Butter Pie Dough
This simple, extraordinary all-purpose pie dough recipe from the minds at Metropolitan Market and Cairnspring Mills can be used in both your sweet and savory baking.
Ingredients:
2½ cups Cairnspring Mills Edison all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon sea salt
14 tablespoons cold butter (salted or unsalted), cut into tablespoon-size pieces
½ cup ice water, plus 1 to 2 tablespoons more, as needed
Method:
1. In a large chilled bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Sprinkle butter over the flour. With a pastry blender, or your clean, cold hands, mix the butter into the flour mixture until the ingredients look like cracker crumbs with lumps the size of peas.
2. Sprinkle ½ cup ice water over the dough, and stir it in with a fork. Squeeze a handful of dough with your hand; it should keep together and feel moist. Add additional ice water as needed until dough holds together and you can gather it up to form a ball.
3. Place the ball on a lightly floured work surface and cut into two equal pieces. Form each into a chubby disk, and wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.
4. To roll out the dough, remove from the fridge and place on a lightly floured work surface. Let the dough rest at room temperature for a few minutes, until soft and easy to roll. Dust the top of the dough with flour to prevent sticking, and roll the dough from the center in all directions, into a circle about 2 inches larger than your pie pan or tin. Carefully drape the dough over the rolling pin and gently fit it into the pan. (For a double crust pie, roll out the second disk of dough.) Follow your pie, tart or quiche recipe from there!
Buttery Braised Leeks
Accented with just a squeeze of lemon, these sublime leeks are a worthy side dish.
Ingredients:
2 leeks, trimmed and halved lengthwise
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
Juice of ½ lemon
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
Method:
1. Melt butter and olive oil over a medium-high flame in a large sauté pan.
2. Once the oil and butter are hot, place the leeks cut side down into the pan. Let the leeks brown in the pan for 4 to 5 minutes. Carefully flip the leeks over and turn the heat on low. Cover and let the leeks braise for about 25 to 30 minutes or until the leeks are soft all the way through.
3. Take the leeks off the heat and squirt the lemon juice over the braised leeks and add salt and pepper to taste.
Potatoes à la Robuchon
Of all the haute cuisine in legendary chef Joël Robuchon’s repertoire, he was best known for these super-silky potatoes.
Ingredients:
2½ pounds fingerling potatoes, all of a similar size
1 pound unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
¼ cup milk
Sea salt, to taste
Method:
1. Place unpeeled potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a rapid simmer and cook for 35 to 40 minutes or until tender. Drain and peel. Transfer to a bowl and let potatoes cool slightly.
2. Turn potatoes through a food mill on the finest setting, back into the cooking pot. Heat pot over medium heat stirring until heated through and steam begins to come off the bottom of the pot. Add butter in 5 additions, allowing each addition of butter to be almost melted before adding the next until it all has been incorporated.
3. Stir in warm milk until combined. Using a whisk, vigorously stir potatoes until fluffy. Season with salt. Transfer to a serving dish and smooth the top of the potatoes with the back of a spoon or an offset spatula.
