Have a little priest!

After two months of eating and loving meat pies in New Zealand, I decided to make my own. Mike, Nicole, and Trevor came over to help, so kudos to Mike for fantastic mash, Trevor for owning the crust, and Nicole for having the foresight to bring salad to mitigate the fat/carb/salt bomb that is a meat pie. This recipe is kind of long and involved, but if you buy the crust it's mostly chopping and stirring. If you make the crust there's some additional mixing and rolling involved. Anyway, it's not hard.

I found two recipes that looked like they were along the right lines and mixed & matched. (Yes I know these are Aussie rather than Kiwi. Shut up.)
www.taste.com.au/recipes/11987/basic+meat+pie
http://australianfood.about.com/od/beeflamb/r/AussieMeatPie.htm

I always preferred steak pie to mince, but you can either get a fairly cheap cut of meat and cut it into bite-sized chunks or use ground beef/lamb/pork/turkey/buffalo/whatever. What animal(s) exactly you use are entirely up to you. These recipes all call for a puff-pastry top, but the two little stores near me didn't stock puff pastry and damned if I'm gonna make it myself, so we did the classic mashed potato top instead. Personally I thought it was pretty wonderful, but that might just be all the garlic talking. As always, a little crisped bacon and/or grated cheddar would not be an unwelcome addition to the filling, if you're into that sort of thing.

The result was something along the lines of this:

Pie, salad, sauce.

New Zealand Awesome Meat Pie

Filling:
~1 1/4 lb meat (lamb or beef is good; pork chop was a little dry but shoulder/butt would work)
1 onion
2 carrots
1 stick celery
3 cloves garlic
Other veggies (peas, zucchini, chopped tomato, whatever - also optional)
Bouquet garni - take your pick of herbs, I used thyme, rosemary, and smoked paprika
Worcestershire sauce
splash of cider or red wine vinegar
2 tsp tomato paste
1 1/2 cups broth of your choice
1/2 cup red wine (optional)
Salt &pepper to taste
Cornstarch or flour to thicken

Bottom crust:
Buy frozen shortcrust or google a recipe. I used this one: http://britishfood.about.com/od/recipeindex/r/scpastry.htm

Lid:
Use frozen puff pastry, or:
2 big Idaho potatoes
milk, butter, a dollop of garlic-chive cream cheese
garlic
S&P

1) Cut the meat into small (1cm?) chunks, unless you're using mince. Chop all the veggies into small pieces. Peel your potatoes, cut them into big pieces, and set to boil.

2) Drop the meat in a pot with some oil and brown over high-ish heat. Put the meat to the side in a bowl; leave the oil in the pot. (I'd crisp the bacon here if you're using it the get the juices in the pot, then add it to the filling at the very end.) Add the onions to the same pot and saute on medium til they start to soften. Add the carrots, garlic, tomato paste, and celery. If you're using something like turnips that takes a while add it now; things like zucchini and peas should wait. Saute for a couple of minutes.

3) When the veggies start to soften, add the broth, wine, and a few good shakes of Worcestershire sauce. Stir and scrape up all the good brown stuff stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add you herbs, put the meat back in, stir once, turn the heat down and leave it to simmer. If the liquid gets low, add more broth or water. You want some gravy in this, so it shouldn't be soup but is shouldn't be dry either.

4) Start on the crust, which takes longer than you think. I blind-baked it thus:
 - Preheat your oven to 325.
 - Roll out the dough thinner than you think - it'll double or triple in thickness when it bakes. Use lots of flour to do so.
 - Sprinkle a few breadcrumbs in the bottom of each pie tin (I used over-sized muffin tins for individual-sized pies). Drape a sheet of dough over the pie tin. Push it down, form it to shape, smooth out the sides, and cut off the extra. You now have little pastry cups for the sides and bottom of the pie. Repeat for each tin, rolling out the extra you just cut off to re-use it.
 - Prick the dough a few times with a fork. put a layer of tinfoil in each cup to cover the dough. Fill each foil cup with rice, beans, small stones, pie weights, whatever. Bake for 10 minutes.
 - Take out the foil and weights to expose the dough. Up the temp to 350. Bake another 10-ish minutes until it gets golden.
- Set aside to cool.


5) When the potatoes are fork-tender, drain them and let them sit for a few minutes so all the water evaporates off. Then mash them with lots of salt & pepper (potato absorbs salt like it's its job, so taste as you go and don't wimp out with the shaker), crushed garlic, and the dairy products of your choice. We used a few tbsp butter, a splash of almond milk, and a big dollop of my vegan coconut-based garlic-chive cream cheese, which was really friggin good, but plain milk and normal cream cheese will also do the job, if you can digest the stuff.

6) Taste and season the innards as necessary. I found mine needed a little salt and acid. You could use lemon juice or a touch of vinegar; I stirred in a good squeeze of ketchup, and it did the trick. We're real classy here. This would also be a good moment to stir in any bacon or cheese you're using, probably before adding any extra salt.

7) Take some liquid out of the pot of filling (1/3 cup, maybe?), and mix in a few tbsp of flour or cornstarch, as much as it'll hold. Then stir that glop back into the pot. This is a good moment to add things like chopped zucchini. Simmer 5 minutes more to thicken. Make more slurry if need be - you want thick, gloppy, oozy gravy.

8) Fill the pie tins with filling. Maybe sprinkle some cheese on top or add a slice of tomato. (I didn't.) Cover with a sheet of puff pastry, extra short crust, or a dollop of mashed potato. (We pressed little pie-sized patties of potato together in our palms, then set them on top and added more around the sides as necessary. If you're trying to impress someone you could pipe it on.) Cut an X in the middle of the top if you're using pastry. If you like, brush it with egg to make it shiny.

9) For a potato top, bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes, mostly to heat everything through, then broil for another 3 to get the top a little brown around the edges. For pastry it's more like 20 minutes at 375, until golden. Set aside to cool.

10) Eat with plenty of ketchup and plenty of napkins. Salad is a good idea.

Update, Pi Day 2015: I made this for a Pi(e) Party with 1lb ground beef, 1/2 lb bacon (chop into bits, crisp up in the pan, and use the fat to cook everything else in), mushroom broth, carrots, celery, onion, and peas, (seasoned with thyme, herbs d'Provence, and a bay leaf), and it was phenomenal. Better than the steak pie the actual Aussie made. I win.

"Pizza is always 'was awesome'"

Or so says my dear friend B., and in this case he's right. I'm in cleaning out the pantry mode, seeing as I'm about to leave the country for six months, and pizza dough does wonders for emptying the flour jar. Two of the three incarnations were smashing successes; the third, a cheeseburger stromboli, wasn't half bad but probably not worth repeating. The base in all cases was this recipe from the NY Times, which makes two or three normal-thickness crusts. The recipe says to let it rise an hour or two; if you're foresighted enough let it go in the fridge overnight. Or if not, y'know, don't. Save these for a day when you don't mind having a 500-degree oven going. I've gotta say they're pretty damn awesome.


Sausage Pizza 
Half a batch of dough
One Italian sausage (hot Italian, if you're me)
Half a can of diced tomatoes (the good kind, no sugar or salt or other crap added)
Fennel seeds
Good pecorino romano cheese (Locatelli's best)
Sea salt, pepper, olive oil
 
Bring the dough up to room temperature. Preheat the oven as high as it goes, around 500-550 degrees if you can, with a pizza stone in it if you've got. Roll out the dough as thin as possible. Cover with tomatoes, fennel seeds, the innards of the sausage, cheese, salt and cracked pepper to taste. Next time maybe I'll add some fresh oregano too. Bake it til the crust it golden brown, maybe 20-25 minutes. About 10 minutes in, brush the exposed crust with olive oil. Let it cool a bit before you take a bite; I burned the crap out of the roof of my mouth on this one. Which is a good sign with pizza, I think. The leftovers were fantastic cold the next day for lunch.

Bacon/Onion/Olive Pizza, aka the Umami Bomb
Sort of  a cross between a pissaladiere and a deep-dish pizza. And for the love of god, don't add any extra salt.

The other half batch of dough
The other half can (unsalted!) tomatoes
Half an onion
8 or 10 chopped black olives (good herby ones, not crap from a can)
Chopped fresh sage
4 slices bacon, chopped
Fresh pepper
More romano

Let the dough come to room temperature. Meanwhile, chop the onion and saute it in a cast iron skillet. When it gets soft, set it aside but leave the pan oiled. Give the bacon a minute or two on the heat to crisp the edges but don't cook it through. Set aside.


Preheat the oven to 550. Sprinkle some polenta grains/grits in the skillet to stop the dough sticking (optional, the oil itself will do fine). Roll the dough out to just larger than the skillet and set it in, making sure there's a raised edge. Cover with the tomatoes first, then the other stuff, bacon on top. Bake about 25 minutes, til the crust is golden and the bacon is cooked. I pit the bacon on the bottom and ended up putting it under the broiler to make sure things were cooked through and it got a bit charred, not that that's entirely a bad thing for pizza crust.

I love avocados more than life itself

So here are some things I've been doing with them:

Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich
I got one of these at Pret a Manger in the DC train station a while back, so here's my version. It tastes better on a good buttery baguette, but is far less messy as a wrap. Your call.

Avocado
Finely sliced red onion or shallots
Chopped black olives - for christ sake use the good marinated herby kind, not that crap out of a can
Hummus
Spinach
Tomato slices
Cucumber slices
S&P to taste
A few shakes of cayenne
Drizzle of olive oil

Put all of the above on a baguette or wrap. Bring napkins

Guacamole
I know everybody has their own guacamole recipe. This is mine, and it's really good. If you're a purist who says guac should contain only avocados, lime juice, and salt, then I have nothing to say to you.

Avocados
Garlic, roughly 1 clove per avocado
Cumin - 2 shakes per avocado
Salt
Lime juice - 1tsp per avocado
Cayenne - 1 shake per avocado
Chopped tomatoes.

Slice ripe avocados into a bowl. Add minced or garlic-pressed garlic, salt to taste, lime juice, cayenne, and cumin. Mash well (fork or pastry blender, or food processor if you like it totally smooth, which I don't.) Taste, preferably using a tortilla chip, so you get the context. Add more of whatever it needs, probably lime & salt. Mix in the chopped tomatoes at the end.

Bacon Burgers
I had burgers the other day made with bacon ground into the meat, and they were awesome. I put avocado on top.

Mix two parts ground beef to one part finely chopped raw bacon. Mix in shredded sharp cheddar and a dollop of bbq and/or Worcestershire sauce if you're feeling adventurous. Grill. Admire drippy cheese stalactites. If you're me, top with sliced tomato, mashed avocado, ketchup, bbq sauce, pickle flavored potato chips, and more cheese on seeded rye bread. Drool.

On Toast with Eggs
My favorite breakfast ever. Slow-scramble an egg or two (egg + salt + black pepper + a splash  of water/milk/almond milk/cream; beat; cook over the lowest heat you have the patience for so they're nice and soft, stirring often). Toast some sourdough bread. Find one of those avocados that's about two hours short of being overripe and spreads like butter. Toast + thick layer of said avocado + scrambled eggs + a little more salt & pepper on top. Also good with a few strips of bacon if you're feeling decadent, and/or melted cheddar, salsa, seasoning of your choice. But no embellishment required.


Etc.
And in that same vein, here's a link to bacon guacamole grilled cheese, which I can't believe I didn't think of sooner:  www.closetcooking.com/2012/01/bacon-guacamole-grilled-cheese-sandwich.html

Also I ate camel sausage this past weekend. Check that one off the life list. And thanks to my little sister for a spot-on birthday present.

Sausage & Fennel Casserole

Does it count as a casserole if there's no cream of mushroom soup dumped over the top? I dunno. Sausage & Fennel Braise, perhaps? Maybe I should just call this dish 'baked Italian deliciousness', since that's at least accurate (as long as you like fennel, which I really, really do). Add this to the 'make early and often' category.

In other news, I'm going to start adding photos to my posts, since apparently that's what all the cool kids are doing, plus my new camera has a 'gourmet' setting (whatever the hell that means, other than +$20 on the price point), with a little fork and knife icon. We'll see how this goes.

Now excuse me while I go reheat some baked Italian deliciousness for breakfast.

Sausage & Fennel Whatever
A few links of Italian sausage
1 bulb of fennel, with fronds
1 package frozen artichoke hearts
a few springs of parsley and oregano
1 cup chicken broth
a squirt or two of lemon juice
grated Romano cheese
olive oil
S&P to taste

Drizzle a little olive oil over the bottom of a baking dish.

Roughly chop the fennel. Put it in the baking dish.

Roughly chop the herbs. Sprinkle over the fennel.

Roughly chop the artichokes. Layer over the fennel and herbs.

If your sausages are frozen, cut them into inch-long chunks and distribute on top. Otherwise, try bigger pieces, or just score them down the middle so the juices drip down over the veggies while they cook.

Mix the broth and lemon juice. Pour over the whole mess.

Some breadcrumbs scattered on top might be good here, especially if you're running with the casserole idea.

Bake uncovered at around 375 til the sausage is browned and cooked through. Maybe 40 minutes?

Salt & pepper & Romano to taste. Serve with some good bread.

No-Knead Hungarian Pantry Bread

It's January. (Happy 2012!) I wish I could say it's cold out, but it's not - feels like a warm spring afternoon around here, thanks global warming! - so I've got no real reason to be baking bread other than these: a) it makes the apartment smell good; b) it's cheaper than the good bread from the co-op; and c) oh, right, it's also delicious. Also baking my own bread makes me feel badass. Come to think of it, those are some damn good reasons, so there. My recipe of the moment I'm calling Hungarian Pantry Bread. It has nothing to do with Hungary, other than I got it from my friend Nicole, who got it from her father, who's Hungarian. "Pantry" is because I put in it whatever seeds and things I happen to have in my pantry. I stick to the milder, less-ethnically-affiliated seeds, since I'm aiming for an all-purpose kind of bread, but fennel or cumin or whatever other herbs or spices you've got around would probably be delicious too, if less versatile. Lately the mix has included: Quaker oats, caraway, kalonji (onion) seeds, flax seeds, quinoa, wheat germ, green wheat, sesame, poppy, and some things that look kind of like broken rice grains that my subletters left behind, no idea what they actually are. I use roughly a tablespoon or two of each kind, more of the things I really like (caraway) and less of the ones I'm just trying to use up (mystery grains). It's a long process to make, but most of that is waiting rather than actually doing anything, so I still call it easy. Here goes:

No-Knead Hungarian Pantry Bread

4 1/3 cups flour (I use 1/3 cup buckwheat flour, because I can.)

2 1/4 cups of lukewarm water

1 tablespoon of kosher or coarse salt

1 tablespoon of dry yeast

Seeds

Put everything in a container with a lid. The container should be big enough that there is room for the dough to rise. With a wooden spoon mix the ingredients until just mixed more or less evenly. This should just take a couple of minutes. Don’t knead! You’ll get a kind of ‘rough’ dough.

Let it stand for 2 or 2.5 hrs, with lid on, but not airtight, until the dough rises. Put on lid firmly, and put in fridge.

The next day (or later):

Get a board, sprinkle with corn flour/meal. Take out dough from fridge. Put flour on hands, (can sprinkle a little on the dough), and take the dough out of the plastic container. With your hands, form it into a rough square, and fold each edge under until they sort of meet in the middle underneath.

Put ball of dough on board, sprinkle with a little flour, cover with a light cotton dishtowel, and let it warm up and rise for 2 hrs.

Put dutch oven in oven, heat to 450F.

With serrated bread knife, make 2-3 cuts (about 1/4” deep on top of dough.)

Take hot dutch oven out of oven, put in dough.

Put lid on, put back into oven, and bake for 30 mins.

Take lid off, and continue to bake for another 30 mins.

Take out of the oven, put bread on a board, and let cool. Eat.

How to Cook a Squash

More recipes! These are from this fall, made with whatever winter squash you like - butternut, delicata, buttercup, acorn, et al. Both are easy as pie and uber-classy. Easier than pie, in fact. Unless you buy your crust pre-made, in which case they're about the same. Both are pureed 'creamy' soups; tossing a potato in gives it that nice texture without any actual cream. Or, you know, add some cream. If you're into that.

Squash Soup #1: Leeks, Celery Root, Ginger
1 squash
1 leek
1 celery root/celeriac/whatever the hell you call it
1-inch chunk ginger
1 small-ish potato
broth
s&p to taste
oil

Cut the squash in half, set it cut-side-up in a baking dish, brush with olive oil, and roast at around 400 til soft, maybe an hour and a half or so. Poke it with a fork, when it's nice and soft with brown at the edges it's done. Let cool.

Peel your celeriac. I usually do this with a knife, 'cause it's way too knobbly for a vegetable peeler. Cut it into chunks, then either rough-chop by hand or give it a good whiz in the food processor, depending how strong your arm is/how lazy you are. Needless to say, I use the food processor.

Peel your ginger. Use a spoon to scrape off the skin; way better than a peeler or knife, and way less chance of slicing your finger open. Chop roughly/stick in the food processor with the celeriac.

Chop your leek. Feel free to use the green parts, if you don't mind that they'll turn your soup kind of a funny color. I don't. Put the chopped leek into a big bowl of cold water and swirl it around a little to get out the dirt. Fun fact: leeks float, dirt sinks.

Peel your potato. Chop into small cubes/add to food processor with the rest.

Heat some oil in a pot. Add the veggies & saute til everything gets soft. Scoop out the flesh of the squash and add that, along with the broth. Simmer for 15 minutes or so.

Blend the soup to make it smooth. Three options if you don't want to scald yourself with a scalding blender full of hot soup: 1) use an immersion blender, 2) let the soup cool first, or 3) take that little clear plastic circle out of the top of the blender, and only fill the thing about halfway each time. I bet you can guess which I do.

Put it all back in the pot, season to taste, warm before serving, garnish with (optional) bacon, and blow the pants off any guests. In a good way.


Squash Soup #2: Apple & Sage
1 squash
1 apple
Onions
Garlic
1 smallish potato
Sage
broth
oil
S&P

Roast your squash. (See above.)

Peel, core, & chop your apple. (I use Granny Smith, but whatevs.) Chop the alliums and potato. Saute it all til the apple is soft and the onions are translucent.

Add the squash flesh, the broth, and half the sage. Simmer for a bit.

Blend as above. Don't scald yourself.

Season to taste. Add the other half of the sage, chopped fine. Bacon would go well here to.