Saturday, January 23, 2010

Happy National Pie Day!


In honor of the occasion, I made mine like this:

1 recipe of pastry for a double crust pie. Mine is usually

2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cups butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold water, more or less

But, I ran out of a.p. and had to sub in 1/3 cup whole wheat flour. Otherwise, made as I usually do.


Fill with

Most of a butternut squash, sliced 1/4" thick








a small thing of button mushrooms, sliced
the whites and a good bit of the green parts of some scallions, cut fine



some fresh rosemary, sage, salt, pepper, olive oil
about 3 oz. gouda
a big handful of fresh baby spinach


Heat the oven to 425

Toss the squash in a sprinkle of salt & pepper and a generous slosh of oil. Get a heavy bottomed skillet medium hot, put in the squash and a little water and cover for about  5 minutes. They'll cook surprisingly fast. Uncover and add the onions and herbs and a bit more oil if they're sticking a lot. You want to stir enough to get them cooked evenly but not so much that the squash mushes up or fails to brown a bit. When the squash is tender, put it in a bowl, scrape out the pan and add a little more oil and the sliced mushrooms. Let them brown, stir to turn them over, then add them to the bowl with the squash. Roll out your pastry and heap about 1/2 the filling in the middle. Put a generous handful of spinach on top and press it down gently, then slice or grate on a layer of cheese. Repeat, with a somewhat less generous heap of spinach and cheese, then loosely fold up the sides of the pastry. An egg wash is optional, but nice. Bake at 425 for 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven and desired level of brownness. My oven is a bit cool, I think, so it takes around 40 min, especially if I keep popping the door open to fiddle with things.

2 things to keep in mind- go easy on the sage, it can be overpoweringly bitter, and remmember that spinach will loose about 85% of its volume once cooked. I think that a little sauteed mustard or chard would have a better texture.

1 comment:

  1. Yo Yo, Martha Bitch! Yo pie look pretty good! So do a lot of your other recipes. And your mom was right, she said I'd find a lot of your blog to be amusing, and it made me laugh out loud (oh, scuze me, LOL) a number of times. I'm glad I'm finally in a place where I have internet access, so that I could read it and send you a comment. Keep up the good work.

    Love, Aiji

    ReplyDelete