Guys this is an aggressive pie.
Uh is anyone else worried?
We're whipping up a pie as cozy as your favorite sweater.
It's Dinah Grossman's Saag Paneer Pot Pie from Spinning J.
Not only is this a curveball because I've never made a pie before,
but my magazine has also sent me to a brand new location.
Let's see how this turns out!
To the pan, we're going to add a tablespoon of unsalted butter.
One tablespoon of olive oil.
Medium white onions that I've chopped.
A teaspoon of cracked black pepper.
Just gonna eyeball that.
A teaspoon of kosher salt.
And now we're just going to cook these onions until they caramelize.
It's going to take about 15 minutes.
Okay, so our onions have gotten a nice brown color.
Pay no attention to this dark spot in the bottom of my pan.
Still getting used to our new burner.
So to the onions, we're going to add one and a half tablespoons of fresh ginger,
five cloves of garlic chopped.
Give these a quick stir.
Oh, that already smells amazing.
I love the smell of ginger!
One and a half teaspoons of curry powder,
one teaspoon of garam masala,
half a teaspoon of one of my favorite flavors, cumin,
and a half a teaspoon of turmeric.
And you want to cook this until it becomes really fragrant.
I mean it's super fragrant right off the bat,
and see how much the onion has cooked down it doesn't look as crazy anymore.
So we want to cook this for about two minutes on medium-low
until everything is incorporated and it smells fantastic.
So now that we have this super fragrant, yummy, oniony mixture,
We're going to add frozen spinach that I've thawed,
and drained, and I squeezed all the water out of it.
This is a very colorful dish!
And we're also going to add one half of a cup of heavy cream.
And we're going to cook this mixture for 25 to 30 minutes
until we get this yummy creamy consistency that will make a delicious pot pie filling.
It smells amazing in the kitchen right now,
and this is the consistency that you're looking for.
This is after about 25 minutes.
Really nice and creamy and smooth.
So I'm going to take this off of the old burton burner.
We're going to let it cool.
So now we have our delicious spinach mixture that has cooled slightly,
and I'm adding it to my food processor.
If you don't have a food processor, feel free to use a blender.
So we're just going to process this until it's super super smooth.
This looks super smooth, so I think we're good here with the delightful food processor.
Okay so now we're going to transfer our spinach mixture to a large mixing bowl.
Oh yeah, looks so healthy and delicious.
Into it, we're going to add one tablespoon of fresh lemon juice.
And we're gonna add three and a half cups of paneer.
Paneer is Indian cooking cheese and you can find it at the Cermak Fresh Market
and also at the Metro Spice Mart.
It doesn't really melt like cheddar or an American cheese would melt or like a Swiss.
Look at how much cheese we're adding to the spinach.
So excited.
Kind of rough cubes, it's a rustic pot pie.
We're gonna throw all of this cheese into the spinach.
Make it rain!
Let me give this a stir
and this is going to be our delicious sag paneer pot pie filling.
Oh my gosh yes, the cheese the spinach ratio I'm loving.
It's time to assemble our pie!
So you're going to need two pie crusts.
You can buy fresh or frozen.
You're also going to...oh man, the pie's already cracking.
It's going to work guys.
It's going to...this might be a disaster.
Basically, we want to make a nine-inch pie, so you're also going to need a nine-inch pie pan.
You can use the disposable ones
and then I'm going to use my rolling pin to just kind of smash it together
until it exceeds the size of this pie pan.
So I can tip this over and see I got a little bit of a ways to go here.
And I want to make sure that the dough exceeds the pie pan
so that I have the dough to create the crust around the edges
to make sure that the spinach and the cheese all stays inside of our pie.
Come on!
Another trick I learned if you're dealing with dough like this,
if you roll it back up onto your rolling pin.
If you don't have a rolling pin, you can also use a wine bottle,
but you roll it up and now it's stuck on the rolling pin
so that you can just easily transfer it down onto your pie pan
I'm impressed. Are you guys impressed?
All right, so we just got a little bit of adjusting to do here.
Not winning any state fair ribbons anytime soon, but I'm feeling okay about this.
So now you just want to press this into the pie pan.
I did it!
Now we're going to add our filling.
This looks like a lot of filling for this pie pan but okay.
Guys this is an aggressive pie.
It's like the hulk of pies.
Okay everyone, this is what it looks like filled up.
Uh is anyone else worried now?
We're gonna use this very cute little brush.
If you don't have a brush you can use your finger.
And we're just going to brush the edges here with water
so that when we put our next dough on, it has something to adhere to.
Our dough has been watered.
Now we're going to make the lid with our second piece of dough.
I feel like the lid is really gonna have to do some like hefty work here.
Look at how much filling is in this thing!
Good night spinach and cheese.
So now we're supposed to take the overhanging dough and kind of roll it up underneath itself
because of the water that we put on the dough underneath it'll stick to the lid hopefully
so now we're going to crimp the dough to really make a seal and make it look pretty.
Crimping just means you're going to press down with the fork on that edge.
So now we're going to cut air vents into the top of the pie
so that the steam from the spinach and the cheese will escape
so we don't have any like explosions happening in the oven.
You want to use a paring knife and just score into the top of the pie
You could do like any design you want.
I'm just going to go with three lines,
and now we're going to take our pie and put it in the freezer for 15 minutes
so that the crust and the dough can set up again
so that when we put it in the oven it will bake evenly with the spinach and the cheese.
Our pie has chilled out for 15 minutes.
I can tell because the dough is definitely set a bit, it's not quite as pliable.
And in this bowl, I've beaten an egg with a pinch of salt and just a tiny bit of water
and we're going to brush this egg wash all over our lid
and this is going to create a super golden brown color
and all of the filling is going to stay inside,
and this is just going to be the perfect pot pie.
Now we're going to take our pie and put it in our oven which has been preheated to 400°F,
and we're going to bake it for 55 to 60 minutes.
We've let the pie cool for 30 minutes.
It was very difficult to wait because this thing smells amazing.
And I'm also just so excited about how golden brown my pie turned out.
And we've also added some mango chutney to the plate.
I think the tartness and the sweetness of the mango chutney
will cut through the savory aspects of the spinach and the paneer
Do not be shocked if your paneer hasn't completely melted.
Like I said it is a firmer cheese.
This is so comforting.
The creamy spinach is amazing
and the paneer is squeaking in my mouth like a really fresh cheese curd from Wisconsin.
This is perfect for a snowy day,
It's perfect for a Sunday if you just want to like binge-watch 15 movies in a row
You can eat this pie all day long.