NEW RSS feed! | Tue 10.14.08 |
Beef Pot Pie |
Often when I am introduced by my roommates or friends to new people, it goes along the lines of, "This is Bach. He's the one that cooks a lot," to which the usual response is, "Oh? What's your favorite thing to cook?" I never have a good answer for that and end up stumbling for something to say, usually muttering some empty non-answer like "Oh I like cooking everything." But honestly, I don't know what a good answer to that would be. My favorite thing to cook? I like chopping things. I like roasting. And whisking. So my favorite thing to cook is an emulsification of roasted chopped... ?
I have noticed though, that I do get a bit more excited when doing a nice long braise. There's just so much anticipation involved, as after each step you have to wait between several minutes and several hours before you can proceed: season the meat, wait, brown it, prepare the braising broth, wait, braise the meat, wait, let it cool in the pot, wait, refrigerate, wait, reheat the meat, remove it and reduce the braising liquid, wait, then you can eat it. Another plus is that to make this worth doing, you normally make quite a quantity, ensuring leftovers.
Such was the case a few days ago, where I had been eating a leftover stew of beef shoulder for a couple of meals already. I very rarely make a pot pie -- normally the leftover braised stuff never lasts long enough for me to tire of eating it straight -- but I had just enough leftovers left over for a good-sized pot pie so I decided to give it a go.
As for the pastry, since I was just making one ramekin's worth of pie, there was no need to make a full recipe's worth of pate brisee. Rather than scale it down, I just worked in some butter into some flour and oatmeal, then seasoned with salt, pepper and fresh thyme. Though I'm always anxious making pastry, this unmeasured attempt turned out quite good, a lot better than I should have expected.
Beef Pot Pie
Pastry (for one ramekin. If you're doing a large quantity, make a recipe of pate brisee instead, substituting up to 1/2 cup of flour for 1/2 cup oatmeal):
1/8 c flour
1/8 c oatmeal (rolled oats)
2 tablespoons cold butter
a bit of fresh thyme leaves
a pinch of salt and pepper
Combine everything except the butter together an a bowl. Mix. Cut the butter into small cubes and then work the butter into the flour/oatmeal mixture until you can squeeze it together into a ball. If it's still crumbly, sprinkle ice water a few drops at a time and rework it until it comes together. Try to work it as little as possible. Roll out the dough, top a ramekin of leftover beef stew with the pastry, cut vents, brush with eggwash, and bake at 375 for 15 minutes, until the crust is golden.
Pastry (for one ramekin. If you're doing a large quantity, make a recipe of pate brisee instead, substituting up to 1/2 cup of flour for 1/2 cup oatmeal):
1/8 c flour
1/8 c oatmeal (rolled oats)
2 tablespoons cold butter
a bit of fresh thyme leaves
a pinch of salt and pepper
Combine everything except the butter together an a bowl. Mix. Cut the butter into small cubes and then work the butter into the flour/oatmeal mixture until you can squeeze it together into a ball. If it's still crumbly, sprinkle ice water a few drops at a time and rework it until it comes together. Try to work it as little as possible. Roll out the dough, top a ramekin of leftover beef stew with the pastry, cut vents, brush with eggwash, and bake at 375 for 15 minutes, until the crust is golden.
