can you grill a pie?

the question seems a bit silly, doesn’t it? in my last blog entry, i mentioned my quest for the perfect lemon meringue pie. i tried the recipe i got on epicurious.com.

for one thing, i found the recipe a little lacking in direction. it said to roll out the dough but not what to do with the dough before that—no mixing of ingredients or an indication that perhaps i should have gone with the pre-made pie plate in the frozen foods section.

next—and here’s the really fun part—upon pre-heating my oven, i discovered that it was on the fritz. of course. what better time for the oven to crap out than when i’ve got raw pie dough and lemon curd waiting to go?!?

so i had this brilliant idea (and by brilliant, i mean hair-brained). i had just finished grilling two angus steaks for dinner. the grill’s still hot. why not go for it?

first, i grilled the dough in the tin. not too shabby. it came out golden and perhaps a little dry, but not bad for a first try. after cooling, i filled the crust with the lemon curd and topped it off with the beaten egg whites. i popped it onto the grill grates at medium heat (all three burners) and set it for 15 minutes.

et voilà! a third of it was burned. the sides of crust were black and some of the meringue had black highlights like a bad day at the salon.

but, there is a bright side. the lemon curd set and, underneath those villainous blackened edges, the meringue tasted pretty good too.

i think i’m going to try it again. it’s heat, after all. i just have to learn how to tame it. and who knows? maybe i’ve started a new summer trend of grilled pie…or not.