in front of some televisual drama, fork in hand, eating an entire pie all by myself. And indeed I did. You should, too.
This is my third iteration of this pie. The
first came straight from the great
Deb of Smitten Kitchen. It was good, if a touch fiddly, what with the peeling and seeding and butter dough making and all, and truth be told I wasn't crazy about the layers of sliced tomato. The second time I streamlined, following
Everybody Loves Sandwiches' example. Both were delicious pies, but this time I wanted something even simpler. I did this by getting rid of layers all together, using whole, halved cherry tomatoes, which are typically more tomato-flavoured than their larger brethren, anyway, and trading in the scone-like biscuit dough for
Deborah Madison's yeasted dough. Yeasted pie crust, you say? What madness is this?
Brilliant madness, that's what. As mentioned before, I'm squeamish about mixing doughs by hand because I'm a bit germphobic and a failure as a food douche*, but for some reason this squeamishness does not extend to yeast doughs. I adore cooking with yeast. It smells good and feels good and kneading releases endorphins or something like it, because afterwards I feel secure and happy. A yeasted dough is also far easier to work with than a flaky, buttery dough, and the caloric heft isn't as intense. It does make for a different pie crust, though, with a springy crumb as opposed to crisp flakes, but when you combine that with fresh corn and tomatoes spiked with basil, swathed in good old fashioned mayonnaise, you will not be complaining.
This pie is also popular with cats. Apparently.
* apparently we're all meant to relish getting up in there with our hands, but I rarely like to be wrist deep in anything, let alone a pie dough.
Tomato and Corn Pie
Of mixed provenance. Serves 4.
For dough:
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 sachet or 2 tsp dried yeast
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- An egg
- 1 3/4 flour (I used half wholemeal, because I like the flavour, half plain)
- Fat pinch of salt
Combine water, sugar and yeast in a small bowl and set aside until foamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in the oil, salt and egg and set aside. Combine flours in a large bowl, then mix in the yeast mixture with a large metal spoon to form a stiff dough. Flour a counter and knead until smooth, for about 5 minutes. Oil the bowl you mixed the dough in (I just spray it down with cooking oil), and return the dough to the bowl. Let rise in a warm place (I use the [switched off] microwave) for about 45 minutes to an hour, until doubled in size.
For filling:
- 2 ears of corn, kernels sliced off
- 1-2 handfuls of basil, chopped
- A punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
- 100g hard, sharp cheese, grated (the cheeseman suggested I try a pecorino with peppercorns; I've used cheddar in the past)
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- Juice of a lemon
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Combine corn, basil, tomatoes and cheese in a large bowl. Whisk together mayonnaise and lemon juice, then pour over everything else and combine.
Divide the crust dough in half. Roll the first half out into a circle, and use that to line a 23cm pie plate. Trim the excess, and tip in the filling. Roll out the other half. Trim excess, leaving an overhang. Tuck top crust under the bottom crust and crimp the edges. Cut two or three vents in the top of the pie. Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden or bubbling. You can eat it straight from the oven, but it will fall apart a bit. This pie is amazing cold, if you can wait that long.