Portobello Pot Pie and All-Purpose Vegan Crust
I've never been a big fan of savoury pies, despite my love of all other pie-related deliciousness (right, Acme Cafe?). I've blogged about making pies here before, and also about my dad's imperious pie-condescension. He thinks he makes the meanest crust around, using my Nana Elaine's recipe, and it's very good, it's true; however he doesn't appreciate it when other people (i.e., me) try to usurp the crown as family Pie Lord. But - a challenge is a challenge and so I set to work.
The vegan pie crust has to be made in advance and chilled for at least an hour. This recipe used a food processor which definitely cut down on the time spent cutting the margarine into the flour. However, it didn't get very "doughy" - it remained kind of globby and sticky, but I wrapped it up in plastic, threw it in the fridge, and hoped for the best. In the meantime, I peeled and chopped the mushrooms, onions, potatoes, celery and carrots that went into the pie filling. The flavouring was really simple - thyme, sage, and tamari, for which I substituted Bragg's Liquid Aminos. The filling was very very easy and quick to make, the sauce thickened up easily, and soon it was time to see how well this pie crust was going to roll out.
The answer is, not at all. Despite flouring up my cutting board and my rolling pin, the dough was still sticky and batter-like despite chilling for a good few hours in the fridge. I added a little flour, to no end, and ended up having to take globs of dough, stretch them by hand, and laying them patchwork-style on top of the pie filling. It got the job done, but it looked horrible, and my dreams of beautifully forked edges and a cute little leaf cut out on top were dashed. However, it still looked like a pie and I threw it in the oven for the 25 minutes required.
At the 25 minute mark, the dough still felt, well, doughy, and hadn't browned at all, and so I baked the thing for another 10 minutes. The dough baked up well enough but still didn't brown, but I decided to take it out anyway as I didn't want to risk burning the pie filling.
It looks awful, but it held together well and didn't taste half-bad.
Despite the awful looking top, the pie was delicious. The crust was just short enough - flaky but not tough - and the simple flavours of the pie didn't overpower the taste of the vegetables. I loved it! Gotta work on that crust though - I wouldn't serve tonight's pie to company, it looked like Frankenpie.
An offering to our guru.
Blueberry Dilip
Blueberry Dilip is described in the book as "not quite a crumble, not quite a crisp." I'd describe it more as an upside-down cake, as the batter goes in first, followed by the blueberries. I love blueberries but have some amazing looking blackberries in my fridge that I was dying to substitute - but I didn't (sigh), in the name of the challenge. Next time, Dilip, next time.
This was so, so, SO easy to make. I think it took 10 minutes, tops, although it had to bake for almost an hour. The recipe called for 4 cups of blueberries, and I used almost 5 (in order to use up the remaining berries I had), and the recipe didn't seem to hurt for it.
Berrytastic.
The Dilip was Dilip-icious. The berries had a delightful gingery taste (which was blended with the berries and sugar before being placed on top of the batter) - not too much, just a hint, which worked well with the blueberry flavour. The batter part was cakey and moist, and I enjoyed it more than a crumble topping. I will definitely be making this one again...with blackberries. Mwahahahaa...
