I love pot pies and finally went looking for recipes. This one is very basic (and I don’t remember where I got it from, unfortunately, probably one of my out of print cookbooks that have the occasional gem). It doesn’t have the bottom crust, so I may have to figure out how to play with that, but it’s very good even without (and probably works better for my healthier diet without the bottom crust). The recipe says it feeds 6-8, but I fill two 9″ deep dish pie plates or one really deep casserole dish with the filling and think it feeds close to 10-12. The prep takes about 40-50 minutes or so, and that’s probably my only complaint about the whole recipe. And it’s definitely worth the time.

Chicken/Turkey Pot Pie
3 TBL Butter
1 Lg. Onion, chopped*
5 Carrots, sliced
3-4 Celery Stalks, chopped
6 TBL AP Flour
6 c. Chicken or Turkey Stock**
3-4 Potatoes, peeled and diced
4 c. Cooked, Shredded or Chopped Turkey or Chicken
2 TBL Chopped Parsley***
3/4 c. Peas (opt.)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Prepared Pie Crusts: 2 for 9″ deep dish pie plates or 1 for a single deep casserole dish****
1 Egg, beaten

While prepping vegetables, pull out pie crusts and let come to room temp as you work. Melt butter and cook onion until soft and tender. Add celery and carrots; cook about 2 minutes. Stir in flour a little at a time; cook another 2 minutes. Add stock and bring to a simmer. Add potatoes and simmer until tender. While it simmers, roll out pastry and create several slashes to allow the pie to vent (if you wait until you place on top of the pie, the dough will get too soft to cut). Begin preheating oven at 350*. Stir in poultry, parsley, peas, and seasonings; allow to simmer another 5 minutes. Pour into two 9″ deep dish pie plates or a single deep casserole dish; top with crust(s). Brush crust with egg. Place in oven with a cookie sheet underneath to catch any overflow. Bake 25-30 minutes or until crust is golden.

Here’s a slice in the bowl showing off the filling….

The kids LOVE this pot pie, even without the bottom crust.

*I use two small onions, 1 white and 1 red. I love the flavor of red onions, and I think it really adds to the flavor of the pot pie.
**You can use bullion as a replacement, but I much prefer using Chef’s homemade stock.
***I prefer a little more then 2 TBL, and have used dried rather than fresh in a pinch and still gotten decent results.
****I prefer the deep dish pie crusts. They heat up inside and out much better without the crust burning, whereas in the attempt to make sure everything is cooked through on a deeper dish, the crust can get too dark.

Bibimbap is a Korean dish of vegetables and meat over rice with an egg on top. Traditionally, the rice is placed in a heated stone bowl so the rice touching the bowl gets crusty, but I don’t have to correct bowl to do that. The dish is healthy, quite filling, and even my kids liked it, always a plus!

I’ve also included the Tangy Red Pepper Vinaigrette, but most of us found it too hot for us even after reducing the red pepper paste.

This recipe actually combines 3 different recipes I found online and serves 4 nicely.

Bibimbap
Tangy Red Pepper Vinaigrette
2 TBL. Red Pepper Paste
1 TBL. Rice or Cider Vinegar
1 tsp. Honey
1 TBL. Apple Juice or Water
2 tsp. Sesame Oil

Bibimbap
4 TBL. Soy Sauce
1 TBL. (Toasted) Sesame Oil*
4 tsp. Lt. Brown Sugar
1 Clove Garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. Grated Ginger
1 Lb. Boneless Chicken or Steak, sliced**
4 Lg. Eggs
2 c. Cooked Rice
2 c. Sliced Mushrooms***
1 Carrot
1 Yellow Bell Pepper (or bell pepper of your choice)
1 Zucchini
4 c. Baby Spinach
2 c. Shredded Green Cabbage
Oil for frying****

Combine vinaigrette ingredients in small bowl; set aside.

Combine soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, garlic, and ginger in a large bowl. Add meat, stir, and set aside for at least 30 minutes.

While meat marinates, prepare vegetables: cut carrot, bell pepper, and zucchini into thin slices, turned slices on side and cut again so you end up with thin strings of each. Cook rice according to package or rice cooker instructions.

Bibimap mise en place: bell pepper, spinach, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms

Pour 1/2 TBL oil into large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring constantly, until tender and soft; set aside. Add another 1/2 TBL of oil and cook carrots until tender. Continue for bell pepper and zucchini. Add another 1/2 TBL of oil and cook spinach until wilted (doesn’t take very long at all). Repeat with cabbage. When all the vegetables are done, increase heat and add meat. Cook, stirring frequently, until browned on all sides. Heat another skillet, add oil or butter, and cook eggs until whites have set but yolks are still runny (don’t flip).

In bowls, put 1/4 of the rice. Place vegetables over rice, each in its own space along sides. Add meat in a final place on side. You should be able to see all the vegetables and the meat, like a color wheel. Slide an egg over the top. Garnish with the vinaigrette.

To eat, break the yolk and stir the contents together until well mixed.

*I used a premium Sesame Oil that didn’t say it was toasted and it was fine.
**One of the recipes specified Rib-Eye. I used Skirt Steak. Another recipe said you can use ground chicken, turkey, or beef, but I much prefer the sliced meats, so that’s what the directions are for.
***I used buttons, but some recipes say Shitokes and other types can be used. You can also adjust this list of vegetables to include or exclude whatever else you’d like. For example, some recipes call for Cucumber, which I didn’t use. I used the bells to add more color to the dish.
****Most recipes asked for Sesame Oil, but that’s a bit expensive for us, so even though I used it in the marinade, I used Canola for the vegetables and my usual butter for the eggs.

The Chef has this Salsa Tilapia recipe he does that’s just outstanding, and tonight we decided to make ti with a couple of twists and his Cherry-Almond Asparagus. It turned out to be a FANTASTIC dinner.

The salsa is pretty much the same as most any salsa or pico de gallo, only we replaced the tomato with mango and exchanged the yellow/brown onion with red. One of the recipes we looked at also puts in a jalapeño chile for some heat. We chose not to do that. Once we finished the salsa, we took a portion of it and blended it to make a marinade, placed it and the tilapia in a bag and marinated the fish for about an hour. When it was time to cook, the tilapia was placed in a skillet with a small amount of extra-virgin olive oil and browned on both sides. After flipping it, the mango salsa (not the marinade, but the chunky salsa) was placed on top and the whole thing allowed to cook for about 2 or 3 minutes—just enough to warm the salsa without cooking it or getting it mushy.

The fish is served over red rice with some of the salsa on top. Red rice has a beautiful flavor and aroma, but it came out a bit more firm than I’m used to for rice. Maybe we overcook our white rice. It was still very good.

Next to it is asparagus that had been steamed with slivered almonds and dried cherries. This worked out wonderfully. The cherries played off the mangoes and brought the whole plate together. And the colors worked together as well as the flavors. A beautiful dinner. It was a lovely, filling meal that I hope we have again.

I’m actually really impressed with myself this evening. This is the first dinner I’ve put together (other than my holiday meals) that I thought was really rockin’! And the kids, other than the grand baby, really liked it too.

Honey-Roasted Chicken
Tomato-Basil Goat Cheese Polenta
Caramelized Onions
Roasted Mushrooms

Most of these items came from here. Changes noted below.

The chicken quarters were slathered in honey and sprinkled with season salt, paprika, and garlic powder to taste. Baked covered at 425 until the last 10-15 minutes, then uncovered so they would brown. This is how I always do chicken: the meat remains nice and moist because all the moisture is kept in under the cover (we use foil), then it browns nicely in the last 10-15 minutes without losing that moistness.

The polenta followed the recipe as noted in the above link except we added 1 extra garlic clove and the cheese was a tomato-basil goat cheese. We only had 4 ounces of the goat cheese but the flavor still came through in a nice way.

For the caramelized onions, I used 2 brown and a little under half of a red.

Finally, for the mushrooms, we also minced 2 cloves of garlic and mixed that in with the mushrooms, salt, and pepper. We also roasted them a about 5-10 minutes longer. And they came out wonderful.

I plated the polenta first, topped that with onions, then the mushrooms, and with the chicken a little off to the side.

This really was a very satisfying dinner, and everything worked really well together taste-wise. Especially when making sure to get onion, mushroom, and polenta on the fork. The juices from the chicken and the chicken skin itself also really added to the flavor. I’m going to have to try this again, maybe with a little more of the goat cheese mixed in. I think the only thing I’d change is adding a green veggie to the plate, maybe some asparagus or something. The plate definitely needs a little more color. If the chicken hadn’t taken on the reddish color of the paprika, the plate would be nothing but yellow and brown.

I just might be able to make meals for the family that aren’t so boring. I remember before I met Chef, and my meals were pretty plain Jane. Heck, more often than not, I relied on boxed things—Hamburger Helper and the like. This dinner proves I don’t need to do that any more, and that I can play around with recipes successfully.

And that is just way cool.

Mystery box #3: Lamb, apricots, and Swiss chard.

Yea, just a little bit behind here. Was waiting on Chef’s pictures then got distracted with other business. That means a couple of short entries before we get back to the longer version of these entries.

I absolutely LOVE lamb. Unfortunately, the only lamb available at the farmer’s market is frozen, and the lamb at the regular grocery store is pricey. So frozen it was. Unlike frozen vegetables, which weather freezing better than being canned (canned vegetables are just nasty), meat doesn’t retain its flavor or texture very well when frozen. Even the lamb I love becomes so much less than it is in terms of flavor. But it’s still lamb and one of the best meats on the planet.

So, he had to use frozen lamb because of finances. We found a lovely red Swiss chard and chose dried apricots as the farmer’s market didn’t have fresh. Chef didn’t do much with the lamb—broiled it, I believe. He did a wilted Swiss Chard with olive oil, nutmeg, and paprika and made a glaze for the lamb with the apricots.

It was absolutely a wonderful, delicious combination. Just loved it.

One of the things we learned from this plating is that the glaze might have done better on the bottom of the plate. The chard definitely should have gone on top because you can’t see it here at all.

Still, another wonderful success from the Chef.

No recipe play for me this week: we’re short on cash and the Chef will be very busy tomorrow, which is when we actually get some cash and would be able to purchase some food to play with. I’m thinking about trying to do something interesting with the chicken we have, but not sure I have much to work with, so it might end up being a very simple, not so interesting dinner tomorrow night.

Mystery Boxes are also less likely to be regular every week. Chef finally has a job! But it’s at a sport bar and restaurant, which means working nights, and especially means working Fridays. The hope is that he will have one weeknight a week off and we’ll be able to still do the MB’s every week, but we’re not sure that will be the case.

This past Wednesday I was finally back up to playing in the kitchen. For this week: gnocchi. I found a recipe I liked that included Parmesan cheese and I added my own twist of Caramelized Onions and a reduced Balsamic Vinaigrette. Unfortunately, I had to take a look at several other gnocchi recipes as the dough originally came out very loose and sticky. A check revealed that it called for way too little flour: 1/2 cup versus 2 cups in other recipes that used less potatoes. I also chose to boil the potatoes like I would for mashed rather than baking. Not sure if that “shortcut” made a change in the results.

At any rate, I knew the sticky dough was a problem. I’ve eaten gnocchi only once, but I’ve seen it made on Top Chef, so I knew the dough wasn’t supposed to be sticky. It had to be a manageable dough that could be rolled out. I ended up needing all the flour that was missing to get the nice, non-sticky dough seen below.

After splitting the dough into 4 (the recipe suggested 5 pieces, but I think maybe 6 pieces would make it more manageable) pieces. The amount of dough I was working with at one time ended up being a bit much, but I suspect that’s mostly because we use a wooden cutting board to work with our pastry stuff, so I didn’t have the whole length of the table (and because of an accident with the table earlier, I couldn’t use it that way anyway).

Then came the cutting into “little pillows”. Some of them ended up not so pillow shaped and keeping the sizing consistent was a bit difficult, mostly because I had trouble rolling the pieces out to a similar thickness.

We did the boiling in batches, though I think next time I would try to have more in the pot at one time because as we continued to use the water, it seemed to make it take longer for the gnocchi to rise to the surface. Not sure what was going on, but the water was becoming milky, and I’m sure that had something to do with it. But we did little batches and drained on cleaned towels. They didn’t quite keep their shapes as little pillows.

With the gnocchi read to go, I caramelized my onions and set them aside.

We fried the gnocchi in the same pan as the onions. I was kinda hoping it would give the gnocchi a touch of that onion flavor, but I don’t think it did, especially for the later batches.

Grated Parmesan was mixed in with the finished gnocchi and it was served topped with the Caramelized Onions and a reduced Balsamic Vinaigrette. They tasted really good, and all but my potato hater and the Chef loved them. The Chef has determined he’s just not into gnocchi, while I keep saying he just needs to find the right recipe. I found them heavier than the ones I had at Creations, and I’m not sure why. I’m not sure if I’ll try them again since the Chef doesn’t particularly like them, but I might. I’m wondering if they can be frozen and used for bentos. I may have to try that at some point.

The entire meal, shown below, was a honey baked chicken (with paprika, ginger, and a touch of nutmeg), the gnocchi, and broccoli.

I’m not sharing the original recipe. As I said, the flour portions were off, so I’m concerned that the other ingredients were a bit off. I may use it again, now a little wiser on the flour, and play around with the other measurements. We’ll have to see.

We did have a Mystery Box this week that came out wonderfully. As soon as the Chef sends me pictures, I’ll post about it.

Mystery box #3: Shark steak, lemon, and cauliflower.

Again, the sword steak was Chef’s idea, and unfortunately, ended up being the first failure. I don’t think it was Chef’s fault; we just didn’t like the flavor of the fish. He did a cauliflower puree, but it wasn’t as smooth as I expected. I did like the fresh Parmesan cheese he grated over it—the flavor of the cauliflower and cheese worked well together. He served them with roasted asparagus, which I love, but couldn’t eat because the teeth, though worked on, still weren’t up to the task.

And that’s pretty much it. A short entry, I know. Hopefully next week’s mystery box will go much better.

Mystery box #2: lobster, Asian pears, spinach.

The lobster was actually Chef’s idea, but this time it was probably a good idea since lobster tends to be expensive, and we just got our tax return so could afford it. After this week, the meats are probably generally going to have to be fairly inexpensive. He also picked up some dandelion to play with as something different.

I was really impressed with his eagerness to cook despite the fact that it had been a long, stressful, and frustrating day. We had a couple of major shopping trips, his credit card got frozen, we had to take our older male cat in to the vet, it was snowing (and he’s a California boy, so not used to driving in snow), and dinner had to be made quite late. Usually a long day like this frustrates him and he doesn’t want to cook. But last night, he didn’t let it bother him and got into cooking as soon as we got to the point where he could. This is something he needs to learn to do all the time since there will be days on the job when it’s going to be frustrating and long and stressful, and he will need to cook anyway. So I’m proud he managed it last night. Here’s hoping he can start doing it more consistently in the future.

First course: A spinach, dandelion, Asian pear, and feta salad:

This wasn’t as successful as the salad he made for his first Mystery Box. The dandelion is bitter, and I think there was too much used here because the salad came off more bitter than anything: I didn’t taste the spinach at all, and the other ingredients didn’t blend.

For the dinner, he had to prepare the lobsters:

and stuff the mushrooms:

The mushrooms are stuffed with a mix made of cilantro, garlic, spinach, mushroom, lobster, lobster roe, and lime juice. In the future, he’ll add some kind of bread crumb to give it more texture, but it was otherwise a very nice stuffing. The mushrooms did need to be cooked a little longer, but it was overall a wonderful appetizer/side.

The really impressive thing was his final plating:

This looks very high end to me. It probably needs a little tweaking, but this is the first plate he’s done that has truly reminded me of a fine dining or competition plate. The stuffed mushrooms are resting on a spinach leaf. Now Chef said he thinks it needs something. I suggested a sauce in a circle around it and a fellow student suggested some risotto.

This Mystery Box ended up being a mixed bag. The salad wasn’t so successful, and the mushrooms, despite being under cooked and the stuffing needing a little texture, was almost as wonderful as the lobster (can anything be as wonderful as lobster?). The presentation was just beautiful.

Two boxes and he’s already stepping it up. I may have to start giving him less time to think about it sooner than I expected.

Wednesday nights are my cooking nights because the Chef is in class, and for the last few weeks I’ve been playing with polenta. The first polenta we tried was too sweet, but the second one didn’t have much flavor. I think this week we may have found one that’s just about right.

Tonight’s dinner was cheese polenta with garlic topped with roasted honey chicken and a side of apple-pepper “slaw”. I started thinking about it last night and we put it together today. Don’t have specific measurements for some of it, but we’ll give it a shot here.

I started with the boneless chicken, which I cut into 1-2″ strips (can’t see so well in the picture since the Chef deboned chicken leg quarters and they were, um, messy? lol). I added 1/2 a red onion, thinly sliced; 1/2 c. (or more) of honey; salt and pepper to taste; and about 1/2 tsp. of nutmeg. I mixed these and then let it marinate for an hour. The reason for the honey was to add some of the sweetness to the polenta when they’re combined.

Then we (my oldest daughter helped out tonight) prepped the mushrooms: washed them, cut them into 1″ slices, and combined with a little EVOO, salt, and pepper. They were then spread over a cookie sheet. The above is the mushrooms waiting to go into the oven.

Finally we prepped the slaw: 1 green bell and 1 red bell, both very thinly sliced; 1 Rome apple, also very thinly sliced; and some thinly sliced red cabbage. I mixed these in a large bowl with a little lemon juice (to keep the apple from browning). The above is the slaw waiting to be warmed up.

Now we were ready to get dinner together. Oldest started the polenta using this recipe but modified a little bit…very little bit, but a little bit (we also increased the amounts because we have 7 people to feed, lol):

2 garlic cloves, minced (we’ll be increasing this to 3 or 4 next time)
1 c polenta
2 c milk
2 c water
salt to taste
1 c shredded cheese of choice (we used colby-jack, but might try something stronger next time)

Sauté the garlic in a little EVOO until it just starts to turn brown. Whisk garlic, polenta, milk, water, and salt together in saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. After reaching a boil, turn heat to low and let sit with lid cracked for 15 minutes. Mix Parmesean into polenta.

While the polenta is cooking, place mushrooms in oven at 425 for 10-15 minutes. We found 10 to be too short.

In same pan that the garlic was sautéd in, sauté the honey chicken and onions until cooked through. Use a slotted spoon to place in bowl. Now add the “slaw” and sauté for about 5 minutes.

When ready, place some polenta on the plate, cover with some of the mushrooms, top with chicken and onions. Use tongs to add some “slaw” on the side.

I really was surprised how well this came out and at how much the kids liked it. Like I noted, we’re looking at adding more garlic and roasting the mushrooms a bit longer. Other than that, the flavors actually all worked out really well together.

About two weeks ago, in our new quest to try new things, I bought a small package of goat cheese that was on sale. We tried it on crackers and liked it quite a bit. While we were snacking on it, the chef wondered if it would go well with meat, and I told him I’d seen a few rolled meats with cheeses as a part of the “stuffing”, including goat cheese. So last week, we bought a larger amount of cheese, he added dill and cilantro and spread it over pounded down pork tenderloin. The picture doesn’t do the plate, or the food, justice. Because the cheese oozed out while cooking, the chef laced some of that extra over the top of the serving so you can’t see the pretty roll.

The taste was good, though there was a bit too much cheese with the pork, which has a lighter flavor than most meats. We’ve discussed it and will be trying again, but with a different type of meat and probably lighter on the cheese. Hopefully he’ll also not bury the serving under a pile of food. Plating is a very artistic talent, I think, and he needs to practice it a bit more. You don;t hide the most interesting visual of the dish under a pile of other stuff. lol

I’m looking forward to his next attempt.