This is the pie which was served to Michael Lee and the KUT staff during the This is My Thing: Loquats in-studio taping.
We’ve made green mustang grape pie every season for years now, trying different variations and takes on the recipe. It’s similar to rhubarb pie in that it’s super-sour. It’s a recipe which has a fan base! But there’s a reason why most people bake rhubarb pie with strawberries: For as much as there’s a segment of the population which loves sour pies, a lot of people expect pies to be sweet.
So it occurs to us, why not add loquats to the green grapes? Loquats are sweet and delicious! And they come ripe at the perfect time to harvest unripe mustang grapes for pies.
Ingredients:
- 5 cups (1.1 pounds) depitted loquats
- 5 cups (1.1 pounds) green (unripe) wild mustang grapes
- 2 cups of sugar
- A splash of salt to taste, maybe a half teaspoon
- 3/4 cups corn starch
- A splash of brandy to taste
- 2 store bought graham cracker crust pie shells
- 1 quart of HEB heavy whipping cream
- Powdered sugar to taste, maybe two tablespoons
Food process the loquats to get the skins chopped up. Stew the loquats on the stove top in the sugar and salt for a few minutes until the skins start to get soft. Add the pea to marble-sized green grapes, which you will cook until they go pale and infused with sugar (the grape seeds at this stage should be soft and white and easily eaten once cooked into the pie filling). Turn down the heat, pour about a cup and a half of mostly loquat juice from the pot into a bowl. Mix the corn starch into the juice until the lumps are dissolved. Drizzle the juice/starch into the main pot, mixing it in before it can clump. Then keep the filling at a low, but boiling, stage until it thickens, stirring it carefully and strategically. Mix in the brandy for flavoring. Then pour the filling out of the pot into the pie shells, let it cool uncovered in the fridge. Once it’s stopped steaming, you can usually flip over the plastic dome which comes with the pie shell and use it as a cover to prevent schmutz from falling into the pie.
Before serving or presenting to guests, whip up the cream with enough powdered sugar to cut the sourness. Cover the pie in cream (the orange and green of the pie filling is admittedly unsightly). Serve cold to people who’ve never had a pie like this before, or devour it yourself, not sharing any of it with the unbelievers.