Vegetables | Life of Pie

Nikki here!

So I decided to make two pies for Savory Week: Steak/Beef Stew Pie and Chile Relleno Pie.

Steak Pie/Beef Stew Pie:

This recipe was originally only steak and onion with a puff pastry top, but I wanted to expand upon it with more vegetables (carrots, turnips, garlic) and an actual pie crust. It also originally called for mushroom gravy, which I replaced with actual mushrooms and beef broth, as well as a few spices such as rosemary and a bay leaf or two. Since the broth made the filling a bit watery, I knew I would need to prebake the pie crust; it was kinda fun to use the bean method (but not really…its not that exciting…); at any rate, I suppose this pie would either require a) more stewing time pre-bake; or b) time in the refrigerator to congeal and be served cold.

I think my experiment went fairly well; it was very tasty and savoury, and the lard crust was well suited to its beefy contents. The meat was a bit tough, so I’m not sure whether it needed to stew more or less (any meat experts out there?)

I topped it off with a goofy attempt at the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows symbol, which I then watched over the weekend and realized that the circle actually goes inside the triangle (whatevs). It all went to the same place anyway 😉

Pie number two: Chile Relleno

I found this recipe online and stuck with it the whole time. It was actually really freakin good; I believed it would be awesome, but a few of my friends were a bit skeptical (also, for all those Williams College people don’t know what Chile Relleno is, it’s a mexican dish made from stuffed, roasted Poblano Peppers, which are not spicy;cheese, and an egg batter. The pie also included precooked chicken and was topped by salsa. The lard crust was fine, and held together fairly well (probably my best crust yet as far as handling and timing goes).

Since it got raving reviews I would absolutely make this pie again, but with a few more peppers, as it is of my opinion that the more the merrier in regards to roasted peppers.

Outside of class, I was inspired to try this Leek and Gruyere cheese pie, which, with a delicious all butter crust, was pretty amazing in all its simplicity. How unfortunate that gruyere is so expensive!

When we were throwing around the idea of ‘an entire Thanksgiving dinner baked into a pie’ in class, I laughed and appreciated the ridiculousness along with the rest of my baking buddies. But something about the idea took root in that part of my brain where thoughts like ‘how awesome would it be to make a giant kit-kat bar’ and ‘I wonder if you can take cats for walks?’ flourish. Or it might have been the fact that I missed the traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, green vegetables, something orange, and pie Thanksgiving while I was away in Turkey. Either way, the idea stuck, and even though no recipe for this existed online yet, I was not going to let that stop me.

First, I had to do a bit of research. That meant looking up every vaguely related recipe to this concept and picking up ideas from them. The first mockup of my internal schema for the grand design for this pie contained a layer of bacon mac & cheese. Upon consultation with my idea guy (read: girlfriend), that part was shot down as the flavor could be too overpowering in relation to the others, it could make the pie soggy, and layers of filling was something to be avoided, if at all possible. Onto Step 2…

I found the perfect approximation of what I wanted for my pie here. Unfortunately, they did not also offer a recipe. So, it was back to the drawing board to create my own. After viewing a few more recipes, I decided on the following concept:

A butter and shortening crust that would include craisins, savory herbs, and a bit of chicken stock baked in.
A filling consisting largely of mashed potatoes, with the other ingredients suspended within. (An excellent recipe can be found here).
Turkey, green beans, and sweet potatoes all simmered in a bit of stock, then mixed into the mashed potatoes.
A crumb-top crust of cornbread stuffing for the upper layer.
A bit of brown gravy to be poured over each slice upon serving.

Basically, doing that worked! The following is a series of pictures I took while baking that idea into life:
*Note: The measurements as well as rough directions are listed in the recipe section of this post.

[The Crust, while it was cooling in the fridge; note the the Cranberries]

[The Mashed Potatoes]

[The Green Beans, Turkey, and Sweet Potatoes stew; note the small bit of thick Gravy]

[The previous two items combined; this will be the Filling]

[Raw Pie with Filling]

[Raw Pie with Filling and Cornbread Stuffing Crumb Coat]

[Freshly Baked Thanksgiving Pie]

[Brown Gravy to Serve with the Pie]

[Cross-Sectional View of the Finished Product]

Reflections: This experiment turned out pretty great, actually! I was a little worried that the crust would be too soggy, especially after a lot of it kept sticking to my utensils as well as the wax paper, but good flakiness was achieved. Next time I try the Vodka Trick, I think I’ll use slightly less liquid, haha. Other than that, another thing I might try differently is to not put in the filling and top crumb coat crust and leave it overnight. Perhaps doing both right before baking it in the oven would have achieved a flakier crust. Either way, it worked out, and the pie tasted delicious!

Life of Pie | THEA 10

Documenting a January of pie-making at Williams College

Tag Archives: Vegetables

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