Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas Pie

Each year, I make a Christmas Pie for dinner.  In the past, it was filled with duck or goose from a blind, game bird from a field, venison from the woods, or lamb from a farm.  Since I have not hunted in the last few years, I have been making a Yankee seafood pie, with the ingredients harvested by local fishermen... and not by me.  


Lobsters, scallops, shrimps, and cod.  Potato, leeks, onion, shallots, and salt. 

Fresh from their "stovetop jacuzzi". 

 A butter-crust is the base.

 Lobster meat, leeks, salt, onions, added.

Our beloved cod... the darling of the north Atlantic coast. 

 Cod slices and scallops.

More lobster meat, leeks, salt, a tablespoon of heavy cream, and a pinch of pepper.

 A starch to bind the ingredients.

Baked for over an hour.

Gone in twenty minutes on Christmas Eve.

Two pies add nicely to your table full of friends, family, or strangers who could use a hot meal. Dessert is always Port and a dish of cracked walnuts. 

Merry Christmas.

12 comments:

  1. This looks sensational! I am very impressed. Merry Christmas to you and your family!

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  2. I want to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas, YWP.

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  3. This looks like a fantastic dish, a bit English in inspiration, no? I can only imagine how satisfying a meal that would be. I made my mother's traditional Christmas Eve lobster stew, with a lobster flown all the way here from Canada (to Italy), it sort of breaks my heart to see the riches of our north Atlantic so widely distributed (often to the unwashed and undeserving), but traditions are made to be unbroken. Happy New Year!

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  4. My land-locked self is drooling over here. We had a pretty good spread, for sure, but sometimes I get a itching for the seafood that simply can't be scratched in my lat/long.

    Happy holidays to you and yours. And wishes for an excellent 2012 and beyond.

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  5. disgusting looking. cant stand seafood. its all murder.

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  6. We had baked stuffed lobster murdered by the local lobster company. I'm trying this pie in the New Year!

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  7. Merry Christmas. It is nice to make and share food in a holiday tradition. Funny how all humans need to eat, and that the harvest and collection of only animal life forms is frowned (polite term I will use) upon, when biologically to consume vegetation as well requires the termination of that set of life forms (yes dear anon, they as well were, or dare I say ARE still Alive) as well.
    To be a chemoheterotroph means one must eat to stay alive, and with friends.... What a treat! :-)

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  8. *All: Thank you for the Xmas wishes, and I genuinely wish the same for all of you.

    *Paul Gervais: Don't forget: lobster was once thought of as food ONLY for the "unwashed". Everyone deserves lobster!

    *Anonymous: They were all volunteers.

    *Scale Worm: You've hit it perfectly. This is the central fault in the doctrine of differentiating animal/vegetation consumption, based solely on "not wanting to kill". While dignity in life and treatment is always a legitimate criticism concerning animal welfare, arrogantly claiming ability to assign the worth of one over another has always seemed crazy. I scrupulously avoid consuming all matter that seems harmfully raised, which is thankfully becoming easier now that disclosure and the market forces supporting reasonably-scaled localism are increasing.

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  9. Amazing looking. And love your comment to Anon... volunteers... :)

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  10. Well done....down here in Penna. us Germans have a lovely recipe for pork pie for Christmas Eve....and Stollen for Chrustmas morn...Froliche Weinacthen..and get back to the field and blind dammit!

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