I went downstairs to my building's basement grocery to grab a bag of dried cranberries for a last-minute cranberry sauce... and the one time I actually need cranberries, the store isn't stocking them. Well, fuck. Dinner is at 7 (the pot pie is currently baking), so I'll make do with just my pot pie, my cakes, and my pumpkin. Poor me, right? It's a simple Thanksgiving this year, folks: no stuffing, no sweet-potato casserole, no mashed potatoes, no green beans, no creamed corn, no dinner rolls, and no pecan pie. Alas.
Here's Adam Witt again, one of the few YouTube cooks who understands that a real pot pie has to have a bottom crust. None of that top-crust-only bullshit that even some of the YouTube cooks I like will try to pass off as "real" pot pie.
You don't want to make a cranberry sauce with dried cranberries anyway--you need fresh or frozen for that. I mean, I suppose you could use dried cranberries if you had nothing else, but it wouldn't be ideal. Have you made it with dried cranberries before?
ReplyDeleteI do agree that a pot pie should have pastry all around, but I have made chicken or other stews with a pastry cover. This is better if the "filling" is quite liquid, as the bottom pastry would just end up being mush in that case.
I had a deconstructed chicken and leek pie on top of Mt Cairngorm in Scotland where they solved the mushy pastry problem by giving me a chicken and leek stew with a separate crispy, fluffy pastry pillow. I will admit it was a bit weird, and not what I expected, but I was tired and hungry. It turned out to be quite good.
Anyway, happy Thanksgiving!
I'll find the post from a couple Thanksgivings ago in which, as kind of a desperation move, I fumbled around for a dried-cranberry sauce recipe... and it worked out great! I was surprised and have used the recipe ever since, which is why the lack of dried cranberries took me aback today. I'll find the post, and I'll also slap up a link to the sauce recipe itself. Not this year, alas.
ReplyDeleteAdam Witt on the bottom crust for pot pie: The pie filling shouldn't be soupy, especially after the pie has had a chance to cool down. That's how you end up with a soggy bottom crust. I agree. Not that I mind that kind of crust: it's more like eating chicken and dumplings.
Here's the 2023 post where I first made this recipe.
DeleteHere's the recipe itself. Probably too sweet for your taste, but I loved it, and this is now my go-to recipe for cranberry sauce (but I'm not against making it the old-school way).
Yeah, that looks like it would definitely be too sweet for me, especially since dried cranberries are already sweetened. I have a recipe at home somewhere for sauce with frozen cranberries that is more tart than sweet, but that's how I like it.
DeleteI like a good stew, so more often than not I will make that and then throw a pastry cover on top for the textural difference. I'm fine with not calling that a pot pie. Call it a "pastry-top stew" instead.