That's What Bob's Cooking: Chicken, Leek and Brie Rustic Pie

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Chicken, Leek and Brie Rustic Pie

A couple of weekends ago, Craig and I drove out to the Olympic Peninsula, the northwestern most point in Washington. This area is a rain forest, so there is usually a lot of rain and wetness. The trip was an adventure, as we had to take a ferry across the Puget Sound, across the floating bridge in Hood Canal, through Port Gamble (such a cute little town), through Sequim, and Port Angeles, by Lake Crescent, La Push and finally to Forks…..you know the town when the Twilight books and movies were set. While we're not vampire or werewolf fans, so the references were just wasted on us. Either way, we had a great time, doing just what we like, seeing the national parks, beaches and shopping at a few farmers markets.

Hurricane Ridge

Beach at La Push

That brings me to this post. While in Port Angeles, on our way back from Hurricane Ridge, we stopped by the Farmers Market and picked up a few things, some great bread, potatoes, and a few leeks. I didn't want to do my typical Potato Leek soup, so I did a little research and came up with inspiration for this delicious recipe. Check it out below….

Chicken, Leek and Brie Rustic Pie

Serves: 4

ingredients

2 large square sheets puff pastry, thawed

1 oz butter

1 leek thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic crushed

1 T fresh rosemary, diced

14 oz skinless chicken breast, diced into 1 inch cubes/stripes

½ cup white wine

½ cup chicken stock

2 tablespoons cornstarch

¼ cup cold water

¾-1 cup grate Parmesan

3.5 oz brie thinly sliced

¼ cup parsley chopped

1 egg, lightly beaten

salt and pepper

Directions

1. Heat oven to 390 and line a cookie tray with parchment paper (or a Silpat).

2. In a medium sized saucepan over a medium heat, melt the butter and cook down the garlic, leek and rosemary for around 8 minutes until soft. Add chicken and cook throughly.

3. Add the wine and stock to the saucepan and continue to cook for 5 minutes (make sure it reduces, by half). Season with salt and pepper.

4. In a small bowl mix together the cornstarch and water to create a paste. Add this to the chicken mixture along with the chopped parsley. Mix through and remove from heat.

5. Place the first sheet on the cookie tray and spoon the chicken mixture into the center. Spread the mixture out, leaving a ½ inch boarder. Place the slices of brie on top. With a pastry brush (or your finger), brush some of the beaten egg around this border.

6. Take the second sheet of the puff pastry and place on a cutting board. Cut sheet into ½ inch strips, “braid” the strips over the top of the chicken mixture, press down the border with your fingers and brush the egg over the top of the pie. Sprinkle some finishing salt on the egg wash.

7. Cook for around 30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting.

Leeks and garlic sautéing in butter

Added chicken

Chicken mixture with wine and stock, reducing and thickening,

Spoon mixture on puff pastry

Top mixture with Brie,

Cut second sheet into strips

Braid strips, brush on egg wash,

Sprinkle with park and salt,

Finished Pie.

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My Complete Profile

I was born and raised on the East side of Portland Oregon, by two native and second generation, Oregonians, my Mom and Dad (Jack and Joan). Oregon, and the Northwest are deep in my blood. That being said, I have always had an interest in cooking. I would love to add a warm loving story here about how my Mom nurtured my love of cooking by setting me up on or near the counter top to help with whatever she was cooking. Well, that's not exactly the case.

Being a child of the 70's and 80's, I had a great exposure to classic foods like Spam, Tang, Rice-a-Roni and Hamburger Helper. While many of these premade, sodium roller coaster, treats where regulars on our table, my Mom would have to hold the title as "casserole queen". Casseroles are her favorite and her specialty. Whereas, my Dad was more of a spur of the moment kind of cook. His creations included many of the items from our makeshift pantry. Sometimes, i think he was thinking, "the more ingredients, the better it'll be!". I think my first attempt at cooking would have to have been making cookies, either peanut butter (with the criss-cross fork tine print on top), or chocolate chip cookies. Over the years I have made so many of both of these recipes, I have surely lost count.

During middle school, my Mom encouraged me to take Home Economics, thinking that all kids, boy or girl, should know how to cook out in this world. This sparked a growing interest in cooking. So when I entered my junior year of High School, at David Douglas, I enrolled in the culinary arts program, we called it Food Services I. This was a class that had been offered many years before, where the students ran a restaurant, The Kilt, during the lunch periods. Unfortunately, since the class had not been offered in several years, so we didn’t have enough students to open the restaurant, that year. Within the first few weeks of this class, my instructor asked if I'd like to be involved in an outside "club" (kind of like a version of Eagle Scouts) that was mentored by local business owners. It sounded interesting so I joined (not to mention it got me out of the first 2 periods of the day).

At our first meeting I was approached by Sylvia Poesdel, the owner of the Portland landmark restaurant, Sylvia's Italian Restaurant & Dinner Theatre. She asked me if I would be interested in an afterschool job, coming to work for her to learn the cooking/chef trade on the job. I jumped at the chance and started in October of 1985. During my senior year I rejoined the culinary arts program (Food Services II) and this year we were able to reopened the restaurant, which the rest of the students voted me to manage. I just absolutely loved it! I worked at Sylvia's until after I graduated, in 1989. I learned a lot about the restaurant industry, and I would have to say it would be one of just a few life altering jobs I have had throughout my career.

After high school, while I was working at Sylvia's, I applied to culinary arts school. The Two things kept me from continuing my career in culinary arts, were financial and having worked out in the field, I saw so many negative attributes to being a chef, I decided that since I love to cook, I wanted it to be a hobby, and not a drag to go work each day.

When I left Sylvia's, I worked at a hotel, then Safeway. From there I joined Fred Meyer in the Service Deli, and was quickly promoted to a manager. During the next 8 years, I worked throughout the Portland and Southern Oregon areas. In 1998, I earned a promotion to the regional specialist position (District Manager) in Seattle. During this career move, I learned so much about the Food Service industry. I was charged to develop a new service salad case program, as well as work on a new catering program. I had the opportunity to work with manufacturers to develop these new programs.

In 2000, I met the love of my life, Craig. I also, moved from the food service program to the grocery department as an assistant manager. In the capacity I learned to develop my management skills as well as managing inventory. By being the best in my category, I earned the position of manager, where I moved from store to store cleaning up and reorganizing as I went. I also was entrusted with training future Food managers for the region. At which point I was pursued by another company to run a store for them, and enter back into the restaurant industry. During these 3 years, I learned the Restaurant Supplier side of the business. While I enjoyed the time I spent in this opportunity, I yearned to go back to the Grocery industry, and spend more time with my first love, cooking, and writing about my adventures….in the kitchen!