La Grande Orange
2000 Main Street, Santa Monica
We visited La Grande Orange on Sunday @ 12 pm
Dish we will try to cook – Banana Pudding Pie $5.95/slice
Restaurant Visit
To understand the atmosphere of La Grande Orange, all you simply need to do is visit their website and make sure your sound is turned on. You’ll be swept away by the sounds of ocean waves and children’s laughter while being visually stimulated with an orange riding the rollercoaster on Santa Monica Pier and a person rollerblading along the boardwalk. Simply put, La Grande Orange is a quintessential California restaurant. They emphasis fresh, organic and seasonal in all their dishes.
Whether you visit for brunch, lunch or dinner, you’ll probably have a short wait, as LGO is very popular among the locals. It is located on the northern end of Main Street, and one little insider tip, you can park in the neighborhood one block east of Main Street and not have to deal with paying a meter (but be sure to check the posted signs, especially at night).
Many of our readers may not know the story behind our blog, or why we were so excited to see LGO had won the weekly poll. Well, it was while sharing a piece of banana pudding pie one evening at LGO that the entire idea to start WeCanCookThat.com came together. We loved the pie so much that we wanted to go home and see if we could make it ourselves, and now is our chance!
We visited on Mother’s Day afternoon (Amanda’s mother was in town) and sat at one of the white wooden tables with orange plastic chairs that dot the outside patio. Inside, the restaurant has a very modern feel with dark furniture and iconic artwork, such as the word “windy city” painted on a canvas, hanging on the walls. There is a short bar located in one corner with a tv, usually tuned to sports, hanging near by. LGO also has a take-out counter located at the far end of the restaurant (with its own entrance), where you can order fresh baked desserts and entrees.
For lunch, we ordered the classic commuter sandwich (signature breakfast sandwich with scrambled eggs and choice of ham, bacon, turkey or avocado served on their made-in-house English muffin) $6.95, hash brown benedict (served with choice of ham or bacon and ironically with choice of toast) $10.95, and the “daybreaker” (egg white omelette, turkey, tomato, avocado, salsa) $8.95, along with a spicy chai tea latte (it has cayenne pepper sprinkled on top) and fresh squeezed orange juice.
None of the three dishes will disappoint, but the hash brown benedict is the most impressive. The plate uses a bottom layer of extra crispy hash browns to fill in for the English muffin in a traditional egg benedict, and then two poached eggs, thinly sliced ham and one of the best hollandaise sauces on top. The sauce has a light lemon flavoring to it that seems to make the dish taste like spring time. There is also a subtle hint of dill that adds balance.
The commuter sandwich puts a McDonald’s egg mcmuffin to shame, mostly from the made-in-house English muffin. The muffin is slightly larger in size than the traditional and is very light and fluffy, with a sour dough taste and slight chewiness. The bacon was also delicious with a good caramelizing of sugar on the edges. When the plate is set in front of you, it’s a little off putting that the dish is served without a side item of any kind. But by the time you finish the commuter sandwich (especially if you have bacon and avocado on it, as we did), you’re completely full and don’t miss the side item at all.
If you’re looking for something a bit lighter than a hash brown benedict or maybe less carbs than the commuter sandwich, the “daybreaker” is the way to go. The dish is light overall, but has nice flavor from the touch of cilantro sprinkled in. Only suggestion from Amanda’s mother: “I would have added some cheese.”
One thing we didn’t realize until it came time to order dessert, is that the banana pudding pie is only served as part of the dinner menu. So, in turn, LGO just twisted our arm to make us go back for a second visit. While we almost chose their English muffin to make for the blog, we decided for nostalgia’s sake, to make the banana pudding pie that started it all.
This past Friday night we revisited LGO and ended the evening with their delicious banana pudding pie. After one bite, we knew the second trip was well worth the effort. The pie is surprising light and while you can taste the banana it is not overwhelming. Thin sliced bananas are placed on a thick graham cracker crust, followed by a 3-inch-thick layer of pudding. We were surprised that the pudding wasn’t banana flavored, but tasted more like a crème brulee. A dollop of whip cream and drizzle of butterscotch top off the dessert.
Romeo’s favorite dessert is banana cream pie and LGO’s banana pudding pie might just be the best of the best. After having sampled several dishes on their menu, we really think you can’t go wrong with any entrée you choose and if you decide to seal the deal with a piece of pie, you will certainly go home happy.
We also want to point out that LGO offers a wonderful red or white sangria for $5 a glass, and during the am they also serve mimosas and bloody marys for $5.
Shopping
(prices reflect the cost of the package, not the portion we used.) The rest of the ingredients we already had in the kitchen.
Whole Foods-
Bananas, 3 $.92
Graham Crackers $3.99
Cage Free Eggs $2.99
Heavy Whipping Cream, 2 cartons $6.78
Organic Whole Milk $2.19
Unsalted Butter $4.79
Gelatine $1.69
Organic Vanilla Extract $5.99
Recipe
Below is our take on the classic banana pudding pie. While we have no idea exactly how they baked theirs, we looked around online for traditional recipes and combined that with the flavors we tasted in LGO’s, and had fun from there.
Makes 1 pie.
Graham Cracker Crust-
4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter
In a large bowl (or food processor) mix graham cracker crumbs and butter. Transfer mixture to a 10-inch pie dish. Pat mixture to make a smooth, even covering on pie dish, a little under 1/4” thick on bottom and sides. Chill for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Once crust is cool and oven is preheated, place pie dish in oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until crust is set and golden. Set aside to cool.
Pudding-
3 ripe bananas, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch thick slices
3 large egg yolks
2 TBSP cornstarch
1/4 cup cold whole milk
1 tsp powdered gelatin
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 stick unsalted butter, cubed
Pinch of salt
Once crust is cooked and is cooling, start on the filling. In a bowl, whisk in egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Set aside. In a separate large bowl, sprinkle gelatin over 1/4 cup cold milk. Let sit for 5 minutes. Next, in a saucepan, bring cream, vanilla extract and 1 1/4 cups whole milk to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Once at boiling point, remove from heat. Slowly whisk in the egg yolk mixture followed by butter. Return to medium heat and stir until thickened and reaching boiling point, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat, transfer custard to gelatin and milk mixture and stir together. Allow to cool to room temperature. Place sliced bananas on a single layer on top of the cooled graham cracker crust. Next, layer the pudding over the bananas until it reaches the top of the crust. Transfer pie to refrigerator and cool completely, about 1 hour.
Butterscotch Sauce-
2 TBSP unsalted butter
1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar
6 TBSP heavy cream
1/2 TBSP vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium-low heat. As butter is melting, add sugar and mix using wood spoon. Cook for about 3-4 minutes, or until butter and sugar mixture feels like liquid, molten lava and less like sand. Lower heat and using a whisk, add cream and cook for about 10 minutes, whisking every few minutes. Remove from heat, let sauce rest for a minute and transfer to a metallic or glass bowl. Cool to room temperature. Once cooled, whisk in salt and vanilla extract.
Whipped Cream-
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup white granulated sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Using a whisk, handheld mixer, or food processor, whip cream until stiff peaks are about to form. Add vanilla extract and sugar and continue to whip until stiff peaks form.
Plating-
Cut the pie into 8 slices. Place one slice in the middle of a plate, add a dollop of whipped cream, a few slices of banana and drizzle with butterscotch sauce.
Rating- We give our dish 1 out of 5 stars.
Our thoughts- Oh how we entertain ourselves in the We Can Cook That kitchen. Our little heads looked at a round, yellow, graham cracker crust pie and just knew it had to be quite simple to make. How hard could it really be?
Turns out, quite hard! But lets start with the positives. Well, hmmmmm, okay…… We did succeed in making a pie. Yes, that’s it. We made a pie. And it does taste like banana, so we succeeded in making a banana pudding pie. Now, lets ask ourselves how close we came to making an LGO banana pudding pie. I guess you can see our thoughts on that by looking at the rating we gave ourselves.
Now for the actual critique. Our crust is nice and thick, but a bit too thick. And we probably should have baked it at a lower temp for a longer period of time as it is also a little hard. The pudding is probably the most successful part of our dish, yet it isn’t as firm as theirs was. Our bananas are also sliced a little too thin, so therefore there isn’t quite enough banana taste to the pie. But for the real kicker, even after starting over three different times, and nearly ruining a sauce pan, we totally bombed on the butterscotch drizzle. We saw several recipes that used corn syrup, yet we were trying to avoid that ingredient, so we followed a recipe that didn’t use it. Lets just say that our butterscotch sauce is more like chunks of caramel than a nice flowing sauce. The flavoring is actually quite good, but it is a big glob that simply won’t drizzle onto the plate. Be sure to notice the little smear of sauce we put to the side of the slice on the plate, we had the hugest laugh with that one.
We’ve tweaked the recipe posted so that you will be more successful with the dish than we were on our first time around. And we recommend just buying some butterscotch ice cream topping to drizzle on the plate and save your self a headache. Or, just go out to dinner at La Grande Orange and let them do all the work.
How would you rate our recipe? We look forward to hearing feedback from you guys on how you think we might have been more successful. Any one else made homemade butterscotch before and want to share the recipe? Feel free to email us if you have any questions on the baking instructions and don’t forget to vote for next week’s restaurant!
Tags: banana cream pie, Dessert, La Grande Orange
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