Lime Meringue Pie

This pie is the result of my dessert contribution to a neighborhood Iron Chef contest. All the contestants unanimously agreed to let a child win the dessert round, but that aside, I don't know that my pie would have won. There was some tough competition! I will also admit that Lime Meringue Pie is not an earthshattering pie. It's good, on par with any Lemon Meringue Pie, but I would prefer many of the other pies I make. I am, however, very pleased with the visual effect of this one. I deduced that the pie would be yellow unless I did something about it, so I added 1-2 drops of liquid green food coloring. The secret ingredient of the contest was lime, after all, and I didn't want to serve a yellow lime pie.

For me, the combination of that spectral green with the white fluffy merinque evokes visions of mermaids and sea blobs (for more on sea blobs, click here). I toyed with the idea of calling it Sea Blob Pie - both to honor the recent literary accomplishment of our neighbor (also in the Iron Chef competition) and because the pie didn't set very well. I was under time pressure as the hour of our Kitchen Stadium debut neared. As a result, the pie didn't get as much cooling time as it needed. The filling was all oozy. It really needed half a day in the refrigerator prior to slicing. Despite the shortcomings, I would definitely make this pie again if the meringue mood hits and I want something with a touch more zip than lemon. For the recipe, click here. My substitutions are that I used lime juice and lime zest in place of lemon, and I used arrowroot starch instead of cornstarch.

Current Pie Tally: 85