Leek Pie

This recipe comes from The Ploughman's Lunch and the Miser's Feast by Brian Yarvin. Made it for dinner tonight. Came out really good. It's a stick-to-your-ribs sort of meal. I used the leftover crust dough to make odd shapes on top. Uses 1 hot-water crust recipe (see below).

Filling Ingredients

6 leeks, chopped into 1/2" pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 c. heavy cream
1 c. cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten (optional)

Filling Directions

1. In a large skillet, heat oil and fry leeks until they are translucent; about 30 minutes.

2. Remove skillet from heat and combine leeks, cream, cheese, and spices in a large bowl. Mix well.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

4. Using one of the rolled out pie crust rounds, line a pie dish and add the filling. Cover with the second rolled out pie and trim off the edges. Decorate top of pie with excess crust dough cut into shapes. Crimp edge with fork tines. Brush top of pie with an egg wash (1 beaten egg).

5. Bake on the center rack for 40 minutes.

British Hot-Water Pie Crust

This part of the recipe makes two 9" pie crusts. As far as I can ascertain, the "British" part of this pie crust is using beef suet/lard/shortening. American pie crusts, Brian says, typically use ice water and chilled butter.

Crust Ingredients

4 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1/2 c. whole milk
1 c. shortening
1/2 c. water

Crust Directions

1. Sift flour into a large bowl.

2. In a small saucepan, combine milk, water, shortening, and salt. Bring to a boil then immediately add to the flour and mix together.

3. Once the dough comes together easily, divide into two equal portions. Roll out to fit the pie dish. Take care to not overwork the dough. This is a much thicker crust than what you'd use on a fruit pie.

4. Roll out dough to 11 inches wide and 1/8" thick.

Note: If the crust is too dry to roll out, add 1 tbsp of hot water. If the crust is too wet, add 1 tbsp of flour.

Pork Fried Noodles

The best part about tasty leftovers is being able to create a tasty dish that can be enjoyed. We had leftover pork roast and leftover whole wheat spaghetti noodles from two separate meals. You can easily substitute the pork for chicken breast, beef, or shrimp.

Ingredients

cooked spaghetti noodles
1 c. pork roast, sliced or diced
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 c. garlic chives, cut into 1" slices
1 garlic clove, minced

Directions

1. In a large cast iron pan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil and add noodles. Fry over low heat until the noodles have browned. Flip the heap of noodles over so that the other side can brown too.

2. Add garlic, chives, soy sauce, sesame oil, and slices of pork roast. Stir into the noodles until everything is evenly distributed. Don't let the chives brown. When the chives turn a vibrant green color, they are cooked.

3. Serve in bowls or on plates. Enjoy.

Chipotle Quinoa Salad

I seem to have put a little too much of the chipotle powder into this recipe. I intended to give the salad a little kick. Made this for a weekend BBQ. It takes the freshness of late spring produce and kicks it up a notch.

Ingredients

2 1/4 c. organic quinoa
4 1/2 c. water
1/2 tsp salt
1 organic red bell pepper, seeded, pith removed, and diced
1 organic green (or yellow) bell pepper, seeded, pith removed and diced
2 small tomatoes, seeded and diced
2 tbsp lemon juice (or lime juice, if preferred)
1 green onion, minced
1/2 tsp chipotle powder
1/4 tsp paprika
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste (optional)

In a pot, bring salted water to a boil. Add quinoa and it back to a boil. Simmer covered for 15 minutes, or until the quinoa has absorbed all the water. Fluff with a spoon.

At this point, the quinoa is pretty plain and needs a little dressing up.

In a large bowl, mix green and red bell peppers, tomatoes, lemon juice, green onion, chipotle powder, and paprika until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Gradually mix in the cooked quinoa.

Serve immediately or chill.

Homemade Soft Prezels (batch #1)

This recipe seemed easy enough to do. How could it possibly fail after having such rave reviews by FN commenters. There are a few things wrong with it. For starters, the dough is way too soft. Yeah, I know the title of the recipe is soft pretzels but there is soft, and then there is soft and chewy; the latter of which is what we pay a premium for at amusement parks. These taste okay. I made some alterations to the mustard sauce recipe. And, because our weather went from awesome to sux0rz, I used a bread machine to mix and proof the dough. I don't recommend using coarse salt. With the baking soda bath, it tastes salty enough.

Homemade Soft Pretzels, lightly buttered

Ingredients

1 c. whole milk
1 pkg active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
2 tbsp brown sugar, packed
2 1/4 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tbsp unsalted butter, diced
1 tsp fine salt
1/3 c. baking soda + 3 cups warm water
a stick of cold butter (optional)

Directions

1. In a bread machine, add these ingredients in this order: milk, sugar, salt, flour, and yeast. Set the machine on the "dough" cycle. Come back in 1.5 hours.

2. Take the dough out of the bread machine. It'll be sticky, but manageable. Knead it a few times until it is smooth. Using a sharp knife, divide the dough into equal portions. This batch made six pretzels and from the photo, apparently I didn't roll the dough to a long enough rope length.

3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

4. In a shallow baking dish, dissolve baking soda in warm water. Dip each pretzel into the soda water. Take out and set onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

5. Bake pretzels for 10-12 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.

6. Remove pretzels to a rack to cool. Optional step: use a cold stick of butter on the hot pretzels to lightly butter them. Don't add any more coarse salt. They should be good to eat.

Pretzel Dipping Sauce

2 tbsp organic mayonnaise
2 tbsp Plouchman's mustard
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp rice vinegar
splash of smoked chipotle Tabasco sauce

Mix ingredients together in a small bowl. This, btw, makes too much sauce for a mere half dozen pretzels. I'd probably cut the ratio in half again.

Coconut Brown Rice

Saw this at the demo booth at Trader Joe's the other day, except steamed long grain jasmine rice was used. The rice, when made this way, would complement a curry dish pretty well.

Ingredients

1 c. short grain brown rice, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 oz) coconut milk

Directions

In a heatproof bowl, combine coconut milk and brown rice. Stir to distribute liquid and grains of rice. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil. Bake for an hour at 375 degrees F. When the rice is done, fluff with a fork. If the rice looks a little runny, like there is still too much liquid, simply let the rice sit in the oven to cool. The rice will eventually absorb the excess liquid.

Fried Rice

This weekend I am in Chicago visiting relatives and it seemed like a good time to watch some food prep in action. While fried rice is a dish that anyone who knows how challenging leftover rice can be monotonous after a few reheats, fried rice takes some fresh ingredients (eggs, green onions, pork) and accommodates a LOT of leftover rice to make a very satisfying meal that feeds a lot of people. This particular batch made roughly 10 quarts of fried rice, feeding more than 10 adults and children, with plenty leftover. Sure, turning leftovers into more leftovers seems redundant, but fried rice stands on its own really well and can be reheated for lunch or an occasional snack.

Stir the rice to combine evenly while cooking.

Ingredients

2 tbsp vegetable oil

6 large eggs, beaten

1 tbsp soy sauce + up to 1/4 c water

2 bunches green onions, diced

1.5 pounds pork, small dice

Directions

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, heat oil over medium heat and add the beaten eggs, green onions, and pork. Fry until the pork has lost its pinkness and the eggs are almost entirely cooked. 

Add all the leftover rice. Freshly made steamed rice does not work well in a recipe like this. You really need cooked rice made at least a day ahead. Add soy sauce while stirring the rice as it cooks. Really what you are doing in this step is bringing the rice up to the same temperature as the other ingredients. You can add some water to this mix to loosen up the rice, but don't add more than can be evaporated off.

Turn off heat and serve in small rice or soup bowls.