I love cooking and I experiment a lot in the kitchen, so I thought I'd start posting some of my recipes whenever they end up tasting good. I try to minimize what I waste in the kitchen, so when I read about celery leaves and how they're perfectly edible and actually taste pretty darn good, I was excited to try them out in a recipe. Here is the recipe for some personal sized pot pies I made the other day where I utilized this usually ignored ingredient.
Mmm, yummy!
Pot pie filling: 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed 1 cup sliced carrots 1 cup frozen green peas 3/4 cup sliced celery 1/3 cup butter 1/3 cup chopped onion 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 tablespoon chopped celery leaves 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves 2 whole bay leaves enough chicken broth to cover chicken (it should be at least if not more than 2 cups) 2/3 cup milk salt and pepper to taste
2 boxes of 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts (you'll end up using only 3 of the crusts) 6 (5 inch) pie tins
Egg wash: 1 egg 2 tablespoons water
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas, celery, thyme and bay leaves. Add chicken broth to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain making sure to reserve the liquid, remove bay leaves and set aside.
In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour and celery leaves. Measure out 2 cups of the reserved liquid and slowly stir it in along with the milk. (If you don't have enough of the reserved liquid you can suppliment it with more chicken broth, and if you have some left over you can save it and use it the next time you need chicken broth!) Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Mix in the drained chicken mixture.
Unroll pie crusts onto a cutting board and cut in half. Take one half, place over the pie pan and gently press into the pan. You might have to coax it a little bit, but it should work out. Cut off the excess, roll into a ball and roll it back out to create the top of the pie. Repeat for other pies. Fill each of them with the pot pie filling. Cover with top crust, fold over the edge of the crust and use a fork to seal the edges. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
Whisk egg and water together. Brush the tops of the pies with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Filled, eggwashed and ready to be baked!
Fresh out of the oven!
I ended up only making four of these pies and saving the extra filling because I only bought one box of pie crusts, which supplied me with two 9 inch sheets of dough; just enough for four pies. Whenever I decide on making the last two pies I'll probably try my hand at making my own dough.