Tumbleweed Farm’s Pumpkin Pot Pie with Kale + Sausage

One of our few and only farm contributors, Andrea Bemis of Oregon's Tumbleweed Farm has just launched her second cookbook, Local Dirt and we're already in love.

This impressive-looking pot pie is a genius way to use more local produce -- Andrea's whole mission with the new book. Andrea gave herself a 30-day challenge to cook and eat only local food grown from local dirt, using ingredients produced within 200 miles of her home. She's sharing stories learned from her experiment, including workable, delicious meals like this recipe and others we've instantly fallen in love with. Here's Andrea...

When I made this recipe for our CSA members, I received a flood of emails unlike any I'd read before! Folks just really loved it,and I don’t blame them . The fall and winter are a great time to whip up pot pies . (You can get creative with the filling and usewhatever ingredients you have on hand!) This version is absolutely deli- cious and a great way to celebrate the fall harvest.

How to localize it: Try ground chicken or turkey for the pork. Any variety of winter squash will work beautifully here. Don’t have kale? Spinach, chard, collard greens, or even turnip greens will work just fine.

Pumpkin Pot Pie with Kale + Sausage
Serves 6

Ingredients:
For the crust
½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter 1¼ cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for the work surface
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
3 to 5 tablespoons ice water

For the filling and assembly
1 pound ground pork
1 large onion, finely chopped 1½ teaspoons dried sage
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Hefty pinch each of salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small bunch of kale, tough stems discarded, coarsely chopped
1 small to medium sugar pie pumpkin, seeded and cut into ½-inch cubes (no need to peel), for a total of about 1½ cups
¼ cup all-purpose flour
3 cups homemade or low-sodium chicken or pork stock (page 31)
1 egg
2 tablespoons cream or milk

DIRECTIONS:

Make the crust:
Cube the cold butter into ½-inch dice with a sharp knife and place it in the freezer to cool back down after handling. In a food pro- cessor, pulse together the flour and salt. Add the cubed butter and pulse   12 to 16 times or until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few pea- sized pieces of butter remaining. With the machine running, gently pour in 3 tablespoons of the water. Pulse until thedough begins to form a ball (it may still be crumbly, and that’s okay as long as when you pinch it, the mixture holds together). If it seems too dry, add a touch more ice water. Do not overmix.

Form the dough into a disk, wrap it tightly in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, 45 minutes to 1 hour. (You can also leave the dough in the fridge over- night, or freeze it for up to a month.)

Make the filling:
In a large, deep cast-iron pot over medium-high heat, cook the pork, using a wooden spoon to break up the meat a bit. Cook   until it is lightly browned and no longer pink. Transfer the pork to a paper- towel-lined plate to drain. Add the onion, sage, nutmeg,salt, and pepper to the pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes. Add the kale and pumpkin and cook until the pumpkin begins tosoften, about 5 minutes.

Sprinkle in the flour and stir well. Slowly add the stock, ½ cup at a time. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the pumpkin softens and the mixture thickens up a bit, 8 to 10 minutes. Return the pork to the pot and give it a good stir. Remove the pot from the heat.

In a small bowl, make an egg wash by whisking the egg with the cream or milk. Then, on a floured worksurface, roll out the dough to ⅛-inch thickness. Place the dough over the pot (being careful not to burn yourself) and fold the overhang inward while pinching to crimp the edge. Alternatively, you can transfer the filling to a pie pan and drape the crust over the pie pan (if you have leftover filling, save it for breakfast the next day and top it with a fried egg). Cut vents in the dough. Brush with the egg wash.

Place the dish on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling around the edges, 45 to 50 minutes.

Transfer the pot pie to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Get more of Andrea's recipes in her books, Local Dirt and Dishing Up the Dirt.
Explore our content with Andrea here! 

The post Tumbleweed Farm’s Pumpkin Pot Pie with Kale + Sausage appeared first on The Chalkboard.

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