I got the crazy idea to make a summer potpie despite the heat wave we have been having. Who bakes in 90 degree weather? Well, I would if I really wanted to make something. And I really wanted to make a surprise potpie.
I hadn't planned on posting this on the blog, so it was an afterthought to take photos. But, I managed to get just a few to give an idea of a summer potpie.
Basically, the plan was to make seitan nuggets first and fry those and then quickly chop up and fry some vegetables in the cast iron, make a quick and easy biscuit dough, roll it out to a top and bottom layer, put the dough in the smaller cast iron, toss the goodies inside, top it with the dough and stick it in the oven. The dish has many elements and could be relatively messy, but they were also quite simple to do. The basic idea is that you can put anything you like inside the potpie, whatever vegetables are on hand, the key is just making dough and assembling it.
The Goodies inside:
seitan chunks rolled into small nugget size (seitan is wheat gluten and we make it using vital wheat gluten and anything can be added to it to spice it up)
all veggies chopped:
carrots
broccoli
summer squash
king trumpet mushrooms
onions
garlic
herbs chopped:
basil
dill
salt
water
dash of flour (I used coconut flour. The flour is what gives it a gravy-like broth. The coconut flour gives it a yummy sweetness)
The above ingredients were prepared and then tossed into a cast iron with olive oil on medium high. They were browned as I made the dough. Midway through, I added my herbs, salt and a small handful of coconut flour to the veggies and seitan and stirred those up and then just enough water to simmer the everything until it makes just enough of a broth to keep everything moist as it bakes in the pie.
The Dough:
Any biscuit dough recipe can be used. The idea here is to cut the dough ball in half and roll it out to make a top and bottom layer just like a pie. I made my dough just by tossing in ingredients until I thought the consistency was right, but I'll do my best to give the basic idea.
1-2 c of flour (any kind can be used. I've used white, corn, coconut flours with excellent success. The amount of flour depends on how big of a baking dish you use)
salt
5-6 Tbsp vegetable shortening
1/2 - 1 c water
Mix up the salt in the flour. Chop in the vegetable shortening with two knives to mix the the flour and shortening. Add the 1/2 cup of water (or more if you used more flour) a little at a time and continue chopping in with the knives. Eventually you can use your hands to knead the dough. Cut dough ball in half and roll out pieces using a little extra flour to keep it from sticking.
The Potpie:
Once the dough is rolled and the veggies have had a chance to stew for a little bit, it's time to assemble. I had turned on the oven to 400 degrees around the time I had started to fry up the veggies. I placed the small cast iron on the stove top burner while it was still on and laid the bottom layer of dough in the pan. The dough began to puff just a little and then I put in the stewed seitan and veggies.
The rolled out dough for the top of the pie was then placed on top of the ingredients. Don't worry about making the dough fit perfect for the bottom and the top. You can just smoosh the dough together a little around the edge of the cast iron and as it bakes it will seal.
Poke some holes using a fork to allow steam to escape as it bakes.
Place the pie in the 400 degree heated oven and bake for 30-45 minutes or until top of dough is golden brown.
Once the pie has baked it is time to assemble the meal!
The Meal:
The pot pie was carefully cut in quarters and plated, a salad of cabbage, radicchio, olive oil, lemon and salt had been chilling in the fridge, and was paired with olives, purple radish, and a bottle of 2006 Super Tuscan from Picchetti winery. It really wasn't as complicated as it could have been and was so worth it even with the heat outside!
This meal turned out so delicious that I have now made it many nights and created numerous variations. In the most recent version I added to the dough, black beans, strips of summer squash flowers, basil and dill. So yummy!
Enjoy!
And just for fun, I had posted a picture of a monster of a radish on Instagram that I had pulled from the garden.
Now, I had sown seeds of watermelon radish and this radish is purple through and through and humongous and is so not a watermelon radish. Obviously a rogue seed of some other radish variety hopped on board with my packet of radish seeds and ended up in my radish bed. Unfortunately, we have some garden pests that don't allow us to grow good looking radishes. I love radishes and so it's hard for me to let it go and not grow them. I decided that this radish, despite it's size, looked relatively good even though I didn't choose to grow it. I lovingly took it home and washed it clean and cut it up. Not bad! Nice and juicy and crisp and spicy. Lovely color and we have been eating it for days, slicing off a round and dicing it into pieces. I'll be sad to see it go...
Thanks for hopping on board rogue radish seed!
No comments:
Post a Comment