Attempted Veggie Pot Pie
I wanted to make a chicken pot pie, yet by the time I printed out the instructions and was checking my fridge for ingredients, I realized I was all out of chicken. For some reason the urge to cook always hits me right before my mom restocks the fridge. It's like she suddenly realizes we're all out of non-Asian veggies (the fridge always always has at least 6 types of vegetables so Asian that they don't even have bastardized English names) and various cuts of meat only when I'm rooting around and getting frustrated. Nothing irritates me more than seeing a fridge full of green but utterly devoid of scrumptious red meat. I love my greens and all, but I don't like the idea of having to eat only greens, ya know? I love being an omnivore. Anyhow, thank god I found a small bag of frozen mixed vegetables.
I've always been terrible at following directions exactly (which is why I rarely bake). For cooking, it's not necessarily out of laziness, but out of lack of ingredients. Fennel bulb? By the time my mom realized we could dig up the plant in the backyard, it was too old and tough. Squash? We have the Asian kind, but they wouldn't grow this year. But then again the beauty of cooking is that you can substitute and take out as much as you want, as long as it's still to your liking.
I adapted two recipes: one from Ina Garten (of the Barefoot Contessa show on Foodnetwork), and one from allrecipes.
The pie crust I made first, since it said to let it sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes. As a new cook, I work dreadfully slow so that's alright with me. I messed up on the crust, but whatever. I just punched the whole thing down into the pot pie and it was all good. I never liked thick crusts on my pot pies anyways. It may have been using butter spread instead of actual butter and having that mess up my measurements.
I wanted to use up the butter spread first, so I dumped three big spoonfuls into the pan, and then the diced onions in. Then came the flour, and it turned into strange looking dull yellow clumps of nasty flour smell. It looked rather unappealing, I'll tell you that. I used 1 1/2 cans of chicken stock only (didn't even know what was Pernod, and too cheap to use the saffron). I was good about actually tending to the stove, so nothing was overcooked or overflowed. It thickened up wonderfully, and I wasn't sure if I even needed to add the heavy cream but I did anyways. Added the mixed veggies in and let it simmer while I tried (and failed) to roll out the dough.
It didn't taste bad at all, though I still would have liked the chicken to be in there. I mean, with all that butter and cream, there's no way you can possibly trick yourself into thinking "Well there's all these veggies, so it's healthy!" Not that moderate amounts of chicken meat isn't healthy.