Green Tomato Pie

We’ve had lots of green tomatoes sitting in our garage for over a week, ever since we heard we were going to get a hard frost last week that would pretty much end the growing season for the year.

Well, the hard frost never came (although now it’s supposed to come tonight) but K had already picked most of the green tomatoes in the garden.  A few nights ago he made Green Tomato Pie.

Green tomato pie proves that green tomatoes aren’t only for frying.  Created as a way to use up end of the season tomatoes that don’t have time to ripen, this pie doesn’t taste much like tomato!

Green Tomato Pie by Paula Deen

Ingredients:

Crust

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 cups shortening
• 1/2 cup cold water

Filling

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 tbsp tapioca flour
• 1 tsp grated orange zest (but we used lemon zest because we had it)
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (we used ground nutmeg)
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 5 green tomatoes, or enough to fill pie crust, thinly sliced

Glaze

• 1 slightly beaten eggwhite
• Sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

To make the crust:

Sift together flour, salt, sugar and baking powder in a bowl.  Cut shortening into flour mixture with a pastry cutter or fork until the mixture resembles cornmeal. Stir 1/4 cup of the cold water, then add remaining 1/4 cup and mix until combined.  Cover dough and rest in refrigerator for 30 min.

To make the filling:

Preheat over to 425F.  Mix sugar, tapioca, zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, and raisins in a large bowl.  Lay tomato slices in pie crust. Sprinkle mixture over tomatoes.  (Overlapping will occur but tomatoes will shrink in size when baked).  Gently lay top pie crust over filling, tucking in extra crust around the edges.  Pinch dough with fingers to seal edges.  Using a knife, make 4-6 slits in top of crust to allow steam to escape.  Brush top with egg white and sprinkle with a little sugar to give your crust a shine.

Bake for 25 min. at 350F, then reduce to 350F and bake for 20 more minutes.

Even though this is a sweet pie, it’s supposed to be a side to a meal and not dessert.  I guess that’s how southerners do it!