How to Make Mom's Apple Pie in Saudi Arabia
Around this time of year, one thinks about traditions, family and good food. When you cannot be at home, you try and bring a little home to wherever you are by either practicing a home tradition or making food you grew up with. As simple as this task may sound, or as easy as the recipe or tradition might seem, one must take into consideration the new environment. Here is a story of one such instance in Saudi Arabia.
Now, when you begin to cook an apple pie, the first step would be to figure out the ingredients you would need to make the recipe. Then you proceed to the store. Now, if you are a woman in Saudi, this is a daunting task in and of itself. Either you can go the grocery store across the street and hope they have all the ingredients. However, experience has taught you that the apples across the street resemble the apples that the grocery store down the street, out the compound, across the highway, and past the dumpster was ready to throw out. The fresh one’s from that grocery store are only a week to 2 weeks old! So, you wonder, do I venture out of the compound and down the street? Well you could, but you also know that you have one very special item you need that you have never seen at that grocery store, or any store for that matter; Pillsbury pie crust. If you want any hope of that, you know you will have to go to the hyper grocery store which requires a taxi. City or compound taxi? Well city are cheaper and easier to haggle with so you go with city. After some haggling, you jump inside and head to the hyper grocery store.
You arrive and, since it is right beside a mall, you do a little shopping. After all, how often do you see a mall in Saudi? Suddenly, while shopping, you see they are going to be closing for prayer. You leave the store and run, yes run, into the grocery store just as they are pulling down the gate. Better to be locked inside somewhere that allows you to shop then to be walking around a mall window shopping for an hour being stared at by men. Once inside, you take out your phone to get the recipe for the pie. Of course, you have no internet because the system is “busy.” So you have to call home to the states to get the recipe. That is when you are reminded that you need nutmeg, an ingredient that is illegal to buy or sell in Saudi. You gather the rest of the ingredients and continue to search for beloved pie crust. High and low you such, but to no avail. You knew you would never find it, but you still hoped. Now you will have to resort to making it the old fashion way… from scratch.
After putting your stuff in and out of 2 taxi’s, you finally find out that said they would take you for the price you asked for. On the way home, you realize the driver of the giant Ford boat you are in does not know where you live. Of course he speaks no English which only makes the situation all the more helpful. After using the 5 Arabic words you know, 3 of which are left, right, and straight, you arrive home. You do not try and start baking that night because, in Saudi, you can only do one really productive thing a day and that shopping trip took almost 3 hours.
The next day, you prepare to make your pie. First you have to make the crust. You don’t have a mixing bowl, of course, so you use a serving bowl with low sides because that is much better to use, especially with flour. You find an internet recipe that call for flour and shorting and you are to cut it up with knifes. This goes against everything you know about cooking, but you go with it for fun. Your neighbor, a much more experienced cook comes to help you as well. She leaves you to your work and you continue to cut up your flour and shorting. Suddenly, a thought comes to you, a blender would be much more efficient to use to mix the dough. You pour the mixture into the one setting blender and turn it on but nothing happens as the flour and shorting sit there laughing at you as if to say, “nope, you have to do this the hard way.” So you pour the mixture back into the bowl and continue cutting. The task seems pointless, so you form them into two balls that look ok to you and put them in the fridge. Now to cut up apples.
Sadly pampered chef does not have a home base in Saudi and no one you know, including yourself, possesses an apple peeler, corer, slicer. So, by hand again you go about peeling the apples, coring them, and slicing them into another low shallow bowl like the one you put the flour in. Finally, you finish cutting up all the apples as they pour out the top of the bowl. Wait, a great idea! Why not pour them into a cooking pot to mix with the sugar mixture! Brilliant! You pour the apples into a giant pot and proceed to make the sugar mixture. Now, since the metric system is the only source of measurement in the country, you have the estimate all measurements due to a lack of cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons. So, a little of this and a little of that. Luckily, your neighbor smuggled in some nutmeg from Greece so you have some of that to use. You pour the mixture over the apples and mix them up. Now back to the crust.
You take it out the fridge and begin to roll it and suddenly you have a pile of crumbs all the over the table. You call the neighbor again who proceeds to enlighten you about how you have to keep cutting the dough and need more shortening. So apparently rushing is not the name of the game. You cut and cut and cut and, finally you are able to make two balls of dough again. You stick them BACK into the freezer to let them… do whatever it is that they do. Finally, when you think they are done, you take them out and roll them into a “circle.” Circle being more of a guideline for the blob shape your dough is taking. You estimate it will be ok and flip it into the pie pan. It turns out estimations are not always the best as the crust baring fills one side and is overboard on the other. Also, cracks are forming around the inside. You try and make it fit, but the crust says no. So, you put the apples in and proceed to roll out the top crust. You place that on top and, shockingly, it does not take a perfectly round shape either. So you have to stuff the two together and just forget about being fancy. You are now in survival mode. The goal is to make sure the apples are coverish. You begin to pour the whipping cream over top of the pie and realize it can double as glue! You begin to glue up the holes the best you can.
Finally, you light the oven and put the pie inside. Temperature is pointless due to the fact that you can’t set the temperature on the oven. The options are on and off. So you estimate on time and check the pie from time to time. You have to make sure you have a towel handy since your apartment and IKEA have no pot holders.
Once the pie looks finished..ish, you take it out and debate taking it to your Thanksgiving dinner. You decide, after the two days of work, you will and hope for the best!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!
This is dedicated to my mother
