An unexpected hit, this pie includes a potato-based crust on the bottom, a thin layer of sour cream and some chives in the middle, and on top, a custard light on eggs but rich in flavor from leeks and onions.
The ingredients for a potato, leek and onion pie that I made mainly out of curiosity. I had concerns about what the combination might taste like, but it was an unexpectedly effective mix of textures and flavors, suitable for dinner, lunch or even (as far as I’m concerned) breakfast.
The cookbook author says this potato, leek and onion pie is essentially a soup recipe “transposed” into pie form.
Usually I pick a new recipe, at least in part, because the combination of ingredients sounds good. I opted for this one because the ingredients sounded odd. A crust of potatoes and ricotta? A custard with only one egg plus one yolk and lots of leek and onion? A layer of sour cream twixt the two?
Piquing my curiosity, the author of “The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook” compared the concoction to a music composition technique:
“Composers transpose music all the time, taking a piece meant for a flute, for example, and reworking it for violin or piano. You can transpose recipes with similar success, taking ingredients for a much-loved soup, in this case, and putting them in a pie.”
As Homer Simpson might say, “mmmmm, soup pie.”
Yet despite my trepidation, this came out great. The crust proved light with a tater flavor that neither disappeared nor overpowered, the leek/onion custard provided some pungency tempered with a good level of sweetness, and the sour cream — an ingredient I have yet to find as compelling as some do — worked exceptionally well in melding it all together with just the right amount of tang.
We didn’t have gold potatoes (Yukon or otherwise), but did have a bag of Idaho spuds that worked fine. MT and I liked this so much there was barely a quarter of it left when we felt sated, so if you serve this as we did as pretty much the whole meal, you may want to make a second one if you have more than three diners.
One note: The recipe in the book said to saute the leeks and onions, but never said to do anything with them after that. It seemed the logical assumption was that they should be mixed in the custard before pouring it over the crust and sour cream, so that’s what I did — and I added that step to the recipe below.
Dobru chut!
Leek and onion potato pie (The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook)
For the crust
1 pound Yukon gold or russet-type potatoes
1 large egg, beaten
⅓ cup nonfat or part-skim ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
For the rest
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, or canola or vegetable oil
3 cups thinly sliced leeks, whites only (2-3 leeks)
2 cups thinly sliced onions
Pinch of salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup evaporated milk
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
½ cup nonfat or reduced-fat sour cream
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives.
Heat oven to 425°
Bake the potatoes until tender, about 50 minutes. Peel and mash the potatoes. Combine in a bowl with egg, ricotta and flour, mixing by hand until you have a soft, pliant dough. Press the dough into the bottom of an 8-inch springform pan and bake until firm but still springy, about 20 minutes. Take out of the oven and let cool, but leave the oven on.
In a large skillet or sauté pan, melt the butter or heat the oil. Add leeks, onions and salt and sauté until very soft, about 15 minutes.
In a mixing bowl, beat together the egg, egg yolk, evaporated skim milk and flour. Make sure there are no lumps.
Spread the sour cream over the potato crust and sprinkle chopped chives evenly on top. Combine the onion/leek mixture with the egg mixture, and pour evenly over the crust/sour cream. Bake until the filling has set and an inserted knife comes out clean, up to 50 minutes. But keep an eye on it (mine was done at least 10 minutes earlier). If the top starts to brown before custard has set, cover with foil.
Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes before releasing spring form and serving. This can be served warm, at room temperature or cold.
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