Recipe: Huckleberry Pie

The huckleberries were late this year. So late it's practically fall for a berry that is usually long gone before school starts. I know in the past they've been ripe by the end of June because Eric made a huckleberry tart for my aunt's funeral.

We camped at the end of June and there was hardly a speck of green buds pushing their way out from under the leaves.

July we were slammed with catering and had family visiting from out of town. No chance for berry picking.

"We've missed them for sure," I told Eric when we ran up to Index, WA for a quick overnight camping trip.

But there they were. Red, juicy, and though not as bountiful as last year, plenty enough for a pie and some left over for the freezer, to top cereal and ice cream later.

The kids helped make the pie.

The recipe is simple. If you've read my book or this blog, you know I like simple.

The Filling:
3 1/2 cups huckleberries
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoon corn starch
Mix the sugar and cornstarch together, then carefully coat the berries with it, as huckleberries are more delicate than most berries.

For the pie crust, try my mom's recipe, which is in my book, or use your favorite crust recipe

Mom's Pie Crust
2 cups all-purpous flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
2/3 cup chilled unsalted butter
2 tablespoons shortening
1/4 cup ice water

Mix the dry ingredients together. Cut up the cold butter and shortening with a fork into the flour until it looks like cornmeal. Incorporate ice water a little bit at a time until you can gently form a ball with floured hands. Divide into two balls.

On a floured surface, roll out the first ball to about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer to pie pan. Pat in the dough and prick it in a few places. Pour in filling. Roll out next ball and cut into strips to make a lattice on top. Crimp bottom and top together.

Brush with egg wash and bake in a preheated 425 degree oven until juices are bubbling, about 55 minutes.

R & R in the woods at Index

After two busy-as-heck weeks at Smokin' Pete's, we took a few days to rest. There is really only one place I can completely forget about the business, e-mail, and the house list: the woods of Index, WA. It's almost scary how easily I forget it all here.

It's easy to "unplug", because there are no plugs. No cell reception. No running water. No street lights. Just peace. I won't say quiet because the birds sing symphonies all hours of the day and night, the wind stirs the trees into a breezy boogie, and the Douglas squirrels chirp like it's 1999.

We go every year about this time. Once the graduation parties are done, schools are out, and before summer camps begin, most folks spend time with their family. That means they generally don't need catering and we get a slight break before the onslaught of the 4th of July and the rest of the summer.

Our little slightly-bigger-than-a-bathtub shack still needs a floor, so we camp. It's near the North Fork Skykomish river, which is, in my mind, the most perfect river in the world. I am almost always inspired to write poetry while sitting on its rocky shores. Much of it stinkier than skunk weed, but I kind of liked the poem I wrote this time.

The huckleberries are just starting to turn red. In a few weeks we need to get back to pick some serious berry booty. My 17 month old can now say "Bewwy!" She's indiscriminate, happily gulping down salmon berries, huckleberries, and grapes (she calls those berries too), followed by her favorite word and sign: "Mo'!"

Blue Huckleberry

 
And there are wildflowers. Lupin and Foxglove and Columbine, Oh my!

 
I love how kid-friendly nature is. I mean, look at this happy one-eyed monster rock.

Or the scary guy next to him:

We made a baby wading pool off the river in no time at all.

Bliss.

So where do you like to unwind? What helps you unplug? And when are you going there?

Wild Huckleberry Sweet and Sorrow Tart Recipe

I promised a recipe for those huckleberries we picked last week. I wrote the story and recipe below a few years ago for a family cookbook (does your family do this? It's a lot of fun). I changed it to make sense to non-family members. The picture is of the tart Eric made on Friday. His recipe this time was a little different, but the recipe below is a good one.

Huckleberry Sweet and Sorrow Tart
Eric and I love picking wild huckleberries that grow on some property we own outside of a town called Index, WA. It’s away from phone lines, cell towers, running water and electricity. Some might call it the sticks, but we love the lush forest and the break from the city’s relentless noise.

One rainy June day we spent hours picking the red tart berries in a kind of zen silence. We each picked our own huckleberry bush, then moved on, filling our berry buckets. The rain rhythms playing on our hooded slickers added calm and renewal to the day. As a result we drove home with quite a huckleberry haul. When we got back, however, there was a message that my Aunt Bev had been in an accident, a bad one, and was in the hospital.

As family came in, there were a lot of meals to plan for and make. Eric made these amazing huckleberry tarts. He of course did not work from a recipe, but the recipe below is something like the tart he made to share with family coming in to be with Bev. Bev hung on for a week, but the injuries she suffered from being hit by a large truck were insurmountable. All of my dad’s siblings came to Seattle, except for big sister Aunt Sandra. She was too sick to travel. But she was there, on the phone, with all of us as we sang to Bev in the ICU. In her final hours, we sang in a circle around her hospital bed until she passed away. I know none of us there will ever forget that.

The following year and one day later our Aunt Sandra died. Hers had been a 20-year battle with cancer. The huckleberries weren’t that plentiful that year, or we got the timing wrong. At any rate, Xander and I were in Alabama at the funeral, and Eric was holding down the restaurant so we didn’t get up to Index.

The next year, we hit it spot on. We picked huckleberries with my brother David and his two girls, Bella and Sophia, visiting from Prague. Mom and Dad came too and we had a picnic in the woods. Sophie, Bella and Xander didn’t put many berries in the bucket, but they got plenty in their mouths. Xander looked as if he were wearing red war paint on his face and fingers.

As I pick huckleberries each year, I think of my two beautiful aunts that passed away right around berry time. I will always think of them when I eat huckleberry tarts.
I think of family, too, and how we gather around food in the sweet times and in the times of sorrow.

Ingredients
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
½ stick butter
2 ½ cups sugar
4 egg yolks
1 pint milk
1 pint half & half
8 oz cream cheese
2 pints huckleberries + 1 cup fresh reserved for garnish
1 Tbls. cornstarch
½ cup red wine
1 cup Sorrow
1 pound of Sweet Memories. Add more to taste.


The Crust
Make a graham cracker crust. There are many recipes out there you can use.
½ stick butter, softened
Mix with 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
& ½ cup sugar
Press into pie tin

The Filling
Heat and whisk 4 egg yolks and 1 cup sugar in double boiler.
Stir constantly with whisk until sugar is dissolved.
Slowly add 1 pint milk & 1 pint half & half.
Heat and stir for 5 minutes.

Spoon in 1 package (8oz) cream cheese. Stir until dissolved.
Pour mixture into pie shell.
Bake in preheated oven (325˚F) until firm in center (approx. 45 minutes).

Pull from oven, let cool, then chill in refrigerator.

While this is chilling, make the huckleberry topping.

The Berry Topping
In a heavy gauge saucepan, heat on high 1 cup of sugar and 2 pints huckleberries
(if you want more berries in your tart, add the corresponding amount of sugar).

Bring to a boil, let reduce for 3 minutes.

Dissolve 1 tablespoon cornstarch into ½ cup red wine. Pour this mixture into boiling berries.

Turn down to simmer, let the alcohol cook off and the berries thicken (approx. 5 minutes). Stir as you go.

Let cool slightly. Pour over chilled tart. Chill the tart again (at least 2 hours).

Sprinkle fresh berries on top for garnish.

* Any tart berries may be used such as currants, cranberries or your local favorite. I haven’t tried this with softer berries like raspberries, blackberries etc. If you want to use these, either include plenty of not-quite-ripe berries, or cut back the sugar.

Carpe Diem! Wild Huckleberries at Index, WA

Yesterday we escaped to the woods to search for wild huckleberries. The thing about running a restaurant and catering company, especially of barbecue, is that while everyone else is enjoying the summer, weekends, nights and holidays, we are working our tails off. Eric and I don't get many days off together, so when the chance presented itself to take the kids berry picking, we seized the moment. We have 2 acres and an uninhabitable shack in the woods just outside of Index, WA.

The heady scents of pine, ferns, and berries helped me stop and breath deeply. There is no cell service, no power, and the only running water is the rushing North Fork of the Skykomish River. Bliss.

Index is just off Highway 2, before Skykomish and Steven's Pass. Surrounded by the Wild Sky Wilderness and mountains, it is sandwiched between the river and the railroad, two reasons it was a boom town during the gay '90s. Read more about the town and history on the Index, WA website.

We picked off the early huckleberry bushes. Many have yet to produce or ripen. The tart red or blue berries make excellent tarts and sauces for desserts or pork. We picked just enough to make a small tart, after we'd eaten our fill. Tomorrow I hope to post a recipe. We have a zillion caterings to do or prep for today, but the afternoon is slated for tart-makin'. Enjoy some of the pictures of our day.

Not many of X's berries made it home.

Blue huckleberries especially like to grow on nurse logs.View of Jump Off Peak. Daisies growing in the small amount of sand between the river rocks.