We like pie

Hi there.

Can you tell me why December is almost halfway over? Where does time go?


How are those holiday baking plans going? You know, the plans: the demanding, over-the-top, "I will show everyone I've ever met exactly how much I love them through baked goods and they will love me forever" rigmarole you promised you wouldn't fall for this year?

Yeah, mine are kicking my ass, too. Why do I spend so much time on marthastewart.com? That perfect life is unachievable, unless your name is Martha Stewart and you've parlayed "the good life" into a career. She's a smart lady.

I'm also a smart lady, but I my life isn't Martha Stewart Living. To honor that distinction, I'm abandoning my plans to make peppermint icicles, a gingerbread cheesecake, caramels, AND a salted peanut brittle, wrapped prettily in home-made paper, with handwritten cards for all....and with only ten days before we fly to Denver. Whew! That felt good. (Raymond and I are going to Kansas and Colorado for Christmas; I'm certain the cheesecake wouldn't make it through airport security. The TSA may view candy icicles as a threat.)

The pressure to make new treats with new recipes involving expensive ingredients and clever packaging--each year--drives me insane! I always push off holiday baking 'till the last minute, with no time for a back-up plan. What a recipe for disaster.

So, instead of foisting another exotic holiday recipe on you today, I offer a recipe for comfort food, made with ingredients you have in your pantry and freezer. Have you tried your hand at turkey pot pies? Forget about Marie Calendar. If you've got an afternoon to an invest and a keen desire to clean your freezer of leftovers, you can make enough pot pies to power through the winter.


To create these pies, Kristen and I borrowed Neighbor Brian's kitchen for an afternoon. (Brian's a hardworking pharmacist who almost never cooks in his immaculate kitchen.) Kristen and I envied his clear counter space. What a good sport! Brian kept us company while we cooked, played some rockin' Beatles tunes, and offered to run to Safeway for soda and wine. We fed him lots of pot pie.

In three hours, Kristen and I baked 12 cupcake-sized turkey pies, a turkey hand pie, and a full-sized turkey pie. We shared the full-sized pie with Brian and our spouses, then divided the rest among ourselves to freeze for later.

I hope you find an afternoon to make these pies. In January, when the peanut brittle and sugar cookies are long gone, it'll be nice to celebrate leftovers and to eat a savory--not sweet--pie.*


Visionary Turkey Pot Pies
makes 12 hand pies or 18 cupcake-sized pies

Filling:

(If you're out of leftover turkey, substitute chicken for pies of equal deliciousness)

• 3 cups cooked turkey, cut into small cubes
• 1 cups celery, chopped
  
• 1 cup cooked carrots, cubed
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1/2 cup green beans, cut into bite-sized pieces
  
• 1 cup cooked onion, chopped
  
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
  
• 3 -4 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2 cups turkey broth
• 1-2 cups turkey gravy (give or take)*

Small note: You can make this filling yourself, but if you enlist a friend to help, one of you can prep filling while the other rolls dough. You'll save a lot of time if you can prepare the dough and filling simultaneously.

Chop your turkey, carrots, celery, onion, and parsley into small, bite-sized pieces. Mix this together into a shallow pan with the frozen corn and the green beans. Toss in some fresh rosemary and a 1/2 tsp. of sea salt, and warm in an oven while you prepare the gravy.

Turkey gravy

(An approximation of Kristen's shoot-from-the-hip, no-measure recipe)

• drippings from a roasted turkey (or 1/4 cup butter)
  
• 2 cups turkey stock, strained
• 4 Tb. flour
• cornstarch (optional)
  
• 1/2 cup Riesling or other white wine
• 1/2 cup cream
• salt or pepper to taste
  

Add drippings (or butter) to a saucepan and warm over medium heat. Quickly whisk in the flour (and, for thicker gravy, 1 tablespoon of cornstarch) making sure there are no bumps or lumps.

When the mixture is smooth and begins to bubble, slowly whisk in the turkey stock and wine. Let the gravy simmer until it thickens, stirring occasionally. Remove the gravy from heat and stir in cream.

Remove the pan of fillings from the oven. Stir in a cup of turkey broth, then a cup of gravy. You may leave the filling like this or stir in up to another two cups of gravy for a "juicier" pie.

Crust:

• 4 cups all-purpose wheat flour
• 1 cups butter or shortening, cold and cut into
  
• 1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 6-8 Tb. cold water

Mix together flour and sea salt in a large bowl. Cut in the butter, using either a pastry cutter or two sharp knives, crossed. Mash the butter into the flours until the pieces are pea-sized. Sprinkle a spoonful of cold water over the dough, then toss everything gently with a fork. Repeat this process, one spoonful of water at a time, until the dough is just moistened.

For hand pies: Divide the dough into 12 equally sized balls. Flatten each ball on a lightly floured surface, and roll the dough from the center to the edges into a 6" diameter circle. To transfer the dough circles to a baking sheet, roll each one gently around the rolling pin, and dust the dough occasionally with flour as you roll. Scoop a 1/2 cup of filling into each dough circle; fold the dough over to make a half-circle pie and pinch the edges together. You can fit 4 - 5 hand pies onto each baking sheet.

For cupcakes: Line two cupcake pans with metal cupcake liners and set aside. On a floured surface, roll out the pastry dough to a 1/4" thickness. Use a biscuit cutter (or coffee mug) to cut out dough circles; you'll need about a 5"-diameter circle for each bottom crust and a slightly smaller round for the top crust. Each cupcake-sized pie holds about 1/3 of a cup of filling. As with the hand pies, make sure all the edges are crimped down.

Bake the pies for 30 - 45 minutes at 350 degrees, rotating the pans/sheets halfway through. Allow the pies to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. Freeze the leftovers in heavy-duty freezer bags after wrapping each pie in plastic wrap.

*Savory, individually sized pies are the rage here in Portland, especially among the city's food carts. In fact, Whiffies Fried Pies deals exclusively in hand pies. My friend, Holly, recently shared an article that claims pie is the new cupcake in food fashion. It's about dang time.

If you liked this post, you might also enjoy:
Gouda mushroom quiche
Maple buttermilk pie
Easy tamale pie