Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Pennsylvania Dutch Pot Pie (Bott boi?)


I moved to central PA when I started going to college in 2002. After graduation I officially relocated to the area to teach at the local high school. Since then I have learned a lot about the culture of the area. Being from the Baltimore area there were a lot of "culture shock" moments over the years. These include attitudes of the people, religion, colloquialisms, and of course the food. My current boyfriend J is from a little farther west than here with PA dutch roots. This past November I went over to his grandparents to learn the fine art of pun'kin pie making (more on this later). For dinner that night V was going to make pot pie to show me how to do it. Apparently you can use any meat you want (though I've only tried beef, ham and chicken are also traditional). There isn't much in the way of a recipe per se. I have a recipe for the pot pie dough but it didn't work and I had to add a lot of flour to get it to not be soupy. More or less here are the instructions:

Pot Pie

In a little oil brown the outside of your meat (I never tried ham or chicken and I don't know what to do in those cases) turning for a total of approximately 20 min. Cover the meat a little more than half way in water or broth (I used beef broth but added extra water when I didn't have enough). Cook in the dutch oven on 400 degrees F about 2 hours (covered, turning half way through) for a 3.5 pound roast. While the meat is cooking make the dough.

You will need:

  • 1 cup flour, plus more for dusting
  • 1 tablespoon, butter softened
  • 1 egg
  • enough milk to create pasta like dough (1/4-1/2 cup)
  • salt
If your dough is too wet add more flour. Roll out and cut into 1.5 inch squares (see photo). I was told by J that mine were too small. Remove meat from pot and add one small potato cubed. Cook the broth with the potato until the potato is almost completely cooked. The dough is then added to the broth until cooked. Serve meat with pot pie and optional raw diced onion.
So I made all of this. And it wasn't quite the way I remembered it. It needs a little bit of work but here it is one of my first forays into the world of PA Dutch cooking. I'll be posting some of the past triumphs of this genre of cooking.




4 comments:

  1. I moved to central PA from the west and YES, it was a culture shock. Pot pie, potato filling, shoofly pie, opera fudge....I've been here 10 years now and really like it. I'm making your pasta fagioli tonight. I had a similar soup at Carrabba's and I am really craving it right now. I'm going to follow my fellow Central PA Foodie!

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  2. Thanks so much! The pasta fagioli is one of my favorites, I hope you enjoyed it.

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  3. I grew up on chicken potpie. My grandmother made beef potpie, but I never liked it. To make chicken potpie, you just cook the chicken in water with the same ingredients you'd use to make stock. Then remove the meat and add the noodles. Let it cook and serve the meat separately (or not at all, as we sometimes did). Or, go southern style and shred the chicken and add it to the pot. All wonderful!

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  4. I learned about PD pot pie and how to make it. You can buy the dried noodles in a bag labeled Botboy. (Sounds like pot pie in the local dialect) we only made it with turkey, usually leftover from Thanksgiving. My kids loved it. It's much easier if you use a pasta machine. And don't overcook the meat by boiling it with the noodles.

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