Turkey Pot Pie
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Another multiple day effort for our ready-to-eat frozen food project. We ended up with 28 pot pies for the freezer, 4 shepherd's pies, and a bunch of Turkey stock. The week before Thanksgiving, while turkeys were plentiful and inexpensive, Steve and I made a bunch of individual serving pot pies from a 20 pound turkey roasted just for that purpose. |
One: Roast a Turkey
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Day 1: We roasted a 20 pound turkey for this project. Seasoned simply with salt & pepper.
Two: Make Pie Crusts
Day 1: While the turkey roasted, Steve made the pie crusts using the recipe at King Arthur flour's website here. He made enough for 8 x 2 crust pies.
Crusts were layered with wax paper and frozen when completed. |
Golden brown perfection - freezer to oven to table convenience. Delicious!
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Three: Make Turkey Stock
After the turkey roasted all day, I pulled all the meat off and made a whopping 2.5 gallons of Turkey stock which cooked overnight.
Stock Ingredients:
Stock Ingredients:
- 4 medium carrots (from the garden, roughly chopped)
- 2 medium-large onions, peeled and roughly chopped)
- 1 bunch parsley from garden, stems and all
- 5 stalks of celery, roughly chopped
- 2 t peppercorns
- 1 T salt
- 7 cloves garlic, roughly peeled and chopped
- 7 medium-small Serrano chilies, roughly chopped, seeds and all (from our garden)
- 2.5 gallons of water
- Bones from Turkey
Put all ingredients in pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat as low as possible and cook for 10-13 hours. Strain stock well, and quick-chill to use half of it in the stew. Use half of the stock in the Turkey Stew. The remaining stock was used to prepare our Thanksgiving dinner - I cooked the giblets in some of it and that got thickened and became my gravy base. We also got in a small pot of won-ton soup with some of our frozen won-tons. Not a drop wasted!
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Four: Make Turkey Stew
Huge pot with 4 gallons of heavenly turkey stew. I don't need a crystal ball to predict many meals in our future!
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Stew Ingredients:
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Preparation:
Season each item with salt and pepper as it is cooked:
1) In 1 stick melted butter, cook onions and celery over medium-high heat in Panzilla (our name for our huge 13" inside top diameter cast iron skillet). Cook until moisture has evaporated and vegetables are soft, approximately 15 minutes. Put onions and celery in 5 gallon stock pot to make stew with 1 gallon of stock, and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and hold until the rest of the vegetables are cooked (steps 2 and 3), then turn up pot to medium, add potatoes to stew and return pot to boil. Cook potatoes until just done (approximately 14 minutes).
2) Cook mushrooms in 1/2 stick of butter until all moisture has evaporated and mushrooms are cooked, about 10 minutes. Remove and set aside in large bowl.
3) Cook carrots in 1/2 stick of butter for 5 minutes, then add red bell pepper and cook until both vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside in the large bowl with mushrooms.
4) Make gravy: If you don't have pan drippings, use additional stock. If you already have gravy, use that, otherwise, add pan drippings to Panzilla and bring to a boil to make the gravy base. Make a roux with flour and water in quart size jar and shake well. Thicken pan drippings by whisking in about half of the roux (poured through a sieve to keep the lumps out), and add to pot with stew mixture. Whisk in remaining roux to stew and cook until thickened, stirring frequently to keep bottom from sticking. When thickened, add turkey, reserved cooked vegetables and frozen peas. Stir to combine and remove from heat. Cool before assembling pot pies.
Season each item with salt and pepper as it is cooked:
1) In 1 stick melted butter, cook onions and celery over medium-high heat in Panzilla (our name for our huge 13" inside top diameter cast iron skillet). Cook until moisture has evaporated and vegetables are soft, approximately 15 minutes. Put onions and celery in 5 gallon stock pot to make stew with 1 gallon of stock, and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and hold until the rest of the vegetables are cooked (steps 2 and 3), then turn up pot to medium, add potatoes to stew and return pot to boil. Cook potatoes until just done (approximately 14 minutes).
2) Cook mushrooms in 1/2 stick of butter until all moisture has evaporated and mushrooms are cooked, about 10 minutes. Remove and set aside in large bowl.
3) Cook carrots in 1/2 stick of butter for 5 minutes, then add red bell pepper and cook until both vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside in the large bowl with mushrooms.
4) Make gravy: If you don't have pan drippings, use additional stock. If you already have gravy, use that, otherwise, add pan drippings to Panzilla and bring to a boil to make the gravy base. Make a roux with flour and water in quart size jar and shake well. Thicken pan drippings by whisking in about half of the roux (poured through a sieve to keep the lumps out), and add to pot with stew mixture. Whisk in remaining roux to stew and cook until thickened, stirring frequently to keep bottom from sticking. When thickened, add turkey, reserved cooked vegetables and frozen peas. Stir to combine and remove from heat. Cool before assembling pot pies.
Oven Ready - Single Serving Turkey Pot Pie - a whopping 18.5 ounces each. Ready to cook or wrap and freeze for later.
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Five: Make & Freeze the Pies
Remove pie crusts from freezer about an hour before you are ready to assemble the pies. Press bottom crust carefully into pan, fill with cooled stew and cover with top crust. Tuck upper crust edges under lower crust and press closed with a fork all the way around the pie.
This recipe made 28 individual pot pies (large 18.5 ounces each) in recyclable tin foil "mini loaf pan" 5-23/32" x 3-5/16" x 1-7/8"). One pie is a very big meal, and would serve two people if you had a side salad or vegetable. |
Six: Bonus Shepherd's Pies and Stock
After all of the pies were assembled, and the left-over dough re-rolled once, there was quite a bit of stew left. The problem was solved by making 4 shepherd's pies for the freezer in foil loaf pans. The pans were filled approximately 2/3 full with turkey stew, covered well and frozen until after Thanksgiving. Then, the pies were filled with leftover mashed potatoes and sealed tightly and returned to the oven.
We used the excess stock for some lovely won-ton soup and as the basis for the Turkey gravy on Thanksgiving.
In all, our freezer is well stocked which gives me even more to be thankful for this time of year.
We used the excess stock for some lovely won-ton soup and as the basis for the Turkey gravy on Thanksgiving.
In all, our freezer is well stocked which gives me even more to be thankful for this time of year.
©2014 Laura Delanty, Wife With A Knife - All Rights Reserved
