Fooding Around With The Kilted Cook: Avocado Brownies, B.A.G Soup, Beer Bread, Vegetarian Picnic Pie, more

Vegetarian Picnic Pie
"Picnic Pie" is a Brit invention. Sort of a large-scale version of the ubiquitous Pork Pies, Sausage Rolls, Steak & Kidney Pies and other savory "things in a crust" you find in UK bake shops. A Picnic Pie has a firm-to-hard crust that allows the pie to be free-standing, not confined to a container to keep its' shape the way an American pie is. My version uses, surprisingly, ordinary Puff Pastry. Serves 6.

For the Filling:
Onion, mushroom, butternut squash, turnip, golden beet, potato, sweet potato, carrot, celery, apple -- any firm, not watery, veg you like. Plus about a cup of shredded cheese. A cup of leftover cooked rice is also a good addition; it helps keep the bottom crust from getting soggy from juices which bake out of the filling. You need enough chopped veggies to completely fill an 8" springform pan!

Chop everything into 1/2" pieces, spread on baking sheets, spritz with EVOO, and dust with your favorite spices/blends. Roast at 400F for 30-40 minutes until tender and browning.

For the Crust:
I use a box (2 sheets) of Pepperidge Farmtm Puff Pastry Sheets. This is enough pastry for an 8" springform, but not a 9". It will work for a 9" deep-dish pie plate, however.

Flour a working surface, and roll out one sheet of thawed puff pastry to at least 14"x14". Drape the dough into the springform pan covering the bottom and all the way up the sides all around. Be sure to tuck the dough into the bottom corner. Let excess dough hang over the edges; you can trim it off and use it to patch things where needed. You can put the pan in the fridge to keep it cool until ready to fill.

Assembly & Baking:
Remove the roasted veggies and let them cool a bit -- 10 minutes or so. Spread the leftover rice across the bottom of the springform pan, and spoon the veg on top to fill the pan.

Roll out the second sheet of puff pastry and make a top for the pie. Beat an egg and use it to glue the top to the sides, and then eggwash the surface of the top. Cut three 1" knife slits in the top to let steam out. Bake at 375F for 30-45 minutes until the top is firm and golden.

Rest the pie for at least 10 minutes before removing the springform side. Carefully slice the pie into wedges. Serve with Lizanotm, steak sauce, or BBQ sauce on the side.

Dark Chocolate Avocado Brownie

Yes..... avocado and chocolate. You'll never taste it, trust me. It all started with two giant Florida Avocados -- the red-when-ripe Hardee variety, actually -- which came in our produce box. We're not particularly fond of avocado by itself, and the big Florida fruit are a bit thin and watery in texture to make good guacamole or avocado toast for our taste. But far be it from me to let this much fruit (yes avocado is a savory fruit, not a vegetable) go to waste. I've made avocado chocolate pudding before, but not fudge or brownies, so I thought I'd give a brownie recipe a try. Experiments are how we learn, right?

Turns out there are no Avocado Brownie or Fudge recipes written to use as much avocado as there is in one of these giant Alligator Pears. Or at least none that didn't sound ridiculous if you 5x or 6x the amount of other ingredients relative to the amount of avocado used. So this was a 'seat of my pants' experiment using the flesh of one Hardee avocado along with somewhat more of the usual ingredients in a Chocolate Avocado Brownie recipe...

Preheat the oven to 350F.

1 large ripe Florida Avocado, not those little Hass avos, about 1-1/2 cups pureed/mashed

2-3 cups AP Flour -- I started with 2, then added 2/3 of a cup more...

3 Eggs, beaten

1 'capfuls' of Orange Extract

1 cup Hershey's Special Darktm Cocoa Powder

1-1/2 cups Sugar -- or a bit more if you must

2/3 cup mini- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Stir together the flour, sugar and cocoa. Fold in the pureed avocado and keep folding as you add the orange extract and then the eggs. Keep stirring/folding until everything is a deep rich glossy chocolate color -- a very stiff!

Grease or line an 8x10 or 9x12 baking dish, and spread the batter out in it. Dress the top with the chocolate chips. Bake for 30-45 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and cut.

I did say experiment, right? No bad at all for an experiment. Taste is OK. Chocolate, but not overwhelmingly so. Not particularly sweet. Could have used more orange extract; or perhaps some strong coffee for a bit of kick.

Texture was a bit 'different' -- not bad -- but not cakey like a brownie, and not sugar-grainy like fudge either. I hesitate to say, but it was almost a bit rubbery if I'm being objective.

Next time (and there will be a next time) I'll add at least half-again as much flour to see if I can get a more cake-like texture. Using self-rising flour, or AP with baking soda/powder might improve the texture too.

For Sunday Brunch with Mum, I served slices of this brownie with a sweetened raspberry coulé made from raspberry jam thinned a bit with hot water.

B.A.G. -- Beet, Apple & Garbanzo Soup

A GIANT Golden beet magically appeared in my SWFL Co-Op produce box this week -- thanks Elizabeth! I knew I had to do something special with it; so here's a new soup.

1-1/2 lbs Golden Beet, peeled and chopped into 1" cubes
1-1/2 lbs Sweet Apple -- Honeycrisp, Gala, etc, cored and chopped into 1" pieces
1 Tbsp EVOO
1 Onion or 4 shallots, chopped
4-5 cups chicken or vegetable Broth

1 Tbsp Ras El Hanout spice blend
½ tsp Smoked Paprika
3 cloves Garlic chopped

1 can Garbanzos, drained and rinsed
1 cup Almond Creamer

Roast the apples, beets and onion, dusted with the Ras El Hanout, for 30 to 35 minutes or until soft and tender and starting to caramelize.

Add the roasted veg to your soup pot along with the other spices and broth. Simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Puree and return to the pot. Add the garbanzos and almond creamer and simmer another few minutes. Serve with some crusty beer bread!

3-Ingredient Beer Bread!

Yep, just 3 ingredients. Watch and learn, Grasshopper.

3 cups Self-Rising Flour (or AP Flour with 1Tbsp Baking Soda and 1/2 tsp Salt added)

1/3 cup Sugar

12 oz Beer -- Light or Dark -- what ya got? I used a Lager this time. Next time, who knows. Different beers will give you somewhat different tastes -- experiment.

Optional -- milk or half & half to brush top of loaf.

Preheat the over to 375F.

Spray or grease a 5x9 loaf pan.

In a bowl combine the flour and sugar, stirring with a fork. Slowly add the beer and keep stirring into a batter.

Plunk the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Smooth it out, and bake for 45-50 minutes or until you get an internal temp of 190-220F. If you want a golden crust, about half way through the bake, brush with a little milk or half and half. Rest for a few minutes after baking, before slicing and serving.