Veggie Pie

So I have been craving pie for a while now... okay maybe not pie per se, but pie crust more specifically. Flaky, buttery, crunchy pie crust. Done right, the crust is the very best thing about a pie. Done wrong (and it can go very, very wrong), and it will be tasteless, tough, and do nothing more than hold the pie filling on your plate for you and look embarrassed next to your scoop of vanilla ice cream. Pie crust is a relatively simple recipe: Some flour, water, shortening, a pinch of salt and sugar, and magically you have the world's greatest accompaniment to fruit filling.

The challenge I was facing in my quest to consume pie crust was to think of a excuse to make a pie, with no special occasion and for only two people. But what about veggie pie? That might almost be considered healthy. And bonus, we can eat it for dinner! So with a fridge stockpiled with squash and eggplant from our CSA box, we had our filling, and I just needed to make that golden cup of goodness to put it all in.

First, the important part. Like I said, in principal pie crust is pretty simple. But it can be infuriatingly difficult to get right. When you're working in small spaces trying to roll out an uncooperative pie crust, it can be down right maddening. A couple tips to get started: First, put all the tools you will be using to handle the dough in the freezer for maybe 1/2 hour. This means your rolling pin, silicone mat, etc. Make sure they are good and cold before they touch your dough. This will save you a lot of screaming and cursing.

Second, the dough is all about ratios. How much water to flour, flour to shortening, you get the picture. Mix things together slowly at first, testing the mixture to make sure it has the right consistency and texture before rolling it out. Too dry? Add a little water, a teaspoon at a time. Too wet? Drop a tablespoon of flour in at a time to thicken it up. The right amount of shortening can be a little difficult to gauge, but about 1/2 a cup for a single crust should do the trick. Here's a super basic recipe for the crust, and by all means change the amounts as you see fit. It's your pie:

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1/2 cup shortening

1 teaspoon of salt

2 - 3 teaspoons of sugar

1/2 cup of water

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and shortening. Blend together with a pastry cutter (or two knives) until crumbly. You will see little chunks of shortening throughout the mixture. This is a good thing.

Add the water slowly, mixing with a pastry cutter until completely incorporated. Roll into a ball, and chill the dough for about 15 minutes, or until you are ready to use it. Then, on a flour covered surface with your frozen rolling pin, roll it out to fit the size of your pie plate. Roll one edge over your rolling pin so the dough will drape over it. Gently lift it and set it into your pie plate. Push the dough to the edges, cut off the excess across the top, and using a fork or a small knife, poke little holes in the bottom of the crust. Place in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

So now you have your delicious crust. Resist the urge to eat it all by its self, and lets put something in it.

For this veggie pie, we used a mandolin slicer to slice a medium eggplant and several green and yellow summer squashes. In a heated skillet, melt about 1/2 a stick of butter and begin adding the slices of eggplant. As they begin to absorb the butter and brown, pull them out onto a plate so they don't get too soggy. If they soak up all of the butter in the pan, add more.

Once you have cooked the eggplant slices, melt more butter, (or drizzle in some olive oil) in the same pan. Saute the squash, seasoning with salt, and after a minute or two add a splash of white wine. Once the wine has been cooked off / absorbed, season with dried oregano, and remove from the heat.

Line the pie crust with the slices of eggplant so they cover the bottom and go up the sides. Spoon the squash into the pie, pushing them around to make sure they are even and level with the top of the crust. For an added bit of color, cut a red bell pepper into slender slices and lay them across the top. Place your pie back into the 375 degree oven for another 2o minutes or so, or until you are just so hungry you just can't take it any longer. Top with Parmesan cheese, and then allow it to cool for a minute or two.

This pie was a nice surprise for a weekday dinner, and it made fantastic leftovers. Try it out with different vegetables if you like, or if you are feeling really frisky, maybe a crust over the top, too. Enjoy!

Dinner in the Raw

In the spirit of healthy living, occasionally the missus and I try something on the greener side of the buffet table. Specifically, we prepare something created by the Raw movement, where everything you eat, and I do mean everything, is well, raw.

Many people might think this way of preparing and enjoying food is missing something; for instance heat and cooked flesh. But the folks who ascribe to this movement may actually be on to something. Food, in its raw, uncooked form, is the best way to get the most nutrition out of each bite. This of course means no meat, but some of the more crafty raw foodies out there have worked their way around that little hiccup.

It should be said that any raw recipe, including the one that follows, is missing one very commonly accepted step: cooking. Many of the simpler recipes, those that don't require 24 hours in a dehydrator, require only chopping, slicing, stirring, and maybe a few seconds in the high-speed blender. The following recipe is a pretty basic raw recipe that should impress even the pickiest omnivore you know.

Zucchini Pasta Alfredo

For the pasta, first you are going to need one of these:






This handy little tool is a spiral slicer. Take 4 to 6 large zucchini, peel, cut off the ends, then spin them individually in the slicer, turning them into beautiful little curly ribbons of squash. Like so:





You might want to cut them down into manageable strips for easier consumption. For the sauce, you will need:

A high speed blender
3/4 cup coconut water
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup raw pine nuts or cashews
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Mix all ingredients (except the zucchini) in the high speed blender until smooth and creamy. Mix the sauce with the zucchini in a bowl, and serve.







Recipe note: The texture of the zucchini noodles improves if they are left to sit at room temperature for 6 hours or so. These can also be prepared the night before and stored in the refrigerator.


Editors note: In order to get the coconut water necessary for this sauce recipe, you might have to get creative. Buy a fresh coconut, carve off most of the outer skin, and see how far you get trying to crack it with a kitchen knife. Really, give it a shot. Eventually, you will realize the tools you need are not in the kitchen. And then you will hammer an 8" Phillips-head screwdiver into the stubborn coconut.



Thanks to Matt Amsden and his "Rawvolution" cookbook for the sauce recipe. The book has some great ideas for raw beginners, and for those of us who just have had one too many hamburgers.

Enjoy!