A Piece of Pie

Nothing gives as much pleasure as the times when an impromptu brainstorming session culminates in excellent results. In this case, the result was a one of those "throw things together" kind of a dish that I have managed to perfect over time. But there is a story behind it. At work, everyday, I get together with a couple of colleagues to eat lunch. Sometimes they get adventurous, and ask to taste my rotis and/or sabzi that I pack from home. One day the conversation led me to confess that I am a non-baker. I had never baked in India, and haven't really experimented with the oven here. That led us to a heated discussion on how easy baking was compared to rolling out rotis!


J mentioned something called Impossible Pies that were supposedly very easy to assemble and that she did with her grandma when she was a kid. A few days later, I was in a mood for trying out something different when I recalled this conversation. I Googled Impossible Pie, and came up with a host of recipes using the store bought Bisquick mix. Since I always have a box on hand for making pancakes, I wasted no time in trying one recipe out the very next day, and the result wasn't great, but not bad either. Over time, I've done some tweaking and really gotten a hang of this impossibly easy pie. A couple of weeks ago, I wowed a friend who dropped by for tea one evening with the newer version. I now make these pies both with and without the store-bought mix.

Eggless Vegetable Pie
 

1 C All Purpose Flour

3/4 Tbsp Baking Powder

1/5 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp corn starch
1 1/2 C Mixed vegetables (I used peas, potatoes, carrots, orange bell peppers and corn)
1 Yellow onion chopped coarse
1/2 C sharp Cheddar cheese grated
1 C milk Italian seasoning or salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1 tbsp Oil + some for greasing the plate

1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. Dissolve the cornstarch in 1 tbsp water
3. Mix the first 5 ingredients with 1 Tbsp butter and milk to get a thin batter.
4. Add the cornstarch to this batter after your veggies are ready.
5. Steam the mixed vegetables for about 5 min.
6. Add the oil in a pan and stir in onions. Saute till translucent. Add the steamed vegetables, Italian seasoning to taste, and stir for a minute.
7. Grease a pie plate and put in 1/3rd of the batter mix. Add 1/2 the vegetables. Repeat layering with 1/3rd the batter, remaining vegetables and batter. It is OK if the batter doesn't cover your veggies completely.
8. Finally sprinkle the cheese.
9. Bake for about 15 min, or till a skewer inserted comes out clean and the cheese is melted.
10. Tastes best when fresh, but also re-heats very well.

My two cents: You may have guessed by now that the batter ingredients are a replacement for Bisquick. I have the cornstarch in here as an egg substitute. You can always use one egg, and reduce the milk for batter. That makes the pie rise a bit more, but I can't tell a difference in taste. The first time I made this, I just completely left out egg or its substitute. The dish was still good, just a lot more dense. Cornstarch gave me a flakiness, and bit of air in the pie which I liked. Any vegetables will do in here. I have actually put in left-over sabzis like aloo-gobhi, and still liked the dish! Finally, this pie is impossible...to resist! Any meal of the day..especially brunch.