Real American Apple Pie

Mmm, made from scratch apple pie. You're not an American if you haven't baked or eaten apple pie at least once in your life. And if you haven't ever thrown a pie/shoved someone's face in it/accidentally dropped a pie on a sidewalk on the way to a neighbor's pool party, you haven't had a childhood, either.

So back to the real, good, made-from-scratch apple pie. You're going to need pie crust (recipe here) along with a couple other ingredients, namely, eight apples.

They can be apples of any color/variety. I've done Granny Smith before and this one uses Golden apples, which were the only ones available in French springtime. This is a great recipe to use for Thanksgiving, but why not make it for Easter as well?

Ingredients:

8 apples
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegan butter
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons flour
Pie crust

#1. Do the pie crust. It takes a while. When you're done, separate the dough in two (a slightly bigger dough for the crust, and a smaller one for the lattice work on top).

#2. Peel, core, and slice the apples thinly.

#3. Melt the butter in a saucepan, and add the flour. Stir until combined, and add the water.

#4. Add the sugar a little bit at a time, and bring to a boil. Then, reduce the heat and let simmer. The sauce needs to be slightly liquid.

#5. Arrange the sliced apples inside the pie crust in neat circles, packing the slices together.

#6. Preheat the oven, then cover the pie with a lattice work. If you don't know how to do it, watch the friendly video below.


#7. Pour the sauce on top for a crunchy sugary touch.

#8. Bake for 40 minutes at 180°C. Enjoy!

Vegan pot pie

Now, what does one do when there are fresh zucchini, asperagus, and carrots in the refrigerator?

Vegan pot pie, of course!

I came upon this recipe by chance and adapted it to whatever I had in my refrigerator. I used these vegetables right here :)

Ingredients for the filling:

One large zucchini
A carrot
A can of corn
Half of a leek
Chickpeas (quantity is up to you)
Three asparagii
1 onion
2 cups vegetable broth
Bay leaf
1/4 cup flour
1/4 non-dairy milk
1 tsp. Paprika
1 tsp. Thym
2 tablespoon vegan butter


And you'll also need pie crust. Check out the recipe for pie crust here.

Steps
1. Make the vegetable broth and let the bay leaf simmer in it for about 5 minutes.
1. In a seperate pot, sauté the onion in the butter for 10 minutes, until soft.
2. Add paprika, thym, and flour. Stir until combined, and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add milk.
4. Add the vegetable broth and take the bay leaf out. Add remaining ingredients, except for the asparagi (I added them on top of the pie,  at the end).
5. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, and cook for 10 minutes. It should look bubbly and sort of creamy. Pre heat your oven for 15 minutes at 180°C.
6. Place inside pie crust and decorate with asparagi.

Almost done. . .now it just needs to bake!

7. Cover the pie crust and make a few holes in the top with a knife. Bake for 20 minutes.

A slice of vegan pot pie when it's finished:

Pie crust

So, you're wondering how to make amazing flaky pie crusts, hmm??

A word of wisdom: Never buy pie crusts in the supermarket. Always make them from scratch. It makes the entire difference.

All you need is:

• 2 cups flour
•  4 tablespoons vegan margarine
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Enough water to combine everything.

You probably have the ingredients at home already. All you have to do then is : 

1. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder together in a bowl.

2. Mix in butter and make crumbly dough.

3. Mix in enough water so that the dough does not fall apart in your hands.
5. Refrigerate for at least half an hour before use.

All done! Enjoy! 

Russian Cabbage Pie

 

One of my most precious childhood memories is helping my Mom in the kitchen.

We’d bake cookies together, knead dough to make bread or pizza, and sometimes make something sweet like whipped cream. Mom would then instruct me to sit under the kitchen cabinet (so that we wouldn’t make a mess in the kitchen) with a spoon of cream in each hand- one for me, one for my brother. By the age of ten I already knew what the word ‘sauté’ meant, I had already learned that the lid to the blender is very important INDEED, and that separating eggs can be vital to a recipe, even if we’re going to ‘put them together again’ in the end (this one I learned with my best friend Alia, who knew more things in the kitchen at the same age).

 One day, Mom taught me how to make an easy fish recipe. She’d wrap fish filets in aluminum foil, spice it up and stick in the oven. “One day,” she told me, “you’re going away for college, and when I visit, you’ll make this recipe for me because it’s quick and nutritious.”

That day never came. When I entered college, I was still living at home. And when I moved out of home, I was a vegetarian. And so was Mom.

But I still have a large archive of my favorite Mom-made recipes, and Mom still helps me cook, even over the Internet! Today I present to you a hearty winter Russian dish, passed down by a Russian exchange student to my Mom, and then to me.

Russian Cabbage pie 

Ingredients:

1-2 Cabbage heads (depends on the size of your pie dish. Mine has a diameter of 28 cm, so I used one cabbage)

1-2 Onions (optional)

Salt and pepper

2 cups flour

3-4 tablespoons of  margarine

Water

Step #1: Prepare the dough. Combine flour, margarine and a pinch of salt and mix until crumbly. Add water until the batter is smooth. If needed, add more flour.

Step #2: Cut the cabbage into thin strips and cut the onions into round circles.

Step #3: Place the chopped cabbage and onions in a large pot along with a pinch of salt and pepper. No, it’s not going to burn. Keep stirring. The cabbage will let out a LOT of water, let it all evaporate. This might take an entire hour. The cabbage turns brown and gets more chunky as it looses water. Cook until there is no more water left to evaporate.

Step #4. Use half of the dough to fill the bottom and sides of a pie dish. Use a rolling pin to make the dough flat, or use a big pot like me, hehe. You can preheat the oven now.

Step #5. Place the filling (cabbage + onions) into the pie dish, and cover with the rest of the dough. Bake until it smells good! 

Enjoy!

Thanks to my Mom for her help and for giving a love for good homemade food J