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THE DISH
Asian-inspired veggie pot pie (recipe at bottom of post). This was enough for three small baking dishes (two that were about four inches in diameter, the other a little bit bigger); I recommend adding more veggies to fill an actual pie tin!

THE INSPIRATION
My friend and former housemate came to visit last week, which was a perfect excuse to cook a LOT, since he was one of my best cooking buddies when we lived together. He’s just finishing his degree in Asian history and, it goes without saying, is super interested in Asian culture. We took a trip to Chinatown and came back with a bunch of fresh produce and some other goodies that resulted in a couple of really awesome Asian-inspired meals. Banjo player/singer/songwriter Abigail Washburn plays one of my favorite types of music (folk/Americana), but she’s been heavily influenced by Chinese culture, thanks to time she spent living and working there. So I wanted one of our dishes to be inspired by her self-titled record with The Sparrow Quartet (banjo master — and now Washburn’s husband — Bela Fleck, cellist Ben Sollee, and fiddler Casey Driessen), which mixes Americana and Chinese folk music.

As far as the dish goes, I wanted to take a very American comfort-food dish (because Americana music makes me think of comfort food) — pot pie — and give it an Asian twist with veggies like bok choy, bean sprouts, edamame and scallions. These turned out really great, although the recipe below is slightly modified from what we did because a couple of elements weren’t quite right! I definitely think I’ll be trying this one again, though, so expect an update sometime in the future.
Abigail Washburn on MySpace

THE RECIPE
Crust, filling

The crust
You can use a premade crust or something like puff pastry, or make an incredibly simple crust on your own (recipe coming in, like, a day or two…).

The filling

Ingredients:

1 1/2 tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
5 tiny potatoes (I used some kind of fingerlings; you can use a normal baking potato too)
1/4 c each of corn and edamame beans (I used frozen for both)
1/4 red onion, diced
1/2 c bean sprouts
1 bunch bok choy, chopped
1 tbsp scallions, chopped
2 tsp miso paste
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
olive oil
2-3 T flour
Egg wash (one egg mixed with about 2 T of milk) — you can leave this out to make it vegan; maybe replace with a little bit of olive oil

Directions:

• Saute ginger, garlic and potatoes in olive oil in a large pan.

• After a couple minutes, add corn, edamame, red onion, bean sprouts, bok choy, scallions, sesame oil and soy sauce.

• While the veggies are cooking, dissolve the miso into 3/4 cup of water over medium-high heat in a small saucepan.

• Add miso broth to veggies; add flour about a half-tablespoon at a time and mix until you get your desired consistency. It should be sort of like a stew/gravy (this is where we messed up a bit; I think we added too much flour).

• Scoop into baking dishes (we used two four-inch round baking dishes and a third that was a bit bigger). Brush egg wash around the rim of the dish and cover with the dough. Brush more egg wash all over the dough and the edges of the dish. If you’re making it vegan, omit the egg wash and instead use a little bit of olive oil around the rim of the dish before covering with the dough.

• Bake for 15 about minutes at 400 degrees.