Vegetable Pot Pie with Cheddar Biscuit Crust

(mise en place)



(after browning)



(the finished product)

I own a copy of The Joy of Cooking. It was given to my by my mother before I started college, and it was the first real cookbook I ever owned. It has traveled with me for many years over many, many miles. That being said, I don't exactly have a cozy relationship with Joy. It looms in my cookbook cabinet like some huge, snowy white tome of arcana that cooking wizards should pour over, and relative novices like myself should approach with caution. Joy is a great reference - I use it all the time to check for substitute ingredients, measurement calculations, and to get a handle on the base version of recipes I'm trying to alter. But I don't pop it open at 5pm on a Thursday night and say "Hmmm, let's pick something to make for dinner."

This recipe is why.

I have to admit, I loved the result. S wasn't very fond of the parsnips, and more than one person has suggested it could benefit from the addition of some meat. But really, I'm a sucker for winter vegetables, as well as biscuits and cheddar cheese, so I thought it was really tasty. On the other hand, I walked into the kitchen to start making this before 6pm and I didn't eat the first bite until 9:30. Really.

If you want to try this recipe out, make sure you plan ahead. Your toil will be rewarded with tender, non-mushy chunks of winter vegetables, just a little bit sweet, and fluffy, cheesy biscuit topping. One note - I'm recording the recipe as I made it, but I'd recommend adding less broth; I thought mine turned out a little watery, though the taste didn't suffer any.

Vegetable Pot Pie
adapted from The Joy of Cooking
(8 servings, total time: ~3.5 hrs)

2 medium red onions
3 medium carrots
3 parsnips
1 fennel bulb
1 butternut squash
1 acorn squash
8 ounces portobello mushrooms
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
3-4 tablespoons unsalted butter
S&P to taste
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
400 degree oven

1. Wash all the vegetables. With a large, sharp knife, peel the squashes, gut them, and cut them into 1-inch chunks. Peeling them will be easier if you cut them into quarters or so first. Put each chopped squash into its own bowl. Peel and chop the parsnips and carrots into 1-inch pieces, and put them in a bowl together. Cut the mushrooms into thick slices and halve crosswise; place them in their own bowl. Cut the onions into thick slices,and place them in their own bowl. Cut the fennel bulb into 1-inch chunks, and place them in their own bowl.

2. Heat about 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and 1/2 tablespoon butter in your biggest frying pan over medium-high. Cook the onion slices until browned, ~3 minutes on each side. Place them in a 9X13-inch baking dish and season with salt and pepper. Add about 1/2 tablespoon more each of the butter and oil, and repeat this process with the carrots and parsnips (5-7 minutes), fennel (5 minutes), and squashes (~6 minutes each). Lastly, add the last of the oil and butter, if needed, turn the heat to high, and cook the mushrooms 5-7 minutes, until brown.

3. Carefully mix all the browned vegetables up in the baking dish, and season as desired. Pour the broth over the vegetables, cover the dish with foil, and bake at 400 for 30-45 minutes, until vegetables are tender when pierced with a sharp knife.

4. While the vegetables are in the oven, make the cheddar biscuit crust recipe. After the vegetables have baked for half an hour or so, spoon the biscuit dough over the vegetables, return the dish to the oven, and bake at 400 for another 20 minutes or so, until the biscuits are browned. Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Cheddar Biscuit Crust
(total time: ~10 minutes)

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teasponn salt
5-6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. Cut in the butter pieces with a knife or pasty cutter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Dump in the milk, pepper, and cheese, and mix the dough with a wooden spoon or spatula until it just comes together.
4. GENTLY knead it a time or two in the bowl to mix in all the loose pieces hanging out on the bottom.

Whew.

Confession

I don't use stock. I know that stock and broth aren't the same, and I KNOW the difference between them, but whenever I read/copy/make a recipe, I just replace the word 'stock' with 'broth'. Bad foodie, bad!

Winter Squash Macaroni & Cheese

(slightly improved pic, I think)

I adapted this recipe from Rachel Ray, and even for her it was fast! I put the whole thing together in 17 minutes. This is a fairly basic stove-top mac and cheese recipe made with a roux that gains a lot, nutritionally and taste-wise, from the addition of creamy, slightly sweet, winter squash puree. I mean, it's still essentially noodles with cheese, which is why it's SO delicious, but it's made with whole grain pasta, skim milk, and lower-fat cheese, not to mention the vitaminy squash. Believe me, it's better than Stouffer's in every way.

Oh, and the wind chill here today was -25 degrees (Fahrenheit!), so creamy, warm mac and cheese was just what I needed.

Winter Squash Macaroni & Cheese
(5 servings, total time: ~20 minutes)

1 pound macaroni, rotini, or what have you
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 onion
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 (10oz) box frozen butternut or winter squash puree
1 scant cup milk
2 cups grated cheddar (this is one baggie of pre-shredded cheese)
S&P to taste

1. Put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta, pop the squash in the microwave to defrost it according to the package, and either grate the onion half, or chop it finely.
2. Cook pasta and drain.
3. While the pasta's cooking, heat the oil and butter in a large skillet or pot over medium heat, add the onion and cook 1-2 minutes, then add the flour and cook, stirring, another 1-2 minutes.
4. Stir in the broth and defrosted squash, heat through, then add the milk and bring to a bubble. (it will probably bubble if you keep it on medium)
5. Stir in the cheese, season, and add to pasta.

Chicken Paprikash

(A bit blurry, but managed to take the photo before eating this time!)

This is a recipe I adapted from Susan Nicholson's "7-day Meal Planner." Paprikash is a Hungarian stew made with sour cream and paprika; this is a simplified version of it. Although this recipe takes a long time to cook, it sits on the stove most of that time, and there's really not much work to it. For some reason the sour cream in mine broke a little, so it didn't turn out as creamy as I expected, but it was still tasty, warm, and full of that sweet-peppery paprika flavor. I used light sour cream, so that may have had something to do with it, or maybe it was just that adding the cold sour cream to the hot stew was too much of a shock. If you have any ideas, let me know!

A warning: unlike most dinners I make, this recipe makes 8 servings; if you don't plan on eating it for more than one meal (we did), I'd cut it in half.

Chicken Paprikash
(8 servings; total time ~1 hour 20 minutes)

2.5-3 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into .5" strips
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups chopped onion
1 chopped large bell pepper (I use green, they're cheapest)
.75 cup carrots, shredded or cut into matchsticks
8 ounces sliced button mushrooms
2 cups chicken broth (it won't seem like enough, but it is)
3 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 cups reduced fat sour cream
S&P to taste

1. Toss the chicken with the flour in a large pot until well coated.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients except the sour cream. Bring to a gentle boil, reduce heat to low-medium-low, cover, and simmer for about an hour.
3. Remove from heat, stir in sour cream, and season to taste. Serve over rice or egg noodles.

Chili with Chocolate

(sorry for the shoddy photo)

Last night after I made up the weekly menu, S and I hit the grocery store, and by the time we returned home we were both more than ready for dinner. I may have even ripped open a box of cookies and eaten one before putting the rest of the food away, but let's not dwell on that, shall we? So I wanted to make one of the quicker recipes from the week's menu, and Chili with Chocolate is what I chose.

This recipe is an amalgamation of several red chili with chocolate recipes I found online, made super convenient by being built on the skeleton of a chili recipe I got from a chili spice-mix packet. The chocolate I chose was a baking bar of Hershey's special dark, which is labeled a "mildly sweet chocolate." Any dark bitter- or semi-sweet chocolate would work, and I'm sure you could also use unsweetened chocolate as well, though the result would be a little different.

A note on spices: except when baking, I don't measure salt and pepper into my recipes, and I rarely even add salt, as ingredients like broth usually salt things plenty for my taste. Your taste may differ, though, so all of my recipes are salt and pepper to taste. When I made this particular recipe, I somehow wound up with nearly all no-salt ingredients, and had to add a few teaspoons myself, but please taste yours first!

Chili with Chocolate
(4 servings, total time: ~20 minutes)

1 pound ground beef
1 small onion
1 jalepeno
1 packet red chili seasoning (not one with 'sodium' as the main ingredient)
1 (15oz) can dark red kidney beans
1 (14oz) can diced tomatoes
2 (8oz) cans tomato sauce (no spices)
~2 ounces bittersweet dark chocolate
S&P to taste

1. In a fairly large pot, brown beef over medium-high heat.
2. While the meat is browning, dice the onion and jalapeno. When the beef is almost fully browned, skim, pour, or spoon out the excess fat from the pan, and add the onion and jalapeno. Continue to cook until beef is done.
3. Add all of the remaining ingredients except chocolate. Thin with a little water, if necessary,
and add S&P to taste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10
minutes.
4. Chop the chocolate into pieces (unless you're using chocolate chips). After 10 minutes is up,
turn off the heat, and stir in chocolate until fully melted and combined.

The result should be a dark, rich, chili that is neither sweet nor too spicy, but definitely unusual. Enjoy!

P.S. I forgot to take any photos of the chili until I had already eaten some, hence the quickly-taken, and not very well set up shot. Oops.

Welcome!

Welcome everyone to the birth of Full/Empty. I created this blog to share my love of cooking and eating with my friends and family. I am a home cook, and a graduate student, so despite my love of the gourmet, I try to focus on recipes that are reasonable - reasonably healthy, cheap, and interesting. I invite your comments!