Going Deep Dish

With all the food shopping we did yesterday, I decided to make dinner using apples. To that end, I whipped up Beef and Apple Deep Dish Pie. It's not tremendously difficult but it is very time consuming.

The idea is to put beef stew in a doughy home. You season flour with cinnamon, mace, ginger, and pepper and then roll your stew meat in it and brown. Then sauté some onion. I used a Spanish onion that we'd bought at the orchard. Eating a couple slices of it raw was a real treat. My tongue was bathed in their tremendous sweetness and they were very juicy as well. These were the watermelons of the onion family. I threw in some bell pepper because our garden gave us a bounty of them. Once they're about done, pitch in the rest of your seasoned flour and cook so you have a bit of roux. Next, throw in the meat, vegetables, and your liquid – beef stock and red wine.



You end up with a simple stew which goes in a pie crust. My pie crust making ability is for shite. I prefer using lard but opted for vegetable shortening this time 'round as per The Dulcinea's request. I cut the shortening in with two forks and added water just a wee bit at a time but I couldn't get a ball to form by stirring so I ended up using my hands. I don't know why the ability to make good pastry dough eludes me so.

Here's a diagram showing pastry doughs at the molecular level courtesy of Harold McGee:



The middle section was what I was going for – flakiness. The upper half shows fat surrounding flour in an uncooked state while the lower bit is after baking. Last night I had to add a little extra water to get it to form a ball and perhaps this was too much. Resting the dough in the refrigerator not only lets the fats solidify again but it also gives the water time to distribute itself in the dough. I guess I just added to much because my dough wasn't as flakey as it ought to have been. Excess water causes the dough bits to stick instead of separate giving a nice light flakiness.

My failings aside, the recipe calls for a two quart dish. I lined one with dough and put my stew inside.



Then top it off with apple slices.



Here is it with a steam hole ready to get thrown into the oven.



I completely for got to egg wash the top and did so in a hurry by simply opening the over door and pulling the rack out a bit.



Hence the blotchy browning above. So, how did it turn out?



Well, aside from my rib-sticking crust it turned out on the mediocre side. What looks essentially like a big mess tasted good. It's just that it never bloody thickened! And I must remember to put more salt in the stew next time. Plus more apples. I really fucked it up now that I think about it. I definitely want to try this again with some modifications or, rather, additions. This will make a hearty meal come winter.