Key limes are delicious, but are also a little bit of a pain. They are tiny, fiddly little limes that you have to endlessly squeeze just to eek out a modest amount of juice. Good luck if you have a paper cut or a hangnail.
Read moresteak & wine pie
This is an excellent dinner for a quiet and lazy weekend, when you have a bit of time. There is nothing difficult to make, but there is a lot of pastry-chilling-in-the-fridge time and beef-slowly-bubbling-away-on-the-stovetop time. It’s perfect to put together over two days, making the pastry on the first day and then cooking and assembling the pie on the second day. The filling can be made in advance too, though I do like to create some dinner anticipation by smelling it on the stove for a few hours on the afternoon before you eat it.
If you want to make two pies so you can have one now and save one for later, double the filling and use all the pastry. The pie can be assembled and baked and then frozen, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap for a less quiet and lazy time, when you need a comforting emergency meal.
rough puff pastry
from Bake!: Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking
1 1/4 cups cold butter
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
a big pinch of salt
2/3 cup cold water
Chop one cup of butter into small cubes. Put them in the freezer.
In a food processor, combine 1/4 cup butter, 2 cups flour and salt. Pulse until combined evenly.
Add cold butter cubes and pulse twice very quickly. The butter will be in large chunks and not incorporated. Add about half the water and pulse very quickly again. Add more water if the mixture is still very dry. The dough will not come together or form a ball.
Dump the contents of the food processor onto a work surface and roughly squish together. Roll dough out into a rectangle, dusting with flour as needed to prevent sticking. It will be crumbly and uncooperative at first, don't worry. Fold the short edges of the rectangle into the centre so they overlap. Roll out again into a rectangle and repeat this folding (check out this helpful video to see how). Wrap the dough tightly in cling wrap and chill.
Note: this recipe make twice as much as you will need for one pie. Wrap extra tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for another use.
filling:
1 pound stewing beef, beef shin or any other slow cooking cut you like, cut into 1” cubes
6 or 7 large stalks of celery, sliced
6 or 7 large carrots, sliced
1 large yellow onion, sliced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
3 tbs flour
3 cups beef stock
1 ½ cups red wine
2 tbs neutral vegetable oil
1 pound small red or white potatoes, pierced with a fork
Sear the beef over medium-high heat in vegetable oil, making sure all the sides get browned. Remove and set aside. Add carrots and celery and cook until fragrant and the celery is translucent, but the vegetables are still fairly crisp. Remove carrots and celery and set aside.
Add onion and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent. Sprinkle with flour and add stock and wine and beef. Bring everything to a boil and then reduce heat to a low simmer. Cook until the meat is very tender, nearly falling apart, about 2 hours. While the meat is cooking, boil the potatoes in a large pot of water until they are tender when stabbed gently with a fork. Drain and roughly slice. Once meat is very tender, add vegetables back in. Spread filling in a 9” x 13” casserole dish.
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out ½ the pastry to the size of the top of the casserole dish. Score lightly across the top and lay over the top of the filling. Brush with a beaten egg mixed with a little water for a shiny and deep gold finish.
Bake until pastry is flaky and golden and the filling is bubbling, about 25-30 minutes.
strawberry raspberry rhubarb slab pie
Slab pie is highly transportable. I made this one to take on a camping trip and it stood up to the journey beautifully. I made it two days before the trip and wrapped it, still in the pan, in several layers of plastic wrap. Then I stuck it in bag and put a bunch of other food on top (only light things like potato chips to avoid crushing) and hauled it off to our campsite. It survived being wedged between tents and coolers in the back of a car. I think that sitting around for a couple days actually improved it and helped the filling set up so that you can easily slice pieces that hold together. I highly recommend it for any summery, sitting-on-a-blanket-on-the-grass type activities you have planned for August. All you need is a knife to cut slices, plates and forks are optional.
The pastry I used is from a Bon Appetit recipe and it's a bit different that other pie doughs. It has almond flour and a couple egg yolks in it, which I hadn't seen before. I have made it a bunch of times with various different fillings since the sour cherry pie recipe came out two years ago in Bon Appetit, and it has never failed. It always comes out perfectly flaky and it never gets tough. I know every pie dough recipe everywhere makes claims to be the magical, never tough, perfect, easy dough. But this is really it. Just try to mess it up, I bet you can't.
Equipment note: I used a quarter bun pan, or a 9" x 13" jelly roll pan. These pans have a 1" high side and they are just the right size to hold a standard pie crust and filling.
crust:
adapted from Bon Appetit
- ⅓ cup almond flour
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 big pinch salt
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chilled butter, cut into pieces (my butter was not chilled, doesn't seem to matter too much)
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1/4 cup cold water
Combine almond flour, granulated sugar, salt, all-purpose flour and butter in a food processor and pulse until mixture is just combined and has a sandy texture. Combine egg yolks and water and drizzle them over the flour mixture. Pulse until just combined. Add a few drops more water if the dough isn't coming together.
Dump the dough out onto a large sheet of plastic wrap and squish it into a rectangle. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill for at least two hours.
filling:
adapted from Martha Stewart
- 5 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
- 1 cup chopped strawberries
- 1 cup raspberries
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
assembly:
Cut chilled dough into two pieces, one slightly larger than the other, about 2/3 for one piece and 1/3 for the other. Roll out the larger piece into a rectangle slightly larger than your pan so that dough hangs over the edge when you lay the dough sheet over the pan. Roll out the smaller piece the same size as the pan. Cut vents into the dough with a knife or cut little circles out with a piping tip.
Spread the fruit filling over the dough in the pan and cover it with the top sheet of dough. Fold over the overhang and press the dough together to seal.
Brush the top of the pie with heavy cream and sprinkle generously with sanding sugar if you like. Bake at 375°F for about an hour. If the crust browns too quickly tent it with foil.
Let cool for at least two hours before serving.
Photos by Tyrel Hiebert