This came out tasting pretty good, considering I didn't have any potatoes on hand. I should probably take a photo of the remaining pie before it gets eaten. I didn't use an egg wash on this because frankly, egg washes are a waste of an egg and I don't like my breads to look dark and shiny when they come out of the oven. This batch made two 16 oz pot pies, at least that's what my guess is. I was able to use one pie crust recipe to cover two 5" round cake tins.
Ingredients
2 c cooked turkey meat, cubed
6 oz half-and-half cream (can also substitute milk)
2 organic carrots, diced
2 organic celery ribs, diced
1/2 c frozen organic peas
1/2 c frozen organic corn kernels
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp each: dried thyme, dried parsley, garlic powder, salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 savory pie crust for a 10" pie (see recipe)
Directions
1. In a small bowl combine salt, freshly ground black pepper, and dried herbs.
2. In a medium pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add carrots and celery. Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until the carrots can be easily pierced with a fork. Add spices and stir to combine. Add milk and flour. Stir while cooking until the flour has mixed in with the milk and vegetables. Remove from heat. Add peas and corn kernels. Mix to distribute ingredients evenly.
3. Cut the dough in half and roll out each half until it is at least five inches across, or just slightly larger than the diameter of your baking tin or ramekin. It's okay if there is excess dough hanging off the rim.
4. Divide the pot pie filling evenly between the two tins (or ramekins). Place the rolled out pie dough on top of the pie tin and use the tines of a fork to make crimping marks on the edge. Use a sharp knife to poke a few slits in the top to let the steam escape.
5. For easier handling, place both tins onto a baking sheet to put in the oven. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes, or until the top crust is lightly browned.
Roasted Pork Sirloin Roast
Seems odd to use "roast" twice in a post title. Anyhow, that's exactly what it is. The cut of meat is called a "pork sirloin roast" and I am roasting it in the oven. I am using winesap apples since they are slightly sweet and somewhat tart, an overall good baking apple, I'm told. I hope I remember all the spices I put in. Hmm, let's see...
Ingredients
One sirloin pork roast (this one was 1.4 pounds)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp each: garlic powder, dried thyme, dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried marjoram (optional)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
pinch of nutmeg
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
kosher salt, to taste
2 tart organic apples, cored and sliced
3 organic carrots, sliced into 1" pieces
Directions
1. In a small bowl, combine salt and spices.
2. Core and quarter the apples. Chop the carrots into 1" pieces.
3. In a dutch oven, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil and brown the sides of the pork roast. Remove roast from pot and set aside.
4. Place the apples and carrots on the bottom of the pot. Then rest the roast on top of the apples and vegetables. Gently cover all sides of the roast with the spice mixture.
5. Cover dutch oven pot and bake for an hour. Internal meat temperature should be 145 degrees F. Remove from oven and let the meat rest for 15 minutes before slicing.
Serve with apple butter or apple sauce.
Ingredients
One sirloin pork roast (this one was 1.4 pounds)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp each: garlic powder, dried thyme, dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried marjoram (optional)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
pinch of nutmeg
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
kosher salt, to taste
2 tart organic apples, cored and sliced
3 organic carrots, sliced into 1" pieces
Directions
1. In a small bowl, combine salt and spices.
2. Core and quarter the apples. Chop the carrots into 1" pieces.
3. In a dutch oven, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil and brown the sides of the pork roast. Remove roast from pot and set aside.
4. Place the apples and carrots on the bottom of the pot. Then rest the roast on top of the apples and vegetables. Gently cover all sides of the roast with the spice mixture.
5. Cover dutch oven pot and bake for an hour. Internal meat temperature should be 145 degrees F. Remove from oven and let the meat rest for 15 minutes before slicing.
Serve with apple butter or apple sauce.
Chestnut Soup
It is good to end a rainy day with a hot bowl of homemade soup. This one turned out really tasty and I only added one leftover to it, baked Japanese sweet potatoes. Tree-grown chestnuts are hard to come by, mostly because the last three seasons haven't been good growing conditions for local chestnut growers. This years' chestnuts from the farmers market were really small. In previous years I'd gotten my chestnuts, fresh and dried, from the Allen Creek Chestnut Farm in Ridgefield, WA.
Steaming chestnuts rather than roasting allowed me to peel the chestnuts easier with less waste. For this soup, half were roasted and the other half were halved then steamed.
Ingredients
2 c. roasted or steamed chestnuts, coarsely chopped
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 carrot, diced
1 celery rib, diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 1/2 Japanese sweet potatoes, cooked and coarsely chopped
1 tbsp dry sherry
1/2 tsp dried marjoram (optional)
kosher salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions
1. In a 3-qt pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, carrots, and celery. Cook vegetables for 25 minutes, or until the onions start to caramelize.
2. Add peeled chestnuts, salt, freshly ground black pepper, marjoram and water. Bring to a boil, then let simmer over low-medium heat for 45 minutes. Mid-way through cooking, add the Japanese sweet potatoes, if using. In the last five minutes of cooking, add the sherry.
3. Remove from heat and use an immersion blender to puree the soup.
4. Serve while hot. Can garnish with fresh cream.
Steaming chestnuts rather than roasting allowed me to peel the chestnuts easier with less waste. For this soup, half were roasted and the other half were halved then steamed.
Ingredients
2 c. roasted or steamed chestnuts, coarsely chopped
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 carrot, diced
1 celery rib, diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 1/2 Japanese sweet potatoes, cooked and coarsely chopped
1 tbsp dry sherry
1/2 tsp dried marjoram (optional)
kosher salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions
1. In a 3-qt pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, carrots, and celery. Cook vegetables for 25 minutes, or until the onions start to caramelize.
2. Add peeled chestnuts, salt, freshly ground black pepper, marjoram and water. Bring to a boil, then let simmer over low-medium heat for 45 minutes. Mid-way through cooking, add the Japanese sweet potatoes, if using. In the last five minutes of cooking, add the sherry.
3. Remove from heat and use an immersion blender to puree the soup.
4. Serve while hot. Can garnish with fresh cream.
Pan de los Muertos Bread Pudding
What to do with leftover bread? Why.. make bread pudding, of course. If it hadn't been shaped so oddly, I might have been able to make French toast out of it too. Because Day of the Dead Bread is a sweetened bread, there is less sugar in this bread pudding than what it traditionally calls for. The first batch just had added raisins, it also used two leftover egg whites plus one leftover egg wash and two whole eggs; the second batch had less bread to work with and used two whole eggs and six ounces of half-and-half cream with raisins and a random tart apple from the fridge.
I suppose I could have taken a picture of it. While bread pudding tastes good, it's just not that sexy to look at.
Ingredients
leftover bread cubes (do not use croutons)
4 large eggs
4 c whole milk (organic or rBST-free)
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 c organic granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 organic tart apple, peeled, cored, and diced (optional)
1 tbsp rum (optional)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
1. Cube the bread. Depending on the size of your leftover loaf, you'll have plenty of bread to fill a 2-quart baking dish. You can nest an 8" x 8" baking dish inside a 9" x 13" baking dish for the water bath; but at the time the square dish was in use by another food item. I used a round baking dish inside a rectangular baking dish and that worked out all right.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, beat together sugar, melted butter, eggs, milk, spices, vanilla, and rum (if using).
3. Put the cubed bread inside the smaller baking dish. Add raisins (and chopped apple). Stir to combine. Make sure that the raisins are not on the top layer on top of the bread, otherwise they will burn to a crisp when the dessert bakes. If you don't have enough custard liquid to submerge the bread, then don't put all the bread in. Pour in the custard liquid. Let this sit for 10 minutes.
4. Bake using a water bath method for 45 minutes, up to an hour, or until the custard has set. At the 45-minute mark, you can test doneness by pressing on the bread with the back of a spoon. If liquid comes to the surface, the custard has not set yet.
5. Remove from oven. Serve warm or cold.
I suppose I could have taken a picture of it. While bread pudding tastes good, it's just not that sexy to look at.
Ingredients
leftover bread cubes (do not use croutons)
4 large eggs
4 c whole milk (organic or rBST-free)
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 c organic granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 organic tart apple, peeled, cored, and diced (optional)
1 tbsp rum (optional)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
1. Cube the bread. Depending on the size of your leftover loaf, you'll have plenty of bread to fill a 2-quart baking dish. You can nest an 8" x 8" baking dish inside a 9" x 13" baking dish for the water bath; but at the time the square dish was in use by another food item. I used a round baking dish inside a rectangular baking dish and that worked out all right.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, beat together sugar, melted butter, eggs, milk, spices, vanilla, and rum (if using).
3. Put the cubed bread inside the smaller baking dish. Add raisins (and chopped apple). Stir to combine. Make sure that the raisins are not on the top layer on top of the bread, otherwise they will burn to a crisp when the dessert bakes. If you don't have enough custard liquid to submerge the bread, then don't put all the bread in. Pour in the custard liquid. Let this sit for 10 minutes.
4. Bake using a water bath method for 45 minutes, up to an hour, or until the custard has set. At the 45-minute mark, you can test doneness by pressing on the bread with the back of a spoon. If liquid comes to the surface, the custard has not set yet.
5. Remove from oven. Serve warm or cold.
Polvorones de Naranja (Orange "Dusts" Cookies)
These cookies aren't quite the same as Mexican wedding cookies and are somewhat more dense in texture. I adapted this recipe from the "Mexico the Beautiful Cookbook", and I must say, 25 minutes is far too long of a cooking time at 400 degrees F for any cookie, which is what the cookbook recommended. Made this for a Halloween/Dia de los Muertos potluck. It's not terribly scary nor is it made to look scary.
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| Orange Tea Cookies |
Ingredients
3 c. all purpose flour
1 c. unsalted butter, chilled and cut into chunks
1/2 c. organic granulated sugar
1/2 c. powdered sugar + more for sprinkling
1/4 c. fresh orange juice
2 large egg yolks
zest from 2 large oranges
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine egg yolks, orange juice, sugar, and zest. On low setting, add flour and unsalted butter. Mix until well combined and there aren't visible chunks of butter.
2. On a lightly floured surface (I used a bit of powdered sugar instead of flour), roll out dough to 3/4" thickness and cut out into 1 1/2" to 2 1/2" rounds.
3. Place cookie rounds on a greased baking sheet, parchment paper, or a Silpat-lined baking sheet. Bake for 7 minutes, or until edges are lightly golden brown.
4. Let cook on a rack before dusting with powdered sugar.
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