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Florida Keys icons: Capt'n Tony ... and that pie
Monday, July 14, 2008
Of all the things my husband despises — onions, mushrooms, the entire state of Michigan — near the top of the list is cold.
Every winter he reminds us that some day we are moving South. Which we already tried once.
After two years in Atlanta, we found that long autumns, mild winters and glorious springs are not reason enough to call a place home.
And weather is predictably unpredictable. One winter, before we had children, we headed south for some sun. We took no chances and picked the southernmost tip of the United States — Key West, Fla., closer to Cuba than to Miami. We packed swim gear and sunscreen.
We never unpacked them. It was December 1989, and Key West was experiencing a record cold front.
Record lows in Key West are in the low 40s. It was easy to spot the tourists that week. We were all wearing winter coats. Locals don't even own winter coats.
It was of little comfort to us to find out that while we were merely shivering, Ohio was frozen solid as the cold front brought below-zero temperatures to much of the nation.
Since we couldn't soak up the sun, we soaked up the culture. Which means six-toed cats at the Hemingway House, the art-fair environment of Duval Street, and — mostly — bars.
Or, in our case, bar.
At the urging of a colleague, we walked by the throngs of revelers spilling out of Sloppy Joe's on the main drag and turned down a side street to Capt'n Tony's Saloon, a quieter establishment that can best be described as dank. Behind the bar was Capt'n Tony himself — former bootlegger, former gunrunner and a man for whom the word "salty" was coined.
Capt'n Tony's calls itself "The Original Sloppy Joe's," and it was the watering hole of choice for Ernest Hemingway in the 1930s. It counts among its loyal patrons Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Presidents Harry Truman and John Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Frost and Jimmy Buffett.
We spent many hours at the bar, staying warm, smoking cigars and listening to Tony's tales of a life that would get him arrested in most cities, but in Key West it got him elected as mayor.
For a few years we got a Christmas card from Capt'n Tony, and the last information I could find on him was from a Jimmy Buffet fan site in March of this year, saying that, at age 91, he was admitted to a Miami hospital.
Key Lime Pie is the culinary equivalent of Capt'n Tony's Saloon —it's synonymous with the tropical island, and it has sparked many imitators.
This recipe is probably not authentic. As best I could determine, "real" Key Lime Pie has a meringue topping. This recipe uses a graham-cracker crust, another area of contention among purists.
But it's the right color — yellow, not green. And it's made with sweetened condensed milk, because, although the dish dates to the 1800s, fresh milk wasn't available on the island until the opening of the Overseas Highway in 1930.
So this might not pass for Key Lime Pie on the Keys, but up here in Ohio, it'll do just fine.
KEY LIME PIE
For the crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
½ cup finely chopped walnuts
Dash of ground cinnamon
1 ½ tablespoons brown sugar
7 to 8 tablespoons melted butter
For the filling:
2 egg yolks
1 whole egg
Dash of salt
3 tablespoons sugar
½ cup key lime juice
Dash of vanilla
1 ¾ cups sweetened condensed milk
3 egg whites
1 lime, sliced thin, for garnish
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, walnuts, cinnamon and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl. Slowly add the melted butter 1 tablespoon at a time until the mixture binds together. Press the mixture into a 9-inch pie pan and refrigerate until ready to use.
To make the filling, in a medium bowl whisk the egg yolks, whole egg, salt, sugar, key lime juice, vanilla and sweetened condensed milk. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites with a hand mixer until they thicken and form soft peaks. Slowly fold the egg whites into the condensed milk mixture. Pour the combined mixture into the pie shell and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Halfway through baking, turn the pie around to ensure even cooking. Let pie cool completely before serving. Garnish with whipped cream and twisted slice of lime.
Contact this writer at carol.rini@gmail.com
