Tomato and corn pies (and tarts)

"The problem more often than not is a basic one: tomatoes are very wet and tart crusts need to stay fairly dry" Deb Perelman/Smitten Kitchen

I needed something that wasn't going to take long because I had already used up half of the day on reading a book group book and trying to speak Italian in my Italian class. Very depressing.

So I decided I would pick a recipe - and then just ramble - and this was it - Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen's Tomato and corn pie

I'm not exactly sure why I added it to my Ideas list, because, frankly it doesn't really look totally amazing, but it was, to me anyway, a slightly odd pairing. Of course if you think about it, it really shouldn't be - after all they are both in season at the same time, and they are both staples of Latin American cuisine, so why not in a pie?

In her introduction, Deb Perelman mentioned Tomato pie was a Southern states dish, and this was adapted by the addition of corn by James Beard and Laurie Colwin. Be that as it may, and who cares anyway, I then spent a pleasant half hour or so cruising the net trying to find different versions of this supposedly traditional dish. I suppose the main conclusion I have come to is that it is indeed an American thing. The British, and the Australians come to that, don't seem to be much into this particular pairing. I also found, with a couple of exceptions that the recipes came from the less well-known corners of the blogosphere. So this is a little bit of a tribute to them.

As I have mentioned many times Americans seem to call tarts 'pie', so after just a few moments' thought I decided to include tarts as well. Which is just as well, because the Smitten Kitchen pie is the only one I found that was truly a pie. There were a few, but they were mostly tarts. Maybe it was because a tart is less likely to end up soggy, In spite of her words at the top of the page, about the difficulty of making tarts without them being soggy, she admits, that:

"this recipe works exactly as-is, save one irksome issue: our pie was a puddle when we cut into it. I simply poured off the crust-sogging liquid, but I’d advise you to instead seed and juice your tomatoes if you bear it (I hate tossing the most flavorful parts, personally) or risk a mushy base."

I think this pie was one of her earlier experiments with tomatoes and pastry, for later in her now lengthy career of blogging and publishing, she devised this Burst tomato galette with corn and zucchini which is much less liquid and to my eyes rather more interesting and tempting. And honestly if you want to make a tart a galette such as this is the easiest way to do it.

There were a couple of Tarte Tatins which are always a good thing, and have the advantage of any juices, not soaking into pastry underneath until you skilfully turn your tart upside down on to a plate. Besides you have usually fried your filling a little, thus cooking off the juices, before you place your pastry on top. Examples: Caramelized corn and tomato tarte Tatin - Half-baked Harvest and Mixed tomato and corn tarte Tatin from Coles of all places, which is why I include it, but I confess it doesn't look as good as the Half-baked Harvest version.

Still on sogginess, since the advent of cherry tomatoes it has become somewhat easier to avoid the sogginess, simply by keeping them whole, or just roasting them a little. Roasting your tomatoes - any tomatoes - beforehand is one of the techniques for drying it all out. Others are deseeding, and then leaving to drip for a while before using, or putting some kind of absorbent base on your pastry, such as cheese, before topping with your tomatoes. Anyway below are my 'ordinary' bloggers various solutions: Sweet corn and roasted tomato tart - Women's Weekly - the sole 'professional in a big way' representative; Tomato tart with fresh corn and herbs - How to Feed a Loon; Summer tomato and corn pie - Proud Italian Cook; Tomato-corn pie - Jasmine Smith/Southern Living; Sweet corn, ricotta and cherry tomato puff pastry tart - Live Love Laugh Food; Daniel Boulud's corn and heirloom tomato tart - Chewing the Fat (Daniel Boulud is a Montréal chef apparently) and Tomato pie recipe with corn and basil - From a Chef's Kitchen.

They all used various different kinds of pastry, although I didn't see a filo version. Perhaps the most interesting was one from Torello Farm which used a Jamie Oliver avocado pastry - Corn, tomato and pesto tart with avocado pastry 

One of the cooks I came across said that one of the things she liked about the whole idea of a corn and tomato pie, was that there were no rules about exact quantities - a handful of this and a handful of that, was how she put it, so I guess that goes for the pastry too.

So I have added this in - Corn relish and sun-dried tomato pastry and you can watch Jules Cooks and Looks make them very quickly in a YouTube video. Spread a sheet of puff pastry with corn relish, top with sun-dried tomatoes, and another sheet of pastry. Cut into strips, twist and curl into little kind of pastries and cook. Maybe that's a good place to start to see if you like the combination of tomatoes and corn - although the tomatoes are dried and the corn comes out of a jar. Pretty simple though.

I was rather surprised that more famous cooks and recipe developers did not go for the trio of tomatoes, corn and pastry - not even Ottolenghi - because I thought it might have been a combination that appealed. But no. He does do corn and tomatoes - but mostly the corn is polenta as in two of my favourite recipes which I know I have mentioned before but will again:

Cheesy baked polenta in tomato sauce and Baked polenta with feta, béchamel and za'atar tomatoes Absolutely delicious both of them.

Soup might be good too. And why did nobody do a pasty or an empanada or something similar?

A variation on the chicken and rice theme, that sounds so very, very boring, but might actually be lovely. Comfort food.

YEARS GONE BY

November 11

2024 - Nothing

2023 - Piccalilli

2022 - The ultimate fusion dish - Katsu curry

2021 - Coronation chicken, Anglo-India, curry powder and back to Coronation chicken

2020 - Missing

2019 - Nothing

2018 - Don't mess with Eton mess

2017 - Today's 'cool wine' - prosecco - and a King Valley festival

2016 - Herbs - dried or fresh