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| Roaming the streets of St. Paul |
She has always wanted to buy from it, but the one chance she had, she was running late for a quick meeting and by the time she came back outside, the truck had vanished.
So, to substitute, we spent her first evening home making a huge batch of these delicious personal-sized meals. I've always loved individually portioned meals. When I was little, we used to have TV dinners one night a week. Everything was so nicely divided into tiny servings. I always took tiny, measured bites to bask in the smallness of each portion. Last year, I had the privilege of spending three weeks in Norway. While the trip was excellent, the tiny packaging of the plane meals may have been the highlight (kidding).
I loved each portion and container of the meal, but the tiny, perfectly portioned olive oil bottle took the cake.
It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted this recipe to be. When I started, all I knew was that I wanted to use mushrooms. Then, that I wanted to make pasties. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I had all the pans on the stove, boiling water for potatoes, broccoli, stirring meat, stirring onions. As I sat in the one rainbow colored chair in our kitchen, starring at the stove, I wondered what on earth I had gotten myself into.
Here it is - one part pie, one part meat, one part potatoes and a layer on sneaky vegetables.
For Crust:
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 pound cold butter, cubed
Pinch o' salt
1/4 icy water
For Mashed Potatoes:
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 pounds potato (2 large potatoes)
2 - 3 tbls butter
salt to flavor
1/4 milk
For Meat Mix
1/2 beef, cooked (I just use 2 hamburger patties, already cooked)
1 full leek or half an onion (sliced)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups of chopped mushrooms
1 tbls butter
salt and pepper to flavor
Broccoli Layer:
1 crown of broccoli
1/2 tbls butter
1 tbls milk
Begin by chopping up the potatoes and placing them in pot of cold water. Boil them on the stove while you prepare the crust. Place flour in a mixing bowl. Add the salt and butter. It is easiest to cut the butter, but if you don't have the right tool you may mix by hand by squeezing the butter cubes between your fingers repeatedly. Once most of the butter has been squished, you may switch to a wooden spoon until the dough will stick together slightly when squeezed in your hand.
Add the water in one tablespoon at a time until all the dough sticks together in a hard ball. Wrap up and put in the refrigerator until later.
Great, dough is done. Turn your focus back to the potatoes. You should take them out of the water once you can easily stick a knife through them. Place the hot potatoes in a bowl with the butter and let sit while it melts.
Mash potatoes and add milk and salt to form a smooth mixture. Set aside.
In the meantime, melt 1 tbls of butter in a pan. Add leek and mushrooms and saute until mushrooms soften. Add garlic, and continue to cook for 3 more minutes.
Drain the water (from the mushrooms) and mix in beef and salt and pepper. Set aside.
Steam broccoli for 7 minutes, remove from heat.
Blend with butter and milk. Set aside.
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| I LOVE the Magic Bullet |
Take pie dough from fridge and divide in two. Roll one part out and press into pie pan. You will want a little bit of overhang. Place the other back in the fridge.
Smooth the potatoes into the bottom of the pie crust. Layer the broccoli on top. Meat on top of that. Roll out the rest of the pie dough and lay on top of the pie.
Use the overhang from the bottom dough to fold over the dough and press in, forming a tight seal.
Cut a few holes in the top to allow for expansion.
Bake at 400 for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let cool, but serve warm for best results!
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