Chez Louis Potato Pie Food

CHEZ LOUIS POTATO PIE

Steps:

• Peel the potatoes. There should be about four and one-half pounds when peeled. Drop the potatoes into cold water until ready to cook.
• Bring enough water to the boil to cover the potatoes when they are added. Add salt to taste. Add the potatoes and cook 25 minutes, or until they are slightly undercooked. They will cook later in the oven.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
• Drain the potatoes and put them in a large heavy skillet. Sprinkle generously with pepper and add 16 tablespoons of butter. Using a large heavy spoon, cut the potatoes haphazardly into chunks, each about two inches thick. Let them cook 12 to 15 minutes, turning the pieces over and over so that they brown evenly.
• Meanwhile, heat a large heavy skillet (preferably a 12-inch, No. 10, black-iron skillet) until it is hot and almost smoking.
• Melt the remaining eight tablespoons of butter in a saucepan and pour it into the skillet. Immediately, add the potato mixture and flatten it on top with a large, heavy metal spoon. Let cook over moderately high heat for three minutes. Place the skillet in the oven and bake 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and pour off the free butter from around the sides, taking care not to let the potatoes fall from the skillet. This butter may be recycled and put to other uses, such as scrambling eggs, etc.
• Cover the skillet with a heat-proof round dish, such as a pizza pan. Invert the skillet onto the pan, allowing the potatoes to fall evenly on the pan.
• Place the pan in the oven and bake 15 minutes longer. Pour off any free-flowing butter from the pan.
• Carefully slide the pie from the pizza or other pan onto a round serving dish. Sprinkle the garlic into a circle in the center of the pie; garnish around the circle of garlic with an outer circle of chopped parsley.

SWEET POTATO PIE

Steps:

• In a one-gallon saucepot heat one quart of vegetable oil to 350 degrees F.
• To make the dough, mix the flour, salt, and sugar together and cut in the margarine by hand to create a coarse cornmeal texture. Then add the water until it is tacky. Roll the dough into a ball. Cut dough into ten equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough out on a floured surface to a diameter of 6-inches and about 1/8-inch thick. Set aside until you are ready to fill the dough.
• To make the filling, first peel the sweet potatoes. Then large dice the potatoes and put in a medium size saucepot. Add water to cover potatoes and bring to boil. Potatoes are done when fork tender.
• When sweet potatoes are finished boiling, drain well. In a food processor, while still hot, add the potatoes, margarine, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and sugar. Mix on medium speed until smooth.
• To assemble pies, put 1/4 cup of the filling in the center of a dough circle. Fold over in half and seal with water. Crimp edges with a fork to completely close. Place pies in oil once the temperature has reached 350 degrees F. (If temperature is below 350 degrees F the oil will absorb the margarine in the pie dough and cause it to be excessively greasy.) Pie should be cooked in 7 to 8 minutes and will have a golden brown color.

MELTY CHEESE & POTATO PIE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Tip the potatoes into a pan of cold water, bring up to the boil and cook for 2 mins. Drain well, tip back into the saucepan and mix with the crème fraîche. Season, sprinkle over the nutmeg and set aside.
• Dust your work surface with flour, roll the first block of pastry to a circle about 28cm wide and place on a baking tray. Arrange a third of the potatoes in the middle of the pastry, then sit the cheese on top. Pile the rest of the potato around the cheese, leaving a 1cm border at the edge of the pastry.
• Roll the remaining pastry out to a circle about 30cm wide, dusting with more flour if needed. Brush the edges of the pastry on the tray with egg, then drape over the larger circle and seal the sides well, crimping as you go round. A tight seal is important to stop the cheese escaping.
• Brush all over with egg and lightly score a spiral into the pastry with the back of a knife. Bake the pie for 30 mins until golden brown and puffed up. As soon as the pie comes out of the oven, glaze with a little more egg and leave to cool for 5 mins.
• Meanwhile, whisk the shallot, mustard, vinegar and oil together. Place the chicory in a bowl and toss with the dressing. Serve the pie cut into oozy wedges, with the salad on the side.

CHICKEN POT PIE

Steps:

• Put the chicken legs and thighs plus the bony parts of chicken in a kettle and add cold water to cover. Bring to the boil and let simmer about one minute. Drain.
• Put 16 cups of water in a clean kettle and add the chicken pieces. Add the leek, bay leaves, two cups of the chopped onions and the celery. Cover and cook, skimming the surface often, to remove excess fat, foam and scum, about 15 minutes.
• Using a pair of tongs, remove the legs and thighs from the kettle. Let cool. Meanwhile, let the stock with the necks and backs continue to cook, skimming the surface as necessary.
• When the legs and thighs are cool enough to handle, remove and set aside the meat from the bones. Discard the skin. There should be about six cups of chicken meat. Toss the bones back into the kettle and cook one hour longer.
• Strain the broth, discarding the solids. Put three cups of the broth into a saucepan, saving the remaining broth for other uses. Add the cream to the broth and bring to the boil. Cook 10 or 15 minutes or until reduced to three and one-half cups.
• Meanwhile, slowly melt eight tablespoons of butter over gentle heat. Skim off the surface foam and carefully pour the clear center liquid into a cup. This is clarified butter. There should be about six tablespoons of the clarified butter. Pour this into a mixing bowl and add the flour. Stir to blend. Bring broth with the cream to the boil. Gradually add the blended flour and butter, stirring constantly with a wire whisk. Add the bottled hot sauce, lemon juice and salt to taste. Cook five minutes.
• Heat the remaining six tablespoons of butter in a wide, heavy skillet and add the shallots. Cook briefly, stirring. Add the remaining cup of onions, the carrots and the mushrooms and cook three minutes, stirring. Add the six cups of chicken meat. Cook, stirring occasionally, about three minutes.
• If fresh peas are used, drop them into boiling water and cook 30 seconds. Drain. If frozen peas are used, put them into a sieve and hold them under the hot water faucet about 15 seconds. Drain. Add the thickened sauce to the chicken and mushroom mixture. Stir in the peas. Blend thoroughly.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Ideally, you should use six oven-proof earthenware pot-pie dishes measuring about five and one-half inches in diameter. Spoon equal portions of the creamed chicken into the dishes, piling each portion up slightly.
• Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface to an eighth-inch thickness. Using a round lid measuring about six and one-half inches in diameter, cut out six rounds to cover the tops of the pot-pie dishes.
• Brush around the perimeter of each round of pastry with beaten egg to make a one-inch egg-brushed margin. Brush around the outside top of each pot-pie dish about one-inch deep with beaten egg. Invert one egg-brushed round of dough over each filled pot-pie dish. Let the dough drape down all around the sides of each dish. Press the edges of the pastry against the upper side of each dish to seal firmly. Brush the top and sides of the pastry covers with more egg.
• Arrange the dishes on a baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake about 25 minutes or until the pastry topping is puffed and nicely browned.