ULTIMATE POT PIE
One of my favorite things on Earth is chicken pot pie, but one Sunday after Thanksgiving, after we’d had leftovers and there was still turkey left (due to an overly generous assessment of the size of bird needed), I thought it might be a good idea to try a turkey pot pie.
I’d made Bradley Ogden’s recipe for chicken pot pie before, with brilliant results. At the time, he was at Campton Place in San Francisco, where he was tearing up the culinary world with his renditions of classic American dishes. His breakfasts were the stuff of dreams -- fabulous corned beef hash, pancakes, bittersweet hot chocolate.
His recipe for chicken pot pie is just about perfect. I like the way he cuts the meat into 1- to 1 1/2 -inch chunks so you get a real bite of chicken, the way he poaches the vegetables in the chicken stock so the broth picks up even more flavor. Even more important, he manages to arrive at a gravy just thick enough to cloak the vegetables and poultry without being either watery or thick as wallpaper paste. His is a real pie crust too, buttery and flaky and flecked with fresh herbs.
For someone who’d grown up on Swanson’s, this was nirvana.
That pot pie -- made with turkey instead of chicken -- has become a tradition in my family. Usually, I prepare it the Sunday after Thanksgiving, spending the afternoon in a happy blur, listening to music or checking in on the game while I get it ready. I’ve already made the stock, using the turkey carcass and maybe adding some chicken parts. This year, Ralphs had turkeys on sale for 37 cents a pound, so I bought one just to make stock for pot pies and soups.
Unlike the turkey day, making pot pie after the holiday is a relaxed affair. The most labor-intensive part of it is peeling the pearl onions.
First, take the leftover turkey and cut it into chunks. You don’t need to be exact about the size or even the amount. Use as much as you have and aim for pieces about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in size.
Then take a quart of the turkey stock and use it to poach the vegetables -- the pearl onions, the mushrooms, the chunks of potato and, at the last minute, the peas. No need to be that strict about the vegetables either. I’ve been meaning to try adding some parsnips or salsify or baby turnips to the mix. You could also use baby shiitake instead of cremini, or mix chanterelles with other mushrooms.
When I made my first turkey pot pie, I thought the cream dominated the gravy, so the next time I cooked down the stock to concentrate its flavor. This worked out well, so I scribbled the details onto the ragged piece of paper that holds my pot pie notes.
Making the veloute is easy too. It shouldn’t brown like a roux but stay fairly pale. Cook the sauce just to the point it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
To bake the pot pie, I use a slightly squared oval casserole from the Danish designer Piet Hein (purchased online from www.unicahome.com). The vegetables and turkey just fit. Mix them up, level them off and then pour the gravy over. The dish can be refrigerated until you’re ready to slide it into the oven.
The pie crust
Even making the crust can be relaxed. I like mine really buttery, so sometimes I add a tablespoon or so more butter than the recipe calls for. I’m not that exact about it, usually just eyeballing a chunk and cutting it off a 1-pound block.
I use a pastry blender instead of a food processor to cut the butter into the flour: I can see what I’m doing better, and all I have to wash afterward is the bowl and the pastry blender. When the dough begins to look like flakes of oatmeal, I sprinkle on a little ice water, fluffing it with a fork, until it looks like it will hold together when I press it into a ball. Wrap it in plastic wrap, flatten it into a fat disk and leave in the fridge for at least a half-hour.
An hour or so before you want to serve the pie, roll out the dough into a circle or oval shape slightly less than one-fourth-inch-thick and large enough to cover the casserole.
Roll the dough around the rolling pin to lift it, and unroll over the dish, crimping the edges of the crust. Make a few slashes to let out the steam. If you want to get fancy, glaze the top with an egg yolk mixed with a spoonful of water and decorate with pastry leaves cut from scraps of dough.
The crust will tell you when the pie has finished cooking. When it’s a deep gold and you can see the gravy bubbling at the edges (usually after half an hour or so), the pie is done.
The beautiful thing is that pot pie is so forgiving that if people are slow coming to the table, or get caught in traffic, it will wait. It seems to stay hot forever.
The other beautiful thing is that it’s such a terrific dish for wine. When choosing a wine to complement the pie’s gentle, complex flavors and buttery crust, my first instinct would be a Pinot Noir or a Gamay. But come to think of it, it also would be wonderful with a rich, oily white. This is the time to break out your best Chardonnay or a Rhone white.
I love this pot pie so much that I’ll sometimes buy a turkey breast and make one at other times of the year. It makes for easy entertaining: All you need is a salad and maybe some cheese and a simple dessert. I believe in spreading the holiday, like all good things, throughout the year.
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BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX
Turkey pot pie
Total time: 2 hours
Servings: 8 to 10
Note: Adapted from Bradley Ogden’s recipe for chicken pot pie from his first book, “Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner.”
1 3/4 cups flour, divided
3 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (a mixture of parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil)
Kosher salt
Scant 1/2 teaspoon sugar
9 tablespoons chilled butter (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon), divided
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening, optional
Ice water
4 cups chicken broth (or homemade turkey stock), and more as needed
20 pearl onions, trimmed and peeled
3 carrots, peeled and diced into 1/2 -inch pieces
3 celery stalks, diced into 1/2 -inch pieces
12 cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 1/2 cups diced red boiling potatoes, cut into 1/2 -inch cubes
2 leeks, trimmed, quartered lengthwise and diced into 1/2 -inch pieces
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
4 1/2 cups chopped turkey (about 1 1/4 pounds), cut into 1 1/2 -inch cubes
1 cup heavy cream
Pepper
1 egg yolk, optional
1. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, the herbs, a scant half-teaspoon salt and the sugar. Cut 6 tablespoons (three-fourths stick) butter into one-half-inch pieces and, with a pastry cutter, two knives or your fingers, quickly work the butter (and optional shortening) into the flour until it is reduced to pea-sized pieces. Sprinkle ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time and no more than 5, into the mixture and fluff with a fork until the dough is just moist enough to gather into a ball. Do not overwork the dough. Flatten the ball into a disk and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes to chill thoroughly.
2. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, bring the broth to a simmer over high heat. Reduce the heat to maintain a bare simmer. Add the onions and poach for 2 minutes. Stir in the carrots, celery, mushrooms and potatoes and cook at a gentle simmer until crisp-tender, about 10 minutes. Add the leeks and peas for the last half minute of simmering.
3. Drain the vegetables, reserving the broth. Place the vegetables in a 2 1/2 -quart baking dish and add the turkey, stirring gently to combine evenly.
4. Measure the broth, adding additional if needed to bring the volume to 4 cups. Place the broth back in the saucepan and reduce over high heat by half to 2 cups. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. Make the veloute (sauce): In a medium heavy-bottom saucepan, melt the remaining 3 tablespoons butter over medium high heat. Sprinkle the remaining one-fourth cup flour over the melted butter and cook, stirring constantly, to make a white roux, about 3 minutes. Do not let the roux color. Off heat, whisk the reduced broth into the roux, then stir in the cream and bring to a gentle boil. Cook just until the mixture coats the back of a spoon, about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and season with 1 teaspoon salt and one-eighth teaspoon pepper, or to taste.
6. Pour the veloute over the vegetables and turkey in the baking dish, check the seasoning, and set aside. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
7. On a lightly floured board or surface, roll the dough so it is large enough to cover the top of the dish with 1 inch hanging over the side. Drape the dough over the filled dish, trimming the sides to even them out. Roll up the edges and crimp over the edge to seal the pie.
8. If you’d like, mix the egg yolk with a teaspoon of water and brush over the crust to give it a rich sheen as it bakes.
9. Slit the top of the crust in a few places to allow steam to escape as the pie bakes.
10. Place the pie in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375 degrees and continue to bake until the crust is golden and the sauce is bubbling, an additional 10 to15 minutes.
11. Let the pie rest for at least 15 minutes before serving. It will stay warm for quite a long time.
Each of 10 servings: 438 calories; 25 grams protein; 34 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams fiber; 23 grams fat; 13 grams saturated fat; 108 mg. cholesterol; 599 mg. sodium.