Salmon Pot Pie

Pot Pie

It’s getting colder. And darker earlier. And the economy isn’t booming yet. This is a time when many of us seek the satisfaction of comfort foods. One of my favorites is pot pie, from the first forkful cutting into crust to the last bite of filling moistened with thick, savory gravy.

Say what you will about mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese – both fine go-tos when you’re feeling low – pot pie is a wonder of texture, with its crispy top, soft inner chunks and creamy sauce.

It offers a world of flavor choices too. Chicken, turkey or beef, or any kind of meat, come to think of it. Or no meat at all. Consider Amish ham pot pies and Bisteeya, the glorious pigeon pies of Morocco. I’ve also made salmon, scallop and halibut pot pies crammed with lots of vegetables and other low-fat ingredients. And I’ve cooked rich, cream-infused, high-calorie lobster pot pies spiked with sherry.

Many years ago my husband and I decided to go on a pot pie binge. We bought nearly all the frozen brands we could find and each of us ate one for dinner at least once a week. Swanson (which produced the first frozen chicken pot pie in 1951). Morton. Stouffer’s. Banquet. Marie Callender’s. Store brands. We also tried fresh “home-made-store-bought” versions (an interesting marketing concept if ever there was one). We judged each on the crust (its flavor and whether it was crispy or greasy) as well as saltiness, the ratio of meat to vegetables, whether there was enough – or too much – sauce.

I’d sampled dozens of pot pies and got the hang of what we liked before I began making my own, the first ones a conglomeration of chopped leftovers mixed with undiluted canned soup, topped with quick-and-easy drop biscuits made from Bisquick. It was a start.

Then I got serious and started preparing pot pies from scratch. Once we tasted these there was no going back.

There’s a lot to be said for from-scratch pot pie. It means no more salt overload. No MSG or others in a long list of chemical additives. More of the meat and vegetables we like. Cauliflower if we choose, or sweet potato. Chicken plus ham. Tofu if we prefer that to meat.

Pot pie takes some steps and that takes some time. It’s not a quickie 15 minute fix. But you can prepare it in parts. Make it and bake it later. Freeze it. There are options.

All pot pie recipes consist of three parts: filling, sauce and crust. It’s a one-dish meal -- think of it as a casserole with a pastry cover – and almost any ingredient that you eat at dinner can be part of the filling, including meats (poultry, fish, shellfish and so on), vegetables of all sorts (such as carrots, peas, parsnips, leeks, onions, turnips, corn, artichoke hearts, mushrooms and so on), and potatoes or sweet potatoes, but also tortellini and gnocchi and other sturdy starches. It’s a good way to make tasty use of leftovers – think about this when you’re faced with the remains of the holiday turkey -- but you can start from scratch too, broiling chicken breasts or beef for the recipe, if you wish.

The sauce is based on a roux, which is made by heating butter or another fat with flour, then adding a liquid, typically stock, wine, milk or cream (but I’ve also used juice and cider) and cooking the mixture until the sauce thickens enough to bind the solid ingredients. Nothing else is essential, although a few fresh herbs would enhance flavor.

Several types of pastry are suitable for the crust. Most typical is pie dough, and you can prepare the dish as a two-cruster, but I prefer it with a top only. It takes less time and there’s no soggy bottom. Fewer calories too.

Packaged pie dough is fine. So is frozen puff pastry, but roll it slightly to make it thinner. Phyllo sheets are another good option; use four sheets, each separated with brushed-on melted butter and a scattering of bread crumbs. Or make biscuit dough and spoon blobs of it on top of the filling before you bake the pie. Or sprinkle the top with a savory streusel crust (combining bread crumbs, cheese, butter and herbs). Some cooks even cover pot pie with mashed potatoes, but then it’s really Shepherd’s pie.

Historians tell us that pot pies were known as far back as the Middle Ages. An English recipe from 1685 (the same year that composers Bach and Handel were born) mentions a chicken and chestnut pie seasoned with nutmeg and orange. The pies were also popular during American colonial times and remain so today. Good recipes endure for generations, the best ones, like pot pie, for centuries.