Deep Dish Shrimp and Bay Scallop Pot Pie

Last night I decided to do a combination of a couple of my other recipes. I love chicken pot pie and I love the combination of shrimp and scallops in a creamy sauce, so I came up with this deep dish shrimp and scallop pot pie. It turned out really well. I hope you will give it a try. 

Ingredients for the crust:

2 Cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp sugar

4 TBSP chilled shortening

12 TBSP butter cut into pea size pieces

Scant 1/2 cup Ice Water

Preparation for the Crust:

Combine dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to mix. Add shortening and butter and pulse several more times until mixture is crumbly. Turn processor on and add ice water all at once. As soon as dough starts to come together and sticks to the blade, turn off the processor. Don't overmix. Turn dough out onto a floured board and press out flat several times with the heel of your hand to make sure the butter is dispersed evenly. Form dough into a ball, wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour. I did mine in the morning and left it in the fridge until I needed it.

Ingredients for the Filling:

2 tsp vegetable oil

3 Carrots - Diced

2 Small Ribs Celery - Diced

4-5 Mushrooms - Diced

1/2 Small Onion Diced

3/4 Cup Frozen Baby Peas

Salt and Pepper

5 TBSP Butter

1/2 Cup Flour

2 Cups Chicken Broth

1 1/2 Cups Milk

1/2 Cup Grated Romano Cheese

1/2 tsp Dried Thyme

1/2 tsp Dried Tarragon

1 TBSP Chopped Fresh Parsley

3 TBSP Dry Sherry

1 LB. Peeled and Deveined Shrimp - Cut into 1" pieces

1/2 LB. Bay Scallops - small as you can get

1 Egg beaten with 1 TBSP water

Preparation for the Filling:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat oil in a large skillet and saute the carrots, celery, mushrooms, onion and garlic until crisp tender. Add the baby peas to the veggies and season with salt and pepper. Hold veggies in skillet over very low heat. In a 4 quart saucepan or heavy bottomed soup pot melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and cook for at least one minute. Whisk in chicken broth, milk and romano cheese. Simmer and whisk until thickened. Season sauce with the thyme and tarragon and salt and pepper. Add chopped parsley and sherry. Taste for seasoning and adjust as necessary. Add shrimp and scallops to sauce and cook just until shrimp turn pink. Add sauted veggies to sauce. Stir in and taste again for seasoning. 

To assemble, grease a deep baking dish. I used a 2 1/2 quart corning ware oval. You could also use two pie tins for thinner pot pies, but you would need to double the crust recipe. Roll out 2/3 of the dough on a floured board. Line the bottom and sides of the baking dish with the crust. Fill with the white sauce/ seafood mixture. Roll out remaining dough and top the casserole. Pinch top and side dough together at the edges and cut slits in the top dough to let stem escape. Brush with the egg wash and bake in the 400 degree oven until crust is golden brown. Let stand 5-10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!!

Rainy Day Project

Today was supposed to be a golf day, but it rained. I walked back  into the house from the golf course and looked around the kitchen for something to do and the first thing that caught my eye was the butcher block holder that stores all of my knives. It was getting a little tired and worn looking. I decided that it and probably all of the other items in the kitchen that were made of wood or had wooden handles were probably all in about the same state. There is an easy fix for that problem that will return the original luster to almost anything made of wood.  Mineral oil does the trick, so I decided to round up all of the wooden items I could think of and give them a renewal.  All it takes is a bottle of mineral oil, a rag and some paper towels to lay the items on while they dry. 

Once you start to look you will be surprised at the number of items you come up with. We never put anything made of wood into the dishwasher but over time, even hand washing will dull the finish of salad bowls, knife handles and wooden spoons. Here are a couple of photos of what I worked on today. 

As most of us are stuck in our homes right now, this is a great project to take up some time and really make a number of your tools look better and last longer.