Mini Upside-Down Lobster Pot Pies, or Celebrating New England for the Super Bowl

We'll be the first ones to admit that we aren't sports fans. ESPN has been deleted from our TV channel grid. We don't own any football jerseys or foam fingers or can koozies. Sports are simply not on our radar. But now and then, we are invited to a sports-viewing soiree. It is then that we take it upon ourselves to choose a side (usually based on any current or past residence, sometimes based on color of outfits uniforms), and make a dish that celebrates that particular city/state/region (see our recent LSU vs. Alabama post).

Which brings us to Super Bowl Sunday. When we got a text from our friends D and J inviting us to their Super Bowl party, we knew we'd have to represent New England, both of us being born and raised here. And what food is more quintessentially New England than Maine lobster? Unfortunately, there is no money tree in our yard, and it's tough feeding lobster to a crowd (even a small one), when live lobsters cost about $9.99 a pound, and much of that is the (heavy) shell. A little brainstorming was all it took to come up with a solution that pleased all involved: 12 mini upside-down lobster pot pies.


What makes them upside-down? They are served in a puff-pastry cup instead of a puff-pastry or pie-crust top. Fun, right?

Mise en place

Shallots softened in butter

Add a little brandy

And a little flour to make a roux

Saturday afternoon, we purchased four small lobsters, steamed them and picked them. We netted one pound of lobster in the end (accounting for the occasional picking while picking). As the lobster meat chilled, we made our own lobster stock by placing all the shells in a large stock pot, covering them with water and boiling them for an hour, then straining the stock and reducing it until we had about two cups of lobstery liquid. An hour before the party, we set out to make our pot pie mixture that we based on Emeril's recipe, slightly adapting it to suit our tastes. For the shells, we cut puff pastry sheets into squares and placed two squares in a regular muffin tin to form a cup. Pricking the bottom all over with a fork reduced the "puffage" and voila - puff pastry cups to fill with lobster pot pie mixture!

Pot pie mixture with milk, cream, herbs and spices

Forming puff pastry cups

Golden-brown, puffed-up pastry cups

Mini Upside-Down Lobster Pot Pies

Makes 12

Ingredients:

4 1 to 1 1/4-lb. live lobsters

water for stock

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup minced shallots

1/4 cup brandy

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup frozen green peas

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons dried thyme

2 tablespoons chopped chives

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

4 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed

flour for work surface

cooking spray

To cook the lobster and make the stock:

Fill a large pot about two inches high with water. Add a small handful of kosher or sea salt. Bring the water to a rolling boil, and put in lobsters, one at a time. Cover tightly, return to a boil and steam for 8 minutes per pound, adding 3 minutes per pound for each additional pound thereafter (so about 17-18 minutes for four 1-lb. lobsters). Your lobsters are done when the outer shell is bright red and when the meat is white, not opaque; remove them carefully and discard the steaming water. Allow the lobsters to cool then remove the meat from the shell (pick them). Cut lobster meat into bite-sized pieces, set aside to cool completely, then refrigerate. Place all the shells back in the large pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes, then strain out and discard the shells. Return the stock to the heat and simmer for 2 hours until reduced to about 1 1/2 - 2 cups.

To make the pot pie mixture:

In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and cook until softened, about 1 minute. Add the brandy and cook until almost completely evaporated. Sprinkle the flour over the top of the shallots, stir to combine well, and cook for 2 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups lobster stock and the milk, and whisk until smooth. Continue to cook until thickened. Add the heavy cream, green peas, salt, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and thyme, and cook for 15 minutes, until sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and the flavors have come together. Set aside until cooled. Add the lobster meat, chives and tarragon, and salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

To make the puff pastry cups and assemble the pot pies:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put pot pie mixture in a saucepan over medium heat to warm through. On a floured work surface, lay out the puff pastry sheets and cut them into 3-inch squares. Spray a regular size muffin tin with cooking spray. Lay two puff pastry squares overlapping in 6 of the muffin cups (alternating every other), allowing room for the pastry to puff around the sides of the cup. Prick the bottom of each muffin cup all over with a fork, then bake at 400 for 18 minutes, until puffy and golden brown. Remove puff pastry cups to individual bowls and fill with warm pot pie mixture. Repeat the entire process to make a total of 12.

Beef and Stout Pot Pie

Ah, fall. The kaleidoscope of colors on the sugar maples. The sound of fallen leaves crunching as you walk on the sidewalk. The faint smell of firewood coming from your neighbor's chimney. The crisp feel of the air outside. The fuzziness of the sweater you're wearing for the first time. And, oh, the food! Hearty, comforting food that needs to cook for hours and makes your house smell so delicious. Yes, we love fall. And our first great fall dish this year was Beef and Stout Pot Pie.

In this dish, a basic beef stew meets Harpoon's smooth, rich, small-batch Island Creek Oyster Stout for a flavorful and satisfying meal. Island Creek is an oyster farming and distribution company out of Massachusetts. Typically, stouts make a great pairing when eating oysters. In this case, Harpoon's brewers put the oysters right into the beer during the brewing process, although the impact to the taste of the beer is minimal. The stout has hints of roasted barley along with a slight mineral brininess from the oysters, both of which add great flavor to the chuck steak we braised in it.

We reserved the water in which we had boiled the carrots and potatoes to enhance the vegetable flavor in the pot pie. And, instead of regular old onion and garlic, we used fresh cippolini onions and hard-neck garlic from the farmers' market. Refrigerated puff pastry dough topped the deliciousness inside the bowl, offering contrasting texture with its flaky crunch as well as a hint of surprise when you break through to the chunky, meaty stew.

 

Beef and Stout Pot Pie

Ingredients (for 4 individual pot pies):

2 potatoes, peeled and diced

4 carrots, peeled and diced

2 lbs. boneless beef chuck steaks, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 yellow cippolini onions, roughly chopped

2 hard-neck garlic cloves, chopped

1/4 cup water, reserved from boiling carrots and potatoes

1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup beef broth

1 cup Harpoon Island Creek Oyster Stout

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

3 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 sheets frozen puff pastry dough

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon water

Boil potatoes and carrots together until tender. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the water, and place in refrigerator to cool. Preheat oven to 350. Place chunks of beef along with flour, salt and pepper in a large zip-type bag; toss to coat. Heat oil in a large ovenproof pot over high heat, then working in batches, brown meat on all sides, about 4 minutes per batch; set aside. Add onion, garlic and 1/4 cup reserved vegetable water to th epot and cook, scraping the brown bits from the bottom of the pot, and stirring often until onion is softened. Add tomato paste and cook for one minute. Return beef to pot along with broth, stout, Worcestershire, and thyme. Bring to a low boil, then cover and transfer to oven. Braise for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and stir in the cooled carrots and potatoes. Allow stew to cool uncovered for 1/2 hour before topping with puff pastry (otherwise the pastry will melt). In the meantime, thaw the puff pastry dough and raise oven temperature to 425. When ready to assemble pot pies, cut circles in the dough 1/2-inch wider in diameter than the bowls you plan to use. Fill these individual oven-proof bowls with the stew then top with the pastry dough, pressing dough onto the rim of the bowl to help it adhere. Beat together the egg and tablespoon of water and brush the top of the pastry dough with this egg wash. Place pot pies on a baking sheet and bake until pastry is puffed and golden, about 20 minutes.