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| Analise with Martha |
LUCY BURDETTE: When John and I went on the seafood tasting tour that served as inspiration for A DEADLY FEAST, the first stop was to visit Chef Martha Hubbard at Isle Cook Key West. Our guide Analise told us we'd be eating dessert first--Martha's sponger key lime pie.
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| Oops I ate too fast |
My mind was running amok during the entire two hours of yummy eating and Key West history...Where could I find a body? What's the best murder weapon? Will these dear women consent to becoming characters--suspects perhaps? They did agree, and even better, Martha shared her recipe for pie...
Chef Martha's Sponger Key Lime Pie
½ cup Ol’ Sour (See Below)
½ cup key lime juice
2 14 oz cans sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks
1 tsp salt
Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Divide into
small canning jars. Serve with crumbled Cuban crackers on top.
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| Ol'Sour in process |
Ol’ Sour
1 Qt Key Lime Juice
1 ½ Tbsp Table Salt
Mix Key Lime juice and salt
Let sit at room temperature for two weeks, disturbing daily
for first week.
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| Martha with Feast |
You'll recognize a lot of this background as you read the new Key West mystery. And if you visit Key West, be sure to look up these two wonderful foodies. Analise Smith runs Key West Food Tours and Martha Hubbard offers classes and dinners through Isle Cook. Thank you, fabulous women!
Red readers, have you ever taken a food tour?
Oh, this pie sounds delicious, Lucy. Thanks for sharing the recipe . . .
ReplyDeleteHave I ever taken a food tour? Sadly, no . . . but it sounds so delightful that I’m definitely adding it to my bucket list!
I think you'd enjoy it Joan!
DeleteI took a food tour of Boston's North End (all Italian, all the time) decades ago. It was fabulous. Cheeses, oils, cured meats, cannoli, all of it!
ReplyDeleteI have so many questions about this recipe (and its name). Do you pronounce that word like in sponge, or like wronger? What does it mean? Is the "pie" not cooked? Something about the sound of that sour mixture turns my teeth. Does it "cook" the yolks? Are Cuban crackers like graham crackers?
Sponger like sponge. It's named after the fisherpeople who used to make it out on the water when they didn't have access to fresh ingredients. I think it's the lime juice that "cooks" the eggs--and you would never taste the ol' sour! The crackers are like chowder crackers.
DeleteThe Italian tour sounds amazing!
Thanks!
DeleteSorry to say I have never taken any kind of food tour but I would certainly like to!
ReplyDeletewonderful! What a great way to start the morning. Food tour? No, but I was in NOLA once for restaurant week and took the kids to Café Degas for a three course meal, a cozy slice of Gallic heaven behind lace curtains.
ReplyDeletethat sounds wonderful Margaret--NOLA is a foodie heaven!
DeleteThe idea of "cooking" pie without actual cooking is a new one for me! Lime juice is miraculous, isn't it? Thanks for sharing this, Lucy/Roberta. It sounds delicious.
ReplyDeleteEvery place I travel is a food tour, haha. I make it a point to try as much local cuisine as I can, and I have little patience with travel companions who are less excited about trying kangaroo, guinea pig, ceviche, cacio e' pepe, celery root salad, and even escargot. How can you know if you like something if you haven't tried it? Most of the world eats different things than I do every single day, after all.
For the record, roast kangaroo tasted like venison. The guinea pig I had was too salty, but it was like tough chicken, and the cacio e' pepe is food of the gods. I wouldn't have escargot again, although really all I could taste was butter and garlic. Same with Oysters Rockefeller, and Rocky Mountain oysters. Overrated. Celery root, also called celeriac, is one of my favorite vegetables, thanks to the simple shredded salad with remoulade I had for lunch in Paris, at the urging of our guide. Marron glace for dessert: pureed, sweetened chestnuts. Divine!
I would have to skip the guinea pig Karen, because we had so many as pets. It would feel like cannibalism...
DeleteIt's very strange. Since it's the national dish of Peru, they have guinea pig ranches. We saw one in a stall, like a horse stall, with a door up to my chest, but a herd of guinea pigs inside. Those little guys in that gigantic stall. It was tragi-comic.
DeleteI wonder if Peruvians think we are strange, for keeping food as pets.
For years I've been intrigued that Key Lime pie is basically key lime juice and Eagle Brand. This is the first serious variation I've seen on that. I'll have to see if Key limes are available up here, not always easy to find up on the tundra.
ReplyDeleteJulie bought a Sara Lee version home recently. It tasted of fake lime. Not great.
If you are willing to send me your actual addy I will mail you some key lime juice. Offer open to anyone who reads this.
DeleteYou're sweet Coralee!
DeleteCoralee, I'd love some! I'm at edith@edithmaxwell.com. Write me there and I'll send you my address.
DeleteCoralee, you are amazing! Ditto Edith--email me at fjchurch at hughes dot net and I'd be happy to send you my address!
DeleteI don't think I've ever done a food tour, but I love a good key lime pie and this sounds awesome!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this with us.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it is delicious but I'm not comfortable with something sitting at room temperature for two weeks and the colour of the liquid in the picture doesn't help.
I most certainly would enjoy it if not aware of what it is made of but would not make it myself.
When I saw that liquid on Martha's shelf, I knew it would have to go into the book!
DeleteNow I want key lime scrambled eggs for breakfast...
ReplyDeletehmmm, I bet that's never been tried. Maybe a key lime flavored Hollandaise sauce??
DeleteMmm, Key Lime Benedicts!
DeleteDoes the Ol' Sour ferment? If so it is off my table, dangit. Never been on a formal food tour, have done some research and hit some special restaurants on my own. Sound like a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteGreat travel adventure with my morning coffee! Thank you Lucy!
ReplyDeleteI've never taken a food tour but here in SoCal we have "a taste of" festivals where restaurateurs bring their best offerings to the street fair. Yummy! You can walk up down a two or three block area and get all five courses and some pretty amazing alcohol. Of course, Uber is the approved method of arriving and departing the event.
I'm going to have to add food tours to my list of things to do when I travel if this is kind of goodies I've been missing. Thanks again!
Taste of Cincinnati is coming up soon! It's always on Memorial Day weekend, but it's more like seven or eight blocks of downtown, with lots of entertainment, as well as fabulous tastes.
DeleteNow I'm curious. What is the main food offering in "Cincinnati"?
DeleteSkyline Cincinnati Chili, Lyda! I had some when I was on book tour once. Delicious, but I think I'm still digesting it.
DeleteWell, that's one dish, Julia. And I have to admit, it's not my favorite. But Cincinnati is a food lover's paradise. Up until the Maisonette closed, about ten years ago, we had the only five-star restaurant east of the Mississippi! That includes a lot of the US without one, you know.
DeleteThere have always been really great restaurants here, and there still are, including wonderful French, Italian, Mexican, Asian, and even Brazilian cooking. There are two Creole kitchens within five minutes of my house, both very good.
We also have one of the best ice cream makers in the world here, Graeter's. Come and visit, everyone. I will lead the food tour!
In fact, and I had to check this to make sure, but Taste of Cincinnati is the longest running culinary arts festival in the US, begun in 1979. Now it attracts half a million people each year.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taste_of_Cincinnati
Karen, Taste of Cincinnati sounds fabulous. I'm thinking it's too bad my book is out in October rather than May...
DeleteHave not taken a food tour yet. Perhaps one of these days....
ReplyDeleteFirst on my list are beverage tours, Diana. Here in Portland, where we have dozens of artesanal microbreweries, there's a Brew Bus that does tours of varying lengths - transportation free samples and snacks included.
DeleteSecond, NY State's wine region. I went to college in the Finger Lakes, but didn't have the money (or the taste buds)for a winery tour, which drives you from one vintner to another, where you get to enjoy wines and the beautiful central New York scenery.
No food tours here--but I'm with Karen--any place I travel becomes a food tour! And I would eat this version of Key lime pie--didn't kill the fishermen, did it?! :-)
ReplyDeleteThe ingredients sound delicious, Flora, but I'm a person who HATES crackers and croutons in soup - can't stand the texture. I suspect I'd prefer to stick with old fashioned Key Lime Pie (one of my great dessert faves.)
DeleteActually, Julia, I'd probably replace the crackers with a crumbled cookie of some type--shortbread?--something not too sweet.
DeleteThat sounds good too Flora. I made a recipe of Key lime parfaits and that had graham cracker crumbs. Which I believe is also used in Key lime martinis!
DeleteOther than touring Cerretas chocolate factory here in Phoenix, I’ve only been on self-guided food tours but this sounds fabulous! I do love me some key lime anything. Hub makes a wicked key lime pie using Nellie and Joe’s key lime juice. He courted me with that pie :)
ReplyDeleteA man who courts with food? *sigh* Can we clone him, please?
DeleteI'm pretty much a fan of key lime anything, so I know I'd love Chef Martha's recipe. I have a key lime cheeseball I make for the holidays or other get-togethers, and it's a tremendous hit. I do make it from a mix, adding cream cheese and butter. It's especially good with those short stick type of graham crackers. And, as you know, Lucy, I keep beating that key lime cake to death that is served at Firefly in Key West, but I swear it's insanely delicious.
ReplyDeleteI can't think of any food tours I've taken, but it's on my list to do so the next time I'm in Key West. I did a tour of sorts of Hemingway's drinks, except it was all at one bar in Charlotte, Virginia. I do want to take one of the bourbon tours that are popular here in Kentucky, going to the different bourbon making sites and tasting the bourbon, even getting a special bottle put up for yourself.
I know and the one time we ate at Firefly this year I was way too full to eat dessert. Next fall, I swear...
DeleteLucy, is the Ol' Sour fermented? So interesting! Does it "cook" the egg yolks and condensed milk? We do get key limes here, but that's a lot of limes to squeeze for a quart. Does the Ol' Sour keep? I would try this!
ReplyDeleteThe closest thing I've come to a guided food tour was you taking me to places in Key West! That was such fun--one of my favorite memories of that last book tour. I have done many self-guided tours, however, including Napa wineries and Scottish distilleries. And London pubs, lol. Everywhere I go is a food tour for me. I always look up restaurants and regional specialties beforehand, and try as many places and things as possible.
it was so great to have you visit Debs, because you wanted to do everything! I think the Ol' Sour must be fermented...I forget what Martha told us but I'll find out
DeleteNo formal food tours. Just your books, Lucy! We have visited wineries, breweries, and distilleries and tasted their wares on tours. Is there a theme here? Lime juice "cooks" things. Ceviche would be a good example. I suspect the salt helps preserve the key lime juice and keeps mold at bay. If I managed to make up a batch of Ol' Sour I'm afraid it wouldn't get used up in a reasonable amount of time.
ReplyDeleteExactly Pat! it would become VERY ol' sour...
DeleteI've never gone on any official food tours. I bet they're fun.
ReplyDeleteThe recipe worried me a bit, with all the warnings about raw eggs, but clearly Martha knows what she's doing.
ReplyDeleteI like the concept of a food tour . . . closest I've come is the food and art fair in Clayton, MO and the wine/food pairings at Provisions in Ladue. Then again, life itself is a food tour . . . enhanced by travel and reading.
Reminded that sauerkraut was used by sailors for scurvy prevention, much as limes were -- fermentation has benefits. Great book! <3
thanks Mary--I love your quote: Life is a food tour!
DeleteOkay, now I'm fascinated and so happy it's afternoon - much more reasonable time for dessert or cocktails. Intentional physical food tours? No. When I was in Mexico City and a few other great places around there, I ate in local restaurants but that's has close as I ever have gotten and, until now, never would have thought of it as a Food Tour, just meals. Growing up Sonoma county, I've been to plenty of wineries but never as a tour, just a destination. More vacation ideas to dream about.
ReplyDeleteHubs and I did Hiking & Cooking Tour in Tuscany 10 years ago. Hiked 7-8 miles in AM then had 2 hour lunch before hiking on to where we were staying that night. After cleaning up we prepped the evening meal.
ReplyDeleteIt was amazing!
that's a lot of hiking, but sounds divine!
Delete