Category: Food & Wine

I do actually have some knitting to report, but will leave that to the next post. This one’s all about pie. Beef Pot Pie, to be specific. We had a chuck roast that we braised earlier this week, and there was quite a bit left, so I made pie out of it last night. It is a terrific way to use up leftover beef, though it is a bit labor intensive and takes a while to do it properly.  Like my chicken pie, you can do shortcuts and use precooked or frozen veggies instead of starting with fresh, and I suppose you could find pre-made beef gravy in the store. I guarantee that it will NOT taste like this, though. Get somebody to help you as a sous chef, or at the very least as a scullery assistant washing pots and pans. John promised that if I would make this, he would wash dishes. Since I love to cook, but hate the clean up, and he promised me a martini, I was in.

“Will Cook For Martinis”, that should be my motto.

Here it is. It’s a long winded, rather disjointed recipe, so read to the end before you start. It’s also pretty free-form. You can add whatever veggies you like, or whatever you think goes together. It’s basically in four parts: the leftover beef, the starchy veggies, the aromatics (onions and seasonings), and the gravy. OK, five, if you count the pie crust.

Lorette’s Beef Pot Pie

Ingredients:

I bake the pie in a medium size shallow saute pan, it’s about 10 inches across and 3 inches deep. A pie plate is too small. Basically you need something big enough to hold everything, but not so deep a pot that the crust doesn’t ever brown. You can use a deep dish pie pan, but the amount here probably won’t fit.

Leftover Roast Beef, I probably used about 2-3 cups, cut or torn up into eating pieces

The veggie amounts are very approximate. Use what you have, use what you like. I usually get out the pan I’m going to bake this in and start cutting up the veggies right into the pan to estimate how much I need.

Potatoes, peeled and cubed, about 1 1/2 cups

Carrots, cut up, about 1 1/2 cups

Parsnip, about the same amount

Turnips, about the same amount

Rutabagas would be good, maybe corn, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans. Use your judgement, for things like beans or cauliflower, you might just steam them lightly before adding.

I generally cut the veggies into pieces about the same size, so they all cook the same, but make them as big or as little as you like.

Peas, about a cup, I used frozen. Run warm water over them in a strainer to thaw them. I don’t bother to cook them.

Onions of some sort. You can use chopped yellow onions, but I used frozen pearl onions for this, about 1 1/2 cups.

Celery, two or three stalks, diced

Mushrooms. I used crimini mushrooms, probably about 2 cups once they were broken up. I cleaned them, then broke them up into halves or quarters with my hands. You can cut them, but I like the texture you get when you break them manually.

I forgot garlic this time, but you can chop some garlic and add as well. I would add it to the mushrooms when you add the anchovies (see later)

Bacon, 3 thick slices

Anchovies from a can, 2-3 little anchovies, very finely chopped.

Salt

Pepper

Dried herbs, I used Herbes de Provence, a healthy teaspoon. You could use dried thyme instead.

Parsley, fresh, chopped, about 1/2 cup.

Flour, 3 tablespoons, about. I eyeball this kind of thing.

Fat, 3 tablespoons. I used duck fat, since I had it in the fridge, you can use butter instead.

Beef stock, about 3 cups. I used a product that comes as a concentrate in little tubes that you add to water, but you can use a good quality boxed stock. I don’t like canned beef stock, it tastes too weird to me. Obviously if you happen to have homemade beef stock on hand, use that.

One pie crust. Either get the store bought kind or make your own. I made my own this time, using the recipe from the Joy Of Cooking, minus the sugar. Pillsbury’s ready made crusts are quite acceptable, I just didn’t have one and didn’t want to make a special trip for it.

How-To:

Cut up the meat, add it to your “pie pan”

Cut up all your veggies

I pre-cook the carrots, parsnips, turnips and potatoes. I cooked the first three all together in a pot of water just until barely done, then added them to the beef in the baking pan. I then boiled the potatoes and added them. You can boil them all together, but the potatoes tend to get done faster and turn to mush. Put your veggies in the baking pan with the beef.

If you are using other veggies, use your judgement, but most of them will need some pre-cooking, except for things like frozen peas and corn. The veggies don’t cook much in the baking time.

Fry the bacon in a saute pan, then drain and chop. Add to the baking pan.

In the same saute pan, in the bacon grease, cook the onions. I cooked the frozen pearl onions right out of the bag, just add to the fat and cook slowly until they are nice and brown. Add these to the pie.

In the bacon grease pan, saute the celery and mushrooms, you probably will need to add a little fat, duck fat, butter, or cooking oil. Duck fat is terrific for cooking. I always keep a container of this in the refrigerator. I might die sooner, but hey, it tastes great. Cook until the mushrooms are nice and browned.

Now add those chopped anchovies to the pan with the mushrooms, cook for a minute. If you don’t want to mess with the anchovies, you could just use a little worcestershire sauce to the gravy part, but I love the richness that this gives to the whole thing. Here’s where I would add the garlic, if I hadn’t forgotten it.

Add the mushroom mess to the baking pan with everything else. Now add your seasonings, dried herbs, salt and pepper, and the parsley. Toss in the peas. Stir everything up in the baking pan.

In regards to salt, you might taste whatever beef stock you are using for the gravy before you add salt to the meat and veggies. Especially if you are using canned stock, this can really be a salt bomb.

Now you need gravy. I just basically make a simple brown sauce with a flour roux and beef stock. For about 3 cups of gravy:

Melt 3 T duck fat or butter in a 2-3 quart saucepan (Why, yes, this recipe DOES dirty a lot of dishes, since when is that a problem?)

Stir in 3 T flour, cook over medium heat until it is very nice and brown, sort of the color of pecans. You need to whisk it pretty much constantly, though you can do other things in the kitchen, just keep a close eye on it. If it burns, toss it out and start over.

Once your flour-fat roux is brown, gradually whisk in 3 cups of beef stock. I take it off the heat to do this. Be careful, it tends to sputter a bit. Whisk it well so it doesn’t lump up. Put it back on the heat and cook over medium-high heat until it is thick, like nice Thanksgiving gravy. If it’s not thick enough, add a little cornstarch-water slurry to thicken it. I have found that duck fat roux doesn’t thicken quite as well, not sure why that is.

When you have the gravy thickened, poor it over the rest of the stuff in the baking pan. Mix it all up.

Here’s what it looked like at this point.

Put a pie crust on top, cut some slits in the top for steam. I brush the top of the crust with a bit of egg yolk that I stir up with a fork for a minute, but you don’t necessarily need to do that.

Heat your oven to 375, pop in the pie and bake until done. This takes about 30-40 minutes, start watching it towards the end of the cooking time, you want your crust to be a bit browned and crispy. The ingredients on the inside are already cooked, so it’s mostly to cook your crust and heat everything through. The time will depend a little on your oven, and also how deep your baking dish is.

Enjoy with some crusty bread and a nice glass of red wine!

Or month, year, whatever. I have no illusions that this will become a regular feature here at Chez Knitting Doctor. It’s just that we have made chicken pot pie a couple of times in the last few weeks, and the last time we made it, I uploaded a photo to Facebook, and got a couple of “I want that recipe” comments. Recipe? We don’t use no stinking recipes around here, it’s mostly made up on the spot. I sat down this morning and tried to reconstruct how we made this, and here it is. Read it all the way to the end before you start cooking, since it’s a bit of a stream-of-consciousness kind of recipe.

Lorette’s Chicken Pot Pie

This is done in a deep casserole dish, with a pastry crust on top, so amounts can be approximate. I start with however much leftover chicken I have, and adjust the other ingredient amounts to match. We typically get a roast chicken from Costco, heat it and have it as is for one dinner, then use the leftovers in a pie. This recipe sounds like it has a lot of fidgety parts, but it you have two people in the kitchen working, it doesn’t take that much time to get this ready and in the oven. This will feed at least four hungry people. We had it with a salad and a nice rhonish red wine. Crusty french bread would be terrific with this. You don’t really need another vegetable with this since it’s chock full of veggies by itself.

Cooked chicken, cut up in biggish bite size pieces, about 2-3 cups.
Some kind of onions. I like the frozen pearl onions, but you can use chopped yellow or red onions, or leeks. About a heaping cup of pearl onions is good.
Potatoes, 2-3 medium ones, peeled and cut up into big chunks
Carrots, 2-3 large ones, peeled and cut into chunks
Green peas, about a cup. I use frozen peas and just run them under hot water in a strainer for a minute to thaw them out.
Any other veggies you have around. Leftover cooked green beans, broccoli, etc. This is a good way to use up those slightly marginal veggies you have that aren’t bad enough to toss yet.
Mushrooms are good, sliced or broken up roughly, you can add sliced celery if you wish.
Garlic if you wish, or green garlic in the spring.

I use a large pottery casserole dish for this, and adjust the amounts of the ingredients so it doesn’t quite fill the dish once the sauce is added, you want a little space so it doesn’t bubble over in the oven. If you have less stuff, just make a smaller casserole.

Sauce:

3 tablespoons butter
3 heaping tablespoons flour (I measure all this pretty much by eye, it doesn’t have to be exact)
3-4 cups liquid, depending on how thick you want it. I usually use about half milk, half chicken stock (canned is fine), and a little white wine.
Bay leaf
Herbs: I use herbs de Provence, or mixed thyme, marjoram, whatever I have handy. You can use fresh herbs as well, just chop them up first. About two teaspoons of dried is fine, more if you use fresh.
Parsley, the italian kind, chopped
Salt
Pepper

Store bought pie crust, or you can make your own if you are really ambitious. I just use a top crust, since a bottom crust gets REALLY soggy in this and is way too much trouble.

1 egg

Start by cutting up your chicken, and prepping the veggies, clean and cut them into the right size pieces. The veggies won’t cook much in the pie, so you need to pre-cook most of them. I do them separately so I don’t end up with a bunch of mush, but I do them sequentially in one pot so I don’t have to wash a bunch of kettles at the end. Put the taters in water with a little salt, simmer till they are just done. Drain, set aside, do the same with the carrots. I don’t pre-cook the peas. If you are using other fresh veggies, use your judgement, I’d probably at least lightly steam or simmer most of them.

Cook your onions, put some olive oil in a pan, then the pearl onions, cook until they are nice and golden, shake them around while they are cooking. If you are using regular onions or leeks, just saute them until golden. If you want to add sliced mushrooms or celery, I’d cook them with the onions, or at least in the same saute pan. If you are using garlic, now would be the time to add it to the saute pan.

Toss all of this in the casserole, the chicken, pre-cooked veggies, and the onion mixture. Toss it around gently and set aside.

Make your sauce:

This is basically a white sauce. Put your butter in a saucepan, melt, add the flour and stir with a whisk or wooden spatula. Cook this on medium heat while stirring constantly. It will start really clumpy and gradually smooth out a bit, you want to cook it for just a few minutes and don’t let it get brown. You just want to cook it long enough to get the raw flour taste out of it.

At this point I take it off the heat to add the liquid. Add a little bit of the liquid at a time, whisking briskly to get it mixed in before it makes big lumps. Keep doing this until you’ve got all the liquid mixed in. I usually add most of the liquid, maybe saving some back to adjust the thickness of the sauce as it cooks. Put it back on the heat, turn the heat down to simmer. Add the bay leaf and your herbs, along with a little salt and pepper. Stir mostly constantly while it is thickening up, this will take a few minutes after it comes to a simmer. If it’s too thick, add a little more liquid. If it’s too thin, cook it a little more. If you’ve really screwed up and it’s way too thin, you can add a little cornstarch mixed in water to thicken, but remember that the starch in the potatoes will help thicken things at least a little in the finished pie. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning. You could add a dash of Worcestershire sauce or a pinch of cayenne pepper to kick it up a bit if desired.

Now dump your sauce over the chicken and veggies, you may not need all of it, use your judgement. If you don’t have enough sauce, you can add a little chicken stock right to the casserole and stir. Don’t stir too much or your potatoes will all fall apart.

Take your pie crust out of the package and put on top of the chicken mixture, crimp up the edges so it looks fancy and pie-like. Cut a couple of slits here and there so the steam can escape.

Break the egg in a little dish, whisk it around with a fork a bit, then brush the top of the pie crust with it.

Stick this in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for about 25-35 minutes. I start checking it at about 25, you want it nice and golden brown on top. This doesn’t cut up into wedges like pie, we just serve it using a big spoon, trying to get a nice mix of crust and chicken stuff on each plate. Try not to eat the whole thing at one sitting.

You could make this all ahead and get it in the casserole ready to go. I’d just add the crust at the last minute if I did that so it doesn’t get soggy while it’s waiting.

If you are really lazy, you could use prepackaged mixed frozen veggies, but I generally think they are marginal at best. You should try this at least once with fresh veggies that you’ve prepared yourself, you’ll see that it’s much better. If you don’t want to make a sauce, I suppose you could use some kind of cream of whatever soup, but that stuff is dangerous, lots of salt and fat. This recipe would be easily adaptable to other kinds of leftover meat, if I used beef I’d probably have to experiment a little to get a brown sauce instead of a white sauce. I might work on that one. Hmmm, brown sauce, red wine, basically a beef stew with a pastry lid on it. Now I’m hungry again.

And here’s a photo of the finished pie.

Now, go make your own!

I hope everyone had a terrific Thanksgiving! We had a house full of “happy” on turkey day, with 14 family members and friends around the table (actually 2 tables!). We ended up roasting a 20-pound turkey, along with a biggish ham. Fortunately everybody took plastic bags and boxes of leftovers home so I don’t have to eat turkey for the rest of the winter. The stock is already made from the carcass. I was going to make a big pot of bean soup today with the ham bone, but got way sidetracked, so we’re having something much quicker to cook for supper tonight.

Here’s one of the things I did manage to get done today. Sauerkraut!

I haven’t made this in years. When we lived in Montana, I made it every fall. The last time I made it, we lived in Texas, and it never got cold enough to keep the whole crock from turning into a slimy rotten mess. Then my antique Red Wing crock cracked, and it just never got done again. I happened to discover earlier this fall that Red Wing still sells these things, and sooner than you could say “crackpot”, a new one was on the way to my house. Here’s photographic evidence of the work of the afternoon.

Organic cabbage, from our local CSA farmer. She had a farm sale last week with all the late fall stuff leftover from the season, and John came home with two big bags of cabbage. Yes, the “4” on the crock means that it’s a 4-gallon crock.

Shredding pretty much done. This was about 4-5 cabbages, I lost count. I have two cabbages leftover, but this will have to settle first.

The rock from our garden that will weigh down the plate.

So here are the short instructions. This is actually about as easy as it gets to make. Get your cabbage, take off any yucky leaves off the outside. You don’t even need to wash them. Quarter the cabbages and core them, then slice thinly. Layer it in the crock with kosher salt, stopping to mix it around now and then. The rough estimate is about 3 tablespoons of salt to 5 pounds of cabbage, but you rinse the stuff before you eat it, so it’s not as much as it sounds. When you get the crock close to full, put a plate on top that fits fairly closely, then a cool rock to weigh it down. Cover it with a dishtowel, and Bob’s your uncle. You should stir this up every couple hours until it makes some juice, and you want the salty brine to cover the cabbage by an inch or so. The cabbage will compact down as it settles, so you can add more cabbage in a day or so if you have more. If it doesn’t make enough brine, you can make a brine solution and add it. Once it’s made a little brine, set it someplace cool until it turns into sauerkraut, maybe 4-6 weeks, but I can never wait that long to eat some. It’s like eating half-pickled dills, I never can wait for those either. You probably want it someplace between 50-60 degrees for the wait, so it doesn’t spoil.

John’s point? He asked what the hell we are going to do with 4 gallons of sauerkraut once it’s done. Oh, he of little faith. I come from good Polish-German peasant stock, so this shouldn’t be a problem. This stuff is so much better than store-bought that you wouldn’t believe it. If you’re not as big a fan, Red Wing sells much smaller crocks!

Two nights ago a friend called and said he had a gift for us, and could he stop by. Of course I said yes. Who turns down gifts? A few minutes later he was at our front door, with a huge paper bag full of chanterelle mushrooms that someone had given him. He wanted to know if we wanted them, since he wasn’t sure what to do with them.

A glass of wine later, we had the menu planned, and sent Greg to the market to get pork chops while John and I did a little prep work. Here’s what we came up with.

John cooked the polenta, using Marcella Hazan’s recipe from her Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. This is a great cookbook, by the way. Someday I’d like to cook my way through it, in the style of Julie & Julia. I never seem to get past the first few pasta sauce recipes, though, since they are so perfect.

I sadly neglected to get a photo of the fresh chanterelles, but here’s what they look like.

I cooked the pork chops and mushrooms. After cleaning the mushrooms, I sliced them thickly, then sauteed them in a bit of butter and olive oil until they were just starting to get soft, then added a little white wine and simmered briefly. Meanwhile, the pork chops were cooking, first sauteed, then a little shallot added, then white wine. They braised with the lid on for about 5-6 minutes a side, just until done. Don’t overcook pork chops, by the way. We actually prefer them just a tiny bit pink in the middle. If you cook them all the way through, they get tough and chewy.

The pork chops went into the warming oven, the braising liquid went into the waiting mushrooms, which were then cooked down a little until syrupy.

A little chopped Italian parsley went in at the end.

The whole mess went on plates, with some lightly steamed green beans on the side. We also had a salad with fresh heirloom tomato slices, topped with fresh mozzarella and slivered basil, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

And here’s Lewey, pretty sure we might drop something.

Not bad for last minute made-up cooking!

That was the first finished thing. The other thing that’s finished is this.

Yes, it does look like sort of a wonky blocking job. It’s a baby blanket, for pete’s sake. I just mashed it out and pinned it down. More details will follow in a later post.

Here’s how the grilled pizza turned out. First of all, the review. It was definitely something I’d repeat. It sounds fussy, having to make dough, but if you wanted to cheat a bit, you could buy ready-made pizza dough. The recipe makes enough for six individual pizzas, and we made two and froze the rest of the dough in two-pizza servings. Next time all we’ll have to do is top them and grill. The recipe is from Sunset Magazine.

With a bread machine, this is a snap.

Have I told you about my new bread machine? No? The old bread machine worked just fine, that is, until we bought a gas generator and had it set up. The boys had to put in a new circuit breaker panel to get it going, and in the process of testing it, blew out a bunch of crap in the house. Most of it was just small appliances, and fortunately I’d had the sense to unplug the computers, or they’d be toast, too. There was one near-disaster, with a surge protector in the pantry that nearly started on fire and filled the house with burned plastic smell. That was fun. It left black soot all over the desk in the pantry.

But, I digress. Back to the pizza. I got a new Zojirushi bread machine out of the deal, and that’s it, up there.

Here’s the prep work:

After you finish the dough, you pat it out on oiled parchment paper (waxed paper would work as well). Don’t even think of combining the dough and making one big pizza. It would be a little tricky to manage flipping and turning on the grill that way.

Then you grill the first side, without the toppings.

Take it off the grill, turn it cooked side up, then put the toppings on the already grilled side. We used a local farmer’s goat cheese, a bit of tomato sauce out of a jar*, fresh heirloom tomatoes, thinly sliced sweet onions, and added the basil at the very end.

Put it back on the grill, uncooked side down, and finish. Really, this only takes a few minutes for each side.

Poor another glass of wine, and enjoy.

*We used some really good stuff from Trader Joe’s. I normally make spaghetti sauce from scratch, but this stuff is good in a pinch.

I'd like to wish all of you a very Happy New Year! I''m posting my blackeyed pea recipe early, so those of you who haven't planned ahead can get out there and stock up before the stores close tonight. You absolutely must have BEP's on New Year's Day, or something really bad might happen.*

Lorette's BEP's

1 biggish onion, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped
Celery, about 3/4 cup chopped
1-2 large carrots, chopped
1 Bell pepper, any color will do, chopped
Olive oil
Blackeyed peas, 1 pound bag, picked over and rinsed
1-14 ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained (use the juice if you like it more tomato-ey)
Chicken stock, canned
1 bottle of beer
Splash of worcestershire sauce
Ham hock or ham shank (shank is meatier)
Thyme & oregano, a couple of teaspoons each
Bay leaf
Dijon mustard, a teaspoon or two
Salt and pepper
Cayenne, to taste. I start with about 1/4 teaspoon, and generally add more.

Saute the onion, celery, carrot, and pepper in oil in a big pot. Add the garlic when the other veggies are soft, cook for a minute. Add the rinsed peas, the can of tomatoes, the beer, and enough water or chicken stock to cover by about an inch. I usually use the tomato liquid, too. Throw in the seasonings, except for the salt. Add the ham hock and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook until the peas are done, about 45-60 minutes or so. Add salt to taste towards the end of the cooking time. Keep an eye on it, and add more liquid if needed as the peas cook.

Pick the meat off the ham bone, if there is any, and add it to the peas. Serve with cooked rice.

My promised NY resolutions will be in the next post!

*I have no idea if this is true or not, but I'm not taking any chances.