Low and Slow reminder; potting the pie

First off I want to remind folks about the Low and Slow blog event between now and October 15th. It’s all about slow cooking at low heat, and we’re giving away a choice of a braise cookbook to the winner (see post for more info). I’m greedy for more slow-cooking recipes so hoping folks have time to participate.

As the weather cools down, I’ve been cooking more and more like this, with low, slow dishes like a pork braise, cuban black beans, a short ribs braise, and even a version of my vegetarian chili for 30 people.

Tonight I went in the comfort food direction again, with a chicken pot pie, although I tried to shortcut the process quite a bit given time limits. I had promised a pot pie to Lisl, but got home from work and realized we barely had any flour or salt! Aren’t emergency market runs a pain?!

For the pot pie mixture, I experimented with combining leeks, carrots, and turnip, as well as reducing the butter and milk and adding a little more white wine. The turnips added an earthiness that was nice, but which I probably won’t repeat. The combination of white wine and thyme also made the dish a little less heavy, but just not as wonderfully “comfort foodish”.

I did not have Lisl to lean on for the pastry, as I usually do, and had be self-sufficient in that department. This might have been the first time I ever used a rolling pin (I’m not completely sure, but we’re talking reasonable odds). Baker, I am not. “You don’t say,” you mutter, “why do I read this blog again?”

Amazingly, while I made the noob mistake of too-thick pastry, it tasted right. Granted that there are only so many ways to destroy flour, butter, salt and baking powder, but I was half expecting to walk headfirst into one of those ways.

All things considered, I don’t think I am going to post tonight’s recipe since the dish was rushed and enjoyable but very improvable. Shocker of shockers, perhaps the classic is the classic for a reason. I’ve done it better in past, even while employing short-cuts, so next time I’ll hopefully have a version that is shareable in detail.