Monday, January 7, 2008

Pie on my mind

Supposedly, people with lame blogs resort to writing about their dinner. I don't know who thought up that rule, because I like reading about adventures in gastronomy -- and there wouldn't be an entire television channel and a dozen magazines devoted to the subject if others didn't feel as I do.

Today I got a craving to make a pie -- a steamy, savory chicken pie. I thought about it all afternoon -- and then I did it.

I diced up a couple potatoes and a chicken breast, some celery, peas, garlic and onion and then simmered it in chicken stock with pepper and a little dried thyme from the garden. I was afraid that if I just poured the raw ingredients into the pie shell, it would be done long before they were. I thickened the mixture with a little corn starch and water, then spooned it into a pie shell and baked it about 1/2 hour at 400 degrees.

The crust was just browned and the filling not too dry, not too soupy.

7 comments:

StayAtHomeKat said...

the best comfort food of all.... chicken pot pie!

did it have a top to it? too!

Amar Mandair said...

You seem to have really good culinary skills - very admirable.

Janice Thomson said...

I make the vegetarian version- same way mm mm good! :) Do you do most of the cooking?

Eastcoastdweller said...

Kat: Oh yeah, did it ever have a top, a crusty, flaky, exquisitely yummy top.

Empress: When a person loves to eat as much as I do, and the paycheck doesn't allow regular excursions to fancy restaurants, one has to do it oneself!

Janice: Yours sounds delicious, too. What do you substitute fro the chicken? Sweetie and I do go easy on meat, even though I am a hopeless carni-phile.

I tried to go fully vegetarian a little while back, after watching a truck full of terrified chickens blasting up the freeway spewing feathers, but I weakened within a week.

Rebecca said...

mmmmm. I love Chicken Pot Pie, and made some myself a few weeks back. It was delicious, if I do say so myself. I added much of what you did, along with some cream, rosemary, and multi colored (LOVE the purple ones) carrots. Gonna have to do that again :)

Open Grove Claudia said...

Boy that sounds good. I do love a good chicken pot pie. Yummy. I've never thought of making one.... Did you make the crust?

Eastcoastdweller said...

Rebecca: Rosemary would surely have been wonderful in that pie. I have a little bush of it outside -- I should have thought of that.

Claudia: Would You believe, I love to bake but I cannot seem to make a decent pie crust. (I know all about the cold ingredients requirement, BTW). After a few sad failures, I now cheat and go for store-bought.

It's a challenge to find one that's not "partially hydrogenated."