I have decreed that the official Groundhog Day meal will consist of a meat pie. This dish is fitting because a hearty meat pie is just the thing for the depth of winter, and it is dissimilar to the dishes eaten at other holidays. Also, we recently hit upon a meat pie recipe that is pretty good, the leftovers of which I will feast upon this very evening.
You will need 2 deep-dish pie crusts. We used Marie Callender brand, but I suppose any crust will do. Homemade crust would be best of all, but who has time for that? Put the crusts out to thaw while you prepare the filling.
Sautee some mushrooms and onions in olive oil. Use as much or as little as you like, and cut them as finely or coarsely as you like. When these are done, add a pound or two of ground meat and fry it up. We used ground beef, 80% lean, but I reckon any ground up animal would work (no groundhogs, though). Add a can of cream soup. We used cream of mushroom as we had it to hand, but cream of celery or cheddar cheese soup might be good, too. Season the meat mixture to taste. We didn’t put any spices in this time, but we may experiment in the future with chipotle or chili powder or some curries. Bell peppers might be good, but we didn’t have any.
Pour the meat mixture into one of the pie shells. Take the second shell and put it over the top and seal up the crust by pinching them together along the edges. Cut some slits into top crust to allow steam to escape. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about an hour. We intended to bake the pie for about 30 minutes but forgot about it. The hour worked out and left us with a solid crust and firm filling.
The pie is even better as leftovers after it has sit in the fridge for a day or so, so you can make it ahead of time (all important what with all the last minute Groundhog Day preparations). It takes a minute and a half on high to nuke a slice. We recommend a pinot noir or a lager to go with it. And a salad wouldn’t hurt.
Happy Groundhog Day!
UPDATE: Iceberg suggests that the official meat should be ground hog, i.e. pork. I hereby decree what he said.
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3 comments:
I'm not the porcine type of fellow, but shouldn't the meat pie be made from the homophonos ground hog?
That's brilliant! Let it be so.
Now for the coup de grace-- inform your holiday guests as to the content of their holiday meal, and watch them choke it up in horror.
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