I had a pound of frozen ground beef that I slowly browned in a pot with 1/4″ water and a splash of bacon fat. This took about an hour. I reduced all the liquid so none of that wonderful beef flavour was lost. I only added a sprinkle of salt halfway through the cooking process.
I prefer the hot water crust recipe for savoury dishes, and I’m thinking of making individual meat tartlets with a fancy potato topping.
The crust takes about 15 minutes, 1 hour to chill, then 15-20 minutes to blind bake; the filling and topping will be made while the crust is resting.
Since the meat is already browned, I just need to make the mirepoix (15 minutes + 5 of prep), add the meat, add the other stuff, cook for 15 minutes.
In the middle of the mirepoix, I’ll be boiling the heck out of the peeled potatoes until they are super mushy, at least 20 minutes.
The potatoes take about 30 minutes to make, and then the final 30 minutes of baking.
This should be a straightforward 2 hour recipe, start to finish.
Hot water crust
Ingredients
- 200 ml warm water 1 cup
- 75 g unsalted butter 1/2 cup
- 75 g lard 1/2 cup
- 450 g all-purpose flour 3 cups
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Instructions
- Place the water, butter, and lard in a saucepan, heat gently until a low boil..
- Place flour and salt into a large bowl, and whisk in the egg and oil.
- Add the melted fat mixture, and stir together with a wooden spoon, or cut in with knives. Make sure to scrape the bowl while combining the dough.
- Gently knead for 1-2 minutes. You should end with a greasy dough that's smooth and shiny.
- Form a ball, cover with clingwrap, and chill for an hour.
- Let the dough come to room temperature.
- Optional - save 1/3 for the top portion if the pie will be covered.
- Roll the big part to 13" diameter to make a 9" deep-dish pie, or 3 x 6.5" or 2 x 8" pies.
- Place the pie tin up-side down in the middle of the rolled-out dough, and cut a circle with an extra 2-3 inches past the pie tin.
Blind bake - aka pre-cooked crust
- After transferring the crust to your pie tin, make the edges pretty - see below for tips on transferring, and fluting ideas.
- To perfectly size the parchment paper, take a big piece, fold in half, then fold in half the long way, and then keep folding the short corners together while keeping the middle of the sheet to the side. You should end up with a triangle. Hold the tip of the triangle over the centre of the pie crust, and cut around the edge to the same length as the interior of the pie crust. When you unfold the parchment paper, it should magically be very close to a perfectly-sized circle. This is known as a cartouche. Some pedantic people might say it's not. They're wrong.
- Cover with parchment paper and add some pie weights or an identical pie tin and weigh it down with something like a ramekin. Bake until the edges are lightly browned, Anywhere from 7-15 minutes at 375F. This depends a lot on the moisture content, and the thickness of the crust.
- NOTE - if the edges are getting much darker than the middle, make a "pie shield" by loosely covering the edge with aluminum foil. 3 pieces about 2-3 inches wide is usually sufficient. This slows down the cooking on the edge.
- Remove from the oven, remove the parchment paper and weights, and then dock the base of the crust. This will let any steam escape so the crust doesn't bubble up.
- Bake at 375F for around 15 more minutes, or until the top of the pie is golden brown.
Notes
- The amounts in the notes are slightly more than the metric, but are approximately the same ratios for flour-water-fat mixture.
- Check the edges of the pie crust after 20 minutes. If they are significantly more brown than the middle, cover with a pie shield, or gently wrap some aluminum foil around the outer edge of the pie.
- Optional - add up to 1/4 cup sugar if you want a sweet crust.
- Optional - beat an egg and wash the top crust before baking.
- The best way to transfer the crust is to start rolling the crust up with a rolling pin, stopping before you roll into a second layer on the pin, and pick up the entire pie crust. Move the crust into position with the rolling pin, and gently drape the crust over the pie tin.
- For fluting, trim the edge of the crust to about 1" past the edge, and fold the excess under so the border of the pie is thick. Make a pinching shape with thumb and index finger on one hand, and using a knuckle (or thumb) from your other hand, and go around the edge of the crust until you have the traditional wave design.
Duchess Potatoes
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Yukon gold or russet taters, peeled and chopped
- 1/4 cup melted, unsalted butter, divided
- 2 tbsp heavy cream 10% works
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
- 3 egg yolks
Instructions
- Boil the potatoes on high heat until very tender, approx 20 minutes.
- Drain very well.
- Using a masher and a lot of elbow grease, a ricer, or something creative like my masticating juicer, get the potatoes as smooth as possible. Bonus points for squishing the mash through a fine mech sieve.
- Add 1/2 the melted butter, and everything other than the eggs, and stir until well combined.
- Once cool, slowly stir in the egg yolks. We do not want to make scrambled eggs in our potatoes.
- Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip.
- Pipe rounds approx 2.5" wide and 2" tall on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Carefully brush with the remaining melted butter.
- Bake at 425F or until the edges are golden brown.
Notes
Shepherd’s Pie
Preheat oven to 400
On med-high heat, make 1 cup of mirepoix (onion, carrot, celery)
Add 2 minced garlic cloves
Add 1 lb ground meat, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp salt, cook until browned through.
sprinkle with 2 tbsp flour, toss to coat.
Add 2 tsp tomato paste (or ketchup), 1 cup stock/broth, 1 tsp Worcestershire, 1 tbsp total of aromatics (rosemary, thyme, etc).
Bring to boil, recude to simmer, cover 10-12 minutes until slightly thickened.
Optional add 1/2 cup corn kernels, 1/2 cup peas.
Spread evenly on blind-baked pie crust, then top with mashed potatoes.
Bake 25-ish minutes, until potatoes start to brown.
Let cool on a rack at least 15 minutes before serving.