Tag: recipes

Super Bowl of Chocolate Chili Con Carne

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A few years ago I read Amy Sutherland’s terrific book Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America. In it, she she follows groups of amateur chefs across the country as they compete in national cooking competitions. Two of the competitions featured in the book are the the big chili cookoffs in Terlingua, Texas: the larger Terlingua International Chili Championship run by the Chili Appreciation Society International, and the smaller, rowdier Original Terlingua International Frank X. Tolbert-Wick Fowler “Behind the Store” Championship Chili Cook-Off.

One day, when I work up the balls and enough chest hair to do so, I would love to fly into Midland and check out the competitions. Sutherland reports them to be macho, testosterone-driven affairs, full of “nudity and carrying-on — like Spring Break only in the high desert.” She is warned by others to not assume that the little old ladies there are grandmotherly (they drink Jägermeister, a lot of it, and will drink you into your grave). People paint their Coleman stoves with images of men “running out from an outhouse with flames shooting out of their behinds.” There are wet tee-shirt contests and lots of trash talk.

Maybe they’ve cleaned up a little bit since Sutherland’s book was published, but I was still about to find these and these on the web without difficulty.

The most important thing to know about chili is that there are rules. Strict, no-funny-business at all, rules.

“In competitive chili,” Sutherland writes, “There is only one bowl of red — meaning cubed meat and absolutely no beans — and you’d better not screw with it.”

Ever since reading about these desert chili-heads, I have been dreaming of coming up with the ultimate recipe for the perfect bowl of red. My recipe is derived from fancy-panted Napa chef Michael Chiarello’s recipe, which means that from the get-go, there is a fair bit of “funny business.”

But it’s effing delicious.

I’ve played with the recipe for several years now and have managed to come up with a version that I adore that also feeds a hungry army of football fans sans légumes.

‘Cause if you know beans about chili, you know chili ain’t got no beans!

Ingredients:

6 pounds of beef chuck or sirloin, cubed

Freshly ground black pepper

Kosher salt

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, plus 2 teaspoons

2 teaspoons of ground cumin, plus 4 teaspoons

4 tablespoons of chili con carne seasoning blend, plus 4 heaping tablespoons

Masa harina

Grape seed oil

8 large red onions, minced

12 cloves of garlic, minced

8 jalapeño peppers, sliced thin with seeds and stems removed

6 ounces of tomato paste

4 teaspoons of dried oregano

1 (12-ounce) bottle of beer (ideally lager)

1 (12-ounce) can of fire roasted diced tomato in juices

2 quarts of chicken stock, divided

4.5 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, chopped

How to prepare:

1. Place the meat in a large bowl. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Add 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of the cumin, and 4 tablespoons of the chili seasoning powder, and 2 heaping tablespoons of masa harina. Mix well with your hands, making sure that all the meat is evenly coated with the spice/corn flour mixture.

2. Preheat a very large cast-iron Dutch oven on the stove over medium heat.* Add enough grapeseed oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Heat the oil until it is almost smoking. Add the coated meat, spreading it out evenly so that it covers the bottom in a single layer. Do not overcrowd the pan — you want the meat to develop a nice crust. When one side is nicely seared, turn each piece with tongs. Once all the sides are seared, remove the meat from the pan let it rest. You will probably need to sear the meat in batches, adding more oil if the pan starts to get dry. Leave the oil and juices in the Dutch oven to sauté the vegetables.

2. When the last batch of meat is done, add the onions and garlic quickly to the pan and sauté for 10 minutes over medium heat (this way, the nice crusty bits on the bottom of the pan don’t get the chance to burn). As they start to caramelize and get soft, scrape up the tasty brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the jalapenos and cook for 4 more minutes until they are soft. Add the remaining 4 teaspoons of the cumin, 2 teaspoons of the cinnamon, the oregano, 4 heaping tablespoons of the chili powder, and the tomato paste. Stir to mix everything up evenly and sizzle the tomato paste a little. Stir in the diced tomatoes, beer, and 1 quart of chicken stock. Add the reserved meat and accumulated juices.

3. Bring the pot to a boil and then lower the heat to a slow simmer. You will need to cook everything until the meat is wonderfully tender, about four hours depending on how big your chunks of meat are. Periodically skim the top of the chili. As it thickens, add the remaining quart of chicken stock, a little bit at a time, to keep the liquid level and the consistency consistent. Once the meat is tender, add the chunks of bittersweet chocolate.* Stir until it all melts.

4. Serve topped with sour cream, cheese, and sprigs of cilantro or chopped green onions.

Notes:

• If you’re not making you own chili spice blend, make sure you buy one from a good spice supplier. Sometimes chili powder that you buy in a store is exactly that: one kind of chili, powdered. For this recipe, you want a spice blend. I like one that has some ancho chile in it. Penzey’s blends are wonderful, but for a little bit of real Terlingua, order online from Pendery’s.

• If need be, you can sear the meat in a large skillet, sauté the onions and garlic in it, and then transfer everything to a much larger pot before you add the liquids.

• I used a nice big chunk of Callebaut Bitterweet Belgian Chocolate. See? Lots of funny business here.

• My great friend, Gideon, brought over a bottle of Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce made from bhut jolokia, the hottest pepper in the world. It’s hot. Really, really hot. He put just a touch from the end of a skewer into my big bowl, and that was enough for me. If you are fan of lots of heat, I strongly recommend you give it a try. It adds a terrific, smoky dimension to this chili.

Melissa Clark’s Roasted Broccoli with Shrimp

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I have a big, fat girl-crush on Melissa Clark, food writer and New York Times contributor.

Not only is she beautiful, but her food is beautiful. Her writing is wonderful.

All her recipes work.

And this is one of them. Don’t be fooled by the short list of ingredients; the sum of the parts is a fresh, spicy, unexpected flavor bomb ready in 20 minutes.

As I am currently hoarding all of my chili powder for the Superbowl, I used red pepper flakes instead and found it different, but pretty good too. And don’t forget the lemon!

Ingredients:

2 big heads of broccoli, cut into florets

4 tablespoons of olive oil, plus one more tablespoon

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1 teaspoon of coriander seeds

1/8 of a teaspoon of hot chili powder, or red pepper chili flakes to taste

Salt and pepper

1 pound of shrimp, peeled and deveined

The zest from one lemon

Lemon wedges for serving

How to prepare:

1. Preheat your oven to 425°.

2. In a large bowl, toss together the broccoli with the olive oil, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, and chili powder. Season with a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper. Spread the broccoli florets in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast the broccoli for 10 minutes.

3. Combine the shrimp in a separate bowl with the lemon zest, the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, and a little salt and pepper.

4. After 10 minutes, remove the baking sheet from the oven. Scatter the shrimp over the broccoli. Toss everything together. Spread the shrimp and the broccoli out evenly over the sheet pan. Roast the shrimp and the broccoli together for about 10 minutes more. The shrimp should be just opaque, not overdone, and the broccoli should be nicely golden around the edges.

5. Serve with Basmati rice and lemon wedges on the side.

Minute Steak Sandwiches with Caramelized Onions and Smoked Mozzerella

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Minute steak (also known as cube steak) is a thin cut of steak that has been pounded or scored by either a mallet or an electric tenderizer. It cooks pretty quickly (hence the name), and only requires about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes per side to be medium rare.

This sandwich is another terrific suggestion from Tina at High Point Farms! It’s very tasty, very yummy, and very satisfying.

Ingredients:

4 submarine or hoagie rolls

2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons of butter, plus one tablespoon

1 tablespoon of olive oil

2 minute steaks

Salt and pepper

8 ounces of smoked mozzerella, thinly sliced

Dijon mustard

How to prepare:

1. Pat the minute steaks dry with paper towels and generously season both sides with salt and pepper.

2. In a large cast-iron pan, melt 3 tablespoons of butter with the olive oil over medium heat. When the butter starts to foam, add the onions. Sauté the onions until they are soft and caramelized, about 10 minutes. Adjust the seasoning. Remove the onions from the pan and set them aside.

3. Add the steaks to the same pan. There should be enough oil/butter left in the pan, but if not, add a little bit more and wait for it come up to temperature before cooking the steaks. Cook the steaks for about 1 1/2 – 2 minutes per side for medium-rare. Remove the steaks to a plate and let them rest while you toast the bread.

4. Split the submarine rolls and butter each half with the remaining tablespoon of butter. Toast them butter-side up under the broiler until they are golden brown.

5. Slice the minute steaks against the grain into 1/2 inch-wide strips. Divide the onions, steak, and sliced mozzerella into 4 even portions. To assemble, smear the cut-side of each half with Dijon mustard. Arrange the bottom halves of each roll in a single layer on a cookie-sheet. Mound the steak on top of the caramelized onions, and cover everything with slices of smoked mozzerella. Slide the bottom halves under the broiler and cook until the cheese is melted and bubbling. Top with the top-half of the roll and serve immediately.

Oven-Roasted Rabbit with Mustard Sauce

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2011.

The Chinese Lunar Calendar has this year marked at The Year of the Rabbit. I do love rabbits (cute and delicious) and like the idea of marking the occasion with a very Burgundian kind of dish, a nice marriage of my French culinary inclinations and my family heritage.

If you have never butchered a rabbit before, I urge you to get yourself a whole one and give it a go. You can watch a good how-to video featuring Marlow and Sons‘s Sean Rembold, or you can follow this pretty good step-by-step from Saveur here.

Or you can have your butcher do it. That’s probably the easiest thing.

Or, you can substitute a nice chicken for the rabbit. Chicken goes marvelously well with this sauce too.

The sauce is amazing. Really, really great. Especially if you get yourself some very excellent pancetta, sliced very thinly (I love La Quercia). If you roast or boil some potatoes to sop up the extra creaminess, you won’t regret it.

This recipe I think originally came from Chez Panisse. You have a little flexibility with the proportions depending on how mustardy you want it.

Ingredients:

One whole rabbit or chicken cut into pieces

Between 3/4 to 1 cup of crème fraîche

Between 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of good quality Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon of chopped fresh thyme

1 tablespoon of chopped fresh sage

3 ounces of thinly sliced pancetta, cut into thin strips

4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

2 bay leaves

About a cup of chicken stock or white wine

About 1/2 cup of heavy cream

Salt and pepper

How to prepare:

1. In a large bowl, cover the rabbit or chicken with all of the ingredients except for the chicken stock or white wine, and the heavy cream. Using your hands, mix everything together, making sure that all of the rabbit or chicken pieces are evenly coated. Cover the bowl and let everything sit at room temperature for about an hour, or overnight in the refrigerator.

2. Preheat your oven to 350°. After the rabbit or chicken has marinated for about an hour, spread the pieces out in a single layer on the bottom of a large cast-iron pan. Top the pieces with any remaining marinade. Roast the rabbit or chicken in the oven until they are cooked through, about 45 minutes.* If your rabbit or chicken is small, you might want to check it a little earlier.

3. Transfer the cooked rabbit or chicken pieces to a serving dish while you finish the sauce. Put the cast-iron pan on the stove over medium to medium-high heat. Add the chicken stock or white wine. Using a wooden spoon or a flat whisk, incorporate the added liquid to the sauce and pan juices. Add the heavy cream. Lower the heat so that the sauce is at a good simmer and reduce the sauce until it is thick and creamy. Adjust the seasoning* and pour it over the rabbit and chicken pieces. Serve immediately.

Notes:

If the rabbit or chicken appears to be drying out in the cooking, add some stock or white wine to the pan.

As the mustard and pancetta add a good amount of salt themselves, adjust the seasoning at the end so that the dish doesn’t end up over-salted.

JGV’s Gently Cooked Salmon with Mashed Potatoes and Broken Chive Oil

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People always ask me if the recipes on this blog are mine. Some of them are, but I also love trying out great recipes that I hear or read about. In all honesty, does it really matter? I mean, how original are anyone’s recipes anyway?

Enamored as I am of the New York Times‘s Dining Section, I picked up The Chefs of the Times a couple years ago. It’s a terrific cookbook. The contributing chefs are a “who’s who” in the culinary stratosphere: Romano, Vongerichten, Samuelsson, Boulud, Palmer, Portale, Keller, Richard, Trotter, et al. Each chef has a chapter devoted to them. What is great is that, as a preface to each recipe, each chef has composed a short written introduction about what they wanted to achieve and how they became satisfied with their finished product.

It is reassuring to keep in mind that for all their talent and ingenuity, chefs don’t exist in a vacuum. The concepts they are hoping to make reality on a plate are influenced by all kinds of things: nostalgia, personal experience, individual taste. I would also suspect that many of them owe a great deal more to Julia Child and Mastering the Art of French Cooking than they would admit in public. Certain taste combinations? They had to taste them first somewhere. The specific smoothness of mashed potatoes, for instance, that they are seeking? They must have compared theirs to either the incomparable smoothness of someone else’s potatoes, or the chunkiness of another’s.

Regardless, these little introductions are great windows into someone else’s creative process. It is true though that if you read a lot of cookbooks, you do start to see how much everyone’s recipes resemble one another. Everyone seems to have a version of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s molten chocolate cake for example (if there was ever a recipe to which one person can lay the claim for “I was the first,” it would be this:  JGV’s extremely lucky “mistake”).

Sometimes, you just make a recipe so many times, you stop actually needing to consult a recipe anymore.

This is one of them. I don’t even remember what the original recipe was. I make it a little differently every time, but the components are the same, as is the technique. This is from The Chefs of the Times. It is a Jean-Georges Vongerichten recipe and a damn good one. You can look up the original, or you can just feel your way through this one and make it your own.

Ingredients:

Factor in one portion of salmon per person. You want to ask your fish monger for a center-cut fillet, about 2 to 2 1/2 inches wide. Skin on. Ask them to kindly remove the bones if you don’t want to do it yourself.

Estimate about one Russet potato per person. This will give you enough fluffy mashed potatoes for each guest, and just enough leftovers to eat cold out of the fridge at 3 o’clock in the morning the next day.

About 2 tablespoons of butter per potato

Heavy cream or milk, or a combo of both

About a tablespoon of grapeseed oil per person

About a tablespoon of roughly chopped chives per person

Salt and white pepper (optional) to taste

Special equipment:

A hand-held blender, food processor, or blender

How to prepare:

1. There are a million ways to make mashed potatoes. Some people like really loose spuds, some people like it like Spackle. For this recipe, I like the potatoes creamy, but not too watery. Bring a pot of well-salted water to boil. While you are waiting for the water to boil, peel the potatoes and cut them into large dice. Boil them until you can easily crush a piece of potato against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Drain the potatoes in the pot. Add the butter and mash the potatoes with a potato masher. Add some heavy cream, milk, or a combo of the two, and continue to mash the potatoes. Keep adding as much liquid as you like, a little bit at a time, until you have achieved the consistency that you want.

2. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 250° (this is JGV’s genius idea). Lay the salmon fillets out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You can put them skin-side up or down, depending on what you like better (I prefer up). You can smear them with a little grapeseed oil, but I’ve forgotten sometimes and no one has noticed. Put the salmon in the oven and set a timer for about 10 minutes. I’m serious. Just 10 minutes!

3. While the salmon is in the oven, blend or process the chives with the grapeseed oil and a little pinch of salt.

4. After 10 minutes, check the salmon. The meat should flake. It might look undercooked, but if it flakes and the skin comes off easily, it is done. If you would like it more done, just leave it in the oven for longer, checking it again every 2 minutes or so. Remove the skin. You can scrape any gray, fatty stuff or white protein off of the fillets before plating the dish.

5. Put a nice mound of mashed potatoes on a warmed plate. Top the potatoes with a piece of salmon. Drizzle the broken chive oil on top of the fillet and around the plate. Serve immediately.

Bruschetta with Ricotta, Wild Arugula, and Olive Oil

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This combo comes courtesy of Salvatore Brooklyn, makers of some of the finest whole milk ricotta this side of the pond. You can even make your own ricotta as they have made their recipe available to all. It is ridiculously easy to do, tastes fabulous, and gives you crazy bragging rights when your guests coo, “Oh my gosh! You made this!?”

In a pinch though, you can use store bought ricotta. Just try to buy the best and creamiest you can. Whole milk please. Full fat = superior mouth-feel.

To assemble, top toasted bread with a large schmear of ricotta. Artfully arrange a few leaves of peppery wild arugula. Drizzle with some super duper extra virgin olive oil. Finish with a sprinkling of flaky Maldon Salt or Fleur de sel.

And isn’t the plate so pretty? A wonderful gift from a wonderful friend!

Homemade Ricotta

Ingredients:

1 gallon of whole milk, the fullest and fattiest that you can buy

A good, healthy pinch of salt

The juice of one lemon

Special equipment:

Cheesecloth

A kitchen thermometer (somewhat optional)

How to prepare:

1. In a large pot, heat the milk and salt over high heat. Heat the milk until it reaches 190°, or you can just watch it until it reaches a good simmer (that’s about 180-190°). Turn off the heat and add the lemon juice. Stir the lemon juice in very gently and slowly. You just want to distribute the acid evenly. A vigorous stirring will break the curds up a lot. Let the pot sit undisturbed for 5 minutes or so.

2. Line a colander with cheesecloth. Place the cheesecloth-lined colander over a large bowl to catch the whey. Pour the curds and whey into the colander and let the curds strain on their own. Don’t squeeze the curds or press down on them. You can let it strain for an hour, but when the cheese looks like the consistency that you like (some people like looser ricotta, some people like denser ricotta), turn the cheese out of the cheesecloth and use it right away, or transfer it to an airtight container and refrigerate it until you want to use it.

Pipe Rigate with Broccoli and Capers

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Most people know, but few believe, that I was a vegetarian for 11 years. I have no regrets. What started as an act of pre-adolescent self-rightiousness turned into a decade-long stint. It left me with a deep appreciation of weird, gnarled tubers and difficult squash, as well as a persistent, daily craving for bitter leafy greens.

When I moved to France (an act that effectively ended my vegetarianism), I took with me only two cookbooks: The Paris Cookbook by Patricia Wells and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. Wells’s book was a huge influence on me; it became my neighborhood guidebook, as many of her featured haunts were less than a few meters from my apartment in St-Germain-des-Près. However, it was Madison’s book that became my daily go-to, a constant source of information and inspiration. She showed me what to do with and how to eat so many of the things that I saw in the markets and had never prepared before.

Over the years, I think that I have cooked almost every recipe in the book. If you do every recipe in any cookbook, you start to feel a real intimacy with the cookbook author. Madison was a great teacher. I credit my food fearlessness, not to the hip, new restaurant du jour serving liver and brains, but to Madison. Rutabaga? Bring it on. Kohlrabi? Yeah, baby! Celeriac? Love it!

Another thing Madison taught me? Recipes are great to follow, terrific for ideas, but ultimately you have to find your own style. Now when I turn to her book — or any book for that matter — I feel confident to change it up, switch things around, and adjust it to my taste.

This recipe is originally from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, but of course, I’ve played with it a little bit.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds of broccoli

3/4 pound of pipe rigate, lumache, or conchiglie

1/3 cup (or more) extra virgin olive oil

2 fat cloves of garlic, finely minced

1/4 cup of capers, rinsed

Red pepper flakes to taste

The juice from half a lemon

Freshly grated Parmesan

How to prepare:

1. Cut the tops off each stem of broccoli and divide the tops up into small florets. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the stems. Cut the stems into bite-sized pieces, roughly the same size as the florets.

2. Boil the pasta in a large pot of salted water. When the pasta is half-way cooked (about 5 minutes), add the broccoli florets and stems. Continue to cook, uncovered, until the pasta is al dente. Drain the pasta and broccoli into a large colander and wipe out the pot.

3. Heat the oil, garlic, and capers over medium heat until fragrant. Add as little or as many red pepper flakes as you like (I like a lot). Sizzle the red pepper flakes in the hot oil for a few seconds, being careful not to let them burn. Add the pasta and broccoli back to the pot with the lemon juice. Toss everything together well.

4. Turn off the heat and transfer everything to a large warmed bowl. Shower the pasta with freshly grated Parmesan and serve immediately.

Very Easy Macaroni and Cheese

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Let’s try this again.

After my brothers poo-pooed my mac and cheese last year, I tried another version this year for the holidays. This time I only used pre-shredded Cheddar, Monterey Jack, and Parmesan — nixing the fancy schmancy Gruyère and smoked mozzerella that are so near and dear to my heart.

And the Parmesan? I used the real stuff. The nutty, fragrant, pungent stuff. A great big wedge of it. To fake out my family, I covertly grated it and surreptitiously snuck it into an empty green Kraft shaker bottle.

Ha! Take that picky eaters!

My brothers also have an aversion to bread crumbs (?!) which led me to make a quick substitution: crushed-up potato chips.

The result? Super easy. Super creamy. A little bland, but the dish was scraped clean.

Score!

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons of unsalted butter

1/4 cup of all-purpose flour

About 4 cups of whole milk, chicken stock, cream, or a mixture of all three

Salt and pepper to taste

1 pound of your favorite shape of pasta

8 ounces of shredded sharp Cheddar

4 ounces of shredded Monterey Jack

4 ounces of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup of crushed plain potato chips

How to prepare:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 3- to 4-quart gratin dish or another shallow baking dish.

2. In a kettle of salted boiling water, cook macaroni until just al dente. Drain well.

3. In a heavy saucepan, melt just 6 tablespoons butter over moderately low heat. Add the flour and cook the roux, stirring with a wooden spoon, for about 3 minutes. Add the milk, stock, or cream, a little bit at a time. Don’t stop stirring. Slowly add more liquid until you have roughly 4 to 4 1/2 cups of sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring the sauce regularly, until it has thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4. In a large bowl, combine the macaroni, the sauce, the shredded cheeses, and Parmesan. Transfer the macaroni mixture to the prepared dish and spread it out evenly.

5. Sprinkle crushed chips over the top of the macaroni and cheese.

6. Bake the macaroni in the middle of oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden and bubbling. Let rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Broccoli and Cheddar Cheese Soup

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Doesn’t it feel good to be back home after two weeks away? The kitchen especially feels calm and cozy, ready for warming soups and stews — the kinds of things you crave when the weather is nippy.

This recipe is super easy, as are the recipes for most creamed soups. It can be endlessly adapted for other vegetables, with or without the cheese.

Ingredients:

2 shallots, finely chopped

2 tablespoons of butter

1/2 tablespoon of olive oil

2 small heads of broccoli, or one large one

1 quart of chicken or vegetable stock, or milk, or water

1/2 cup of heavy cream

4 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Salt and pepper to taste

Special equipment:

A hand immersion blender. You can also use a regular blender or a food processor.

How to prepare:

1. Separate the broccoli florets from the stem. Cut the florets so that they are roughly the same size and shape. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the stem to get rid of the tough outer layer. Slice the stem into 1/2 inch rounds.

2. In a medium to large-sized pot, heat the butter and olive oil together over medium heat. Add the shallots and sauté them until they start to brown. Add the broccoli florets and stems, tossing to evenly coat them in the butter-shallot mixture. Add the stock. Cover the pot and lower the heat. Simmer until the broccoli is fairly tender.

3. When the broccoli is tender, use an immersion blender to purée the broccoli in the pot. Stir in the heavy cream. Turn the heat back on low and add the cheese, stirring conscientiously to make sure that it all melts and does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Once the cheese has melted and is evenly incorporated in the soup, turn off the heat and adjust the seasoning.

Serve with bread or crackers.

Chicken Pot Pie

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This is one of my favorite recipes of all time, originally taken from The Dean and Deluca Cookbook. This recipe has been tinkered with many times over the years — so much so that the glue-bound spine of the cookbook has cracked, making it fall open to pages 496 and 497 every time I pick it up. Now when I look at those scribbled-on, stained, dog-eared and water-wrinkled pages, I feel that this version here is very much my own.

Though some might consider it not quite a pot pie — there is no bottom crust, only a top — the pastry blanketing the heavenly rosemary-scented filling is so flaky and satisfying that to quibble over nomenclature seems silly.

Lately I have been adapting the recipe slightly as a way to cook up tasty bits of Thanksgiving turkey leftovers. I do love getting my fingers into the turkey carcass, stripping and pulling away every moist morsel left on the bones. This recipe makes the most of those wonderful little bits and pieces, but is also amazing as is with its freshly browned chunks of juicy chicken breast.

Ingredients:

For the pastry crust:

1 1/2 cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup of unsalted butter (1 stick), chilled and cubed

About 1/4 cup of iced water

For the filling:

1-1 1/2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into 1-inch pieces*

2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, divided

2 teaspoons of finely minced garlic

2 celery ribs cut into 1/4 inch dice

2 medium carrots cut into 1/4 inch dice

1/2 cup of frozen peas

6 pearl onions, peeled

3 tablespoons of butter

1/4 cup of flour

1 1/2 cups of chicken stock

1/2 cup of milk

1/3 cup of heavy cream

2 1/2 tablespoons of freshly chopped rosemary

For the egg wash:

1 beaten egg

How to prepare:

For the pastry crust:

1. Put the flour, salt, and butter in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Do not overprices as the chunks of butter cut into the flour is what makes the crust tender and flaky. While the food processor is running, add the water, a little bit at a time, until the dough begins to pull away from the side (do not let it form a ball). You might use less water than 1/4 cup, but probably not more.

2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Working quickly and lightly, knead the dough with the ball of your hand until it comes together. Shape the dough into a ball and flatten it out into a disk. Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, but no longer than an hour.

For the filling:

1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat 1- 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over moderate heat. Add the chicken in batches, making sure all the sides are nicely browned. Set the chicken aside.

2. Add the remaining oil to the same pan along with the garlic, celery, and carrots. Sauté the vegetables until they are tender, about 6 minutes. Set the vegetable mixture aside.

3. In a small saucepan about halfway with water and bring the water to boil. Add the peeled pearl onions. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add the frozen peas to the boiling water and continue to cook for about 4 minutes more. Drain the vegetable and set them aside.

4. In a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over moderate heat. When melted, add the flour and mix quickly. Brown the flour lightly before adding about 1/2 cup of the stock. Whisk the stock into the flour, smoothing out any lumps before adding the rest of the stock, the milk, and the cream. Continue whisking while the mixture is brought up to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and continue to whisk while the sauce thickens to the right consistency. Turn off the heat and stir in the chopped rosemary. Adjust the seasoning.

To assemble:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°.

2. In a large casserole or deep pie dish, spread the chicken out over the bottom. Spread the vegetable evenly out over the chicken and then pour the sauce evenly over everything.

3. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out until you have a round that will hang about 1 to 1 1/2 inches off the side of the dish. Place the dough gently over the pie and slightly tuck it in around the edges of the dish. Trim off any excess that falls more than 1 to 1 1/2 inches over the edge. Pinch or crimp the edges to make a decorative border. Using a knife, make a few slashes on the top of the pastry. If you have some leftover dough, you can also make some decorative leaves to go on top.

4. Brush the beaten egg on top of the dough. Bake in the oven until the crust is golden brown, about 45 minutes. Let rest at least 5 minutes (or even better, 10) before serving.

Note:

For the filling, if you have any leftover roasted chicken or turkey, you could use that instead.