Vegetable Pot Pie and a Changed City

It's been crazy living in New York City for the past week since Hurricane Sandy hit.

Our sense of normalcy has been upended.

I weathered the storm at a friend's house, with full power, incredible food, and lots of crafting. I took a cab home from their house on Tuesday afternoon, and we drove by downed trees, crushed cars and signs warning us to keep out of the parks.

I returned home to a neighborhood that was relatively untouched, other than branches and leaves littering the streets. Restaurants, bars and coffee shops were all open and flooded with people who were unable to get to their jobs in Manhattan.

We ate, laughed, went for long walks and cooked. It felt almost normal at first, almost like a vacation.

But then we turned on the news and saw such wide-spread devastation that didn't fit at all with the reality we were living. We received emails about coworkers who had lost their homes overnight. We volunteered at local high schools housing hundreds of displaced citizens, some of us serving breakfast or working overnight shifts and others providing entertainment to people who so badly needed a break from reality. We saw low-wage workers desperately in need of their paychecks walk across the boroughs to their early morning jobs.

It's days like these when all I want is comfort food.

Like this pot pie. We made a huge batch of pot pie filling and pie crusts on our fourth day off of work because of Hurricane Sandy. We cooked with the TV off, with our phones that had been constantly feeding us updates on the state of our city tucked far away. 

These pot pies are loaded with potatoes, carrots, peas, lima beans, corn and onions, smothered in a homemade gravy, and topped with a savory pie crust. We made eight, baked them until they were almost done in the oven, and then froze them.

The recovery from Hurricane Sandy will not be quick. I worry that when most of us have our lives back to normal, when gas stations once again have gas and subway lines connect us through the boroughs, our efforts to help those who will remain in need for a long time will decrease.

As a school, as a community, as a city, we must keep asking, "How can we help?" 

If you're interested in donating to a local organization doing fantastic work supporting rebuilding  Red Hook, Brooklyn, consider the Red Hook Initiative: rhicenter.org. 

Layered Tomato, Zucchini and Eggplant Pie

It's hard not to be inspired by a beautiful garden.

My parents' garden certainly falls into that category. It towers over our backyard. The produce is fed by nutrients from our compost pile. It's overflowing with just about every fruit and veggie you could want. Heirloom tomatoes hang from tall plants. Green beans form a canopy you can walk under. Potatoes, sunchokes and radishes hide underground, just waiting to be dug up. Tomatillos and choke cherries burst out of their wrappers.

Ever-bearing strawberry plants occupy the back portion of the garden, and they're still in fruit this late in the year. In another corner, butternut squash that popped up all on their own (perhaps from rouge seeds from the compost pile) are thriving. Harvested garlic hangs from the rafters in the basement. You'll just need a bit. It's potent stuff. 

For the better part of the summer, my parents were out in the garden every day, and they almost always came back with a bowl of goodies.

You can't get much more local than this, and I had to get my my hands dirty while I was visiting last weekend. With my parents proudly showing off their hard work, I harvested the tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant in the afternoon while my whole wheat pie crust was chilling in the fridge.

Minimal cooking and seasoning really ensures the integrity of the vegetables is preserved. The eggplant and zucchini are salted to remove some of the moisture, and then the vegetables are layered in the pan. The veggies get a sprinkling of minced garlic, a drizzle of olive oil, and a dash of salt and pepper before heading into the oven.

Eaten warm, with pan-fried walleye (locally caught by dad) and a raw kale salad from the garden prepared by mom, the pie was just perfect. Each bite exploded with freshness. I went back for seconds. Then I had the leftovers for breakfast. It was that good.

This pie is being submitted to Not Eating Out in New York's Seasonal Pie Contest, where New York City bloggers (and bloggers who can make it to the city) are encouraged to make pies using seasonal ingredients and blog about the pies they make. Check out the post for opportunities to win two tickets to the upcoming Let Us Eat Local fundraiser.
 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie with a Pretzel Crust

Remember when I blogged about how Justin's peanut butter cups were maybe the best peanut butter cups ever?

I know. You're probably rolling your eyes right now.

Really Katie, you're saying to yourself. You're blogging about chocolate and peanut butter AGAIN? What about it? 

Well... I just had a Nectar Nugget Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup, and I think I'm in love.

Really?

Yes. Really. And they inspired this delicious dessert that's in my freezer right now.

More chocolate peanut butter? Is that even healthy?

Of course. It's filled with protein. I'm not sure what it is I love about it, but I just can't help myself.

But Katie, the farmers' markets are filled with beautiful fresh fruit right now. This week there were raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, and grapes will be back soon. 

I should be cooking with all of those while I can, I know.

You can have chocolate peanut butter anytime. 

But it's all I want! It's the sweet I crave above all others. 

Another chocolate peanut butter recipe? Is it any different than the COUNTLESS others you've already posted? 

It is! It is! This one has very little chocolate, a huge layer of creamy peanut butter, a crunchy and salty pretzel crust and it's chilled. Perfect for summer.

Ok, ok Katie, I get it, you're saying. Is there a slice for me?

Yes, yes there is. Come over soon and you can have some.

Quick Jam Tart

My roommate accused me of having first world problems.

It all started when I walked out into the living room while he was studying. I started pulling out bowls and ingredients. I'm sure I was noisy.

He asked me what I was making.

"Well, I've got this one leftover pie crust," I began, quite seriously. "And it's about to go bad because I've already had it in the fridge for a few days. I totally forgot to freeze it. I've got to use it today. So I'm baking a jam tart, just so I can use it up. And because I have this extra jar of jam that's just been sitting around waiting to be put to use."

It was at that moment that he told me I had first world problems. You know, those problems that really aren't problems. When it's hard to find a movie you want to watch on Watch Instant on Netflix. When you run out of flour and don't want to walk to the 24 hour grocery store one block away to get it. When the coffee shop you stop at only has regular iced coffee instead of cold-brewed iced coffee. When you don't want to put on your hat (even though it's winter and really cold) because you like the way your hair looks, so you walk around freezing.

Or when you have a leftover pie crust and just have to bake something to use it up.

Yeah, life is tough.

Luckily this tart isn't at all. You pat a pie dough into a tart pan. Yes, you pat it. With your hands. No rolling pin needed. Spread a jar of jam you love on top. Top with more pie crust. Sprinkle with heavy cream and sugar. Bake. Slice. Enjoy.

Best of all, you only dirty one pan, one spoon and a bit of counter. Perfect for those of us who don't have a dishwasher.

Day Nine: Pecan Tassies

If you thought pecan pies were only for Thanksgiving, you are in for a treat. These tassies are pecan pies in miniature. Just as delicious, with a flakier crust and crunchier pecan layer.

I am particularly grateful because we skipped the pecan pie at Thanksgiving this year.

I like my tassies with a thick crust, but if you want a thinner crust, try rolling each ball into a circle before pressing it into the tin. It's more time consuming, but it will yield results closer to typical pecan pie.

These freeze well and are tasty with ice cream.

My Go-to Pie Crust with a Secret Ingredient

Pie crust can so easily go wrong. One week, your favorite recipe yields a flaky, tender pie crust. The next, an overworked, tough crust that distracts from the pie. The crust might crack while rolling out or break apart when transferring to the pie plate.

Cook's Illustrated just wasn't alright with the major variations that crop up when pie crust recipes are made on different days. They set about creating a foolproof pie crust, and, I think, they nailed it.

They use a combination of butter and shortening. Butter has a lower melting point and a higher water content than shortening. Shortening is just the opposite. Shortening provides that great, flaky quality in a crust, but butter contributes rich flavor.

They blend their flour into the fats in two batches. The first batch of flour is blended thoroughly with the fats, creating a fat/flour paste. The rest of the flour is barely pulsed into the fat/flour paste, ensuring that there are still bits of flour that can bind with water to form gluten.

My favorite pie crust recipe calls for a secret, surprising ingredient: vodka. Yes, you read correctly. Traditionally, pie crusts use water (in addition to fats) to bind the flour. Gluten forms as water mixes with flour. Unfortunately, too much gluten makes pie crust tough, and not enough water makes the pie crust impossible to roll out.

That's where the vodka comes in. Vodka is eighty-proof, meaning it's made of 60 percent water and 40 percent alcohol. Gluten has a hard time forming in alcohol. Vodka works perfectly because even though it provides 4 tablespoons of liquid to bind the pie dough, it only contributes 2 1/2 tablespoons water, limiting gluten formation and ensuring the crust stays tender.

This month's issue of Cook's Illustrated had a great Quick Tip for getting that ice water you need for your pie crust. A home cook suggested filling a cocktail shaker with the desired amount of water, adding ice, shaking vigorously, and then pouring the water through the shaker. You get the water you need, sufficiently chilled, and the ice is left behind. If only the issue had arrived before I made this pie dough!

This pie crust rolls out like a charm. Deb from Smitten Kitchen recommends rolling the pie dough out between layers of plastic wrap. This technique made the crust easy to roll out and easy to transfer to the pie plate.

A special thank you to Nancy Jean Home for a delightful feature on my fresh fruit fraisier! Visit Nancy Jean's blog to read the delightful feature, learn about new artists and blogs, and see her beautiful art! You can also visit her Etsy page to see her delightful farms and little bird nest paintings. 

Baked Sunday Mornings: Roasted Peach Pie

I'll be honest. This was not a recipe I wanted to make. At all.

Casey and I had long conversations where I told her how horrible this pie sounded and she told me how much she wanted to make it. She didn't convince me I spent quite some time on google searching for pictures of this pie, just so I could see if it might be tolerable. I couldn't find any. I brought the recipe home to make for my family so that I wouldn't be stuck with the leftovers.

But, that's one of the problems with deciding that you'll bake through a cookbook. To bake through something, you actually have to make ALL the recipes in the cookbook, even the ones that don't include chocolate.

So that meant if I was really baking my way through Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, I couldn't skip my third dessert. I had to make the Peaches 'n Dream pie.

Then I remembered that baking through a cookbook doesn't mean that you have to follow each recipe word for word. Substitutions, improvements and omissions are allowed. That's when I went on a search for peach pie recipes that sounded tasty.

And I found it. Peaches, slow roasted in the oven, slightly caramelized. It wasn't anything huge, but with that small change, I took control over the recipe and made it my own.

With those roasted peaches added to the Baked recipe, I ended up with a pie I actually really enjoyed. I even had two slices with vanilla ice cream.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Blackberry Pie

Baked Sunday Mornings challenged us to bake the Blackberry Pie from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented for this Sunday's challenge.

I've been making a lot of pies lately, so I wanted to make this one different somehow. I thought about making a tiny pie but I didn't have a tiny pie pan. I searched through the "make me" category in my google reader for a little inspiration.

Stef from Desserts for Breakfast provided just the inspiration I needed. She created these gorgeous blueberry rhubarb deep-dish pies. The pies were baked into small springform pans, which allowed for more filling to be piled in. Plus, if Stef considered her pie breakfast food, I figured mine could be too.

Fourth of July recipes have been all over food blogs recently, so I decided to make my own contribution. After rolling out the top pie crust, I took a star cookie cutter and cut out tiny stars. I layered the stars so that the points were overlapping slightly (a Martha Stewart suggestion). A quick egg wash bound them together, and a sprinkling of raw cane sugar added a bit of crunch to the top.

I was worried the tiny stars might burn since the recipe called for an hour baking time, but they browned beautifully. The juices from the blackberries stayed underneath the stars, so they still look clean. I was delighted with the finished look.

I haven't released the pie from the springform pan or cut into it yet, but I plan to soon. I'll update with more pictures after the big reveal.

Visit Baked Sunday Mornings to view the recipe for this pie and to see all the other blackberry pies baked this week! Consider buying the cookbook and baking along with us!

Happiness on a Plate: Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie

Words cannot describe how much I enjoyed this pie. It's the most delicious cross between a warm chocolate chip cookie and a pecan pie (except with walnuts!).

You will not regret making this pie. You probably have all the ingredients to make it in your pantry right now, so you might want to throw that pie crust in the freezer to start cooling.

This belongs on Joy the Baker's list of perfect dishes to make for boys or on a list of best foods for any situation. I think this is a pie that could satisfy any empty stomach, mend relationships or ease heartache (perhaps I exaggerate a little...). 

Bring this little beauty to a picnic in the park. Take it to your child's class party (You will make one teacher very happy!). Slice into it at the end of a fancy dinner party. This pie will fit in no matter where you take it. 

Where do you want to bring this pie?

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie in the Park

I signed up to bake a pie and bring it to a Pie in the Park picnic at Smorgasburg last weekend, but I had trouble determining what type of pie I wanted to make. I kept finding tarts I was interested in (Do tarts count as pie? They're included in the same cookbook sections, but I couldn't be sure.). I considered a Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie, kind of like a big chocolate chip cookie in a pie crust, and a chocolate pecan pie, but it didn't seem like the right season. I was dying to make a Mississippi Mud Pie, but that included ice cream, not the best for an outdoor picnic. I avoided pies that required whipped cream to be just perfect. I searched for that pie that could stand on its own.

Finally, I went to the Union Square Famers' Market on Monday for inspiration. I saw the first blueberries of the season (they still needed some time), last year's cellared apples and honey. Then I rounded the corner. There they were. Beautiful pints of rosy New Jersey strawberries and bright red stalks of rhubarb, just calling out my name.

Strawberry-rhubarb pie. The market determined it for me.

I just needed a recipe. Previous strawberry-rhubarb pies I've made turned out delicious but runny, and the filling didn't really stay together after the first slice was cut. Those pies tended to use cornstarch as a thickener, but I remembered my mom using instant tapioca that came in a bright red box to thicken her fruit pies.

Deb from Smitten Kitchen had come to the same realization that tapioca worked wonders as a thickener. She'd also incorporated brown sugar into the pie filling and used less sugar so the tartness of the rhubarb would stand out. I knew I had found my recipe. Deb never lets me down.

The pie picnic? It was certainly enjoyable. I ate three slices of delicious pies, made by both amature and professional bakers. My favorite was a Nutty Monkey Pie, loaded with toasted walnuts, dark chocolate bits and banana chips (though I could have left those out). Unfortunately, there were A LOT of strawberry-rhubarb pies. I was encouraged to see so many bakers going for the seasonal ingredients, but it meant that my little guy just wasn't the star of the show.

Oh well. The little bite I had of my pie was delicious.

And, Pie in the Park sent us home with these beautiful custom recipe cards.