Indian Pot Pie and Mango Chutney

My co-worker Christa is a wealth of information about and creator of delicious, amazing food. The problem? She's so talented she often "wings it" and doesn't have an exact recipe. This always works out well for my taste buds but proves a bit more challenging when it comes to replicating one of her creations.

Here's a "recipe" for her mango chutney, along with a "recipe" of my own for my new "Indian Pot Pie" -- which I made up after craving samosas when Christa brought a similar tasting dish to work, along with her amazing chutney.

Christa's Mango Chutney

Ingredients:
garlic
onion
green pepper
red pepper
scotch bonnet hot peppers
jalapeno pepper
1 whole pineapple
2 whole mangoes
Looza pineapple juice
1-2 lemons or limes + the zest of 1 lemon or lime
honey
hot sauce
curry
salt
pepper
chili powder

1. Finely, finely, finely dice garlic, onions, sweet and hot peppers and saute while chopping up pineapples and mangoes.

2. Add fruit and any juice you've got on your chopping board, then add some of your Looza pineapple juice (she likes that brand because it's pulpy and good).

3. Add lemon/lime juice and zest and add pineapple juice as you go along as needed.

4. Add honey and hot sauce. She likes to use jerk hot sauce for its spices. If you are using regular hot sauce, you may want to add some cinnamon, nutmeg and/or coriander to the pot.

5. Add some salt, pepper, curry powder and chili powder to taste.

All of these ingredients are to taste, so sample your chutney as you go along and add what you think it needs. Cook it down until the fruit is broken down and its somewhat gelatinous.

Indian Pot Pie
3-4 redskin potatoes, peeled and diced (small!)
1/2 lg. white onion, finely diced
1/2 packet of yellow curry paste (comes in plastic packet in a box in the Thai section of the store)
frozen peas
15 oz. can of coconut milk
2 pie crusts (if using store bought, use the kind that are rolled up in a box so you can use in a bigger dish than a pie plate)

1. Saute potatoes in a bit of oil, then add onion. When it's sticking too much and annoying, add coconut milk (remember to shake the can before you open it!)



2. Add about half the packet of yellow curry paste, which I imagine is 1-2 Tbsp. (Notice my freezer bag in the background to collect all my scraps for my next pot of veggie stock!)

(And yes, that's a monkey veggie peeler. You should be jealous)

3. After this cooks down for a while and is pretty thick and the potatoes and onions are soft, add frozen peas. Eyeball it. I put in 1/2-3/4 of a small box of frozen peas.



4. Use your own homemade dough or biscuits, OR store bought cannister biscuits or pie crust at this point. The first time I made these, I used Pillsbury Grand's biscuits and made individual pockets that baked up all puffy and delicious.

In the interest of time, the second time I made this, I took a 2-back of rolled up pie crusts, put one in the bottom and up the sides of a 9 x 9 square glass pan, poured in the filling, the put the other crust on top and crimped the sides together.


5. Bake until the crust looks golden brown.



6. Serve with mango chutney (don't have any pics of the chutney!).

7. Enjoy!