HOME GROWN: A celebration of local culinary enterprise

by Ronald Holden

Kate McDermott: Life changing peach pie

There are three kinds of people in the world, Kate McDermott will tell you: pie-makers, pie-eaters, and pie seekers.

The epic pie odyssey of New Yorker writer Sue Hubbell 20 years ago concluded that you could not get pie west of Oklahoma; you got cobbler. But that was in 1989. There's another argument: there are pie people and there are cake people, a distinction that eluded me completely, since I didn't consider myself either one, or didn't until I watched McDermott bake her peach pie. After all, people have been making pie since the dawn of civilization (or since the advent of milled grain, at any rate), and McDermott's mission these days (she used to be a musician) is to teach the mechanics (as well as the art) of pie-making to whoever comes through the door.

Begin, she insists, with King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour. "I want wheat growers to take this class," she says, "so they can see what a difference the right flour makes." Irish butter, foil-wrapped Kerrygold, with high fat content. Leaf lard; she gets hers shipped from Pennsylvania. Regular supermarket sugar, a touch of seasoning (salt, nutmeg), some thickener so you don't get fruit soup.

For the fruit, at this time of year, McDermott uses Frog Hollow's Cal-Red peaches, shipped in single-layer boxes that cuddle a dozen peaches from the farm in Brentwood, California. Her ex, Jon Rowley, started the Peach-O-Rama promotion for Metropolitan Markets with these peaches, using a refractometer to measure the sugar content: at least 13 brix (percent sugar). For a demonstration at Diane's Market Kitchen in Post Alley a couple of years ago, she used peaches measuring 20 brix, off the charts. "The omigod peach," McDermott called it.

The details of the pie-making process are not complicated as long as you keep everything ice-code, and won't be repeated here. (They're online at McDermott's website, www.ArtofthePie.com.) Trust me that when you taste the pie, with its flaky crust and luscious filling, you will become a believer. the very act of pie-eating will turn you into a pie-seeker. You are a disciple now, and recite the mantra: be happy, eat pie.

On her calendar: McDermott teaches a full schedule of pie-making classes ("Pie Camp") at her cabin ("Pie Cottage") in Port Angeles.

Becky Selengut: Fish tales

Becky Selengut is another one of the people who will save Western Civilization (alongside fellow Seattleites Langdon Cook, Jon Rowley, and Kate McDermott). She knows the difference not just between good and evil (too easy), but, when it comes to seafood, between good and not-good-enough.

Selengut's most recent book, "Good Fish" (Sasquatch Books, 2011), comes down squarely on the side of the animals. "We humans," she writes, "eat too much fish." To be clear, she means we eat too much of the same kinds of fish. But this is a cookbook, and a very elegant one at that, so you know there's going to be a lot of informative (and politically correct) instruction, accompanied by Clare Barboza's evocative photos.

Most importantly, seafood is like produce, and you should only buy what's in season. That may not always mean "fresh," because salmon and tuna might well be better frozen. Farmed salmon, imported shrimp and bluefin tuna are on Selengut's no-no list.

She points out that shellfish, especially local mussels and clams, should come with a State-issued tag that tells the consumer where and when they were harvested. If the retailer can't provide the tag, don't buy. Would that the same traceability exist for individual heads of beef!

The well-organized recipes include wine recommendations by Selengut's wife, sommelier April Pogue. There's also a useful list of seafood at risk of mercury contamination. My quibble with Selengut's recipes: her "Sicilian" pasta con le sarde. Not so much the use of farro to make the pasta; that's a matter of taste. But no wild mountain fennel? Dio mio!

Selengut's strong suits are mouthfuls: seasonality and sustainability. Easy concepts to grasp, not always simple to execute. There's help online: Selengut's blog, ChefReinvented, which guides the reader to the shoots of baby nettles or mousserons just poking up through the underbrush.

On her calendar: Spending the summer with her new puppy (adorable pictures on her Facebook page), speaking at the Seafood Festival in Sitka, and working on her new book. What? Yes, Andrews McNeal will publish it in the fall of 2014. It's called "Shroom: Mind-Bendingly Good Recipes for Cultivated and Wild Mushrooms." And April Pogue will again offer wine pairings.


July 2013

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Ronald Holden is a Seattle-based journalist who specializes in food, wine and travel. He has worked for KING TV, Seattle Weekly, and Chateau Ste. Michelle; his blog is www.Cornichon.org.

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