Cheryl Perry - For the love of pie: sweet and savory recipes

For the Love of Pie

Sweet and Savory Recipes

Cheryl Perry and Felipa Lopez of Pie Corps
with Lynn Marie Hulsman, photographs by Tara Striano

For the Love of Pie

Sweet and Savory

Digital Edition 1.0

Text 2017 Cheryl Perry and Felipa Lopez

Photo 2017 Tara Striano

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except brief portions quoted for purpose of review.

Gibbs Smith

P.O. Box 667

Layton, Utah 84041

Orders: 1.800.835.4993

www.gibbs-smith.com

ISBN: 978-1-4236-4770-6

We would like to acknowledge the dynamic duo of bakers at Pie Corps, Daniel Karpan and Jennifer Michel. Your hard work and attention to detail has been an incredible asset to usnot only are you fabulous bakers, youre wonderful human beings. Thank you.

Pie makes everybody happy

The Impossible Knife of Memory -Laurie Halse Anderson,

Its the essence of hand-made. Its not like cake, theres no mix for it. Once you learn the basics, youre there. Anything locally available to you is potentially pie. Pie is not a trend, but a constant. Our pie is the best of the best because of our philosophy of learning how to do it right, and using the purest, most wholesome ingredients available.

You might have read that pie is trending. While its true that people on the streets are talking about, and seeking out pie, we believe that pie is too essential to trend. We think America has simply experienced an awakening, and begun to recognize this idea. In exactly the same way Americans have been called to pull out the knitting needles, the gardening gloves, and the beer-brewing equipment, theyve been converted to embracing the basics. More and more people are preparing and eating whole food, hand-made with a minimum of pomp and fuss. Pie is the quintessential slow food because its always better made in small batches and by hand.

Wed like to introduce ourselves: Our names are Cheryl Perry and Felipa Lopez, and we dedicate our lives to pie in all its glorious forms.

If youre wondering, Why pie? Why now? let us fill you in on an open secret: Its always been pie.

Pie is an elemental food.

Truth. End of story. You cannot argue the point.

Both the crust and the filling of a good pie denote the very essence of the word handmade. Pie is filling, pie is nourishing, pie is comforting, and pie is an adventure. Its a dish that evokes home and hearth. Peoples reaction to pie is visceral; pie makes people feel good. Pie makes people feel loved. That is why we at Pie Corps devote ourselves entirely to sustaining, developing, upgrading, and promoting pie and pie alone.

Here at Pie Corps, were on a mission: To offer the finest quality, handmade, soul satisfying, savory, and sweet pie to the people of Brooklyn and beyond. More than that, we want to teach people to make it for themselves, and for their loved ones. Were changing peoples thinking when it comes to pie. Were flying the flag of insist on the best. We are pie-oneers, perfecting ways to make life tastier, one bite at a time. We at Pie Corps are part of a large group of people, banded together for one common goal, and that goal is the love of pie. Why?

Because everyone loves pie.

Wed invite you to join The Corps, but youre already one of us. Welcome home.

We want to share. We want you to know what we know. We want to remove all fear around pie-making. Weve heard it time and again from our customers and from the students in our in-house pie-making classes, I dont make homemade piecrusts. There are so many ways it can go wrong. We agree. If you dont know what youre doing, you can mess it up. Dont be afraid of the truth. Making a perfect crust is a whole lot of science, with a little dash of art. Theres a right way to do it and a wrong way.

Why do we do it our way? Because its the best way. We want to share what weve learned through decades of trial and error with everyone who loves pie. Which, as you know, we believe is everyone.

Our partnership fell into place as naturally as rain. When we met, we were drawn to each other because we both love food. We mean love it. We both love cooking and beautiful ingredients, and basically knew instantly that we wanted to have a food business together. We opened Pie Corps with the intention of exciting, engaging, and enticing the palates of pie enthusiasts to the next level by introducing them to the concept of sustainability, and the joy of eating fresh, whole, seasonal foods.

We both hail from strong food families. I started out early, cooking for my Russian-Jewish family. My grandmother only cooked traditional Eastern European food, but she did it the best way, and made everything with quality and love each time. That singularity of vision pushed me to branch out on a journey to explore all types of cuisine and investigate the techniques that I didnt learn at my grandmothers elbow.

For me, perfecting pies under the roof of a business I owned was a quest: I owned the contemporary American restaurant Dish for six years, and was an instructor at the Natural Gourmet Institute of Health and Culinary Arts for about fifteen years, along with maintaining a consulting practice dedicated to advising food-related start-up businesses for over five years, but that was not enough.

Even with over 20 years of professional experience under my belt, I knew I wouldnt feel like I was a real chef until I mastered pie. The hallmark of a truly great chef is pastry, and the pinnacle is pie. Ive been an avid pie maker for most of my career, but I never felt I had it in my bones and muscles until I spent one entire glorious summer, from May to September, at my country house upstate making a pie a day for anyone who would eat it. I can now say, without reservation, that I know the best way to make pies, and I love doing it that way every time.

Felipa comes from a family of Cubans and Puerto Ricans boasting many great cooks, including her grandmother, who on the day she died at age 102, cooked herself a pork chop and sat down with a cup of caf con leche and ate before taking herself to the hospital, where she died with a belly full of her own home cooking.

Her dad, a professional chef, took her to markets when she was a girl, and taught her how to choose the best foods, herbs, and spices at the peak times. He also taught her how to stock a kitchen. She always has the ingredients to make any ethnic dish I or our friends ask for. Want Pad Thai? Fine! She has the lemongrass and fish sauce. Chicken tikka masala? No problem. She has cumin and ghee.