Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Turkey pot pie / Stop and smell the Pie Crust

If you cut me, I bleed pie crust.  I don't know how else to say it.  I just love the stuff.  It empowers me.  I wrap everything in it. I find inspiration and Joie de vivre in pie crust.  It makes me happy.  To see how truly goofy I am about the stuff, see my 11/6/09 and 11/8/09 posts.
Turkey pot pie
1 T. oil
1T. butter
1/4 c. flour
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery finely chopped
1 cup of chopped purple cabbage
1 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
1/4 t. poultry seasoning
1 Bay leaf
2 carrots, peeled and chopped.
2 small yellow potatoes, peeleed and chopped
1/4 c. frozen peas.
2 cups shredded turkey dark meat
1 cup of the liquid the carrots and potatoes were cooked in
1 cup of 1/2 and 1/2
A double sided uncooked pie crust

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat oil and butter in a large skillet.  Add onion, celery, salt, pepper and poultry seasoning.  Add a Bay leaf for flavor which you will fish out later.  Cook until everything is soft. Add the flour and combine.  Meanwhile, in a sauce pan, cook the carrots until they are soft but not mushy.  Remove them with a slotted spoon into the skillet and repeat with the potatoes.    

Add the cooked potatoes to the rest and add the peas and the turkey.

Add the vegetable liquid and the 1/2 and 1/2 Cook, turning, until everything is well heated.  The flour and liquid start to thicken into a sauce.  Let it similar briefly.  Remember to find and remove the bay leaf.  This makes a lot of filling, so I use my deep dish pie pans.
Lay the first uncooked crust in a well sprayed pie pan.  Press the crust in place.  Spoon the thickened filling into the pie crust.  Lay the top crust overall.

An interesting thing happened here.  My top crust fell apart.  I've been doing this since before I was a grown up.  For forty years.  Of the things I'm pretty good at, this ranks really high and I messed it up.
Again, the zen of the pie crust.  It is only shortening, salt, flour and water.  What is the worse thing that could happen.  Start over?  Forgive yourself. It doesn't have to be perfect.  Pat it in place and keep going.   Messy pie crust is always better than no pie crust.
Crimp the edges (see November posts).  Cover the crimped edges with foil.  Poke holes in the top and bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly hot.  In this case I brushed the top with an egg white.  I do that with savory pies, but not with sweet.  The result is a different color as it browns.

Remember to be happy.


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