Beef and Potato Pie

Pie. I know, there is an overwhelming amount of pie in my life. I won't apologize for it. Instead I will bring to your attention how easy it is to make pie crust and fill it with delicious things. Easy peasy guys. And you can fill it with anything! I love doing skillet pies like this in my cast iron skillet. So easy, and cleaning up is easy too!

1-2 lbs meat ( I used a chopped up chuck roast)
1 c beef broth
1 Tbsp corn starch
1-2 medium russet potatoes, sliced
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely diced
1/2 tsp thyme
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
salt and pepper

Season your meat. Add meat to a hot pan and brown. As meat browns add your garlic. Make a slurry of beef broth and cornstarch. Add to the browned beef mixture. Once meat is cooked, remove from pan. Reserve the gravy. Add onion, thyme, mushrooms, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Saute until onions are softened and slightly carmelized. While your onions are cooking take your potato slices and layer in the bottom of a cast iron skillet. Make sure there are no holes, this is essentially the bottom crust of your pie. Once onions are done begin assembling your pie. A layer of meat, onions, gravy, and another tight layer of potatoes, and so on. Three layers should fill your skillet. Cover with your prepared pie crust. Brush your crust with a beaten egg and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour until the pie crust is browned, your meat has finished cooking, and the potatoes are done. Slice up and enjoy.


Beef and garlic

Mushrooms and onion

Bottom layer of potatoes.

Layers

Creamy Lemon Pie

My mother happens to be the BEST pie-maker I know. I have never met anyone else that equals her skill, barring perhaps my grandmother, and my aunt. I don't know what she does, or how she does it, but each pie is somehow this little doorway to a magical taste explosion. I have her recipes, I know the HOW, but somehow I cannot replicate her supremacy in the art of pie making. So, rather than make her recipes second rate I try to find new recipes that I can make my own, and excel at. I originally found this recipe in one of those little magazines you get for two bucks at the checkstand at the grocery store. A few tweaks, and tests later, this is my final version of this recipe. It's super tart and creamy, my neighbor said I should make the crusts all on their own, because it's like crack. :D I hope you like this exceedingly creamy, mouthwateringly delectable pie.

Crust:
12 Graham Crackers, finely crushed
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
5 Tbsp butter, melted

Filling:
2 (14 oz) cans Sweetened Condensed Milk
3 egg yolks
3/4 c fresh lemon juice
1-2 tsp lemon zest


Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Mix together crushed grahams, brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter. Firly press into the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate. Press firmly up the sides of the pie plate as well. Bake for about ten minutes until it's beginning to brown. Remove from oven and cool.

Do not get your filling ready until your pie crust is cooled. You can't put the custard into a hot crust or it will cook the eggs and you'll get scrambled eggs on the bottom of your pie.

Whisk egg yolks until lightened in color. Whisk in Sweetened Condensed Milk. Once these are combined well, add in your lemon juice a little bit at a time. Whisk thoroughly. Add your lemon zest. Gently pour into your cooled pie crust. Tap gently on the countertop to remove any bubbles, then skim off anything that surfaces. Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes, until the edges are set, but the center jiggles slightly. Let cool completely, and then put in the fridge to chill for at least 8 hours. Serve cold. You can serve with a dollop of whipped cream, and/or some fresh fruit.



Crust, baked and cooled.


Everything whisked together.


Finished product. Don't you just want to eat it!?!

Peach Raspberry Pie

Ok... I know, I know... another pie. But this one is a fruit pie. A stone fruit pie. Don't you wanna see it??? Don't you wanna TASTE it? You do. You know you do. Heck, I do too and I'm the one that made it. There is something about eating the perfect peach that just makes my insides happy. It's hard to be angry or upset about anything while sucking the juices of these delicious babies. You'll need pie crust obviously, enough for the top and bottom. If you are afraid of pie crust, get over it. You will enjoy your pie so much more knowing that you did it! And pies aren't supposed to look perfect, so if you have a weirdy piece, just be pleased with it! Without further ado....

Ingredients
2 lbs ripe peaches (I used 5 peaches)
2 c fresh raspberries, well washed and drained
2/3 c granulated sugar (you can use less if you get REALLY sweet peaches)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground coriander
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 egg, beaten, for egg wash
2 tablespoons sugar to top crust before baking

Wash, peel, and slice your peaches. I like to have both thinner and thicker slices, the thinner ones melt into the filling a bit and the thicker ones are still pretty toothsome. In a medium sized bowl combine peaches and berries. Set aside.
In a small bowl combine sugar, spices, flour, and cornstarch. Stir into fruit, make sure all the dry ingredients are wet. Add lemon juice.

Before preheating your oven, place your rack in the center. Cover the bottom rack with aluminum foil or place a large baking sheet on the lower rack. This pie is.... juicy. If you don't do this, you will have burnt peach juice in the bottom of your oven, not good. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Roll out your pie crust. Work fairly quickly, you want the butter to stay cold. Once your crust is in the bottom of your plate go ahead and add the fruit. You can mound it up a bit, but not too much. I have had to remove fruit from pies before, just make sure it's right before you put your top crust on. Put your top crust on, fold your edges over, and perforate with a fork, or slits. If you don't cut some slits your pie will be... explodey. Cover with egg wash, and sprinkle with your reserved sugar. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Turn the oven down to 375 and bake about 45 more minutes. Sometimes it needs a few more minutes, you'll be able to tell when it's done because the crust will be golden brown all over, and the juices are bubbling. Remove from oven and allow to cool a bit before serving. This pie is awesome warm with a bit of vanilla ice cream.


Martha's Pie Crust (courtesy of marthastewart.com )
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 c (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 to 4 Tbsp ice water


In a food processor, pulse flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter; pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few pea-size pieces of butter remaining. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons ice water. Pulse until dough is crumbly but holds together when squeezed (if necessary, add up to 2 tablespoons water, 1 tablespoon at a time). Don't overmix.
Turn dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Fold plastic over dough; press to shape into a 1-inch-thick disk. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour (or up to 3 days).
On a floured piece of parchment paper, roll dough to a 14-inch round with a floured rolling pin. Wrap dough around rolling pin, discarding paper; unroll over a 9-inch pie plate (opposite). Gently fit into bottom and up sides of plate (do not stretch dough).
Using kitchen shears, trim dough to a 1-inch overhang. Fold under itself to form a rim, and press to seal. Using thumb and forefinger, crimp rim of crust. Refrigerate until ready to use, up to 1 day.



Pie crust dry ingred. Make your crusts first, they can be chilling while you finish your prep.

Butter!

Ready to knead, then into the fridge to chill.

Peaches, pitted and ready to be sliced.

Flour, sugar, and spices for the peaches.

Peaches and berries getting their flour bath.

Waiting for filling

Mmmmm looks good huh?

Put your top on.

Prick your holes, add your egg wash and sugar.

Apparently I do not have a picture of the finished pie... so... have a picture of my rhubarb pie... it's almost the same. :D

Sugar Pie

Wait... you've never heard of Sugar Pie? Oh you poor dear. Sugar pie is... well... it's like... holiday love in pie form. It's creamy and spicy and sweet. Do you like Pecan Pie? Then you'll love this. Sugar Pie is basically the gooey sticky yumminess that is Pecan Pie... without the pecans! It's incredibly easy and unbelievable delicious. I will be hurt and offended if you don't try it. Just kidding. But in all seriousness, if you are looking for a new pie to try, or have never made pie before, this is the pie for you. It is incredibly easy and no one will know that it was your first attempt.

Obviously you need to start with a pie crust. I prefer this pie with a tart crust. The crunchy texture marries nicely with the gooey interior. I find that a regular rolled out crust just doesn't add anything. You can use any recipe that you'd like, I will post the one I use but make what you're comfortable with.

We're going to post a little differently today, let me know how you feel about this kind of layout okey dokey?



The crew.

Add your sugars, spices and salt.

Combine well.

Add your eggs.

And milk.

Cook over medium stirring constantly.

Until it looks about like this. Then stir in your butter and vanilla.

Carefully pour into your pie plate. Bake. Cool. Voila!

Ingredients
1 c granulated sugar
1 c brown sugar
4 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves (can be omitted)
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 can evaporated milk plus about two tablespoons regular milk or cream (you're looking for 2 cups of liquid)
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large saucepan, combine the sugars, cornstarch, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Mix well. Add the eggs and yolk and combine well. Gradually stir in the milk until well blended.

Turn the flame onto medium heat and cook ingredients, stirring constantly until the filling is thick and bubbly. This will take between 7 and 10 minutes usually. Be careful not to over cook it will change the texture of your pie.

Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla.

Pour the filling into the pie crust and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Remove from the oven and cool. You can serve this warm (my favorite) or cold. It is delicious both ways.


Tart Crust
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 c (4 Tbsps) very cold or frozen butter in the smallest pieces you can get
1/4 c vegetable oil
1 Tbsp cream cheese
2 Tbsp cold milk

Combine dry ingredients. Add butter and cream cheese. Work together with a pastry cutter, or you fingers until you have multi sized pieces of butter. Work quickly! We want the butter to stay cold! Whisk together your milk and oil. Add to the butter mixture. Combine quickly with a wooden spoon or fork. Your dough will be chunky, and you'll think it's not done... but it is. Pour directly into your pie pan and press firmly into the bottom and up the sides. I usually use a combination of my fingers and a flat bottomed glass.

This can be used for custard and no bake pies, but you will need to bake the crust off first. To do this blind bake at 350 degrees for about ten minutes. Remove and take off your weights and bake another 5 minutes to brown.

Rhubarb Pie

I've been super busy with work, and life in general. So when my friend Mike posted about rhubarb on his facebook I was shocked to realize that the rhubarb season is well under way. My rhubarb plant tends to be a late bloomer, it doesn't get much sunlight, so my Uncle brought me a HUGE BAG of rhubarb this weekend!

Rhubarb is one of my favorite ingredients. It has such a distinctive and different flavor. Tart and slighlty acidic, it almost tastes appley but it is definitely not. Rhubarb needs sugar to counteract the extreme tartness. It can be served as a sauce over ice cream or puddings, made into pies, tarts, puddings, breads, jam & jellies. Strawberries and Rhubarb are traditional flavors to be used together. A bit later I'll post my recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Jam. It's amazing. My jar was gone within a week, the one I left at my parents house was gone within a few days. It's that amazing.

Todays recipe is for PIE! Are you surprised? Yeah... I didn't think you would be. I have an extreme weakness for pie. And bread. And cake. I should probably stop. I'm making myself hungry. This pie is the epitome of rhubarb. I've seen recipes that combine all sorts of stuff to thicken the pie, or add other fruits to blend with the rhubarb. This is a purists rhubarb pie. No berries, no chemical agents, and most importantly, no extremely long wait times or hard to do bits. This is a vintage recipe, enjoy it!

When I made this, I should have made two. I didn't, and was extremely disappointed when the pie plate was empty. This pie can be served warm or cold. If you serve it warm I would highly suggest a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream with it. If you serve it cold just eat it! ;) I probably shouldn't tell you this but... this pie rocks for breakfast. Not that I would know first hand or anything. Wait, what? I don't know what you're talking about. O_o

Onto the recipe!!!

Ingredients:
4 cups chopped rhubarb, keep it kinda chunky it's easier to eat the pie that way
1 1/3 cups white sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.



Combine sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/2 of it over pastry in pie plate.


Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Dot with small pieces of butter.

Cover with top crust, make sure you put some vents in. Not only are they pretty, but they make sure your pie doesn't explode. Brush with milk or egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees, and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold. Remember what I told you about the ice cream. ;)



Sorry for this last pic... I forgot once again to take a picture until the very end.