In some of my earliest kitchen memories, I’m handed a pile of dough scraps to roll and cut into circles and stars. I glue them to shiny, sealed cakes with a little slippery egg wash – a small but meaningful contribution to our holiday cakes.
When I make pies now, I give the leftovers to my nephews, who, quite frankly, are just as entertained with lumps of raw puff pastry as they are with cans of foam and sand slime. They use cookie cutters to punch out some candy canes or place abstract shapes on the exact part of the cake they want to eat later.
The casual, communal preparation and ease of baking a single dish in the oven for dinner is part of why my family is still so drawn to savory pies during the holidays, whether it’s a Swiss chard pie. with leaves and stems, a pie of beet and beet greens in layers of phyllo, a rolled winter squash pie or a lentil-filled shepherd’s pie bubbling at the edges. (If you’re cooking with kids, you can encourage them to use a fork to create a pattern in the mashed potatoes before baking — a fun little job!)
Yotam Ottolenghi’s new pumpkin, leek and za’atar pie is great for anyone looking to get ahead of their holiday cooking. It tastes even better if you assemble it the day before and let the vegetables rest in the fridge for a day before baking. To prepare, roast butternut squash with maple syrup and cinnamon, then toss with cream cheese and feta. Sandwich that, along with sauteed leeks, spring onions and garlic, is mixed between two giant rectangles of puff pastry.
To turn that beauty, or one of these cakes, into a meal, I’d make this insalata verde, which Samin Nosrat adapted from New York restaurant Via Carota. With a simple dressing of shallots, sherry vinegar and mustard and a mix of leaves – butterhead lettuce, romaine lettuce, endive, watercress and frisée – it really goes with everything.
Beet and Beet Green Pie
Go to the recipe.
One more thing
If you want to bake something sweet for a crowd for breakfast or an afternoon snack, Sohla El-Waylly’s Giant Almond Croissant is a huge, efficient, and truly stunning way to go. Sohla adds a hint of rum to the frangipane, which you can make up to three days in advance and keep ready to use before placing on two sheets of puff pastry with some sliced almonds, just like a slice of pie. For the full almond croissant effect, don’t be afraid to bake it until the dough is well dark brown and crispy around the edges.
Thanks for reading Veggie. Happy holidays and see you next week!
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