Leek and Sausage Pie
1 recipe Tart Dough (use your favorite or see below)
2-4 spiced sausages (ca. 200 g) (good quality fresh bratwurst* works very well - ask your butcher - or thin Italian Salsiccia)
*THIS:
But NOT this:
4-5 cups (ca. 200 g) leeks (5-7 leeks, depending on size), cut into thin rings**
2 tablespoons butter (30 g) or good quality oil
1/2 cup (125 ml) white wine or water
1/2 tsp salt (or less, depending on the sausage)
Pepper to taste
2 eggs
1 cup (240 g) cream or (225 g) crème fraiche
2-3 tblsp. good quality smooth or coarse mustard (such as Dijon or L'Ancienne)
3 ounces (90 g) grated cheese (Provolone works well)
2 tblsp. chives, sliced into narrow rings
Prepare the tart dough and prebake it. Remove from oven and let cool while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
Wash the leeks thoroughly in a colander. I find it best to do this after slicing them to get that stubborn gritty sand out between the layers. **I also use the light green parts and the neon green (you'll have to discard some outer layers to get to these) in addition to the white parts.
Melt the butter or oil in a non-stick pan. Remove the sausage casings and crumble the insides, the sausage meat, into the pan and fry it until brown. Remove the sausage.
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| cooking wine of champions |
Preheat the oven to 375oF/190oC). Beat the eggs and stir in the cream or créme fraiche, mustard, leeks and grated cheese, leaving a small handful of cheese to scatter over the top of the pie with the chives before baking.
Bake the pie in the middle of the oven until golden brown on top (20-30 minutes). Let sit for at least 5 minutes before slicing.
*****
If you've never made a pie crust this way, I recommend it. Working the dough with the hands is a great sensory experience - Samantha would surely make her pie crusts by hand.
Tart Dough
1 cup (ca. 110 g) unbleached white flour2 generous pinches of salt
4 tblsp. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1-1/2 tblsp. vegetable shortening (can use all butter instead)
2-3 tblsp. ice water (put an ice cube with a small amount of water in a small bowl)
Combine flour and salt in a bowl. Add butter and shortening. Work the mixture with your hands, rubbing the fat and flour together until everything is well distributed. Cold butter is easier to work with than softened butter. The mixture should feel crumbly. Add the water, sprinkling a few drops at a time, working it into the flour with your fingers. The dough should begin to come together when you've added enough water. Form the dough into a ball. Gather any stray dry ingredients with a few more drops of water and incorporate them into the dough ball. Do not overwork - this is not a pizza crust! Flatten into a disk and cover with plastic wrap or waxed paper and let rest in the refrigerator for about half an hour. If it rests longer, it may need to warm for a few minutes before being rolled out.
Flour the work surface. Put the disk onto a floured work surface and sprinkle a little flour on top. Roll out to desired size - it should be less than 1/2 inch thick - just a wee bit thicker on the sides than the bottom. Roll the tart dough onto the rolling pin and place in the tart form. I use a removable tart pan that makes it easier to slice when ready. Prebake the tart dough after freezing in a preheated oven (425oF/215oC) for 8 to 10 minutes until it just begins to color. Can be prebaked without freezing by lining with foil and using dried beans as weights to keep the bottom from blistering unevenly.
photo credit: Kai Hendry via photopin
photo credit: artizone via photopin cc
photo credit: ReeseCLloyd via photopin cc
