Rosie Makes Her Pig Pie.

With M & Y Hawthornelets home this summer,

I'm finding the need to come up with heartier meals.

What can I say?

They like their protein.

And they like a lot of it.

Mr. Hawthorne's and my diet proclivities

lean toward the lighter meats.

(Heh.  "Lean.")

I could live off of seafood and be quite happy,

although every once and a while,

I know my body would scream out for a bloody rare steak.

For my boys, I scrounged around in the freezer

and came up with four nice pork loins.

I'm making one of our favorites - Pig Pie.

It's a heady combination of pig, onion, green and red peppers,

tomatoes, corn, beef broth, spices,

 and the item that takes this over the top -  green olives.

Everything is encased with a cornmeal crust.

Comfort food at its finest.

Also, if you would prefer to make Cow Pie,

go right ahead and substitute a nice cut of beef.

You could use sirloin, flank steak, skirt steak, or flat iron - not chuck.

This is one of those recipes you should bookmark.

I would prefer it on a cold day in winter,

but nobody here complained about it in our 90°+ temperatures.

Rosie's Pig Pie

4 large pork loin slices, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

I've also made this with Boston Butt.  

Use 1 pound + of meat, whether porcine or bovine.

enough flour to coat the meat

4 TB unsalted butter

4 TB peanut oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 green pepper, chopped

1/2 red pepper, chopped

2 Roma tomatoes, chopped

1 small box beef broth (13 + oz.)

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1 TB chili powder

2 TB yellow cornmeal

1 can corn, drained

1 cup sliced pimiento-stuffed green olives

Toss pork with flour to coat.

Working in two batches,

brown half the pork in 2 TB unsalted butter and 2 TB peanut oil.

Transfer to a bowl and brown the other half
in the remaining 2 TB butter and oil.

Transfer to bowl.

Add in onions and sauté, stirring, about 1 minute.

Add garlic, tomatoes, beef broth and scrape up the goody bits.

Return pork to pan and add seasonings.

Stir well to combine.

Cover and cook, lowlowlow, stirring occasionally for 1 1/2 hours.

 While everything is cooking, prepare the cornmeal crust, recipe below.

After 1 1/2 hours, uncover.

Add in corn, peppers, olives, and cornmeal.

Cook medium low, stirring occasionally,

 until mixture thickens a bit - about 20 minutes.

Heat oven to 400°.

Spoon the pork mixture into shallow buttered baking dish/es.

Roll out dough on lightly floured surface.

Roll up over rolling pin

and unroll over baking dish/es.

Crimp edges.

Brush with egg white wash.

(One egg white whisked with one TB water.)

Bake until golden.

15 - 20 minutes.

Cornmeal Crust 

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

1/ tsp salt

1/2 cup cold Crisco

about 6 TB ice water

Combine flour, cornmeal, and salt.

Cut in shortening until coarse crumbs form.

Add just enough water to form a fairly soft dough.

Flatten into a 6-inch disk.

Cover with plastic and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Chopped red and green peppers, chopped tomatoes,

 chopped onion, and minced garlic prepared.

Toss cubes in flour to lightly coat.

Sauté half batch at a time.

You don't want to crowd the pan

which lowers the temperature,

allowing the meat to steam, not sear.

Sauté the onions for about a minute.

Add in the tomatoes.

Add in the beef broth, scraping the browned bits.

That's where all the flavor is.

Add in the seared pork.

Add in the oregano, chili powder, and cumin.

Stir to combine, cover, 

and low simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

While the stew is stewing,

start on the cornmeal crust.

I work everything in with a pastry blender,

then work it by hand until you have different sized crumbs.

Form into a ball.

Pat into a disk, cover with plastic, and refrigerate.

Back to the pig.

Have chopped red and green peppers,

drained corn, and olives ready.

Add in the corn.

Add in 2 TB cornmeal.

Add in the peppers.

Slice about a cup of green olives.

Ladle the pork stew into buttered baking dishes.

Roll out cornmeal crust, cut out, and top the pig pie with the crust.

Brush with egg wash.

Bake at 400° until crust is nicely browned.

I lurves me some pig pie!