Sunday, October 25, 2009

PIE FIIIIIIIIGHT!

Once again, we here at Saturday Night Fights have fallen victim to technology. Or, more aptly, a lack thereof. Adri forgot to bring her camera over this week, so we'll be reproducing our efforts in MS Paint. Don't laugh, it took us over 9000 hours to do this. The photos we DO have are cell phone photos.

This weeks battle was savory pies. Since I'm forbidden from using organ meets (apricot and kidney pie is very, very tasty) because they gross Adri out, I decided to again consult the internet.

This week's entry would be portabello and tomato pies topped with blue cheese and pecarino.


We used a fairly standard puff pastry recipe. Combine salt and flour in a bowl and cut in half the butter. Add just enough water to make the dough stick together. Use your hands. I did. Cause I still don't have a mixer. Maybe I should try being Amish. Anyway, roll the dough out on a floured surface and spread remaining butter on 2/3 of the dough. Fold so that the unbuttered third is in between the other two, like folding a letter. Roll out, fold, and roll out again to a thickness of about 1/4 inch.


The really important part of the whole thing is to keep the dough cold and well floured. If the butter starts getting runny or the dough is sticking, pop the dough back in the fridge. I cut the dough into about 3" squares.

The topping is easy, just chop the mushrooms and tomatoes. Toss them on the dough then add crumbled blue cheese and shredded peccarino. Fold the dough to make a little basket, because the cheese will melt and run all over everything. Like a lactose lava flow.

I should have made a little egg wash for the crust, but I was too busy eating the filling. Yeah, I'm a fat kid. Life is goooooood.


Adri up. I actually started cooking about 1 in the afternoon, because my filling was Picadillo. These meat pies where ones that my Abuela used to make for us. I've snuck these things into a movie theater. I can't get enough of them. When I make picadillo I never quite make it the same as the recipe calls for, I kinda mix two of them together to get my favorite combination. This time I tried the typically recipe with ground turkey instead of ground beef or the suggested ground beef+ground veal+ground pork.


So as you can see by my wonderful illustration you need meat of choice, a half onion, 2 tomatoes, a half an onion, a half a green pepper, 4 olives with pimentos, a 3 oz jar of capers drained, a half cup of golden raisins (yeah, the golden bit matters to me) which are totally optional, and the spices which are a tablespoon brown sugar, a tablespoon wine vinegar and a bay leaf.

Brown the meat, add veggies and cook for 10 minutes. Then add the rest plus 1/4 cup water and let it cook for no less than 45 minutes, no longer than to dinner time. We let it stew for the next few hours on super low. Honestly, this stuff is better after it's sat in the freezer for a few days, or at least in the fridge overnight.

I should have let this cool a bit, but really it doesn't matter. I rolled out my dough and kinda treated these like you would ravioli. Through some filling down on a strip of dough, then place another on top and press it closed. Cut them apart and onto the cookie sheet and go. In the oven until the dough is good and cooked. Eat them warm, or wait like I do, 'cause I like them cold.


Since we had some leftover dough this morning, we decided that apple turnovers would be good breakfast. Roll out the dough in the same way as the other pies, cut into 3" squares, and top with sliced apples (we used granny smith), brown sugar, cinnamon and a little butter. Wrap the edges to hold in all that wonderful apple-y goodness. The syrup leaked out all over the pan, but I poured it back over the tarts. It was delicious.

1 comment:

  1. I love the pictures! Very cute. I'll vote for the apple turnovers (not that it was a choice).

    ReplyDelete