Home Alone: Asparagus pie

The boy was out of town this weekend and I think it may very well have been the first time I've spent a weekend alone in our apartment. Yikes! Of course, leading up to it, I had all kinds of visions of me with superhuman energy: hiking 100 miles, cooking 40 new dishes, drawing 100 new drawings in a day, reading 12 books. You know, the usual. Obviously, this didn't happen, but I did spend some time in the woods — and in the kitchen. I tried a few new recipes with some successes and some flops. I'll be sharing them throughout the week. Today, the crown jewel. Utterly delicious and decadent.

Asparagus Pie
Adapted from Not Eating Out in New York

For the crust:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
10 Tb cold unsalted butter, cut to 1/2-inch cubes
3-4 Tb ice water
Milk for brushing

For the filling:
1 large bunch asparagus, ends trimmed; reserve 4 good-looking long stalks and chop the rest to 1/2″ bias-cut slices
1 Tb butter
1 medium onion, chopped
8 oz. crème fraîche
3.5 oz. chèvre goat cheese
1 egg
2 Tb chopped fresh chives
1 Tb lemon juice
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

Combine the flour, sugar and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or two knives (or pulse in a food processor) until mixture resembles fine crumbs with the butter chunks no larger than a pea. Add the ice water a little at a time until mixture just clumps together in a ball. Shape dough with your hands into one large ball and another ball about 1/4 its size. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes (or up to overnight).

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Heat a heavy-bottomed pan with 1 tablespoon of butter on very low heat. Add the chopped onions, and let sweat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure they don’t brown. Once onions are translucent and just slightly caramelized, remove from heat and let cool.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the creme fraiche and chevre. Mix with a spatula to combine. Add the egg, and whisk mixture until fully blended. Add lemon juice, salt, pepper, nutmeg and chives. Add the chopped asparagus slices and the cooled onions and mix with spatula.

Roll out the large ball of chilled dough on a lightly floured surface, or on waxed/parchment paper. Transfer to the bottom of a greased 9″ pie pan. It doesn't have to be pretty, just get it in there! (If not using this immediately, cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.)

Roll the smaller ball of dough into a long, thin oval. (If really difficult to roll, squish it together with your hands and fold waxed paper over top — roll with dough in between the pieces of waxed paper. Again, doesn't have to be perfect — mine sure wasn't.) Slice it into 6-8 strips for the lattice crust (can be any width you desire!).

Pour the asparagus filling into the pan with the bottom pie crust and smooth top with a spatula.

Slice the reserved asparagus stalks carefully into halves, lengthwise. Place one asparagus stalk lengthwise down the center. Lay a pastry strip down the center perpendicular to the asparagus. Lay another two asparagus stalks (alternating between the blunt end and the flower tip side by side) to the right and left of the pastry strip. Lay two pastry strips to the top and bottom of the asparagus stalks, gently tucking the middle part of the strip underneath the middle asparagus stalk to create a basketweave. Continue weaving in this manner until you reach the ends of the pie.

Arrange any leftover pastry along the top of the pie’s edge and distribute pieces until the pastry edge is fairly even in bulk all around and well-integrated. Crimp or pinch edges in whichever manner you prefer.

Brush top of pie with milk or egg wash (optional), and bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until top is just lightly browned. If edges are browning too quickly, cover edges with foil as shown above. Let cool at least 10 minutes before serving.