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fall

Cool Nights call for Pot Pie: Quail & Chicken Pot Pie

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So, when the weather turns cooler, we break out the cool weather food. chicken & dumplins, pot roast, and of course, pot pies. I have a pretty excellent and easy pot pie recipe that I made on the reg, but since we had some leftover quail meat AND my mama had been teaching me about the ease that is bechamel sauce, I decided to spice things up a little. Enter this baby.

Not only was I able to pull it together in about 30 minutes (minus baking time) my mama lent her artistic talents to supper and covered the top in tiny, pretty leaves of crust.

If you don’t have quail, sub in a little extra chicken, and make SURE to serve it with sweet potatoes and butter beans. Happy fall, y’all!

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Cool Nights call for Pot Pie: Quail & Chicken Pot Pie
 
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Serves: 6
What You Need
  • FOR THE FILLING
  • 2 chicken breasts
  • Wings and Legs from 10 quail
  • 4½ Tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 4 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour
  • 1½ Cups Milk
  • ⅛ teaspoon dried Oregano
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • 1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables (onions, peas, carrots, celery), Thawed
  • 6 button mushrooms, sliced
  • FOR THE PIE
  • 1 package of premade pie crusts (2 crusts total)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tablespoons Milk
What to Do
  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Boil the chicken and quail until cooked all the way through
  3. Shred the chicken and pull the quail meat from the bone. Discard the bones.
  4. In a sauce pan, heat 4 Tablespoons of the butter until simmering, and whisk in the flour quickly
  5. Stir and let it bubble for about 1 minute while it thickens. Add in the milk a little at a time, stirring.
  6. Cook for about 2 more minutes to let the sauce thicken, then season with salt, pepper, and oregano.
  7. In a separate pan, heat ½ tablespoon of butter
  8. Add in the thawed vegetables and fresh mushrooms and sautee until softer but still slightly firm. Season with salt and pepper.
  9. Place one of the two pie crusts in a pie plate or deep, round casserole dish.
  10. In a mixing bowl, combine the chicken and quail meat and the vegetables, then pour the mixture into the casserole dish.
  11. Pour the Sauce over the top and allow to seep down.
  12. Cover with the second pie crust.
  13. In a small bowl, whisk the egg and the 2 tablespoons of milk to make a thin egg wash.
  14. Using a pastry brush, paint the top of your crust for a golden brown color.
  15. Bake the pie for at least 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and bubbling. If you find the top is turning TOO brown, cover with a piece of foil while it continues to bake.

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My Biscuit Quest Continues: Sweet Potato Biscuits

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A few weekends ago we were given an incredible gift of 60 degree weather in south Mississippi in early September (WHAT?) and it was heavenly. So heavenly, in fact, that I felt the urge to made pumpkin things… and drink coffee all day and crunch leaves underneath my feet.
I settled, however, for a picnic brunch with my family featuring venison sausage from our crazy generous friend John Mark and sweet potato biscuits (the often-overlooked yet most amazing autumn root vegetable). I’ve FINALLY unlocked the secret to flaky, fluffy biscuits, and the sweet potato just added a really lovely orange color to them, but I wouldn’t say that they had an overwhelming sweet potato taste. Do they finally allow me to leave-off my search for the perfect biscuit? Well, no… but only because I love the quest. If I were less interested in testing out new recipes, then these would definitely be a contender. See what you think!

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Tradition to Adopt: Stewed Okra and Tomatoes as a Thanksgiving side

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Its about time for me to share this recipe… although I made it back in early September with a HUGE, gigantic sack of okra a friend brought to us and the last of our garden’s tomatoes, it really would be a DELICIOUS Thanksgiving side dish. Also, most recipes I found call for frozen okra and canned tomatoes, so you really can make this year-round.

I’ve always thought of Thanksgiving as an important holiday for Americans to celebrate our “meltingpot” cultural heritage, and okra is an amazing food that does just that. Originating in modern-day Ethiopia, okra was most likely brought to our country by enslaved Africans (like most delicious southern food). It’s also called “gumbo” although it’s more likely that you’ve heard this word in context of soups thickened with okra rather than references to the vegetable itself. Aggie Horticulture writes of the name, “Both of these names are of African origin. ‘Gumbo’ is believed to be a corruption of a Portuguese corruption, quingombo, of the word quillobo, native name for the plant in the Congo and Angola area of Africa.” This dish definitely has its roots in the Cajun and Creole traditions of the south… plus, a version of stewed okra and tomatoes recipe found in Indian cuisine as well. What’s more meltingpot than a vegetable and recipe that immigrated to the US from multiple parts of the world? Definitely a contender for a new Thanksgiving side dish tradition.
Confession: Okra’s hairy-sliminess isn’t always palatable to me… but this recipe breaks down the okra and makes it a smooth texture, plus the flavor of it and the tomatoes comes out beautifully. My grandmother used to make this and for a long time it was the ONLY way I’d eat this vegetable.

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