My stitching has been on hiatus due to some personal issues (hence the lack of weekly WIP posts – my sewing basket looks neglected indeed!), but I wanted to commit to memory a great recipe I hope to tinker with more in the future. I very rarely see something in a cooking blog and want to make it right then; more usual is filing it away to Instapaper (mine is a frightening morass of blog posts, news articles, and random bits and pieces of internet detritus that I’ll get around to dealing with someday), or keeping a tab open indefinitely. But when I came across a recipe for asparagus & caramelized ramp hand pies at Petite Kitchenesse, I wanted them RIGHT THEN. I settled for making a modified recipe the next day – and they came out pretty well, all told. I’ve been eating somewhat insane quantities of asparagus this spring, and these little pies were a great way to use up a bunch in a new way.
Never let it be said that I am a food photographer/stylist – making pretty food is not usually one of my fortes, especially when dealing with persnickety phyllo. Since I’m not a fan of making pastry-ish dough by hand & had a bunch of phyllo in the freezer, I did three sheets as a base and three on top (with a smidge of melted butter brushed between each sheet). Next time, I’ll cut the top down to a single sheet (or maybe leave it off all together!).
Since I couldn’t get ahold of ramps, I used run of the mill green onions & failed to caramelize them particularly well; I’m going to play with fillings a bit more (I will definitely chop the greens much finer next time). I also used a very mild plain goat cheese in place of ricotta (and quite a bit less than a cup) – it basically melted when blended with the veggies and lemon juice, and tasted delicious. If I remember to pick up some ricotta, I may try a half-and-half blend. I zested/juiced a whole lemon into the mix & found the citrusy taste a bit much, but my significant other had no such qualms (but I’ll probably cut the lemon down to half next time anyways).
I’ve already passed this on to a few people – even though my first attempt wasn’t PERFECT, they were really quite good and it seems like a nice, versatile savory pie recipe. We ate them for dinner last night (though they’re more appropriate as an appetizer, I think), and I snacked my way through the rest today during breakfast and lunch. The filling tasted even better today, and the phyllo held up surprisingly well. They’re tasty hot out of the oven – and at room temperature (my favorite kind of recipe!).
Yay! I’m so glad this was one of those MAKE RIGHT THEN recipes. I bet these are awesome with phyllo dough, and I was totally wishing I had some goat cheese to add to the mix when I made them! I do tend to have a heavy hand when it comes to lemon. I love it, but my boyfriend always tells me to dial it back the next time.
Thanks for the comment (to say nothing of the original recipe!)! They came out pretty well – I imagine they would’ve been even tastier wrapped in a thicker dough, but the phyllo held up pretty well. I’m looking forward to trying your dough when my food processor comes out of storage.
And seriously, I saw your post pop up in my feeds & put it on the to-do list for the weekend/next week & we can see how that turned out.
I always look forward to your yummy recipes & lovely photography!