the potential of pumpkin

I've written about pumpkin before. Like, pretty frequently, I realize. It's just that I love pumpkin so much, and I hadn't even fully comprehended that until maybe last year. Pumpkin pie was always my favorite, you see, but I had never realized the potential of pumpkin.


So, here's the deal: Thanksgiving is a matter of days away. The day after tomorrow, in fact. It seems a little silly to give you a Thanksgiving appropriate recipe so close to the holiday, but you know what? I'm okay with that. (There is also the recipe I was going to post last week, but hopefully Daniel will understand that pie takes a priority this week.)

I was worried about my vegan baking mojo, you see. There were these vegan peanut butter cookies attempted that never got past the crumble stage to become batter. But I've made this pie crust enough times at this point that I feel comfortable with it (thanks, Michael Ruhlman, and your ratios). And the filling was simply a matter of measuring and mixing.


The pie has to sit overnight, so if you are going to make it for any kind of Thanksgiving feast, make sure to make it - well - tomorrow, I guess. Unless you are doing like us and having a second Thanksgiving. (We call ours Friendsgiving. This will be our fourth annual one. I'm so excited! You'll almost certainly hear more about it.)

Because it has to chill, I kind of forgot about it. I know, even though there was an entire pie sitting in my refrigerator. So Daniel and I, celebrating nothing other than party Monday, ate pumpkin pie at approximately 11 PM. (Reclaiming Monday was a great idea, you know. You should all try it. Mondays are pretty awesome now.) And what a good decision that was. Granted, neither of us could finish the slices we had because we were so full from dinner, and there was a hint too much molasses in it, but still.

You can't really go wrong with pumpkin pie, no matter what time it is.


Vegan Pumpkin Pie
adapted from here

I would recommend decreasing the molasses a little bit, as it comes through quite strongly in the finished pie. I'm also sure you could use another kind of non-dairy milk if you'd prefer something other than rice milk. Enjoy!

CRUST
1 stick margarine, cold or frozen and cut into small pieces
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. ice water
pinch of salt

FILLING
2 c. pumpkin puree
1 c. rice milk
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/2 tbsp molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg

To make the crust, rub the cut-up pieces of margarine in the flour until you have pea-sized chunks. Slowly add in the ice water until the mixture becomes dough-like. Add in the pinch of salt. Knead until it comes together. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to roll out.

Mix together all the ingredient for the filling in a large bowl. Stir until blended completely.

Roll out your crust, if you haven't already. Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Pour the filling into the crust and bake for about ten minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350°F and bake for another 50 minutes. Let cool on a baking rack, then refrigerate overnight.

eat more pie

I do this thing, when I make a new dish, where I get really nervous it won't work out and then try to lower everyone's expectations regarding the dish. I start to fret, and then I voice my concerns, which are usually just "what if I messed something up."

After a trip to Pennsylvania, I came home with a bag full of apples, from the orchard next door to my grandparents' new (-ish) house. Pie was the obvious solution, but I am - confession time - not a big fan of pie. (Pumpkin pie is the exception. I love pumpkin pie so much.) I forget sometimes that other people kind of love pie. So when I asked Daniel if he wanted some of the pie I was planning on making, he answered, "Obviously," and I felt a little sheepish.



I'm not sure why I never got that into pie. I think it was something like raw fruits were fine, why would you bake them into a pastry? I know, I know. That's a weird thing to think. I recognize that.

Maybe it just took baking one myself. Because seriously, despite all that above, I kind of loved this pie. I stood in the kitchen eating pie out of the pan. Just a tiny slice, to see if it passed. Fresh from the oven. I served Daniel and Michael and hurried back to eat more pie.

The pie was gone by the end of the night.



Vegan Apple Pie
adapted from Ratio, by Michael Ruhlman

One of the best things about this pie is that it really highlights the apples. You know, like it should. The crust wasn't sweetened, in a serendipitous mistake. As Daniel said, "it's not like a sugar-punch to the face." It won over Michael, who is also not a big fan of pies. All in all, a winner.

Also, if you're not making this for a vegan audience, you can happily use butter. It should be noted, however, that I've made it both ways and I could not tell you which was more delicious.

3 medium-to-large apples
2 tbsp sugar
cinnamon
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
2 sticks margarine, cold or frozen
1/2 c. ice water
pinch of salt

Peel and chop your apples. I like to have small, bite-sized pieces in my pie, but feel free to chop to whatever size you desire! Place them in a medium-sized bowl and toss in the sugar and a couple shakes of cinnamon. Mix with your hands and let sit while you make the dough.

Measure out the flour into a large mixing bowl. Cut the butter into small pats and rub into the flour until you have even smaller pea-sized pieces. Slowly add in water until the mixture starts to become dough-like. Make sure not to overwork the dough - knead it just until it comes together. Split the dough into two.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

On a floured surface, roll out one chunk of dough. This will be your bottom crust. Go ahead and place the rolled out dough into your pie pan and remove the excess dough around the edges. Put the filling inside. Now comes the fun part: you can choose what kind of top crust you want. You could simply roll out the other chunk and have a plain crust (making sure to make some slits for the steam to escape), or you can make a lattice crust, which is what I did. For that, roll out the second chunk of dough - I did this a little at a time, so I didn't overwork the excess dough. Using a knife or a pastry cutter, cut some slices of dough. Place them on top of the filling, weaving them as you go.

When you're done, place the pie in the oven and bake until the crust is golden and flaky.

a stable foundation

Dear readers, it is time for me to admit what may have been obvious for some time: I am severely uninspired right now.

I'm not sure if it's that I've been doing this blog thing for over a year now, or that with the onset of summer I don't particularly want to turn my oven on, or maybe even the fact that this Thursday marks two years since I moved to DC. It's funny to think that two years have passed since I came here with only a duffel bag, relying on the generosity of friends. So much has changed since then.



Cooking is certainly one of those things, but luckily for me, my friends haven't really changed. The ways we interact with each other, sure; our relationships have not been static and continue to grow and change. It's just that underneath that we have a stable foundation. I know that I will be friends with these people for the rest of my life.

So when Daniel called me on a Friday night and said only, "Pot pie," I knew what to do. Well, okay, I knew what to do once we decided whose apartment to cook at (his, since he had all the veggies). It took us a while to actually get started, which meant we ate dinner around nine, but that sort of epitomizes summer, for me.



Here is another thing that hasn't changed in these two years in DC: I still get nervous when baking something new. Right up until we started eating, I was fretting that maybe the crust would be awful, or too buttery (I mean, there are two sticks of butter in that thing, which is kind of a lot), or just plain bad. It was not. It was pretty delicious, if I may say so myself. We even had it the next day for lunch.

Rustic Veggie Pot pie
adapted from Ruhlman's Ratio and a couple recipes from Joy of Cooking

for the dough
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 sticks butter
1/4 ice water (approx.)
pinch of salt

for the filling
(all of these should be about the same size)
1 medium-sized potato
carrots
broccoli
1 bag frozen peas
onion
garlic

for the sauce
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp a-p flour
1 cup milk
1 cup grated cheese (we used cheddar)

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

To make the dough, mix in the butter with the flour in a medium-sized mixing bowl, rubbing it in with your fingers. If you carefully read directions, you would have cold butter cut into small pieces. If you are like me, however, you will make small pieces with your fingers while mixing it in. And the butter will not be as cold as you realize it should be. Even if you are like me, this pie dough will turn out fine. Trust me. You should have pea-sized balls of butter, much like making scones. Slowly add the ice water, just a bit at a time, working the dough just until it comes together. Add the salt and work just a little bit more. Separate the dough into two equal pieces and refrigerate.

Because we're making a potpie, you'll need to blind bake your crust. Take one of the dough balls out of the refrigerator and roll it out. Place the dough in your pie tin, then line with aluminum foil and something to weighted - we used another, smaller pie tin, but you could use pie weights (which are made for this) or dried beans. Bake the crust for about 20 minutes. If you time it right, the other parts of the equation should be ready to go as well.

We did a quick saute of the vegetables, throwing them in based on how long they need to cook. So, in this order: potatoes, broccoli, carrots, peas, onion, garlic. You'll need a pretty big pot (or wok, which is what we used) to contain all of these, or I suppose you could use a couple different ones. Whatever works for you!

For the Mornay sauce, you'll start by making a roux, which just means you will melt the butter in a saucepan, then add in the flour. Stir the roux until it has blended together - this shouldn't take too long. Remove from heat and add in the milk, slowly. Once you add the milk, bring the pan back to a simmer, stirring constantly to prevent lumps from forming. Turn the heat down and slowly add the cheese in, while still stirring. When the cheese has melted, remove from heat.

Roll out the second ball of dough; this will be the top crust. Pour the vegetables into the bottom crust first, then the cheese sauce, and finally top with the crust. Carefully trim the edges of the top crust and make some slits for steam to escape.

Bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool, and enjoy!