Sweet Potato Pot Pie

     I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about food, reading about food, dreaming about food, and eating food. What I have been lackadaisical about is actually cooking food. Fortunately for my family and myself I actually made these delicious sweet potato pot pies recently. I love pot pies. I even purchased special individual corning ware pot pie casseroles so as to not to lose any of the magic of each diner breaking into their own crunchy, mouthwatering crust to reveal the depths of molten detectability that lay beneath. 

 I first read about these pies from Heidi several years ago. I have made them once or twice in the years since then and I decided to make them this year, but changing them ever so slightly to suit our tastes. Usually my method of madness is to make a recipe exactly as it was written at least one time before I start altering it so I can see what the author had in mind when they wrote it. Unless I absolutely detest one of the ingredients, yes I am talking to you celery, I leave it in even if I don't love it. I am not one for spicy-to-super-spicy foods. I am of the none-to-mild-spicy school, or as I am known in the neighborhood, a sissy. 

     Heidi calls for adobo sauce from canned chipotle chiles. For those who don't know, chipotle chiles are jalapeno peppers that have been smoked and dried and then canned in a spicy tomato sauce. To my tastes they are plenty spicy, spicier than a regular jalapeno. Of course, the use of a different hot sauce is an option if you don't have chipotles on hand, but I have found them in my local grocery store without a problem. Especially if you live in or near an area with a large Hispanic population they should be super easy to locate.

     Anyway, this time I left out the chipotles and any other hot sauce all together and the result was equally delicious, if not better, to my super sissy tongue. 

     The only thing that bothers me still is the puff pastry. The recipe as written calls for a box of puff pastry to make a unbelievably simple crust on the top of the pie. It is extraordinarily simple. Cut to fit, seal around the edge of your baking receptacle, and bake. Its very simple and very good. I love puff pastry. I can sit here and wax poetic about the magic of mille feuille or the delicate, flaky layers of a croissant, shattering against my tongue with each delightful bite. My problem is this...in my mind puff pastry goes with sweet, not savory dishes. So to remedy this next time I intend to use a simple sour cream pie crust from Cook's Country magazine (December/January 2014 issue).   They use it to make a 

spectacular Spiced Pork Pie. I suggest seeking this issue out as it is chock full of great recipes. I hesitate to link to their recipe as the website is a subscription only site and I do not want to incur the wrath of Christopher Kimball. Actually, I met him recently and he seems to be a wonderful, kind man. Still, seek the magazine out if you can.

     As you can see from the picture it turned out beautifully and the filling makes a tremendous amount so I found myself serving it as a side dish for chicken and pork without the crust and it tasted just as good. 

     So there you go, a substantial main dish vegetarian dinner or a surprising side to a carnivorous feast this turned out great. I really think you should give it a try and do not be afraid to make it your own. 

      Sweet Potato Pot Pie

       adapted from 101 Cookbooks (www.101cookbooks.com/archives/000127.html)

• 3 to 4 tablespoons of olive oil or vegetable oil
• 1 yellow onion chopped
• 3-4 cloves of fresh garlic chopped (I used dried minced garlic)
• 4 large or 5 small sweet potatoes, chopped into relatively even 1/4 pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• Bag of frozen corn kernels (you could used canned, but then drain it first and get the no salt added can)
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 box puff pastry dough, thawed (or other pie dough such as pate brisee, not a sweet pie dough though)
• 1 egg white thinned ever so slightly with some cold water
• 1 teaspoon melted butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Pour oil into a large, preheated pot. When the oil starts to shimmer add the onions, garlic (if you are using fresh), sweet potatoes and salt. Let that cook until the potatoes get soft and the onions turn translucent. I don't like to give times because every one's stoves are different, but this should take 10-15 minutes. 

Pour your milk into a glass measuring cup and stir in the cornstarch until it is dissolved. Then you can pour the milk, dried garlic (if that's the route you went), and corn into the large pot with the vegetables. 

Let that just come to a boil then turn the heat down and let it simmer until the sauce thickens nicely. 

After that the fun begins....

Ladle the filling into whatever ovenproof containers you have designated as being worthy of this task until they are just about 3/4 full and then take your thawed puff pastry or pie crust that you have measured and cut to fit each pie with just a slight overhang and place it on top. Then cut tiny slits in the crust to prevent a catastrophic blowout. 

Brush the tops of the pies with the egg wash and bake for about 15 minutes until nice and golden brown. 

After I took the pies from the oven I brushed them again with some melted butter, but that was purely for aesthetic purposes. They looked shiny and bright after that. Of course, adding butter didn't hurt the flavor of the crust either.

Enjoy!!!

My Mother and Meatball Stew

Hi guys. I wanted to tell you about my mother's Meatball Stew. I cannot swear that she made up this recipe. As a matter of fact, I would swear that she did not make up this recipe. 

My mother was many things. The sweetest woman that ever lived, loads of fun, childlike in her playfulness, helpful, kind, all the good things that you could think a mother would be, but...a great cook she was not. 

Don't get me wrong, please, her food was delicious and I get my love of cooking from her, but I distinctly recall only five dishes that she made regularly.  

She was a good cook, but not too adventurous. My mother's grandmother was a caterer back in the early part of the 20th century. She catered all the wedding and family functions that occurred in the Polish families in her neighborhood. Now, she was a great cook. 

My mother's skill was in sewing. Man, she could sew anything. She made all my Halloween costumes. FROM SCRATCH. The tiniest little sequins. I can barely sew on a button. Instead I think my real passion is cooking. I guess my great-grandmother's skills skipped a couple of generations. 

Now, do not misunderstand me. I am no great cook, my would-be catering mentor passed away when I was 6 years old, long before my interest in cooking took hold. I wish I had some of her recipes. I am envious of chefs that reminisce of days from their childhood when they stood next to their mothers and grandmothers and learned to knead dough or make pasta by hand. But, I would not trade my mother for the world. 

After my father died when I was twenty, my mother and I became much closer.  We would sit and watch the cooking shows on our local PBS station on Saturdays. All day sometimes. This is long before the Food Network came around. Sometimes, when I was at work she would call me and tell me that she saw a recipe that she wanted me to try to make for us. I took over the cooking duties after she was diagnosed with diabetes and she didn't really know what kinds of things she was allowed to eat. So, that's where my cooking story began. I got a cookbook one day. Then another. Then another. Now I have more cookbooks than time to cook from them, but I mostly just like to read them like a novel. Occasionally, I will follow a recipe and if I do, I follow it to the letter because I want it to taste the way the chef wanted it to taste. Only if I decide it is worth my trouble to make it again will I tweak it to my liking. Sometimes, I just read and read and absorb techniques that I use to make up my own recipes and dishes. 

Anyway, meatball stew....my mother's meatball stew was a quick, weeknight stew that was (and is) delicious, but since it relies on almost 90% canned goods, it is a sodium nightmare and in this climate of healthy cooking, I really want to work out a homemade, but equally tasty version. 

The way she would make it, homemade meatballs browned in a frying pan until  

crispy (I prefer a softer meatball and so I skip this and just put it in the casserole with the other ingredients raw) also, jarred pearl onions, canned potatoes, canned carrots, canned green beans, canned beef broth, and canned cream of tomato soup. Put in the oven at 350 degrees for a half hour to 45 minutes and to finish it off, buttered white bread. 

Like I said, delicious, but not too healthy. I guess I could try lower sodium versions of the canned vegetables. Although it's just as easy to toss in parboiled 

potatoes and carrots. Likewise, boiling and peeling the onions the night before or even just using chopped onions would be an option. Although, one of my favorite parts is biting into the whole pearl onion and having the layers slip apart as I savor it in my mouth. It would be a shame to give that up due to my laziness. The same with the green beans, those should take just a couple of minutes to heat through when fresh. Even frozen.

My biggest concern is the canned soups. See the idea is that instead of water or milk to thin out the condensed soup, the beef broth is used. So I can make cream of tomato soup and I suppose I could boil it to thicken. Then make beef stock to thin it out. OR I could use homemade beef stock as the base for the tomato soup from the get go. I haven't tried either one yet. But I will. Very soon. 

This is my first post ever. I am pretty shy. I have been thinking about posting for some time now, but I was always  afraid it wouldn't be good enough. It may not be, but it's done now and in time my posts will get better. More polished. With pictures too. For my first post, this ain't too shabby. 

Thanks.